Eating at college - no stove or toaster

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Mystikdragon
Mystikdragon Posts: 5
in Food and Nutrition
Alright guys, here's my healthy-eating challenge right now: I'm stuck at my school, in the dorm rooms, where we don't have stoves available (at all, I know, crazy, right?), and we can't even have TOASTERS. We're not technically allowed to have grills, either, although my roommate snuck one in (so I can cook the occasional meal on that, but I'd rather not ask her to use it more than once a week.)

So what I have at my disposal is a microwave, a fridge, and a freezer.

Right now I'm living off of soup and lean cuisines (which, blech, sodium), fresh fruits and veggies (which are great but don't constitute a whole meal), and on-campus fast food (which has so few healthy options that it gets old FAST.) I need more variety!!

So - what are some of your favorite foods that are either no-heat, or can be cooked in a microwave?
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Replies

  • kalyn_QT
    kalyn_QT Posts: 273 Member
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    i live in a dorm too. same rules apply for us. if there is a dining hall on your campus, make a salad and meat. hopefully your campus has a nutrition page where you can look up values for everything. i pre plan each day so i mostly stay at the main dining hall instead of the other pick up options. i eat a salad with every meal to fill me up so i dont eat as much of the unhealthy stuff. luckily we have a tiny store on campus so i pick up healthy snacks like granola bars and string cheese and of course fruit. but for main meals i might not like what the healthy options are but i eat it anyways. as for microwave i do grits and oatmeal.i sometimes keep yogurt and fresh fruit in the fridge and i can make a tasty parfait.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    You don't have a meal plan and food hall with salad bars and stuff like that?

    in your dorm, ramen noodles, grilled cheeses, mac n cheeses, hot dogs, burgers, oats, eggs, ice cream
  • angmarie28
    angmarie28 Posts: 2,811 Member
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    those veggie steamer bags go in the microwave, they have plain, seasoned, and cheese covered ones. you can also cook instant rice in the microwave, cook the veggies and rice and its like stir fry sorta, old fashoned rolled oats, cut up an apple to mix in and cinnamon and sugar, you can also cook eggs in the micro wave
  • magdalen13
    magdalen13 Posts: 62 Member
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    Ugh I remember those days. I, however, was not paying any attention to nutrition in college, so good for you!

    I'd suggest the same kinds of things I eat at work, where it's similarly limited: Oatmeal, cold cereal (check the calories to find a kind that's low enough that you like) with light soy milk, yogurt with fresh fruit for breakfast... For lunch, a salad you can put together out of the fridge, or homemade sandwiches with canned veggies on the side might work. Dinners are harder but maybe microwave noodles, microwave-steamable veggies and microwave-baked potatoes would be a start. Here's a link to some microwaveable foods:
    http://blog.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/2012/04/16/healthy-microwave-cooking/

    Also sometimes campus organizations or sororities have a kitchen you can use once a week or something, to make a few things for the week ahead. Hardboil a dozen eggs to add to your meals, cook up a big pot of pasta or rice and portion it out for the fridge, or grill up chicken breasts and cut them up for use throughout the week. If that's an option, that is. Good luck!
  • Joluru
    Joluru Posts: 89 Member
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    Can you have an electric kettle to boil water? A George Foreman grill? A small crock pot? A blender?

    I'm a big fan of green smoothies in the blender and have one for breakfast most days. Oatmeal is also a healthy choice easy to make in a dorm.

    Grill some chicken, lean meat, or fish and put it on a big salad with beans, hard cooked eggs (can be done in the electric kettle), and lots of raw veggies.

    Soup and chili are easy to make in a crock pot and can be filling and tasty. If you make a big batch of chili, you can freeze extras in Ziploc bags and have an easy, fast, low-sodium meal ready.
  • MsLilly200
    MsLilly200 Posts: 192 Member
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    You can boil some things in a microwave, just put it in a bowl and cover completely with water, the hard part is getting rid of the water after.

    I've done this with frozen peas at home, though I usually use just peas without the water, and macaroni when on vacation.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,668 Member
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    Alright guys, here's my healthy-eating challenge right now: I'm stuck at my school, in the dorm rooms, where we don't have stoves available (at all, I know, crazy, right?), and we can't even have TOASTERS. We're not technically allowed to have grills, either, although my roommate snuck one in (so I can cook the occasional meal on that, but I'd rather not ask her to use it more than once a week.)

