My friends and I often end up eating out, which can really add up (most grad students live paycheck to paycheck), and more importantly it's often not healthy, and you often have no idea what ingredients they use.
It took awhile for me to learn, but I finally found the ultimate way to cook healthy meals where prep work is (literally) 1 minute, and there is no cooking utensils or pans to clean!!
The secret is cooking everything using a single "sheet pan" and put everything you want to cook on it. And that's it! (We assume you have an oven, which is often the case for apartments and houses that grad students living in the US.)
Here's how it works:
- Pick/buy whatever sheet pan that you want to use. Your food actually won't be touching this pan, so its exact material is not very relevant. But if you want to use the pan for cooking other things (e.g., bake cookies) then you'll want to research it a bit (which is out of scope of this post!).
- Lay a piece of parchment paper on the pan. Since the paper is non-stick, when you're done cooking, you just throw it away. No need to clean the pan!! Parchment paper usually comes in a roll or as sheets. You can use either here, because our main goal is to simply use it to separate the food from the pan. Some people recommends aluminum foil, which can also works, but your food can stick to the foil.
- Put whatever proteins (e.g., chicken thigh, pork chop, fish filet) and whatever frozen vegetables you want on the pan, and sprinkle whatever oil and spices on top. This part is really up to you. As shown in the picture, I usually buy different kinds of big bags of mixed frozen veggies (you'll surely find them at your local groceries), and you don't need to thaw them. Jump dump them directly on the pan. Main reasons are that they last pretty much forever, already "chopped up" (i.e., YOU don't need to do it) and there's no difference in terms of nutrition when compared to their "fresh" version (and sometimes even better!), and usually cheaper than "fresh" versions (which may not be very fresh after all because they can be in transit for days or weeks!). I usually sprinkle some olive oil, salt, black pepper, and chili flakes. But again, it's really up to you. Experiment and find the tastes that you like (since you're the one eating it)! An a quick note --- it may not be a good idea to wash raw chicken because washing can easily spread germs to utensils and other food (i.e., you can just put the chicken directly on the pan).
- Put your pan of food in oven and bake at a temperature and for enough time that will thoroughly cook the protein which depend on the size and thickness of your protein, and the temperature accuracy of your oven. For the salmon in the picture, I used 400F and baked for 20min. Don't worry if you don't get the temperature and timing right the first few times. Think of this as a learning process. And you will eventually get it!
- Then pull your cooked masterpiece out of oven and plate it and eat! Throw away the parchment paper. No need to clean the pan (unless you've dripped food or oil on it). Yay!
As you now can tell, the main "cooking" time is really spent on pulling out the pan, placing parchment paper, dump the protein and frozen veggies on the pan, all can be done in under a minute! Enjoy!
Another important benefit, as the title of this post says, your meal is "healthy". You know what your ingredients are and you know the cooking process.