As a junior, this is my third year living in a dorm room on campus, and it’s also my third year with no meal plan. One question I get asked most frequently if I mention I don’t have a meal plan is what exactly I eat. That’s a great question because dorm cooking is a bit limiting.
I cook once or twice per week in the community kitchen, but other than that, I’ve figured out quite a few simple dorm room meals that I don’t even have to leave my room to make- no kitchen required! Here are a few of my favorite simple dorm room meals:
Easy sandwiches
Peanut butter/almond butter and jelly or peanut butter/almond butter and banana are great dorm room options since those ingredients stay good for a long time.
I also love turkey sandwiches and usually do a combination of Boar’s Head maple honey turkey, tomatoes, and homemade honey mustard. I make my own honey mustard by mixing together 2 parts mustard and 1 part honey, and I actually mix it together right on the bread so I don’t have to wash any additional dishes. 👌🏼
Salads
Salads are one of my favorite things I’ve been making in my dorm this year. I’m currently on a Greek salad kick, so I’ve been keeping chickpeas, lettuce, tomato, and peppers on hand, as well as some type of Greek or Mediterranean-style salad dressing. I typically make 2-3 salads at once, and I’ll eat them within 3 days or so, so they still taste fresh.
I love using glass Pyrex containers with lids to pack my lunches so I can pack and reheat meals safely in the same container. I have this 10-piece set which is pricier than plastic, but I honestly view them as an investment because they last forever and I use them for everything from microwaving my morning oatmeal to packing my re-heatable lunches and snacks for the day.
Cheese Toast
This childhood favorite is easy to make in a dorm room if you have a toaster. Just pop the bread in the toaster and then top it with thin slices of cheddar cheese and microwave for 10-15 seconds, or as little time as needed so the cheese melts.
If I have more time and have the option of going to the dorm kitchen, I’d top the untoasted bread with cheese and stick it in the oven at 400 degrees for 5-7 minutes or so.
Veggies + protein + healthy starch in a bowl
I always keep mixed greens and a few other veggies in my fridge to whip up salads and to make a bigger, more balanced meal, I’ll add a healthy starch and protein. For example, I paired this salad with a couple of deli turkey roll-ups and a small Japanese sweet potato.
I baked a few potatoes earlier in the week and reheated one this time, but to stick with the no-stove/oven dorm room meals theme, you can microwave one when you want it.
I’ve found that I feel much more satisfied and less tempted to snack too much later if my meals include more than one part. So, oftentimes, if I make something like a frozen burrito, I’ll make a quick salad to go along with it. I’ll use pre-washed mixed greens and whatever veggies are in my mini fridge. I also keep a container of feta in my freezer because I think it makes every salad betta.
A hearty bowl of oats
Oatmeal is my favorite dorm room breakfast, and sometimes it even doubles as a dinner when I’m running low on fresh fruits and veggies and haven’t made it to the store yet. Adding peanut butter, almond butter, and/or a banana is an easy way to make oatmeal even filling enough for an easy dorm room dinner.
I buy organic quick oats that are super fast to make in the microwave, and then I add all of my own toppings and sweeteners like banana or a very light drizzle of honey or maple syrup.
Chicken salad
Chicken saladMade with rotisserie chicken, chicken salad is an easy, really filling dorm room option. Since I’m not a mayo fan, I love this avocado and Greek yogurt chicken salad.
A Tex-Mex style quesadilla
A Tex-Mex style quesadillaA whole-grain tortilla with organic refried beans (canned), cheese, and guacamole (just avocado mashed with salt, garlic powder, and lime if I have it) has to be one of the easiest, most filling no-stove required dorm meals.
Just heat up the refried beans first, and then add them to a tortilla and top it with shredded cheese. Then, microwave the whole thing for 10 or so seconds, as little as possible to get the cheese to melt. Too long in the microwaves and nothing tastes as good, especially bread products.
A baked (or microwaved) sweet potato
Whenever possible, I prefer to bake my sweet potatoes, but these can definitely be microwaved for 2 1/2 – 4 minutes on high in a pinch. A big sweet potato topped with lots of cinnamon can do as a meal (or try topping it with almond butter!).
Canned Soup
I’ve found a few canned soups I enjoy, like Amy’s lentil soup. I usually keep a can or two in my “pantry” for a fast, easy dinner option.
A green smoothie
I have an inexpensive blender in my dorm room, so I love making smoothies with almond milk, spinach, frozen mixed berries, frozen bananas, and collagen peptides for protein. A big smoothie can be filling enough to be a whole meal, or I may add something small on the side.
A frozen microwaveable entree
When my time is more limited, a frozen meal can save the day if I don’t already have food prepared, or if it’s near the end of the week and I went grocery shopping at the beginning of the week.
Hopefully, these easy dorm room meals help create some inspiration for you if you’re in a similar situation!
Since I originally published this post, I’ve also written several more posts about how I cook in college:
Healthy Dorm Meal Prepping
Tips for Cooking for One
I usually have at least one of these a day, even though I do now have a kitchen throughout the year. Simple and fast meals are always good to have in your arsenal! I also like to buy microwavable bag of veggies (not super economical, but convenient) and top them with cheese/guac/homemade salad dressing and deli meat if I want to get some veggies but don’t want another cold salad.
I ate frozen veggies a lot last year, too! I didn’t want to microwave the plastic so I’d pour them into a bowl and heat them for a minute or two. Super convenient!