    So what I have at my disposal is a microwave, a fridge, and a freezer.

    Right now I'm living off of soup and lean cuisines (which, blech, sodium), fresh fruits and veggies (which are great but don't constitute a whole meal), and on-campus fast food (which has so few healthy options that it gets old FAST.) I need more variety!!

    So - what are some of your favorite foods that are either no-heat, or can be cooked in a microwave?
    Would this be allowed?

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  • Mystikdragon
    Mystikdragon Posts: 5
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    Thanks for the great ideas, guys! I'll definitely be checking out those steamed-veggie bags, and getting some rice to steam, too. (Also, I didn't know you could steam potatoes in the microwave? Potatoes are basically my favorite food so I'M EXCITED.)

    My school does have a dining hall, but thanks to our incredibly stupid dining plan, it's not really any cheaper to eat there than it is anywhere else, and the food is a lot lower quality. If I'm going to get a salad, it's actually less expensive to just get one from the convenience store, or a side salad from one of the fast-food places. Going to the dining hall tends to lead to me splurging (since it's all-you-can-eat and most of the food there is hilariously unhealthy), so I tend to avoid it when I can.

    For the appliance suggestions - nothing with an "open heating element" is allowed. They specifically list george foreman grills as not being okay; I'm not really sure about crock pots or electric kettles (which sounds really interesting, I'm definitely going to look into them!)

    I'm loving all these microwave recipes, though!
  • kuntry_navy
    kuntry_navy Posts: 677 Member
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    buy a skillet and a hot plate.
  • mllst18
    mllst18 Posts: 188 Member
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    When I was in college, I bought a george forman grill and cooked on that from time to time. I know, I know, you aren't technically allowed to have it, but if you put it away when your RA comes thru and before breaks, you'll be fine :-) feel free to add me if you like! :smile:
  • michellew91
    michellew91 Posts: 47 Member
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    In my dorm we were allowed to have crock pots and rice cookers, I would check your rules to see if you can have them. I used to make a lot of soups this way!
  • Shadowknight137
    Shadowknight137 Posts: 1,243 Member
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    Eggs and potatoes.

    Both are dirt cheap and easy to cook. Can do a lot with them, too.
  • msbunnie68
    msbunnie68 Posts: 1,894 Member
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    You can cook heaps of things in the microwave:

    rice...soups....steam veg...potatoes...nachos...pasta...pasta sauce....curry....casseroles...fish....

    do some googling or invest in the cookbook microwave cooking for one.
  • michellew91
    michellew91 Posts: 47 Member
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    You could make 15 minute chili, I think it would turn out fine in the microwave even though the original recipe is for the stove!
    http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeid=173891
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
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    Thanks for the great ideas, guys! I'll definitely be checking out those steamed-veggie bags, and getting some rice to steam, too. (Also, I didn't know you could steam potatoes in the microwave? Potatoes are basically my favorite food so I'M EXCITED.)

    My school does have a dining hall, but thanks to our incredibly stupid dining plan, it's not really any cheaper to eat there than it is anywhere else, and the food is a lot lower quality. If I'm going to get a salad, it's actually less expensive to just get one from the convenience store, or a side salad from one of the fast-food places. Going to the dining hall tends to lead to me splurging (since it's all-you-can-eat and most of the food there is hilariously unhealthy), so I tend to avoid it when I can.

    For the appliance suggestions - nothing with an "open heating element" is allowed. They specifically list george foreman grills as not being okay; I'm not really sure about crock pots or electric kettles (which sounds really interesting, I'm definitely going to look into them!)

    I'm loving all these microwave recipes, though!

