Cheap Meals for College Kids

[Edward Appleby]

Eggs are good and really easy, though you can get sick of them.

I read an article that said that Chicago has one of the highest concentrations of Mexican restaurants in the U.S. Find a good cheap taqueria.

Quesadillas are a very good thing to make at home, because you can put so many different things in them in addition to the cheese: chicken (those grilled chicken strips for sandwiches are good but more expensive if you're too lazy to cook some), peppers, shredded pork, onions etc.

Do you have a blender? If so smoothies are your friend. Just buy a bunch of different kinds of frozen fruit.

Also I would invest in a foreman or somesuch device. Grilled sandwiches are so much more satisfying than the same thing not grilled.

Baked potatoes are also easy, but taters always go off before you finish them.

Basically just focus on stuff you can freeze, it's usually the most cost effective, plus you don't have to go through throwing out food that went bad (I *hate* doing this, feels like completely burning money just because I ******* forgot about something.) Depending on how much freezer space you have, it might be worth going to Costco/Sams. Just don't buy massive bags of Gardettos and snack-size Snickers like I always end up doing.

 

[Silverback]

OK, I buy wheat burrito tortillas and some pre-shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

This is like a base for a fakadillas or fake quesadillas. Spread the tortilla out and spread some cheese on it and fold. Now you can just nuke it or heat it in a skillet. Viola! Now you can get fancy and throw some chopped onion, salsa, veggies, cooked meats in there.....whatever. These are great.

Grilled cheese is cheap and easy. Also eggs can be cheap and easy to make including fried egg sammiches.

Sales are your friend. I rarely decide what I am going to make I find what is fresh and often on sale and do that.

I read your thing and it does not look like you have a microwave but if you do buy some whole Idaho potatoes and clean them. Poke it with a fork all around and then stuff one at a time into the microwave for 10-15 minutes. You will work that out. You can do the same with sweet potatoes and yams! Top how you wish. Yum!

Advanced classes can do the same with a whole butternut squash but I use a knife instead of a fork to puncture these suckers! I love these with a little butter/margarine and maybe some brown sugar if you want to go bonkers. Butternut squash is butt cheap when in season. I love veggies.

I got lots more if you want. Those are good starts I think.

 

[Silverback]

Originally Posted by Edward Appleby

Eggs are good and really easy, though you can get sick of them.

I read an article that said that Chicago has one of the highest concentrations of Mexican restaurants in the U.S. Find a good cheap taqueria.

Quesadillas are a very good thing to make at home, because you can put so many different things in them in addition to the cheese: chicken (those grilled chicken strips for sandwiches are good but more expensive if you're too lazy to cook some), peppers, shredded pork, onions etc.

Do you have a blender? If so smoothies are your friend. Just buy a bunch of different kinds of frozen fruit.

Also I would invest in a foreman or somesuch device. Grilled sandwiches are so much more satisfying than the same thing not grilled.

Baked potatoes are also easy, but taters always go off before you finish them.

Basically just focus on stuff you can freeze, it's usually the most cost effective, plus you don't have to go through throwing out food that went bad (I *hate* doing this, feels like completely burning money just because I ******* forgot about something.) Depending on how much freezer space you have, it might be worth going to Costco/Sams. Just don't buy massive bags of Gardettos and snack-size Snickers like I always end up doing.
You beat me to everything.

 

[Milhouse]

In the fall and winter, I often do the one pot Sunday dinner thing (a habit that started when I was a student).

Pick something that is a soup, stew, etc and really hearty. Chili, beef stew, jambalaya, curry, etc. Bulk these things up by getting bags of mixed frozen veggies and adding those to the mix.

Make a big pot of it on Sunday, and then package up the leftovers and eat that for dinner thru the week. All you need to do is make up fresh rice or something each day (or don't, make a big pot of rice on Sunday and then microwave it with your leftovers)

Another cheap way to go is to look for the stuff no one else eats. Chicken wings, liver, chicken gizzards and hearts, really tough cuts of pork or beef, etc are all tasty.

Get a family pack of chicken wings, break it down into half dozen or dozen packages and freeze them. Then coat them in bbq sauce or something and grill them. Or make soup with them.

