Whether you’re sticking around in Chicago for the summer or heading somewhere else for that first internship, this could be the very first time you are living on your own in an apartment or house. Very quickly you’ll find that the most difficult thing about this is cooking for yourself. Even if you’ve been cooking with your family at home for years and consider yourself pretty adept in the kitchen, trust me, you’ll find it’s a whole different ballgame when you’re cooking for one and balancing all of the other things going on in your life. So I’ve put together a few tips to help you get through.
1. Store bread in the fridge. This may seem like a weird place to start, and possibly obvious to some of you, but for whatever reason I grew up in a house where we always kept bread out when it was fresh or put it in the freezer for later. When you are only providing for yourself, there is just no way you can get through a whole loaf of bread before it has time to go off if you leave it out. So keep it in the fridge! It’ll last for weeks, and if you pull out a couple of slices an hour or so before you want them, it’ll taste just like fresh. (On that note, buy pre-sliced bread).
2. Stock up on cans and frozen goods. The biggest thing I’ve struggled with in my first year of living off-campus is just not having enough time to make food for myself. I’ll end up eating out or ordering in if I don’t feel like I have time to spend cooking. But, if I have a can of tomatoes, some chickpeas, and couscous, that’s a meal in itself that takes zero prep time and very little cooking time. You just tip everything into the saucepans and wait for it to cook – and while it’s on the stove, you can be getting started on work or catching up on T.V. Multi-tasking for the win!
3. Make one big pot at the beginning of the week. I’ve only done this a few times unfortunately, but it does work really well. If you make a really big batch of stew, soup, curry – just about anything – on Sunday night, you can package it up and put it in the freezer and have servings on hand ready for the rest of the week. One of my favorites that I did was this lentil soup, which got me through a tough week of work in the middle of winter.
4. Get creative and be adaptable! Even if you do find the perfect recipe online or in the cookbook your mom packed you off with, chances are you won’t have every single ingredient on hand either at home or in the grocery store. You have to be ready to think on your toes and come up with some clever substitutions. Replace chickpeas with lentils, or throw some frozen peas into your pasta sauce. You’ll be amazed with what you come up with and it’ll make you feel like a genius in the kitchen.
5. Pack a lunch. It’s easier than you think to fall into the habit of just grabbing something at Norris or at that really cute sandwich place on your way to the office. But you’ll end up spending way more money than you think, and the easiest way to solve this is just to pack a sandwich. PB&J is a classic, but you can really take anything. Also if you have easily packable leftovers from dinner the night before, that’s always a little bit more exciting.
So those are my key tidbits of advice. More than anything, if you have the time, cooking can be a lot of fun. One of the best things about living off-campus is having your own kitchen and not being reliant on whatever they are serving in the dining hall – so take advantage of it! Bon appétit!