10 Foods You Can Cook In A Hotel Room

Comfort is key when traveling, and part of staying comfortable is making sure everyone is well fed and there are plenty of snacks to enjoy along the way. But sometimes, finding a good meal when you're on the road is easier said than done. Perhaps you don't want to be limited to fast food, or maybe you stopped for the night and all of the local restaurants are closed. In those situations, you may have to take it upon yourself to prepare your own food. But how does that work when you're staying in a hotel without any major kitchen equipment?

Most hotel rooms offer a few basic small appliances and home goods, including a microwave, a coffee pot, and an iron for your clothes. What if we were to tell you that those three items can be used in more ways than you might think? These may not be the most gourmet meals you have ever had, but if you are staying at a hotel late one night and eating out isn't an option, you can whip something up in a matter of minutes without having to resort to frozen food or an unsatisfying bag of vending machine potato chips. Read on for our best hotel room recipe hacks.

The ultimate comfort food, there are few things as satisfying as a simple grilled cheese sandwich. It is one of the first foods many of us learned how to cook on our own, and you only need a few easy-to-find ingredients: cheese, bread, and butter (or mayonnaise, but that is a debate for another day). And do not be tricked into thinking you need a stove top in order to make grilled cheese sandwich. If you are staying overnight at a hotel, we are willing to bet you have a tool in your room that perhaps was not invented for the purpose of making grilled cheese, but will absolutely get the job done.

The next time you iron your clothes while you are staying at a hotel, keep the iron set aside for a tasty sandwich for lunch or dinner. That is right, you can use your iron to make grilled cheese. Not only does the heat from the iron help to toast your bread, but the pressure applied from the hot iron works like a sandwich press. Grilled Cheese Social recommends turning your iron onto the highest temperature and turning the steam setting off. For the sandwich itself, you are going to want to assemble the grilled cheese, then wrap it in foil, and press the iron onto the foil-wrapped sandwich for a few minutes on each side.

Some may consider this to be the ultimate cardinal sin of the culinary world, as this is about to break a number of rules you should always follow when making a bowl of pasta. But yes, you can technically make a number of pasta-based dishes from your hotel room, as long as you have access to a microwave. Cooking the pasta, as you would when making microwave macaroni and cheese, simply involves the process of combining pasta with salt and water in a microwave-safe bowl and cooking in short intervals until you have the right consistency. Using that cooking method as the base, you can go on to make a number of different pasta dishes.

If the thought of microwaving dry pasta noodles until they are considered al dente makes shivers run down your spine, you can always substitute for a different kind of noodle, like spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles. From there, add your favorite sauces or toppings and heat until it is ready to eat. Bottom line — there's no need to think that your options for microwavable pasta is limited to just Chef Boyardee.

Perhaps this next one is a no-brainer, but if you are only accustomed to cooking your instant ramen noodles on the stovetop, you may not have considered it to be a meal you can make in your hotel room. And we're not talking about cooking ramen noodles in the microwave, as you might be assuming. After all, instant ramen noodles are a favorite amongst college students, mainly due to the fact that they require no major kitchen appliances in order to make. But even if your room isn't equipped with a microwave, you can still enjoy a hot bowl of ramen noodles thanks to a different appliance you can find in most hotel rooms — your coffee pot.

This inventive way of cooking instant ramen was shared on Reddit, and involves just a few simple steps. Add your noodles to the coffee pot and water to the reservoir (like if you were making a regular pot of coffee) before turning it on, so the ingredients can heat up together. Once your noodles are fully cooked, add the seasoning packet that comes with the ramen. Other Redditors pointed out that it is not as efficient as a stovetop, or even a microwave, but if all you have in your hotel room is a coffee pot, you can still make your go-to instant comfort food on the go.

There are a lot of tips and tricks out there when it comes to cooking rice, but at the end of the day, it is a very simple staple food item to make. One of the most common ways to make rice is by using a stovetop, though brands have also come up with instant rice that can be heated in the microwave in a fraction of the time. If you only have access to dry rice, however, you can still turn to your hotel room microwave to heat up a quick side dish for your lunch and dinner the next time you are on the road. It is not necessarily the best way to prepare rice, but it does work, and can be a game-changer when it comes to the variety of meals you can prepare in your hotel room.

To make microwave rice using dry grains, you will need to combine the rice with water in a microwave-safe bowl. Ideally, you will want to aim for a 2-to-1 ratio of water to rice. Depending on how much you're making, you may need a slightly larger vessel for this. Once combined, simply heat the rice in the microwave for 10 minutes. That length of time will allow for most of the water to evaporate, leaving you with a bowl of cooked, ready-to-eat rice. And you can always add more time at the end if the rice is not quite ready to eat.

We cannot forget about dessert, and thankfully, there are tons of options to satiate your sweet tooth while staying in a hotel beyond buying a package of cookies. You can actually make a tasty cake in the microwave, and better yet, you can have your own personal dessert that fits into a coffee mug. Chocolate mug cake is an easy-to-make dessert that can be put together with as just a few ingredients, and there is hardly any cleanup afterwards. 

If you want your mug cake to be as close to the real thing as possible, you will need a some dry ingredients, including things flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and baking powder, along with some liquid binders (typically oil or milk). If you are not a fan of chocolate, there are several varieties of mug cakes you can make in the microwave. No matter which kind you choose, your dessert will be ready in under 10 minutes. These can be a really fun way to give everyone their own personal dessert while traveling, especially if you happen to be on the road during some sort of special occasion or birthday.