Get a bunch of chicken organs and make dirty rice.

Make bbq pulled pork from a pork shoulder.

Sometimes if you watch for sales (especially around the holidays) you can buy a whole ham for a hell of a bargain. Cook that on a Sunday, slice the whole thing into sandwich slices and have ham sandwiches for a week. There are plenty of other pig parts that are cheap and delicious too.

A good idea is to get a crock pot and a crock pot cookbook.

 

[Silverback]

Originally Posted by Milhouse

Another cheap way to go is to look for the stuff no one else eats. Chicken wings, liver, chicken gizzards and hearts, really tough cuts of pork or beef, etc are all tasty.
Chicken wings are expensive now but if you can get them cheap they are awesome!

 

[Milhouse]

I forgot one of my favorites: tripe!!!!

Get some good tripe (I like the beef honeycomb part a lot) and make various tripe soups. Lots of cultures have a tripe soup and it is always cheap and delicious! It seems that whenever you can find poor people, the food ends up being absolutely delicious. Necessity is the mother of invention I guess.

Anyway, menudo is a Mexican tripe soup that you could start with. Mondongo is another tripe soup made in many parts of Latin America.

 

[Milhouse]

Originally Posted by Silverback

Chicken wings are expensive now but if you can get them cheap they are awesome!

Yeah, the hot wing places ruined the price of chicken wings.

Briskets and pork shoulders are usually still reasonable although not as cheap as they used to be. The prevalence of bbq has kind of killed the low price on that stuff.

Oh well.

 

[Silverback]

Originally Posted by Milhouse

Yeah, the hot wing places ruined the price of chicken wings.

Briskets and pork shoulders are usually still reasonable although not as cheap as they used to be. The prevalence of bbq has kind of killed the low price on that stuff.

Oh well.

Still not bad prices though!

 

[lbcgav]

A couple people already mentioned pasta carbonara. This is one of my favorite dishes, and one of the cheapest if you use bacon or a low sodium salt pork (pancetta). Obviously prosciuotto crudo would be out of the question.

When times were tight for me, I'd get whatever was on sale. Roma tomatoes were my friend. Don't skimp too much on a decent olive oil, though--make sure it's extra virgin.

Pick up some cabbage and make a coleslaw with a little onion, lemon juice, and olive oil,salt and pepper. Way better than the mayonnaise drenched crap you get everywhere.

This is a great time to try new foods and experiment. Jacques Pepin, who in my opinion is a genius and whose technique is unparalleled, has a show called "Fast Food My Way." It has a companion book that I'm sure would be perfect for what you're looking for.

 

[cheessus]

Do you live near an Asian supermarket? Go there and destroy the produce section. Some of the cheapest produce you'll ever find. Buy some sauces. Experiment with different stir fry options. I live in South Bay, and obviously these are all over the place. I've come to find many different types of vegetables and stir fry sauces. It's fun to discover good (and bad) combinations, especially when it is so cheap. Also buy some pork spareribs and chicken bones at those places to make cheap soup stock (chicken bones go for about .59/lb, spareribs 1.69-2.29/lb). The first trip is gonna cost a lot ($50), but after you get all the sauces and rice/dried noodles, you should be able to do $10/wk. Right now I spend way under $100/month on groceries.

 

[crazyquik]

What was the resolution of this thread?

Black Friday is coming up

http://www.blackfriday.info/

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by crazyquik

What was the resolution of this thread?

Black Friday is coming up

http://www.blackfriday.info/

I've been eating better, so I haven't really cooked much of what's in the thread. After class I normally come home and just have some chicken or fish and a salad. Maybe a piece of fruit. There's some great advice in this thread though. I normally roast a whole chicken on Sundays during football and that gets me through most of the week.

 

[boozingalcoholic]

I'm poor right now. I basically make chicken fried rice! It's actually super fast, easy and inexpensive!

I precook the rice. I usually buy the 15 pound bags of rice (typically, lasts an Asian family 3 months give or take). You can easily store the rice in the fridge until cook time.
1 bag of frozen peas and carrots.
I get 8 pound of chicken breasts due to the cheap bulk price (You can do dark meat, but I prefer this to stay somewhat healthy).
Onions.