    When I was in university (back in the Stone Age) we actually had food that was the same as we would have gotten at home--it was easy to avoid the excessive carbs (it did tend to be very high carb) and concentrate on lean meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, salads and fresh fruits. I would protest to your food service administrators. There is no excuse for the type of high-priced, processed "food" that they feed to students these days. Our meal plans were inexpensive. If they could do it then, they can do it now. Of course, in our day, administrators didn't make the outrageous sums of money that they make today. :tongue:

    I would just go ahead and cook in my room and encourage others to do the same with microwaves and electric grills, etc. If the whole dorm does it---how can any one person get in trouble?
  • jsimler1
    jsimler1 Posts: 168 Member
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    scrambled eggs (spray a microwave safe bowl with a cooking spray, scramble egg in said bowl (add salt and pepper if wanted) then cook for about 1 min)....microwave bacon....microwave sausage....fully cooked frozen chicken breast....sneak in a crockpot...just a few options!
  • tkcasta
    tkcasta Posts: 405 Member
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    You can cook chicken breast in the microwave. It's not the best but it works. I used to do it all the time. Just cut all the fat off first because it get's rubbery. Annie's meals are good. Also, salad will be your friend. If it were me I would go get a convection toaster oven and just hide it...
  • ton40orbust
    ton40orbust Posts: 155
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    Do you have on campus dining locations besides your dining hall? Our dining hall was a bargain (4.50 to go in the caf and all you can eat) but we had a convinence store, einstien bagels, starbucks, jamba juice, seattles best, world of wings and baja fresh on campus as well if you have healthier options then the caf do that. I know our caf was pasta, a different pasta, brown salad, or another type of pasta.
    Also are you allowed to have a candle warmer? or does your campus have outdoor grills available for student use? My college had 5 grills on campus that students could use and often you would see groups of students having a bbq. or if you're desperate for cooking food. A candle warmer, an old thick hardcover book, and a "slimwhich" bun filled with whatever you would like can make one hell of a panini. make panini spray outside of slimwhich buns with 0 calorie canola oil spray, put on candle warmer put tinfoil on top top with book, wait 7-8 minutes flip sandwhich over and repeat.
    Also stores like walmart have microwave egg pans that will make scrambled eggs, omelettes and sunny side up eggs.
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
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    Alright guys, here's my healthy-eating challenge right now: I'm stuck at my school, in the dorm rooms, where we don't have stoves available (at all, I know, crazy, right?), and we can't even have TOASTERS. We're not technically allowed to have grills, either, although my roommate snuck one in (so I can cook the occasional meal on that, but I'd rather not ask her to use it more than once a week.)

    So what I have at my disposal is a microwave, a fridge, and a freezer.

    Right now I'm living off of soup and lean cuisines (which, blech, sodium), fresh fruits and veggies (which are great but don't constitute a whole meal), and on-campus fast food (which has so few healthy options that it gets old FAST.) I need more variety!!

    So - what are some of your favorite foods that are either no-heat, or can be cooked in a microwave?

    Toasters set off fire alarms constantly in nurses homes and apartment blocks, not surprised you can't have one. Buy a slow cooker/ crock pot and a stick blender, you can make a ton of one pot microwavable meals with those, there will be no tell tale smoke and they don't actually get that hot so difficult to burn the place down as you could with a grill.

    Quite a lot can be made in a microwave from canned oily fish, cheese, eggs, canned beans and lentils, canned tomatoes, jar tomato pasta sauce. I've done prawn and vegetable 'stir fries', soups with frozen vegetables using only the microwave, even nachos with chill and tomato salsa, the cheese melted but the chips didn't go soggy surprisingly. I suspect that if you Google "microwave [insert your favourite recipe]" somebody, somewhere will have tried and blogged about it.
  • ObtainingBalance
    ObtainingBalance Posts: 1,446 Member
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    Fridge, freezer, and microwave can be very helpful... I know it sucks not having a stove but you can eat a lot of stuff using just those things.

    I like a lot of the ideas people are giving ^-^

    For me... I love oatmeal, rolled oats are easy and fast to cook as a meal; In fact I had that for dinner... Add nuts, fruit, whatever.

    Keep peanut butter in your dorm room! You can use it on crackers, fruit, oatmeal, cottage cheese (im probably the only one who does that).

    Keep string cheese, nuts, fruit, veggies, soups, minute rice, oats, POPCORN :D, steamed veggies....

    this sites might be helpful:
    http://www.food.com/recipes/microwave/healthy
    http://coedmagazine.com/2011/04/04/10-best-dorm-room-microwave-recipes/
    http://www.3fatchicks.com/6-healthiest-microwave-meals/
    http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/recipe_slideshows/healthy_recipes_for_your_microwave

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