New cookbook · By Nick Irmo
Your kitchen is a microwave.
Dinner is still handled.
Barely Cooking is 365 lazy, high-protein recipes for dorm rooms and tiny kitchens. No oven. No raw meat. No skills required. If you can open a can and push a button, you can eat well every day.
- 365
- recipes, one for every day
- 1,095
- meals with the Remixes
- 20 g+
- protein in every meal
- 15 min
- or less, hands-on
No oven ✓15 min or lessWhat's inside
Six sections. 30 chapters.
Color-coded like the book, from egg mugs at 8 a.m. to a 90-second mug cake at midnight.
#001–#070
Breakfast
Egg mugs, overnight oats, burritos you can freeze.
#071–#165
Lunch
Packable bowls, tortas, canned-fish glow-ups.
#166–#260
Dinner
Rotisserie chicken 20 ways, rice bowls, microwave pasta.
#261–#315
Snacks
Deviled eggs, fork-mashed dips, DIY lunchables.
#316–#340
Sweets
90-second mug cakes and no-bake protein bites.
#341–#365
Sauces
Squeeze-bottle sauces and spice blends that fix everything.
Free from the book
Start with these.
Recipe #001 · 3 min
The 90-Second Egg and Cheese Mug
Breakfast for people who hit snooze three times. Two eggs, some cheese, a little ham, one big mug. It puffs up like a soufflé, tastes like a diner, and the only dish is the one you eat from.
Recipe #072 · 10 min
Mediterranean Tuna Protein Bowl
The lunch that makes everyone at the table look at their sad sandwich. Tuna, chickpeas, crunchy vegetables, olives and feta with a lemon dressing. It packs perfectly and actually tastes better a few hours later.
Recipe #166 · 15 min
Rotisserie Chicken Pasta Salad
Microwave pasta, grocery store chicken and a bottle of Italian dressing. That's the whole trick. It makes dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, and it honestly tastes better on day two.
Recipe #216 · 10 min
The Fully Loaded Baked Potato
Steakhouse potato, dorm price. A russet goes soft and fluffy in seven minutes, then gets loaded with cheddar, bacon, Greek yogurt and chives. The yogurt and an extra scoop of cottage cheese turn a side dish into a 30-gram dinner.
Recipe #275 · 5 min
Buffalo Chicken Dip
The game-day dip, scaled to a mini fridge.
Recipe #316 · 4 min
Protein Mug Cake
A warm chocolate cake in 90 seconds. Seriously.
Recipe #090 · 6 min
Rotisserie Chicken Torta
Mexico's greatest sandwich, built from a grocery store chicken. A crusty roll, warm beans, juicy chicken, avocado and pickled jalapeños. It's big, messy and has more protein than most dinners.
Recipe #027 · 5 min
PB Banana Overnight Oats
Make it at midnight. Eat it at 8. Pretend you're organized.
Look inside
Real pages from the book.
Several recipes to a page keeps the price down. Every card has protein, time, cost, how long it keeps and two Remixes.
Gear
The $30 Dorm Kitchen Kit.
Seven cheap things and a microwave. That's every piece of equipment the book needs. Plus our picks for mini fridges, kettles, storage and the protein pantry.
A friend of the kitchen · Icy Soda
Dinner's done.
Now make it dirty.
Barely Cooking handles dinner. Icy Soda handles the drinks. Dr Pepper, coconut, lime and cream is basically a dorm-room dessert.
The Lazy Rules
Every recipe follows them. No exceptions.
One appliance
Microwave, electric kettle or nothing at all. Never an oven.
15 minutes
Hands-on time. Overnight oats sit in the fridge while you sleep.
Protein floors
20 g every meal, 8 g every snack, 7 g every sweet.
No raw meat
Precooked meat, canned fish and cured lox only. Eggs cooked through.
No blender
Every dip and sauce mashes with a fork.
Whole cans
Recipes use the whole can, or tell you where the rest goes.
Serves 1
Built for one person. Double it for a roommate.
Two Remixes
Small swaps that turn one recipe into three meals.
Also by Nick Irmo · Now on Amazon
No stove? Get to the Chopper.
Barely Cooking is microwave, mugs and cans. Get to the Chopper is knife, board and bowl. Together they're a whole kitchen with no stove.
Knife. Board. Bowl. Zero cooking.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
What is Barely Cooking?+
Barely Cooking is a 365-recipe, high-protein cookbook by Nick Irmo for dorm rooms, studio apartments and anyone with a tiny kitchen. Every recipe uses one appliance at most (usually a microwave), takes 15 minutes or less of hands-on time and has 10 ingredients or fewer.
Do I need a kitchen or a stove?+
No. The book has no oven and no stovetop recipes. Everything is microwave, electric kettle or no-cook. If a recipe can be made better on a burner, that version is listed as an optional Remix.
How much protein is in the recipes?+
Every meal has at least 20 grams of protein, every snack at least 8 grams and every sweet at least 7 grams. Protein is listed on every recipe card.
Is it safe to cook this way in a dorm?+
Yes. The book uses no raw meat or raw fish, only precooked meat, canned fish and cured lox. Eggs are always cooked through in the microwave or bought hard-boiled, and there's a one-page food safety guide. Check your housing rules before buying any appliance.
Why 365 recipes?+
One for every day of the year. Each recipe also has two Remixes, small swaps that turn it into a different meal, so there are 1,095 meals before you repeat one.
When can I buy it?+
Barely Cooking is coming soon as a full-color paperback on Amazon. Join the launch list on this page and you'll get one email the day it's live.
Launch list
Get the book the day it drops.
One email when Barely Cooking is live on Amazon, plus a free printable of the $30 Dorm Kitchen Kit. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.