Dorm Room Food Supplies

Series Summary

Everyone wants to live a fit and healthy life, but sometimes beginning a new low fat diet can be daunting and even challenging. Changing your eating habits and learning to prepare low calorie, low-fat food might be difficult to acclimate to at first, but having a solid knowledge base about the types of foods enjoyed without guilt and some inspiration toward creating a delicious menu full of diet-friendly meals is a great start. Healthy snacks, exercise and a refrigerator makeover are great steps for diet beginners, and this series will help jump start your diet easily. In this free video series on nutrition and dorm life, a nutritional counselor discusses cooking in the confines of a dorm room. Learn about the kind of foods that are easy to prepare in a microwave or that do not require any cooking at all. Find out how to choose healthier options for meals and snacks that are easy to store in small spaces. Combat the freshman 15 with these healthy dorm room cooking tips.

Video Transcript

"Dorm life doesn't have to be filled with burgers and fries from the nearest fast food joint. I can show you a few simple tips to make dorm cooking really easy. Hi, I'm Alexa Sparkman, and today I'm going to show you the essentials for supplies for dorm room cooking. You know, you probably don't want to be washing your dishes in the same sink you're room mates doing the laundry. So I think the first step would be to keep things disposable as much as possible. First, let's look at the disposable supplies. For storage of things like cereals and crackers, to keep them fresh, it's going to be important that you have air tight containers. Disposable containers are essential for dorm room life because, somebody's always going to walking off with them, and you're not worried about spending a lot of money on expensive storage containers. Paper towels are essential. Got to have the paper towels to clean up the messes, to cover food in the microwave, and to dry your fresh produce. A typical plastic wrap that seals freshness in, they even have the kind that can be used in the freezer to keep frozen food fresh. And then again, storage. If you've got small things that need to go in the refrigerator, leftover sandwiches, leftover pasta meals, then, take a sandwich bag and close things up. Put them in the refrigerator, too. And of course, when you're eating out, and you get the little picnic packs of knives, forks and spoons, keep those on hand. You're always in need for a...a plastic fork, a plastic spoon. And again, you don't have to keep washing these out in the dorm room sink. There are a few other essentials you'll need in the dorm room: a colander, a can opener. Believe it or not, not all tin cans are flip top. Measuring cups, and a microwave safe container for boiling water. Small cups, and measuring cups. And then, of course, the ever important, cooking spray. Of course if you plan to do any kind of cooking in the dorm room, a microwave and a mini-refrigerator are essential. Those are the supplies you need for dorm room cooking. Until next time, I'm Alexa Sparkman."