Calling all Self Catered University students

[Lopsided Weener]

Care to share some recipes that keep you guys alive while away from home? I've been at uni for a couple of weeks now and am looking for some new ideas of what to cook, and any tips and tricks out there to make fast, cheap food.

I've been living off a diet of pasta, potatoes, beans and sausages pretty much (not all at the same time). Chopping up some potatoes into thin strips and frying them in a pan, essentially making homemade chips is a favourite of mine. Simple, cheap, and quick to do, but boring after a while.

So Escapist, what ya got cooking? I'm open for any suggestions. =D

 

[MightyRabbit]

Learn to love omelettes. Takes less that 5 minutes. Oh, and instant noodles are a must.

 

[TimeLord]

All you have to do is take a cup of flour,
Add it to the mix.
Now just take a little something sweet, not sour,
A bit of salt, just a pinch.
Baking these treats is such a cinch,
Add a teaspoon of vanilla,
Add a little more, and you count to four
And you never get your fill of? Cupcakes!

OT: I normally survive on peanut butter sandwiches and lasagne when away from home. Macaroni is also hilariously easy to make.

 

[not_you]

If you want something simple to make, and cleans out the fridge of leftovers...

Just grab one of those pasta & sauce mixes... cook that, then in the last 5 minutes of "simmer" time throw in anything you have lying around....
canned tuna, sausage, cheese, egg, salami, pepperoni, ham... anything!
It's like the subway experience... Soo many flavours it's hard to pick just one...

Although what that has to do with potatoes I don't know... You can put beans in, I guess... I was never one for vegetables...

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Been some time since I was there, but Baked Potatoes are dirt cheap, contain most of your vitamins and enough carbs to keep you going through the day. Little butter/cheese and you've got a meal.

Check out your local Supermarkets Value brands for the ones you can stomach. Bread and Crisps are never worth value, but Beans and other things usually are.

Learn to cook a decent meal. A good veg/pasta based dish tastes good, fills you up and doesn't bloat you out.

Slow cooker and cheap cuts are a good plan, but you'll need a lot of people (or a deepfreeze) to make it worthwhile.

Ramen/Instant noodles are essentials.

NEVER leave ANYTHING alone in the kitchen for any time. Especially decent things, as they WILL go missing.

Student Discount only works in the more expensive shops - and charity shops are a wardrobe saver.

Find your local "The Works" store for books. (*ahem* plug *ahem*) There's almost always a Student Cookbook in there for about £2.

Oh, and practice a really good meal. +10 points for any seduction.

There's also the Pizza Deal. Check round all of your local Pizza Places for their best deal. Get it once a month in HUGE amounts, and then spend the next two days eating that.

Pizza Hut do a BOGOF. Getting a Large one is 20 Slices of Pizza for £15.

 

[Sam Warrior]

Risotto basically rice gravy and any meat + vedge you have laying around

 

[an_luas]

As I call it I once made a "what the hell is in it pasta?" Only made it once but it consisted of diced lamb, penne pasta, pesto sauce, sweet chili sauce and some mushrooms.
It turned out pretty nice actually

 

[SovietPanda]

Polenta!! stick it with potato and pasta on your list of cheap and belly filling starches... take 4 parts boiling water, and 1 part Polenta, a knob of butter, a spinkle of salt and pepper maybe some cayenne aswell and stir on a low heat for bout 5 minutes add some grated cheese, your polenta should be quite thick by now and its a great substitute for mashed potato.

But heres where the magic starts, any left overs from one meal, put into a tray in the fridge, the next day you cut it into chips and fry it.

Used to have about 4 polenta meals a week when i was a piss poor apprentice.

 

[Nami nom noms]

risotto is easy but time consuming, but basically anything good takes a bit of time. At most I'll cook for about 1hour and a half for really big meals. I always favour a nice sunday roast personally. Get someone to go halfers on whole chicken, roast it with some veg and so forth and itll make the week so much better, or, for the price of 2 pints a week you could get one in yourself, and the meat will keep you going most of the week in sandwiches and currys and so forth.

bags of frozen veg are an amazing and cheap way to get a good range of nutrition, and far quicker to cook/prepare.

jacket potatos and instant noodles can be changed for variety and make great dinners.
avoid eating out to save money, plus with practice cooking you'll get really good anyway, save time, save money, and be much healthier for it.

 

[JohnDoey]

Some thin spaghetti boil, cut up some potatoes in a pan with sausages with a cheap chili sauce cook on medium for bout 12 min add the spaghetti to the pan and your good.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Behold!

The Super Noodle Sandwich!


Easy to make, dirt cheap, and very filling.

 

[JohnDoey]

Cabbage and beef is all ways cheap a good, just get a small piece of beef cut into strips or chunks season with seasoned salt and whatever else you have put in large pot and cook on med when its half done get your cabbage cut in two store one dice the other put it in the pot min few mins later beef and cabbage stew.

 

[Benny Blanco]

Lesson #1 The value of condiments and combinations.

Any cheap foodstuff can be made a dozen times more interesting by the inclusion of interesting flavours.

For instance: Baked Beans on Toast is a staple, albeit dull meal.

Add Tabasco, Worcestershire Sauce & mixed herbs to the pan while cooking. Pour over the toast and add grated cheese. Voila! Benny's Bourgeois Beans!

Lesson #2 Your freezer is your friend.

Make an epic amount of pasta sauce, chili con carne or another favourite dish and freeze it in portion-sized tupperware containers. This way you can reheat a meal in the microwave when you don't have the time or energy to make it.

