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Almost anyone can make a meal out of what they dig out of their fridge and pantry, but not everyone has Madison Monahan’s flair for making it look scrumptious.

Maddie, a senior at Allegheny College, is pursuing a degree in Global Health Studies with a minor in French.  She spends much of her free time in the kitchen, pursuing her passion for cooking and then sharing photos of her creations online through her Instagram account. Here you’ll find dozens of Maddie’s home-cooked meals from Spaghetti Squash Boats to Spinach and Feta Chicken Roll-Ups.

Her family, particularly her father, inspired her interest in all things culinary, Maddie says.

She started helping her father around the kitchen around the age of 6. “I always wanted to help my dad and he would say, ‘You can help by watching,’ and I would get really mad because I wanted to get involved in the cooking. But in the end it is the watching that helped me the most.”

Cooking will always be a “cool hobby” but probably nothing more, Maddie says. “I love what cooking does to me. It really relieves my stress,” she says. “I don’t really have serious intentions with it in the future, but I love having cooking be part of my life, even if it’s just a hobby.”

It is this relaxing influence that helps Maddie balance her studies and her cooking. “You know how people decide to take study breaks and go drink coffee or something? I’m like that, but I just go cook lunch,” she says.

While Maddie has been cooking for years, she did not start using social media to showcase her talents until her sophomore year. “I figured that if I started posting these photos, I would inspire other people to start cooking,” she says.

She also tries to incorporate her cooking into her academics. (The Pittsburgh native is also president of the Advocating Global Health & Development Club and a student first-aid provider/ athletic trainer.)

“I just try to find other ways to incorporate it in my life, like for school projects. We did a recipe book for refugees in one of my classes last year.” Maddie says, “We took all the ingredients that you can find in other countries but that cannot be found here and I found a way to locate some substitutions for them. So that’s my way of incorporating the expression of cooking in my life.”

During the past summer, she stayed in Meadville and enjoyed going to the Second Saturday events organized by the Market House. “I love produce stands, and farmers’ markets are some of my favorite things. I love supporting local businesses and seeing what they have to offer. I also love seeing what the community does with the produce,” she says.

She also bought seeds from the Carrden — the Carr Hall hands-on learning and teaching garden for the Allegheny campus and community — and planted her own garden which allowed her to have fresh produce regularly.

It all makes for a recipe for fun and frugality, Maddie says. “I think it would be nice for people on campus to have a club that would reach out to them and show them that you can cook on a nice tight budget. It’s not as hard as people think it is!”

— Nahla Bendefaa