It’s 4:45 on Monday evening at Battenfeld Scholarship Hall. In the kitchen, Josh Patterson and Joel Haug stand over one of three 9 by 13 inch metal baking pans sitting on the stainless steel kitchen counters; filled with ingredients for chicken pot pie. Patterson, Pittsburg junior, and Haug, Atchison sophomore, are on dinner duty tonight. In a couple of hours, they will feed 50 hungry Battenfeld residents. The hall’s kitchen looks like one you’d find in a professional restaurant. There are industrial-sized ovens, a fryer and a giant fridge. The kitchen drawers have labels ranging from “measuring cups,” to “Gloves! Like skin, but disposable!”

Patterson and Haug stretch out a sheet of crust dough between them, and slowly lower it onto the pan, covering up the gravy, chicken and vegetables that make up the filling. Patterson takes a knife and trims off the excess dough. He surveys his work for a moment. The food looks like the very definition of the word “hearty.” “Beautiful,” he says, before moving on to the next pan.

Patterson has been a dinner cook here since freshman year. He says he’d had some experience cooking at home before coming to the University, but cooking at Battenfeld proved to be very different. He’s learned that some dishes don’t work when cooking for 50 people.

“I tried making Weinerschnitzel.” Patterson says. “It took a long time. It was messy. You have to tenderize the meat and make it flat, so there was juice squirting everywhere. I learned not to be so ambitious.”

Chris Worley, Columbia, Mo. senior, also lives in Battenfeld and has been a dinner cook off-and-on during the four years he’s lived in the hall. He originally signed up to learn how to cook.

“When I got to college, I couldn’t make mac and cheese,” Worley says. “I can cook three or four good meals now without having to look at a recipe. I’m at a point where I can find a recipe online and say ‘I want to try that.’”

Living away from home brings plenty of challenges. One of those challenges is food. Some of us come to college with no idea how to cook. Between class, homework and a depleted budget, sometimes it feels like the only thing you can make is a measly package of ramen noodles. If you’re someone who likes to cook, life as a student can take a toll on enjoying the culinary arts. If you’re someone who’s just beginning, it can make the task seem even more daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.

Careful grocery buying and researching recipes can allow a surprising amount of exploration into the world of cooking, whether your constraints are space, money or time.

Big ideas, tiny stoves

Javon Shackelford loves to cook.

“There are some people who paint; some people who craft. I cook,” the Salina freshman says. “When I start cooking, nothing else matters.”

Growing up, both of Shackelford’s parents worked, often leaving him home alone. Since he had to take care of himself, cooking was a skill Shackelford picked up quickly. He started with grilled cheese when he was six years old, and worked his way up to making risotto for the first time in seventh grade.

Now, Shackelford lives in McCollum Hall, and uses the dorm’s basement kitchen to whip up his meals. The situation isn’t ideal, but he doesn’t let it limit what he makes.

“If I am feeling kind of saucy, I cook pasta. If I’m down on my luck, I make Southern comfort food,” Shackelford says. “It really just depends on what I’m craving and what type of mood I’m in.”

Shackelford’s biggest success so far has been goo bars, also known as gooey butter cake. It’s made of a cake batter, egg and butter crust, and an egg, powdered sugar and cream cheese filling.

Stretching a dollar

Chelsea Mertz, Topeka senior, became a vegan in college after she found out she was lactose intolerant. This means she doesn’t eat meat, dairy or eggs. Mertz is also an avid cook. She often makes meals with her brother and teaches a cooking class at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries center, where she also helps out with the organization’s weekly vegetarian lunch.

Mertz says she finds veganism to be an inexpensive lifestyle, because she doesn’t buy specialty items, and it also helps her control her weight. She says she likes to make rice-based dishes, because they’re healthy and the ingredients are inexpensive.

Mertz’s monthly grocery bill is usually $50 or $60. To save money, she buys in bulk, because she can buy the amount of ingredients she needs. She buys frozen juice concentrate and uses dry beans instead of canned. Mertz also says that there are plenty of ingredient substitutions cooks can use to save money or cater to dietary needs, such as replacing the eggs in brownies with applesauce or bananas.

Kimberley Morales, San Francisco-based creator of the food blog “Poor Girl Eats Well,” dedicates her site to sharing recipes that are inexpensive to make. In each post, she notes the cost per serving of her recipes, most of which are around $3. Morales, whose dishes for her blog include chicken in wild mushroom-chipotle sauce and cookies and cream cheesecake shots, says careful grocery shopping allows her to make all kinds of unexpected dishes.

“I’ve found things I never knew existed at such reduced prices, simply by looking carefully at everything that’s in that particular aisle,” Morales says. “I end up exploring interesting ingredient combinations and come up with some great salads, soups and other dishes. The sky’s the limit!”

Morales says her cardinal rule of grocery shopping is to avoid any foods that have been cut or shredded already, such as pre-shredded cheese.

“Sure, the convenience is great, but when it only takes a few minutes and a few tears to chop up some onions that I bought at 69 cents a pound, why would I pay $2 or more for a small 8-ounce bag of pre-cut onions that have been treated with some sort of strange preservative so they don’t spoil quickly?” Morales says.

A regular shopping trip sets Morales back $45 to $50, including food for her cat, and will usually last her two to three weeks. She shops at stores that offer non-national brand name foods, such as Trader Joe’s, as well as major chains. For produce, Morales says natural food co-ops (Lawrence has the Merc) and local farmers markets offer a better quality of produce, and make her feel good by supporting local farmers and merchants.

“Cutting out the middleman also reduces costs for the consumer, so this is a great way to shop,” Morales says.

Racing the Clock

Time can be an enemy when it comes to cooking in college, but preparing meals in advance can save you. Slow-cooker meals, such as soups, stews or curries keep well and don’t take a lot of effort to prepare. Get your ingredients ready in the morning, put them in the crock pot, and leave them to cook. By the time you’re ready to eat, your dinner will be, too. Another option is to make food ahead of time, freeze it, and warm it up when you need a quick meal on the go.

Want to make time for a meal with friends, but don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen? Mertz suggests potlucks as a cheap and fun way for friends to cook for each other and hang out.

In a world of student loans, rent, car payments and numerous demands on your time, it’s easy to hit the culinary doldrums. But with a little creativity, it isn’t as hard as it first appears, whether you’re an experienced cook trying to work with a tiny kitchen or a budget, or a newcomer looking for easy ways to make good food. There are plenty of options for busy, budget-conscious cooks who want to make food for themselves or others. For some students, like Shackelford, feedback from his dinners gives him pride and also helps him improve.

“I get great satisfaction out of people who taste my food and really understand it,” Shackelford says. “If they don’t enjoy it, I require them to provide constructive criticism. I enjoy that because it makes me better