And I'm male who has had no prior cooking experience, especially in the healthy area.

I'm in my second year university and I have a very limited cooking knowledge, for the past couple of weeks I've usually been having salads and skinless chicken, wholegrain spaghetti bolognese or sometimes rissole's.

When living at home with dad the dinner variety isn't that extensive but whilst at university I would like a bigger variety quantity than three.

So can you guys recommend me not just recipes, but things to buy that would be good?

The book "Healthy eating and cooking for stupid university students" would seriously be my Bible if it were to exist.

Amazon.com: The Dorm Room Diet: The 8-Step Program for Creating a Healthy Lifestyle Plan That Really Works: Daphne Oz,Mehmet Oz: Books


What appliances do you have available to you? there's a few theads on cheap and healthy eats on this forum that you will find helpful..

Just avoid Ramen and other usual fare of poor college students..

Microwave, oven, stove and a blender I got for my birthday as stated in another thread. Oh and a fridge.

Hmmm that book looks quite interesting, haha.

I'm out of college and still I don't know what the hell I'm doing cooking wise. I do a lot of burgers, lean beef or turkey (whatever is on sale). The foreman grill is good for this because if the not so lean burger is on sale you can still get it. I put Emeril essence in them and it makes them taste great. Also I buy a lot of frozen fish fillets.

I will be watching this as my cooking is pretty pathetic. Honestly, the only things I can cook are comfort (high calorie ) foods from my previous diet lol.

I'd say try mastering the stir-fry.

Put maybe a tablespoon of canola oil (good fat) in a skillet and heat it on a medium-high burner (so maybe setting 6 or 7 out of 10). After a minute or two, throw in some chopped up vegetables (asparagus, green beans, mushrooms, cabbage, finely sliced carrots, broccoli, whatever you like--if you want to add some meat cut into strips, add that here too). Cook them for about two minutes, stirring, then add greens, if you want them (spinach, mustard greens, kale, whatever--if you wanted shrimp instead of regular meat, add that here). Cook for another minute, stirring, let them wilt and then add maybe two tablespoons of low-sodium soy sauce, one tablespoon of fish sauce, a teaspoon of brown sugar, and a tablespoon or two of water. Cook it for just about a minute longer (still stirring!), then you're done!

You can eat this on its own or serve it over brown rice, and it's very versatile.

check out the The World's Healthiest Foods site -they have a lot of cooking demos there that will add to your skills

Spend some time in the spice aisle of the grocery store as well - even better if you can buy the spices in bulk -that way you are guarenteed fresh... you can add a lot of varieties of flavor to simple things by a few varied spices

Yea I'm not far out of college and an improving (but still pretty meager) and what saved me was microwaveable frozen veggies. Put them in a tupperware container with a litte water, zap them for 5 minutes, and voila!

Hope this helps!

I made my first stirfry last night, and coincodentally also with frozen vegetables microwaved!

It might not sound like much to many members here, but boiling brown rice, adding sauce and vegetables with some chicken is a big deal for me.

mmm try a tortilla with roasted veggies (yellow squash, red pepper, green pepper, etc) with salsa for a meal---quite delicious and quick....but i guess you said you didnt' have a grill? I'm sure pan roasting them would be fine too!

Oh and roasted eggplant is AWESOME try it with some minced sundried tomatoes and a wee bit of olive oil and garlic and onion...SO GOOD!