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If you’re new to cooking (or if you’re a seasoned chef) you’ll know there are always new things to learn. I think I’m lucky because I enjoy cooking, so I’ve had a lot of practice over the years and have picked up some tips and tricks that make the whole process of cooking easier. Maybe you’re moving into your own apartment and will start cooking all your meals for yourself, or you are starting a new school year and want to try cooking a few meals during the week. Whatever level of expertise you have, I hope these tips and tricks will help. Making just a few changes makes cooking so much easier. I’m calling these my cooking “hacks” because these tips really are so simple and easy but make a huge difference!

1. Use a trash bowl. Choose any big bowl and designate it as your trash bowl. What’s a trash bowl? Just keep a bowl out while you’re cooking– chopping and peeling vegetables or unwrapping new ingredients– and put all the scraps and pieces of trash in the bowl. It really helps me to stay organized and keep the kitchen more clean. It also saves a lot of time and effort during clean up. This is also important if you’re working in a small space or sharing the kitchen with other people.
2. Use prep bowls. Just like with the trash bowl, use a big bowl to keep all of your prepped ingredients in. For example, if you’re making a big batch of stir fry or chill, you can keep all of your chopped vegetables in the bowl until you’re ready to use them. This makes any recipe move so much faster because you don’t have to stop and chop each ingredient while you’re trying to do other things. This also helps me not get overwhelmed with trying to do too much multitasking. Just prepare all of your ingredients before you start cooking and the whole process will be much simpler. You can even measure out all the spices and put them into one bowl to throw in when you need them.
3. Take out all of your ingredients first. This hack is pretty essential if you’re cooking in a residence hall and your kitchen is separate from your dorm. I can’t tell you how exhausting it is to sprint from the kitchen to your dorm every time you forget an ingredient. Laying out all of your ingredients also ensures that you don’t waste any ingredients that you bought just because you forgot to throw them in.
4. Read through the entire recipe before you start. Similar to the previous hack, reading the entire recipe before you start will make sure you’re not missing any ingredients and you won’t run into any surprises in the middle of cooking. One time, my sister and I were making whoopee pies and half-way through we realized one part required 4 hours! Not great. The recipe is like your game plan so just make sure you’re familiar with it and all ready to go. You can also adjust the recipe to make it work for you. If the recipe is telling you to chop all of your vegetables right before you put them in the pot, you can always reorder things so that you have everything prepped before you start.
5. Taste as you go. This hack is not just for fancy chefs on the Food Network but you’ll look like a real pro if you remember to taste your food every so often while you’re cooking. This really helps prevent the situation where you’re done cooking and you realize that it doesn’t taste quite right. Sometimes just a teaspoon more salt or a bit more chili powder will make all the difference and it’s much easier to add those things when you’re still cooking. Also, the measurements a recipe provides might not be exactly what you like, so tasting your food allows you to adjust for that.
6. Control the heat. This tip gets easier as you cook more, but learning how to control the heat while cooking really makes a difference. Every oven and stove is different, so learning how to control yours is important. Ovens and stoves have different heat settings for a reason, and learning when to turn up the heat and turn it down will be really helpful. For example, I learned that you want to heat your frying pan over very high heat when you’re making stir fry.  This makes the vegetables cook much more quickly. Before I realized this, I’d say I was making stir fry over the usual medium heat and it took much longer. Alternatively, I turn the heat way down when I’m making chili or curry so that the flavors can simmer and cook slowly.
7. Modify and substitute. Don’t be afraid to modify and substitute recipes to hack any recipe. Don’t have a specific spice or you already have a different kind of bean? Use that. This will help you save money and make sure you’re utilizing all the food you’re buying. It should also help get those creative juices flowing so you can come up with your own recipes and foods you like! Taking some risks and getting a little experimental will get easier as you cook more, but starting off with substituting for ingredients you know you like is a great place to start.
8. Buy dish towels. This one seems pretty simple, but when you’re buying a bunch of your own cooking supplies it’s easy to overlook the dish towels. You probably use these all the time at home for drying off washed produce or for washing your hands while your cooking. When I first started cooking in college I didn’t have dish towels with me and I just ended up using a ton of paper towels and we all know that the paper towels schools give us are just not absorbent enough. Saving all the paper towels is also much better for the environment! It will also help keep your kitchen more clean and organized because you won’t have a bunch of damp paper towels scattered around (fun fact: this is actually my very random and slightly irrational kitchen pet peeve.)
9. Stay calm. This one is just generally good life advice, but it also applies to cooking.  Just staying calm in the kitchen really makes a huge difference. If you’re a college student, you probably have ten other things to do aside from cooking. Sometimes, the only time I had time to cook was a break in between classes. Cooking with a limited amount of time can be pretty stressful. Even if you’re crunched for time, actually slowing down and taking your time will make cooking easier. I find that when I stay calm, I don’t make as many mistakes like forgetting about something in the oven. Taking a deep breath and slowing down will just make the whole experience much easier and more enjoyable. I like listening to music while I cook or talking to a friend on speakerphone. Even if you know you’ll be writing an essay when you’re done, I like to think of the time I spend cooking as taking a little break, rather than something that’s keeping me from doing schoolwork. Also, taking the time to make food in advance will save you time and energy during the week! Spending that hour or so on Sunday cooking will really pay off in the long-run when you have a healthy meal ready for you during the week. No stress.
10. Multitask, but not too much. This connects to my last hack– trying to multitask too much becomes stressful and hard, but learning how to multitask efficiently is a great cooking hack. As we talked about before, reading the whole recipe before you start can help you learn where to multitask. Read the recipe and see if there are places where you can have two parts going at the same time. For example, have the water boiling for pasta while you make the sauce or have the vegetables roasting while you’re chopping up the potatoes. In both of these examples, one part doesn’t require your full attention. It’s hard to try stirring and sautéing three things at once on the stove. As you have more practice, you’ll be more comfortable with multitasking. I’ve also found that a simple multitasking hack is putting away my phone. It’s temping to text or check Instagram if there’s some downtime while cooking, but I’ve found that putting my phone away just for an hour or so really helps me stay calm and organized. If I’m following a recipe I pull it up on my laptop or print it out and set my phone aside.