College is filled with a bunch of teenagers living on their own for the first time. This sounds like a great time when thinking about it as a high school senior, but look at the fine print of living independently: food does not magically appear in the cabinets anymore. College students have to get out of bed to go to the supermarket and spend their own money for groceries. Money? Is that even accessible to college kids? Those home cooked meals are out of the picture. You might be thinking, “Um…mom, can you come back with those pulled pork sandwiches that I used to complain about because I felt like we had them too often?” Yes, the dining hall food is an experience, but it quickly gets old. Greek Life food is such a pain to have to walk or drive to the house for a meal. Granted, I can make my own home cooked meals, right? However, if preparing the meal requires an oven, then I would have to climb to the 7th floor to even possess the cooking appliances.

As a college student, you have to learn to work with what you have and the resources that surround you. We do not have ovens in every dorm room, but we do have microwaves. At home the microwave may only be used to reheat leftovers, heat up a precooked meal, or pop the snack that pairs great with a movie, but in reality it can be used for so much more. Obviously, we consume the elementary meals, like Ramen Noodles or the small Easy Mac bowls, known for being a college student’s best friend, but they do not keep our stomachs full for long. Finding simple and cheap meals that the microwave can bake while providing the same satisfaction that fills one’s stomach after eating at the dining hall or fraternity/sorority house is not as difficult to obtain as it seems.

Eggs. French toast. Cinnamon rolls. Pizza. Cakes. Potato chips. All these foods seem near impossible to make in a dorm room without an oven or stove (unless you sneak in a hot plate burner), but with a tweak to the typical ingredients, you can easily make them with a microwave.

Sifting through recipe upon recipe on the internet for these microwaveable treasures, I was able to come across one that stood out to me: a cookie, but not just any cookie…the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. These sweet treats bring back memories of carving pumpkins, decorating the house with spooky creatures, dressing up in costumes, and eating with friends before a long night of running from door to door to trick or treat. Halloween always promised these magnificent cookies, though I never would have known that they could be created in a cooking appliance other than an oven.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (especially when baked in a microwave) do not require a significant amount of time or ingredients to create. These cookies only take up to 50 seconds to bake in the microwave. So, if that sweet tooth kicks in, challenge yourself to bake a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The list of ingredients includes:

• 4 tbsp of all purpose flour
• 1 ½ tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp canned pumpkin puree
• 1 tbsp butter (melted)
• 1/8 tsp + 1/16 tsp ground cinnamon
• chocolate chips

No need to deprive oneself of warm cookies anymore. The microwave is a quick and easy way to make delectable treats.

Recipe:

1. Combine all ingredients except for the chocolate chips into a mixing bowl
2. Stir until the ingredients create a sticky dough
3. Spoon out the dough and form separate round dough balls
4. Add chocolate chips to the dough (make sure to squish them in)
5. Cook in microwave for 50 seconds