Smart, quick, easy, cheap. It’s rare to find a meal that fits all four categories—especially for college students that are always on-the-go. An emerging student organization is making meal hacks more accessible for Arizona State University students who want to try their favorite recipes.

“The best way to change something is to become a part of it,” says Nicole Dusanek, 19, who is leading the charge for more intelligent eating at ASU. Dusanek got the idea to start an ASU chapter of the online publication Spoon University after surfing the web looking for meal hacks for college students. College meal hacks are recipes that can be made in a dorm room setting where there are limited resources.

Foodie student contributors are published on a Spoon U domain specific to each chapter. Students make the site their own by writing, taking photos, creating videos and throwing events to create a collaborative multimedia site. There is even a chance that partners of Spoon U, such as BuzzFeed or the Food Network, will pick up and publish the students’ work.

The publication already has established chapters in more than 150 college campuses across the U.S. with more fledgling chapters in the works. With more than 5, 000 contributors, spoonuniversity.com says “It’s the food resource for our generation.”

After talking to her community assistant, Dusanek recognized that ASU’s youthful population desperately needed cooking lessons.

“The fire alarms used to go off a lot because students would not put water in their mac & cheese when they put it in the microwave, and that burns,” Dusanek said “When you come to college, you have to reinvent your way of cooking and eating.”

The organization wants cooking in college to make sense. For freshmen, this means being able to cook in their dorms with limited ingredients, but all students can benefit. There is a slew of articles dedicated to recipes that can be made in a microwave, ranging from 2-minute French toast for breakfast to spaghetti for dinner.

Spoon U promotes intelligent eating, which doesn’t always mean it’s healthy. The desserts are where contributors let their imaginations run wild. They experiment to come up with recipes like 5-minute pumpkin spice donuts and peanut butter & Nutella pinwheels.

One of Dusanek’s favorite hacks is using a waffle iron. “You can put a cinnamon roll in there and—bam, cinnamon waffles!”

“I try to push for intelligent eating where you have the meal hacks… and healthy eating,” sophomore nursing student Emily Obermeyer said.

She said she hopes to combine the two in her work so students know, for example, where they can get fresh fruits and vegetables on a budget. She wants to incorporate nutritional meals that leave students feeling full so that they don’t have cook five meals a day.

Obermeyer and Dusanek met through their sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta, and teamed with a third sister, Crystal Peralta.

“It’s cool that it’s all girls who are doing it right now—just cause a lot of the guys who have shown interest have backed out from taking leadership roles—I’m interested in the girl boss, girl power thing. That’s what stands out to me,” Peralta said.

The women have faced an uphill battle getting the organization approved by ASU and Spoon U. They were caught in a cyclical process: they needed students’ support and signatures before they could be approved to table on the ASU campus.

They also had a difficult time reaching their audience without tabling first. Adding to the struggle, Spoon U also required a certain amount of student support before they could proceed on their end, and some students backed out.

The founders eventually got all the required signatures, and have since begun the recruitment process.

Meal hack for one: Learn to make Emily’s favorite quick and healthy recipe—baked potato slices. All you need are potatoes, olive oil, butter and a muffin tin.

Unpeeled Potatoes

  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. of melted butter
  • Handful of parmesan seasoning

Collect the ingredients and preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Begin by thinly slicing your potatoes.

Emily recommends not peeling the potatoes. “Actually, if you include the skin it’s healthier for you because it has a lot more fiber in it.”

In a mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, melted butter, and parmesan, then season to taste. Emily prefers garlic salt and pepper, but you can get creative and try something new.

Add the potato slices to the mixture. Stuff layers of potato slices in each cup of the muffin tin. Pour any extra sauce over the slices and you’re ready to bake.

Bake the potato slices for 20 minutes if you want them to be soft. For crispier slices, wait until the edges brown.