Leaving home for the first time is daunting. You become faced with the responsibility of taking care of your own basic needs, like laundry, shopping, making appointments and perhaps the most important for your well-being, cooking. Yes, you may be able to rely on the food court for a while in college, but what about when you’re truly on your own? Do students know now how to cook healthy, inexpensive and tasty meals for themselves?

Mrs. Nading, who teaches four different wellness related classes at East, believes that most do not.

“I am astounded by the number of students who don’t know how to cook. Just think about how everything, our entire family structure, is around the kitchen table and around food. It’s just sad that people don’t have the time to learn,” she said.

According to Nading, the most important skills for students to acquire before cooking on their own are cleanliness, microwave use and nutrition.

Washing your ingredients and keeping it stored properly is vital to keeping yourself healthy and your kitchen clean, like when cooking in the microwave, which is an easy way to quickly prepare food.

Remember that it is easy to overcook foods that are high in fat and sugar, and that covering certain food is helpful to keeping your appliance clean.

Proper nutrition and fresh food not only keep your body in its best condition, but it can help you save money too. Eating out can get expensive, and budgets of college students just don’t have room for pricey take-out every night. Fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables are both healthy and cost effective, and Mrs. Nading also recommends frozen produce instead of canned when maintaining a balanced diet.

Once you learn the basics, it’s time to decide what to cook. Time and simplicity are important, so quick dishes like soups and salads are excellent paired with a hand-held fruit like an apple. Salads allow you to balance a portion of leafy greens with add-ons like turkey or ham.

What is Mrs. Nading’s biggest recommendation?

“Eggs are great.” she said, ”You can have eggs morning, noon and night. You can make omelets, fajitas or a casserole, and they’re cheap too, one of the cheapest proteins you can have.”

Included is a Breakfast Burrito recipe provided by Mrs. Nading to get you started on your cooking journey.