15 Dorm Cooking Essentials | Dorm Room Cooking Essentials You Need

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This post is about dorm room cooking essentials

Cooking in your dorm quickly becomes an essential for your college dorm room.

The food on campus is probably disgusting, and the microwave in your dorm is your saving grace most of the time.

I cooked in my dorm room constantly, and you definitely learn what you can (and can’t) do after lots of mistakes. A list of dorm room cooking essentials is so necessary!

Here’s 15 dorm room cooking essentials your college dorm room needs.

Dorm Room Cooking Essentials

1. Glass Dishes

I know, I know, plastic is so much cheaper. This is not the case in the long run! Invest in your dishes, and you can have them for at least a few years. Plus, a glass dish set isn’t that expensive for how long you get to use it.

Alongside this, consider the environment! Glass lasts so much longer. Glass dishes also work much better than plastic for cooking.

These are my favorite, since they’re square! (Perfect for fitting into dorm room fridges.)

2. Microwave Lids

These are an absolute essential for keeping the microwave clean. Your food will also heat up a lot faster due to the trapped heat.

Don’t use paper towels, get these!

3. Keurig

I thought this was just for coffee, before going to college. It is not! I used this to heat up water for so many things all the time, alongside my morning coffee.

One of my favorite things to do was add water to cup noodles right from my keurig! It truly is a very functional tool, and allowed in almost all dorm rooms!

Here’s a couple at different price points. I’ve tried them all, and they’re all wonderful! Make sure to invest in this keurig for your future apartment. They last much more than one year!

4. Personal Blender

We have a bunch of these at our house, and they are so useful! The blender portion is also a travel cup, which makes life so much easier.

For a dorm, an entire blender just doesn’t make that much sense. These are quieter, and they work just as well. Plus, they’re super inexpensive!

Here’s my personal favorite – totally underpriced in my opinion!

5. Silverware

This one may seem self explanatory to some, but I found so many of my fellow college dorm residents using an insane amount of plastic silverware.

Buy a cheap set to last a little while, or invest in some nicer silverware to take with you to your first apartment. Both is a great option!

Here’s a cheap version, and a version you can invest in!

Related: 10 Best Dorm Room Storage Ideas

6. Microwave Ramen Cooker

As college movies have told you for years, you’ll be eating a diet that consists of a lot of ramen. Unfortunately, that’s true.

For some, it’s because it’s what they can afford. For others, it just tastes good! Either way, a ramen cooker helps so much!

Pro tip – I cooked ramen in a square glass dish for my first year, which also works.

7. Can Opener

This is so easy to overlook when shopping for a dorm room, since this is so much more of a kitchen tool. However, you will use this just as much in your dorm room!

Cans of soup are common, and you’ll be surprised how much other canned stuff you end up buying. A must have for your freshman year dorm room!

8. Pizza Cutter

Ordering pizza is the norm, but you’ll find that sometimes you’ll want to cook one at the school. Ordering Dominos gets really expensive!

Buy a pizza cutter now, and you can take it with you to your first college apartment. You’ll need it there!

9. Microwave Popcorn Popper

The amount of microwave popcorn I went through in my freshman year dorm room was insane. Not only does the price of bags of popcorn add up, but they’re really really bad for you.

This would have saved my life during first semester, and I think it really is a great dorm room product essential!

This bowl folds flat – great for storage!

10. Ceramic Egg Cooker

The plethora of microwave food cooking items truly doesn’t stop – and the ceramic egg cooker proves this.

If you are used to eating a lot of eggs at home, please please don’t bank on the eggs in your on campus meal service to be even remotely good. They’re disgusting.

If you can’t live without your eggs, just cook them in your microwave in your dorm!

Related: 14 Things to Clean in Your Dorm Room Immediately

11. Mason Jars

Less of a cooking essential, but having a couple mason jars are a small space essential for your college dorm room.

I personally make salads in my jars, and just throw them in my backpack for an in-between class snack. A simple search on pinterest will show you millions of recipes!

These are great for storage too. Oh, and don’t forget screw on lids!

12. A Large Bowl

To save space in your tiny dorm room, make sure you only get one of these!

You’ll realize quickly how useful having one large seving style bowl is – I put popcorn and any other snacks in it when all my friends were over!

13. Small Cutting Board and Knife

To spare you the details, I would frequently realize I didn’t have an actual knife, and would therefore eat a block of cheese by just biting it.

Please get a small cutting board and knife!

14. Clothespins

Some people use actual chip clips, and trust me – they don’t work as well and they’re more expensive. Just get some clothespins!

15. Brita Filter

This is an item you see on tons of dorm room essential lists, but you actually should get one!

It’s super nice having a supply of water in your room. The filtration isn’t as much of the issue, since most dorms have filtered water available at water fountains, it’s the beauty of not having to leave your room to get some water.

Here’s the one I had – we just put it on top of our microwave since it’s too big for a standard mini fridge.

This post showed you 15 college dorm room cooking essentials.