easy cooking (for college)

Some ideas for a inexpensive dishes that will leave you with good leftovers:

Basic roasted chicken--coat the bird with cracked pepper and paprika, then roast at 400 until done (75-90 mins for a 4 lb bird). Cooking cut up pieces take a little less time. If you're in the mood, throw some 1" chunks of potato and onion in the roasting pan and spray them with olive oil.

Chili--there are lots of recipes on-line for chili with beef or ground turkey

Lasagna w/ ricotta, mozzarella, and spinach; you could also add cooked ground beef or sausage, but it's not necessary. A good shortcut to know is that you don't need to precook the pasta sheets. Just spray a pan with olive oil, then layer up the pasta, cheese, sauce, cooked veggies, and back at 350 until the whole thing bubbles.

don't forget spaghetti. all you need is a jar of sauce and some dried pasta.

been doing this a couple of years...basically, just go to the supermarket/costco and buy whatever type of meat you like and grill it with whatever type of marinade you like...(get a grill pan). Not too difficult, and you don't end up eating pasta everyday (though that is the easiest thing)

Speaking of pasta, I hear that there are ramen cookbooks out there (though I haven't looked through them myself). Might be worth checking out.

Get a slow cooker, and either search the internet for recipes, or pick up the Company's Coming cookbook on slow cooking.

It was my staple food in college. (And it still is, although I've started adding mushrooms now.)

Rice and beans are your friends. Just put a cup of rice, 1/4 of beans, some strips of chicken into a pot and you're good to go.

I find it's best to stick to non-perishables, since getting to the store may be tough, and schedules can be variable, leading to spoilage.

There's a book called A Man, A Can, and A Plan: http://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-G.../dp/1579546072

It shows you how to make meals using mostly canned ingredients.
Canned vegetables can be gross, but substitute frozen, and you'll be alright.

For a snack, I love peanut butter, banana and granola sandwiches. They fill you up, are relatively cheap, and are a good break from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Cheese on toast. Yum.

As soon as I went to college I basically stopped eating vegetables. Not that I ate tons before, but my diet was basically processed meats, tons of carbs (pasta, ramen, rice, cereal), and alcohol. Not good. Then my roommate got a recipe for minestrone and we started making a huge batch once a week using lots of vegetables and canned beans. We froze a couple of servings from each batch and basically had healthy, yummy soup available for a whole week. Changed up the vegetables and beans every week to keep it interesting.

To be honest, OP, your original recipe doesn't sound too appetizing. Pick up a decent used cookbook on amazon and you'll be in good shape. There's tons that are aimed at college students for around 10 bucks.

Yes, the variations never end. Add mushrooms, peppers, meatballs, etc, either separately or together.

In college I lived off 2 things:

1) Mac and Cheese (microwavable of course)
2) tuna

For four:

600gr sliced chicken,
200ml Red pesto,
100ml cream
Wild mushrooms and/or some veggies you like
Rice or pasta.

Takes like 10 minutes and tastes pretty good .