Two Must-Have Kitchen Appliances for Every Student

August 13th, 2006 | View Comments

Let’s face it: even when students have the know-how and the will to cook a nice dinner (which is rare), they never have the time. Maaaybe time for the cooking. Never time for the cleanup. Thus we all wind up eating microwave popcorn for dinner every once in a while and it makes our mothers cry.

But I have found that these two relatively inexpensive appliances do wonders for getting actual nutrition into my body on time-starved nights.

This is my Hamilton Beach HealthSmart Indoor Grill, which I affectionately refer to as my George Fauxman. Forget the grilled chicken and vegetables you always see in the commercials, which are bound to be dry and bland and make a mess of the grilling surface. You know what this baby is really good for?

Toasted sandwiches.

Some good nutty bread, a few slices of deli meat, veggies, cheese, and a dab of mayo. Two minutes to assemble, five minutes to toast, minimal cleanup. It’s a hot, tasty meal that covers all four food groups. Not to mention that eating this way, you can feed yourself for a week on about fifteen bucks. It’s perfect for a college apartment or even a dorm room.

The other appliance that has changed my eating life is my West Bend Slow Cooker. The 6-quart version is pictured left; I have the 3-quart version. I admit I was slow to warm to the slow cooker (heh), but now that I’ve discovered its amazing powers, I rather abuse it.

The best thing about a slow cooker is that you can turn it on…and leave it. I have put a stew in the cooker and then gone to bed and eaten the results the next day for lunch. I have put a curry in the cooker early in the day and left the house, coming home to a wonderful-smelling apartment and a tasty dinner. I don’t need to hover over a stove while a chili simmers, and I don’t need to worry that the food is going to burn or my house is going to burn down if it’s left unattended. It’s the ultimate care-free cooking.

Unlike the indoor grill, the slow cooker does require a wee bit of planning ahead and access to an actual kitchen for the prep work. But that wee bit of planning means that I can eat six meals on an hour of work and $15 of groceries, even with my teeny slow cooker. Slow cooker recipes are easy and virtually impossible to screw up—brown the meat, throw in seasonings and chopped veggies, transfer to slow cooker, cook for…however long. They typically take an hour to prepare and cleanup and a few hours to stew, and you wind up with enough food to feed a small army.

My favorite slow cooker recipe is the Fragrant Beef Curry with Rice from Epicurious. When I get to the part that says to simmer for two hours, I just throw the whole mess into the slow cooker and leave it. The prep work is quick and easy (chop, measure, brown, boil) and the flavor and texture are amazing.