Even if you didn’t learn how to cook before you came to college, you can easily teach yourself some basic culinary skills now that you’re on campus. Meal prep for college students begins with meal planning.
Get into the habit of writing down your meal plan for the week ahead during the weekend or on a day off. Do this before you go to the market. Before thinking about the types of meals you’d like to eat for the week ahead, however, you should consider your upcoming schedule.
Do you have any late classes, sports games or club meetings that may limit your cooking time? If so, plan to make quicker, easier meals on those days or choose your pre-cooked meals to simply warm up by cooking ahead. Or, you might prefer to make a large meal the day before so that you can have leftovers for your busiest day of the week.
Next, write down your meals for the week. As you do this, look for ways of reusing ingredients. For example, if you make spaghetti and meatballs, you could use the meatballs in a sub sandwich for lunch the next day. If you make chicken chili, you could use the leftovers in enchiladas.
Some students arrive at college having already experienced some “adult stuff” in life, such as shopping for groceries independently, whereas for others, it’s a brand-new experience. If you’re a grocery-shopping rookie, you should know that you’ll need a list.
Review your meal plan and write down all of the ingredients you’ll need to buy for each meal. It’s helpful to write down your ingredients in a way that groups together similar ingredients. For example, designate a section on your list for items you’ll find in the frozen aisle, the dairy section, the produce section and so on.
There are some staples you’ll want to have on hand every week, regardless of your meal plan. Depending on your dietary preferences and needs, you may want to keep certain products on hand that you use on a regular basis, such as milk, eggs, bread, rice, bottled stir fry sauces and salad ingredients.
You’ll also want to invest in some meal storage containers. Keep it simple. Plastic or glass food storage containers work well for keeping prepped ingredients or prepared meals in the fridge or freezer. You may also want some plastic bags for chopped veggies and similar ingredients.
Once you have the necessary ingredients, you can do some meal prep tasks ahead of time. For example, you can cook a big batch of soup and freeze it in individual portions. Or, cook up a large batch of chicken to use in multiple different meals, such as chicken tacos or BBQ chicken sandwiches. Other meals that freeze well and allow for easy meal prepping include the following:
- Chicken, beef or vegetarian chili
- Lasagna and baked ziti (When you’re planning to freeze a pasta dish, cook the pasta al dente; it should not be well-cooked or it will become mushy when reheated.)
- Calzones (You can make your own pizza dough from scratch with just flour, water, olive oil, salt and yeast, or you can buy premade refrigerated dough.)
- Chicken cacciatore (Make and freeze the stew in advance, but make fresh rice or pasta to serve as the base.)
- Quiche
- Enchiladas
Set aside some time on the weekend to cook and freeze meals. You’ll be delighted with your efforts on busy weeknights when you’re too tired or pressed for time to cook dinner. This is a great opportunity to involve roommates who are also interested in how to meal prep in college. Sharing the meal prep tasks with a friend saves you even more time.
You can also partially prepare some meals on the weekends, saving the finishing touches for later in the week. For example, if you plan to eat quesadillas on Wednesday, you could chop up peppers, scallions, and any other desired vegetables ahead of time and store them in the fridge, along with grated cheese. Then, it’ll take only a matter of minutes to assemble your quesadillas on Wednesday and pop them in the oven or cook them in a skillet on the stove. The meal prepping part of your meal is already complete.
