Tips for a beginner in the kitchen?

www.foodnetwork.com is good for learning techniques and food pairings. Watch the videos. Watching the channel is even better IMO, but the videos on the site are also good.

skinnytaste.com and Pintrest both have a lot of good simple lower calorie recipes.

Epicurious.com for recipes and "The Joy Of Cooking" for instruction.

Google is your best friend. If I know what I want to cook, I type it in, and get a ton of recipes. If you are looking for ideas, but don't know what you want, try phrases such as:

easy healthy food recipes
quick healthy recipes on a budget
healthy vegetarian recipes
easy chicken recipes
healthy crock pot recipes
etc. etc. etc.

It all depends on what you have available to you as far as pots, pans, oven, stove, microwave, etc. Plus depending on where you live, it may be easier or harder to get some kinds of foods.

If you like certain cuisines, like Indian or Thai, or seafood, or Mexican, throw in that keyword. If you are a senior in college, you probably don't have a ton of free time to devote to cooking, so that's why you can throw in "quick" or "easy" into the search phrase.

Bookmark the recipes you like. If they come from a popular website, like allrecipes.com, there is a good chance they are already in the MFP database, but if not, you can add them. Lots of the websites already calculate the calories and other information per serving.

Start with a few easy recipes, repeat the ones you like, and then branch out depending on your time and budget.

www.allrecipes.com

My #1 recipe site.

I try one new thing every time that I go to the grocery store in order to force myself out of my comfort zone.

Another way to find inspiration could be through spices, adding a new recipe to your skill set when you add a new spice to your cabinet.

And though I rely on the internet for recipes, I pretty much never use them exactly as is. Don't be afraid to think of them as inspiration, just for cooking times, to combine two recipes into one, or to just get spice ideas.

I'd invest in some good left-over dishes so that when you do cook, you have the convenience of having grab-and-go meals for a few days after. I recommend glass so that you can avoid the toxins that microwaving plastic releases into your food. And if you never microwave plastic lids, they could last for decades.

You can start filling your pantry with items that you can store easily so that when you do have time to cook, you already have some ingredients on hand. There are plenty of things that store well for long periods of time. Rice, quinoa, pastas. Chicken, sausages, (meat in general) and veggies freeze well. Though I'm not a fan of canned goods due to the toxins in the linings of the cans, I do keep black olives, water chestnuts, baby corn, on hand because the flavors don't seem to be all that affected by the canning process. You can buy some cheap bottles of white wine to have on hand for cooking (though they may be harder to hold onto in a college setting).

Dry goods like rice and pasta can stay good for years on end. Canned goods last for 18-24 months at the most. Frozen, I generally try to use items within 6 months though veggies can hold up for longer.

For on the go:

• Get creative with baked potatoes, even if just cooked in the microwave - lots of topping options.

• Omelettes can be fun and exciting. Lots of variations on the stuffings and easy/fast to make.

• Soups that you make yourself can be frozen for on-the-go at a later date. And the effort that goes into making it pays off when you make a huge batch. Sometimes you can find freeze-dried soup mixes in the store that you can use to get you started, adding your own fresh ingredients as well. I just made one that needed me to just add chicken, but I took it a step further and added more liquid so that I could also add more fresh versions of the vegetables that they already had in the mix.

• Summertime = pasta salads. Mix whatever veggies you like in with your pasta. Can dress with salad dressings, oils, or mayonaise depending on your preferences. I use tons of veggies in my salads compared to the pasta which means the calories aren't too bad and there is already enough moisture to not need a lot of caloric dressing. Can also add in cheeses or cold meats like salamis for a different flavor or to have as a complete meal. Can make huge batches.