One amazing investment for our dorm kitchen has been our packet drawer! Sauces and condiments can get expensive and take up valuable space in your minifridge, while condiment packets often come free with fast food or takeout and don’t need to be refrigerated. We know from experience that college students often get takeout and fast food more than they might like, and we always try to make the most of these meals by saving the packets we get to use later. This works especially well when it comes to Chinese takeout – how many soy sauce, duck sauce, and mustard packets are you left with when you’re done eating? Save those packets for later to use in your cooking! Here are some tips to get started with your own packet drawer:
The packet drawer doesn’t have to be a whole drawer, necessarily (we know college students are often short on space!) – just some kind of container to hold all those condiment packets we inevitably end up with. Boxes, bags, or that one tupperware that’s missing a lid all work great!
If the restaurant you’re at has condiment packets sitting out, or if they ask if you want any for your meal, always take a few extra to replenish your stash (within reason, of course!). The same goes for your college dining places. Our campus coffee shop usually has sugar and butter packets sitting out, so whenever our stash is getting low we take a few with our orders to add to our packet drawer!
Our favorite packets to keep on hand include: soy sauce, butter, sugar, and mayonnaise! These are ingredients that we use a lot, but not enough to justify buying an entire container of them. Fresh veggies and a handful of soy sauce packets will go a long way towards a good stir fry, while butter and sugar are good to have on hand for desserts! Mayonnaise is one that we don’t use as much, but you can add it to canned tuna with some olives and garlic powder to make tuna salad, or leftover chicken with celery and herbs for chicken salad!
❤ Juliana and Sarah
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