You are living in a hostel with only a hot plate for your aid or in a fairly primitive kitchen set-up where the best item is a common refrigerator you are sharing with five other girls. Cooking seems fairly impossible most of the time with only 2-3 cooking vessels at your disposal. Maggi seems like the only option you have, but it doesn’t quite make you feel so good after eating it everyday for a week. On the other hand eating out is so expensive. We totally feel your pain, because until recently we were in the same situation. But all hope is not lost. While you may infinitely prefer eating to cooking (and who doesn’t!), these easy recipes will ensure that you are at least having a decent meal or snack when you need it and make living alone even more fun.
Image and Recipe via Jeyasree’s Kitchen
1. Chilli cheese toast: Hotels may charge a bomb for it and it’s true that not everybody can make a good chilli cheese toast, but you only need to master the basics right now. The best part is this requires only three ingredients – bread, cheese and chilli flakes. And you can totally make it in a frying pan, so enjoy!
Photo Credit: ©Thinkstock photos/ Getty images. Recipe via Blog Chef
2. Egg salad sandwich: Only the name sounds complicated. This is just a really easy way of making an egg filling using boiled eggs and some sandwich spread or mayo. You can make it beforehand for the entire week and refrigerate it. Take small portions out whenever you need to make a sandwich.
Image and Recipe via Sindhi Rasoi
3. Aloo Tamatar Curry and Steamed Rice: This simple meal is the absolute comfort food and it’s perfect when you’re missing home or you have to cut back on your spending. The only thing in this dish that even calls for skill is chopping the onions and you can bypass even that by grinding it in a mixer or hand-pound it with mortar and pestle. Switch to tomato puree in a tetra-pack instead of freshly chopped tomatoes. It tastes best with rotis, but since that is beyond our skill set right now, rice will work just as well.
Image and Recipe via E Recipe Guide
4. Besan ka Chila: This popular Gujju dish is a really easy evening snack made in about 15 minutes time, yet quite filling. And since living alone basically means living on snacks all the time, you can just go ahead and make this healthier snack for dinner too.
Image and Recipe via Cooking Recipes. Blogspot
5. Pan pizza using ready-made base: Is ordering for pizza each time really digging a deep hole in your pocket? Then try this home-made version using ready-made base. That’s a far cheaper alternative. The recipe we’ve included calls for use of a microwave, but you can do the same on a regular pan on stove-top. Just put the pizza on it, and allow it to cook on a really low flame with a lid on until the cheese melts. To prevent the base from burning, don’t wait until the pan is hot to put the pizza in it. Just slide it in while it’s still warming. That gives more heating time for the cheese to melt.
Image and Recipe via Padhu’s Kitchen
6. Peas Pulao: Making biryani at home maybe an ambition you really need to work on, but in the meantime, you can easily master this yummy Peas Pulao. Literally, the only work required in the making of this dish is chopping onions. The rest like ginger-garlic paste, jeera powder and frozen peas can be directly included – no prepping required. The only tricky part is keeping note of the water proportion vis-à-vis rice quantity. But that’s basic mathematics – no skill required.
Image and Recipe via The Pioneer Woman
7. Pasta with Red Sauce: You may have a fairly primitive kitchen set-up at hand, but that doesn’t mean you will have to confine your cooking to plain dal-chawal. This red sauce recipe doesn’t even require any grinding if you buy a tetra-pack of tomato puree. Just boil the pasta, season the puree with garlic and herbs and your pasta is ready. Literally…ta da!
Image and Recipe via Toriavey
8. Brinjal Pan Fry or Begun Bhaja: The Bongs love this version of brinjal so much that it’s Bengali name, Begun Bhaja, definitely deserves a mention. This gorgeous picture may make the dish seem difficult, but in reality it’s a five-minute job. Just slice large eggplants, season it and pan-fry. It goes best with Dal Khichdi.
Image and Recipe via Healthy Recipe Blogs
9. French Toast: French toast looks gorgeous and decadent, but in reality it’s easier to make than an omlette or a fried egg. When you are comfy with this basic version, you can branch out into savoury versions that require a bit more prep.
Image and Recipe via Rak’s Kitchen
10. Poha: Again, this is a super easy breakfast dish where the only effort required is to chop the onions. Take care not to soak the poha, just wash it or wet it and it’s ready to cook in five minutes. Make this a few times and you’ll master the knack of making this in less than 10 minutes alongside a cup of steaming adrak chai.
Image and Recipe via Indian Healthy Recipes
11. Simple Chicken Curry: This chicken curry is super simple and doesn’t require grinding of masalas or coconut. Try this on a weekend and you can buy chicken that is already cut into pieces to save some more effort. Just eat it with some steamed rice.