Awesome information! I have two kiddos in college, and this will be very helpful! Thanks!
So glad to hear it! 🙂
You can prepare these meals so quickly you have more time to do other things. You didn’t mention, but you do bring meals back from home also, don’t you?
During my freshman year and a little bit of my sophomore year, I used to cook meals at home maybe once per month and bring them back to school with me, but I’m not planning to do that this year.
Great information. Thanks for sharing.
I can totally relate to the dorm room cooking lifestyle! I would usually cook on the weekends for the week and make chicken + roasted vegetables, granola and lentil or barley vegetable soup but that never lasted me the whole week. Big salads were my go-tos too which I would usually top with hard boiled egg or turkey deli meat for some extra protein. I was also really big on snack plates filled with raw veggies, fruit, crackers and cheese, nuts, pretzels with nut butter, deli turkey, etc for lunch and dinner. And cottage cheese was never not in my mini fridge. kind of a weird food to be obsessed with, but I was 😉
YUM, all of those ideas sound amazing! I’ve never been able to jump on the eating cottage cheese plain train, but I do love it in my pasta!
I’ve never had the experience of living in a dorm room but I have a bunch of experience with quick and easy meals ???? cereal has got to be one of my favourite go-tos. Quick, easy, (reasonably!) healthy and super satisfying! Thanks for the great new ideas!
Can’t forget cereal! 🙂
love these! that was basically how i survived my freshman year; i had a meal plan but used it mostly at the on campus (over priced) grocery store. i lived off of yogurt bowls, salads, microwaved veeggies, soups, and a lotta canned beans, haha.
Yep, yep! Sounds familiar! 🙂
These are all great ideas!! The quesadilla looks delish- I’d take that any day. Do you share these ideas with your residents? It would be a great program idea!
Kate, you’re brilliant! I haven’t done that but that’s a great idea. THANK YOU!
Yum! All of these meal ideas look so delicious – and it just goes to show you don’t need a full kitchen to enjoy delicious healthy meals!
Thanks so much, Kristy!
Raises Hand: I like Amy’s Organic soups too; All of these make me want to (if I ever went to college) not have a meal plan either. I’m definitely someone who likes variety, so it’s really fun to change it up. You have so much variety here, and they all look like they probably take less than 20 minutes. A big salad is one of my favorites, but sometimes a warm bowl of oatmeal would hit the spot. I even did a smoothie for dinner once while my family was gone.
I definitely enjoy having the freedom to create whatever meals I want and make exactly what I’m craving!
I love me a good salad! I’m not in college, but sometimes I don’t feel like making a big dinner that involves a stove. These ideas are super helpful 🙂
Big salads are one of my favorite meals when I’m craving something healthy!
Love that you proved that you can still “cook” and live in the dorms too! Sweet potatoes and oatmeal are my fav things to “cook” when i don’t have a stove 🙂
Simple and easy (and kind of repetitive, at times) meals do the trick!
yummm! i live in an apartment but i still wanna try these out:)
Alisha
saffrononrose.com
Go for it! Hope you enjoy 🙂
I lived off breakfast sandwiches in college. I’d toast a bagel, microwave an egg (sounds disgusting put you can scramble it in a mug then microwave for 1 min), pop a slice of deli turkey and cheese on there and call it dinner!
These are such great ideas–sending this to my brother who is currently in school!
Your breakfast sandwiches sound delicious! I’ve heard you can cook a scrambled egg in the microwave but I admit I’ve been a little afraid to try it!
These are such great ideas! I was pretty lucky and was able to get into one of the few dorms that had a kitchen! But I still love how quick & easy these seem!
Thanks, Lexi!
Thanks for the ideas! I’m far from my college years, but I was looking for something new to eat in a hotel room with my kids while we travel with my husband for work. A meal out on the town is a treat, but I can’t handle eating like that all week. I also cant just eat sandwiches and chips all week. These are great! And I’ll definitely be making some this week! Thank you!
Yay, I’m so glad to hear this post was helpful! I agree- eating out is fun, but not all of the time 🙂
This is a great post and hope it’s still alive. Please share your tips for mini fridge storage. That is, by far the biggest challenge for keeping ingredients fresh.
Wendy,
Maybe you could try packaging items in zip-top storage bags and laying them flat stacked on top of each other (like a stack of CDs). Not sure how this would actually apply to your ingredients, but I just remember reading long ago in a Rachael Ray cookbook a comment she made, something like, ‘freezing things flat’ revolutionized her cooking. Even though you’re not actually freezing, it might be worth a try. We also use a suggestion from my husband (not a cook, but very practical), to get ONE matching set of storage containers and getting rid of the wide variety of odd-shaped ones. It really helps, as things are much more stack-able and easier to locate. Finally, just a help to keep only the fresh in the fridge. Get a large roll of masking tape and every time you are re-packaging or preparing to store a leftover, first tear off a piece of the tape, apply it to the (dry) container or package, and use a pen to write the item name and date on it for easy identification. It only takes an extra minute, and well worth it. Good luck!
Thank you! I’m basically living in hotels as a part of my job and I just want to be healthy and simple, not spend $10+ on three meals a day lol This really helped!
I’m so glad this post was helpful!!
You can prepare these meals so quickly you have more time to do other things. You didn’t mention, but you do bring meals back from home also, don’t you?