I’ve begun to realize lately that my roommates and I are kind of an anomaly among college students: We love to cook. One roommate has a fairly well-known, gluten-free cooking blog; another likes to come up with strange concoctions involving produce from her garden and the third has been known — after a few beers — to whip up some amazing homemade fried rice. (I swear we’re not total losers.)
But I’ve come to realize that many — if not most — people our age aren’t really like that.
There are a million excuses for why college students don’t cook: They’re too busy, they’re too tired, they don’t have the money, they don’t have the know-how. Well, I think those reasons are all crap.
There is practically no excuse for not knowing how to cook nowadays. Were your parents always working and never had time to prepare family meals and, thus, never had time to teach you how to make homemade mac and cheese? So what! Watch the Food Network! Rachael Ray can whip up a pasta dish in less than thirty minutes and get on your nerves at the same time. It’s just like she was your mom! Don’t know how to properly prepare ingredients? I typed “how to chop vegetables” into YouTube and got over 1,800 hits. Think it’s more expensive to buy ingredients at the store than it is to get take-out every night? Au contraire, my friend. The other night I fed four people a spaghetti dinner — complete with garlic bread and salad — for under nine bucks. Total. Try getting that kind of deal at Dairy Queen.
But there are also a million reasons why college students should cook for themselves.
1. You’re an adult. Unless you’re still living in the dorms and can live off of burritos and artichoke dip, you should know how to take care of yourself. Remember that moment of panic when you realized that you had no idea how to do your own laundry? Now you’re softening fabric like a champ! But yeah, this is more important: You can still die of starvation in freshly-bleached T-shirts.@@lol@@
2. It saves money, so you can buy more booze. I don’t know anybody who has an unlimited food (or alcohol) budget. If you’re out there, though, please shoot me an email, so we can become close friends. Doing a teensy bit of grocery shopping every week and swapping even the simplest of meals (I’m talking pasta with canned sauce, grilled cheese sandwiches or scrambled eggs) for Subway sandwiches or Sweet Basil take-out can easily end up saving you enough for an extra six-pack or two come the weekend.
3. It’ll impress the ladies (or gentlemen). It’s fairly common knowledge that most guys like a girl who can cook, but we ladies love a guy who can handle himself in the kitchen. Valentine’s Day is less than a month away, so now is the time to brush up on some kitchen basics to wow your significant other on the big day.
4. It’s healthier. Additional booze notwithstanding, cooking for yourself at home can save you a lot of calories. Restaurants use tons of butter and oil to make their food taste delicious (not to mention serving you enormous portions), which can really help pack on the pounds. Make your own soup or lasagna, and you can control the type and amount of ingredients you use. Plus, saving calories during the week can help you feel less guilty about that extra six-pack or two that you chug on Saturday. (Do you sense a pattern here?)
And look, cooking for yourself doesn’t require a ton of equipment. Make sure you have a sauce pan and maybe a saute pan. A good sharp knife and a cutting board are important, too. Add in a spatula and a wooden spoon, and you’re pretty much in business.
But do make sure that, unlike some of my friends, you have real plates and cutlery. No one wants to eat a delicious home-cooked meal off of Chinet.