“At college, where money is usually tight and good meals are rare, the ability to throw together a decent meal for your friends would probably be much admired. One might even be reasonably expected to have a small but serviceable list of specialties that you could cook for your roommates.” This quote, while seeming to come straight from a college student’s diary, is from a chapter entitled “Virtue” written by world-renowned chef and writer Anthony Bourdain. In this chapter, he perfectly captures how much of a necessity it is to be able to cook for yourself, both as a child and an adult.

Specifically speaking to college students, most of us are “ballin’ on a budget” with no time to make hour-long recipes in between, class, friends, clubs, and sleep. While Bourdain argues that everyone should have a certain set of skills, most students don’t know the first thing about cooking. Luckily there are tons of websites that post easy to make treats (and other dishes). Tastemade, Spoon University, and Yummly are specifically aimed at young people and some of the best places to start out – PLUS they share their fun videos all over Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, so you never know when you’re going to stumble across your next favorite dish.

Tastemade has an app which makes it easy to find and save your favorite recipes as well as look up your favorite tastemaker. Tastemakers are the featured chefs, meaning that if you really like the style of one chef, you don’t have to go hunting around. They each have a small description under their picture on the website…just click right on their picture to pull up all their recipes. Clicking on their dessert category pulls up all recipes easy or difficult, healthy or not. This website may take a bit of hunting, but many of their recipes are long term go-to’s.

Spoon University is run by real students. This website offers articles on the college lifestyle alongside their recipes. Some of their tabs include Spoon Healthier, <20 minutes, <5 ingredients, Microwave, and Hungover. With these fun tabs and their dessert tab containing everything from Chocolate Chip Muffins to Flourless Bacon Brownies, this website really is geared towards college students.

Yummly also has an app and is arguably the easiest website to navigate even though some recipes are for more advanced cooks. Their tabs are Just For You, Seasonal, Popular Now, Quick and Easy. By typing in baked goods, I received a list of baked good types: Christmas, Vegan, No Eggs, For Kids, With Alcohol, etc. When selecting regular baked goods, I was pleasantly surprised at the questions they asked me to filter my search response – what flavor must this dish have, would you like any fruit in the recipe, what type of bread are you looking for, how much time do you have, and so on.

 Not everyone is destined to be a famous chef, but cooking is a teachable skill at any age. When first learning to cook, it is best to start with appetizers or desserts and ease your way into the entre. Starting with baked goods from these websites allows for beginners to experiment with something fun, easy, and tasty to share with friends.