Transitioning from living at home and moving to college can be hard. Students come from different households; some of us were blessed with the gift of cooking (I got lucky) and some of us have a few home dishes that we can’t go wrong with. Cooking with your roommates can actually be a lot of fun for some meals, but in order to keep everyone happy, you have to make a few things fair.

If you’re making a main dish, maybe have someone else in charge of the side dishes and another assigned to bread, drinks and desserts. If you can’t decide what to make, try sitting down and scrolling through Pinterest or the Food Network website and pick out a few recipes together. Split the grocery bill at the store between your cards, and you can make a pretty nice meal on a college budget. I know this isn’t a likely scenario for every day of the week, so maybe plan this roomie feast for a weekend.

With a good system, you could keep this on a rotation throughout the term and switch roles. This also includes cleaning up, which works best split among the roommates and the harder work given to the roommate who contributed the least effort.

These family-style meals can bring the best out of roommate relationships if done right.