Sauce
Soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine, garlic.

Basically cook everything in logically order and I promise you, it's going to taste pretty decent.

 

[SField]

For a guy with good knife skills and decent technique, you can make incredible food very cheaply.

Try some red lentils and quinoa in chicken stock with chicken thigh meat or even ground turkey. Celery/onion/carrot maybe some green pepper too. Tastes great.

Another friend of poor students is curry. You can make it with any vegetable or meat combination. The curry type mix I like to use (I do try to buy whole seeds for most spices and grind them after toasting them in the oven, but you can just buy the powered...)

- Cumin
- Corijander
- Fenugreek (surprisingly not as easy to find and the seeds are a ***** to grind down so try to find powder, but completely essential)
- Cayenne pepper or chilli powder
- Turmeric
- Ginger (fresh is better but to save time ginger powder is fine)
- Paprika (but not smoked, that kind of overpowers the dish)
- A bit of cinnamon
- Touch of ground clove

You can make a curry with some very cheap meat and eat a very tasty meal for a few dollars. It will help you work on your technique as well. You need to stop eating ramen and deli meats anyways since you've talked about losing weight and those things do nothing at all to help you. You're trying to become a ******* chef, start eating fresh.

Turkey in general is an excellent thing to use. Make meatballs with them, put a little tomato paste over them and you're good. Use that with a gluten free pasta and it's great, can be done in advance.

Chicken thighs are very inexpesnive. You can get 4 boneless/skinless ones for $3 which is a **** load of meat if you're a carnivore (about a pound). Toss them with an assortment of spices with a tiny bit of highly refined canola oil (has the best heat tolerance), sear them on each side in a pan then put them in the oven for about 7 minutes. Really delicious, tastes great.

Sweet potato, much better for you than regular potatos. Cube them, toss in a bit of oil and ciannamon and nutmeg (with a bit of salt and pepper)... absolutely delicious takes about 20 minutes or just do a lot in advance, they keep well.

You can basically eat all the stuff you see at the prepared foods counters at Whole Foods for a tenth of the price if you are not lazy. For a guy like you who should be fast with veg. prep, it should be no problem. For chicken breast, (which for a guy who is health conscious is a must), it is a bit expensive, so get them bone in with skin on. It cuts the price down a lot from boneless/skinless. Should take any cooking school student about 30 seconds maximum with a pairing knife to bone and skin it. The bone, while it does add flavour, just takes too long to cook the ******* thing.

So, there's a ton of suggestions for you. Stop eating **** like ramen and take better care of yourself. Explore with vegetables, refine your tastes at home, not just at school. With cheap cooking it's all about using great vegetables, (meat is the expensive thing), spices, and great technique. Then, you can eat like a king on pennies. I had to do this for several years as a grad student and the rich kids who still got lots of money from their parents still came and ate at my place like every night.

 

[Ludeykrus]

I gotta highly recommend a crock pot for making lasting cheap meals.

I'm pretty poor, go to school and work full time, so I'm very tight on money and time. My diet revolves around:

-Sandwiches. Salami, tomato, fried eggs, hot sauce. I use a breadmachine to make cheap, good, heavy bread.
-Omelettes. Easy to change up, delicious. Cheap.
-Chili. Make a huge crock pot of chili, freeze what you don't eat.
-Chicken and vegetable stew. I've been eating this a LOT lately. Basically, my recipe is half a bag of mixed freezer veggies, three stalks of diced celery, some chopped carrots, four largish red potatoes diced, half a large onion sautee'd in 2 Tb butter, a rock cornish game hen, a can of cream of celery, a can of cream of mushroom, various spices and garlic, a half a cup to a cup of flour mixed in to thicken, and voila! I make it when I get home from work; I chop the vegetables, skin and break off the limbs of the chicken, toss all in the crockpot, water up, and cook on low overnight. Everything cooks together and is delish. Chicken falls off the bone...and the great thing is you can toss the chicken in frozen, no thawing, and it'll cook up normally. I'm guessing I make a huge crockpot of the stuff for under ~6 bucks, and I can eat it three times a day for at least 3 or 4 days.