Trader Joes Cookbook

Mediterranean Chicken with Feta Cheese & Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Forget about frozen pizza and dining hall leftovers.

Andrea Lynn is taking dorm room cooking to a whole new level.

The professionally trained chef's new collection, "The I Love Trader Joe's College Cookbook," teaches students to make healthy, delicious meals without the fuss or wallet-busting prices.

Even better, college kids can find all the ingredients under one roof - every item used in the 150 recipes is available at Trader Joe's.

"I think Trader Joe's ends up being a mecca for affordable and unique products, so I was aiming for a starter cookbook," says Lynn. "The younger you get into cooking, the more you'll incorporate it into your life and it doesn't have to be difficult."

The Trader Joe's concept was inspired by Lynn's frequent shopping trips to the stores on the upper West Side and in Chelsea.

From sugar snap peas that can be steamed in the microwave to presliced sun-dried tomatoes, Lynn works with items that are perfect for quick-fix meals.

"I'd try to get there first thing in the morning so I have enough room to walk around, read the ingredients, brainstorm ideas and figure out what flavor combinations would work," she says.

For kitchen first-timers, Lynn suggests whipping up a pasta dish.

"Start with pastas and build upon that, like making pasta with shrimp, then next time adding vegetables. Make it a progression."

Like most of her ingredient lists, Lynn keeps her number of must-have tools to a minimum. In addition to a pot and pan, she recommends getting a good knife, a pair of tongs, a silicone spatula and microplane.

She also includes a how-to section and a measurement conversion chart in the back of the book.

Once collegiate cooks get a hang of the recipes, they can start making substitutions, but until then, Lynn suggests keeping things simple.

Small Kitchen College » Review & Giveaway: The I Love Trader ...

… Not because I at all doubted my love for the grocery, but rather, because of it. Already being a fan of their orange chicken, or far more often, eating an entire tub of hummus, I thought I didn’t have anything left to learn. It was the part of me that can be a little stubborn, the part of me that back in middle school decided my favorite color would be orange, the part of me that subsequently dyed my adolescent hair an unfortunate version of the color. In short: the part of me that is usually wrong. Andrea Lynn’s cookbook came to me at the perfect time, during the killer heat wave that hit New York in July. I looked at my oven like an old friend who had betrayed me. Why did it make the apartment so hot? Why was it doing this to me after, all we’d shared? A stack of unfulfilling and expensive takeout boxes in the garbage, I would casually stick my head in the freezer and think about how things had come to this. It was a dark place–the kitchen, figuratively, the freezer, literally. was exactly what I needed to get out of my food funk. Written like the twenty-something’s version of Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade approach, it features recipes that use about half fresh and half pre-prepared ingredients sold in the store. With chapters on snacks, main courses, drinks, special occasions, and more, it has something for everyone.

You might especially love this cookbook if:

You’re short on time : I have these great aspirations that I’m always going to cook my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the many snacks in between from scratch. This is because I am an optimist and also eternally forgetful of the Other Stuff I would also like to be doing. Whether it’s finishing that final paper or making it to a movie, it’s nice to have an option that isn’t a seven-course meal and also isn’t Chinese take out. This week, for example, I made Gazpacho in under 3 minutes. And you know what? My roommates who didn’t have anywhere to be still ate it, so delicious was my chilled soup.

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