Lesson #3 Find a good cheap source of fresh fruit and vegetables.

I noticed you're in the UK, like me. Try buying fruit and vegetables at a market stall instead of a supermarket. You'll usually get them cheaper and they'll often be better quality. Also try going at different times- your status as a student means you'll be able to get to the market at times when others can't and this can result in bargains when prices get slashed to clear stock.

Lesson #4 Establish a strong foundation and build on it.

Do you know how to cook? Do you know how to cook anything?

Build a restaurant-style menu of your favourite dishes. Practice each until you have about 6-10 signature dishes that you can cook well. Not "edible", "well".

Remember, you will ideally be eating every day of your life and with the economy as fucked as it is right now, you should probably not be relying on making enough to have a personal chef or even eating out on a daily basis. Cooking is a life skill.

Moreover, good cooks make more friends and are scientifically proven* to be more likely to get laid, all other things being equal. Just thought I'd mention that.

Lesson #5 Ensure that you have certain versatile ingredients in your cupboard at all times

You should never run out of certain things, because they are so widely used in cooking that their absence will severely restrict your ability to do anything.

-Canned tomatoes
-Salt & Pepper
-Onions
-Garlic (Fresh, Powdered, Paste or Puree, doesn't really matter)
-Mixed Herbs (or at least oregano)
-Dried Pasta
-Cheddar Cheese
-Chili (again, I don't think it matters so much whether it's fresh or processed as long as you have some)
-Marmite (good as a spread but also makes a good stock/gravy at a pinch)

Also, make sure you have the following staples in stock, but remember that they all go off inside a fortnight.

Bread
Milk
Eggs

*Scientifically proven in this case refers to observations based on a large sample of women presented with delicious food. Results not guaranteed.

 

[GiantRaven]

Pizza Hut do a BOGOF. Getting a Large one is 20 Slices of Pizza for £15.

Pfft. Most takeaways do a 'buy one get one free' deal on their pizzas and they're much cheaper than Pizza Hut.

 

[Esotera]

Mix some flour, milk, and eggs, fry them, and you have instant pancakes. After that you can put pretty much whatever you want on it (peanut butter, chocolate spread, ham & cheese, etc). Really good drinking food as well.

 

[devotedsniper]

I do a good curry, it's simple enough, chicken breast, pepper x1 (1 pepper should be enough for around 3 ppl (i have 2 housemates)), 1 onion, a stir fry pack (mushroom one from tesco, any will do really though), curry sauce then all you have to do is as follows;

cook chicken in wok till white (frying pan also works), add peppers/onions, 2-3 mins later add the stir fry pack, 5mins later add curry then let it simmer (not bubbling alot, the odd bubble in places is fine) till the rice is done (boil in a bag stuff, 20mins so should be almost done when you finished the rest.

For the best results marinate the chicken in lee and perrins worchestershire sauce, bit of soy sauce, herbs (mixed will do), salt and pepper for at least 2 hours. You can do the same for the onion and pepper in a seperate bowl if you wish (i usually do), and enjoy!.

If you want easier then spag bol!, brown the beef (or whatever meat you choose), add spag bol saunce (along with lee and perrins, salt, pepper, herbs etc.), leave it simmering away until the pasta is done (boil for 20min's), only stirring every now and then to stop it burning.

Those 2 meals my housemates and me loved, oh! and pasta bake is great too! (buy a pasta bake pot, it will tell you what to do, although we always added chopped sausages in there too).

Who'd have thought it an IT student who never cooked before became the master cook of the house lol.

 

[Crises^]

cheap and healthy and quick is a tuna melt all you need is slice of bread tuna a bit of black pepper and some cheese put under grill for like 1-2 mins done.
Alos porridge for breakfast

And dinner fishfingers are cheap and healthy.

make your own sauces if you want italian or curry its healthier and cheaper(well depends)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Pizza Hut do a BOGOF. Getting a Large one is 20 Slices of Pizza for £15.

Pfft. Most takeaways do a 'buy one get one free' deal on their pizzas and they're much cheaper than Pizza Hut.

Yeah, but I like Pizza Hut, and I know their ingredients aren't Value ones

They used to do a BOGOF on 22 inch pizzas. Now that was heaven.

 

[Zepren]

I lived on pasta bakes in college as the supermarket near my flat always had the sauce on special. I second the super-noodle sandwich mentioned above. You dont have to be a student to enjoy on though. that's gonna be my lunch

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Care to share some recipes that keep you guys alive while away from home? I've been at uni for a couple of weeks now and am looking for some new ideas of what to cook, and any tips and tricks out there to make fast, cheap food.

I've been living off a diet of pasta, potatoes, beans and sausages pretty much (not all at the same time). Chopping up some potatoes into thin strips and frying them in a pan, essentially making homemade chips is a favourite of mine. Simple, cheap, and quick to do, but boring after a while.

So Escapist, what ya got cooking? I'm open for any suggestions. =D

well i see your in the UK so i can't quiet tell you outside of the grocery store on what to get.

personally i love carrots and potatoes, so what i do is i buy a bag of potatoes and carrots, use a peeler to get off the potato skin and the first layer of carrot, and then dice em up and put in em a roaster pan, while adding in a bit of onion soup mix (also cheap), let that sit in the oven for a few hours while your doing hw or whatever and *tada*, you got yourself a delicious and healthy meal, plus lots of leftovers (i usually make enough to feed myself 3 times to the max), and they heat up real fast when you put em in the fridge for leftovers so that's another perk.

i don't have many other suggestions since alot of stuff i eat is very "americanized".