College life comes with plenty of challenges. In addition to leaving the comfort and safety of home, freshmen are forced to cram their belongings into a tiny space the size of a closet, learn to live with a roommate that might be less-than-ideal, get used to community bathrooms, and accept the fact that the cafeteria is the only alternative to starvation.

What if there was a way to avoid the dangerous unknowns of the cafeteria, yet still survive?

Believe it or not, it is possible to cook in a college dorm room without traditional kitchen appliances. Sure, you have to get a little creative, but there are several cooking options for even the strictest of schools.

Most colleges don’t allow George Foreman grills, toasters, or toaster ovens. If your school does, you have significantly more options.

A student who wished to remain anonymous said that her school restricts most of the primary cooking equipment, so she bends the rules a little.

“Well, I use a toaster oven, but that’s not allowed,” she said.

Marie Diaz, college sophomore, said she’s one of the lucky ones with a toaster oven in her dorm.

“I like to heat things with a toaster oven, because that way the food is crisp,” she explained.

Diaz said that she cooks things like pizza, cinnamon rolls, and Texas toast. Having a toaster oven makes it possible to successfully cook almost anything in her dorm room.

For the students that do have dorm limitations, there are two must-have basic tools: a mini-fridge and a microwave. The refrigerator is necessary to store food, and the microwave is the primary cooking source. Surprisingly, a microwave can cook just about anything. In some recipes, the quality doesn’t quite measure up to an oven or grill, but most recipes can be easily replicated in the microwave.

From there, an iron is the next item on the list. Besides smoothing the wrinkles from clothes, this handy tool can toast bread, brown a quesadilla, or even fry an egg (as demonstrated in this video). An iron adds the crispy, finishing factor that a microwave can’t deliver. The classic iron-cooked meal is a grilled cheese sandwich. Simply wrap the sandwich in aluminum foil and place a hot iron on top. After about 30 seconds, flip over the wrapped sandwich and toast the other side. Voila, a grilled cheese, minus the dirty dishes! Just be sure to turn off the steam, and the meal should be effortless.

The second key to culinary success in a dorm is the crockpot. Take a lesson from The Crockpot Lady: anything can be cooked in a slow cooker. Throw a beef roast in the crockpot before class with a packet of seasoning, and you will have pot roast by dinnertime. Add a few vegetables, and you’ve created an entire meal. The Crockpot Lady, who used nothing but a crockpot to cook for an entire year, has recipes for things like cheesecake, banana bread, and lasagna.

Tiffany Harris, a college sophomore, recommends one more useful tool.

“[I use] a hot pot to cook that boils water within minutes to cook spaghetti,” she said. “The pot even shuts off automatically when it gets done, so it’s very safe to use.”

While all these instruments make dorm cooking easier, it is important to have a few basic utensils to use along with them. A microwave-safe bowl, a spoon, a knife, and a cutting board are inexpensive and compact, but they are irreplaceable and necessary for every dish. A can opener is also helpful.

With a little imagination and a few fundamental tools, no student is forced to embrace the cafeteria, and dorm cooking can be as delicious as one of Mom’s home-cooked meals.

Here are some great web sites and recipes for dorm room cooking:

123 Easy as Pie Microwave Recipes
eSSORTMENT’s Microwave Recipes
Microwave Recipes from RecipeZaar
MyRecipes Meals from the Microwave
Dorm Room Cookbook
Dorm Room Peach Cobbler
The Dorm Chef’s Sweet Potato Casserole
Microwave Raspberry Cake
Microwave Scrambled Eggs
Five-Minute Mug Cake