Cheap College Food recipes?

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Lice

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Well im off to college and the time has come that most men fear, cooking. I know alot of you are in college or where and i was wondering if any of you had some favorite things you made that where cheap and easy. Maybe some recipes to share with the rest of us Cag's going off to college this fall...

I know there has to be some great ones like deep fried pizza... or spaghetti popsicles... :drool:
 
men afraid of cooking??????????????????? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't mind cooking........I make a tasty creamy Fettichini Alfrado :)

Its washing those damned pots and pans thats a pain :(
 
You should be able to easily survive 4 or more years of college eating nothing but pizza, mac & cheese, ramen noodles and taco bell and drinking nothing but beer (black label was $4 per case).
 
I thought most men feared anal rape and getting hit in the apple sack .. not cooking. And I found the only nourishment that's needed in college is liquid bread (with the occasional drunken pizza binge).
 
[quote name='javeryh']You should be able to easily survive 4 or more years of college eating nothing but pizza, mac & cheese, ramen noodles and taco bell and drinking nothing but beer (black label was $4 per case).[/QUOTE]

word

you'll be sick of them and probably never truly enjoy those foods again in your adult life, but that's how most people get down

family packs of cheap lunch meat/hot dogs work too
 
if you want to be truly cheap it's ramen noodles all the way..... this is what my husband did as i tonly takes a microwave........ but the key thing to make it tolerable is you can really kick them up.... use spagetti sauce instead of the seasoning packet.. alsmost like pasta... hubby also liked adding tuna or cheese or beans and chillipowder..........

it's all about what you like, and it doesn't get any cheapaer than 12 cents for the noodles

those totino pizzas are really cheap too but foryour cheapness knowing the average college guy you would prob be able to eat the whole thing and still be hungry.
 
One cheap food is canned chicken noodle soup, and put a can of mixed vegitables in when it is heating. Both foods can be kept on shelf for long time, and only one pan to clean up (if one eats the soup out of the pan)

Another good one is frozen burritoes. you can usually get 20 packs for about $5. if you can afford sour creme, that is good to have also.

Lastly, pasta. this is a mainstay, espcially easy if you are off campus. (in a dorm it makes a lot of steam, to it may be better for after graduation.) however, it is by far the cheapest food that one can eat lots of. (also hot dogs, for protein.) one can pour a bit of sauce on the pasta directly from the fridge, and the spagetti has enough heat so heating the sause separately is not necessaary (and saves dishes).

staying with the off campus mode, it is fairly cheap to get a lot of hamburger, shape the hamburgers with syran wrap (i know it is misspelled), and freeze them. they can last about 3 weeks in the freezer, and needs only one day to defrost. (also good for an occasional protein fix.)
 
Just browse some recipe sites like AllRecipes.com for instance. Really, people really do try to submit some of the easiest methods of completing a recipe. You can find some nice tasty stuff that'll only take a few bucks and 15-20 minutes in the kitchen. So if you want chicken one night, buy some frozen breasts and then find yourself a simple recipe that uses them - you can find a simple recipe for whatever cornerstone of a meal you want to find.

Or if you don't want to take that route, the answer is simple: Taco Bell. Nightly. Enchirito Tuesdays and Border Bowl Fridays should become a rule if you don't cook.
 
In case you want to impress a girl. . .

Easy chicken recipe-

Need boneless skinless chicken breast
tin foil roll
owen
BBQ Beans
Cheddar Cheese

Pre Heat oven to 425 F
Cut foil into squares, and fold down the middle to make a triangle. Open back up
put a spoonful of BBQ beans in the middle of the square
put a frozen chicken breast on top of beans
add more beans
fold up foil around chicken so that it will not leak
put chicken in oven for 45 minutes
Add cheddar cheese on top

if you want to spice it up add onions, green pepper, pepperjack cheese, whatever you want really.

OR

Frozen cheese ravioli

boil water, and drop ravioli in pot. The ravioli is done cooking when it floats.
Add tomato sauce

Also I found that a rice cooker can quickly make a meal. IE Rice, steamed vegatables in about the same time as ramon.

Good Luck!
 
Ramen will be your best friend for the next few years :) back in 1999, a local grocery store sold them for like 5 cents a PACK :whistle2:O

Gotta becareful though........ sometimes these little black insects grow inside of the packet :( I have NO IDEA WTF these things are, but when I see them, I dump the packet.
 
Learn how to cook rice, beans, and heat up tortillas, make yourself burritos.
Buy ramen noodles. (not cup of noodles)
Buy cheap cereal, (I find that albertsons usually has the best deals)
Buy nonfat milk (around here, it's 2 gallons for 3.50)
Frozen vegetables are your friends (especially for stir-frys
That's all I got.
 
I had my fair share of ramen, mac & cheese, and frozen foods in college. When my friends were particularly lazy, they lived off cereal.

Quesadillas are super easy to make. I used to cook a bunch of shredded chicken breasts ahead of time and store it tupperware. Then I'd eat chicken quesadillas for days.

Edited to add: And being Asian, I of course had a rice cooker. Aside from real food, you can eat all sorts of canned foods w/rice (tuna, spam, etc.).
 
A few simple ideas:

Homemade MAc & Cheese - Take a box a elbow noodles, 4 OZ bag of cheese, some flour, butter and milk. Combine and you have Mac & Cheese for a week.

Frozen Ravioli, those are great. You can make a half-assed lasagna with those too. Just brown some meat, layer with cheese and pasta sauce and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes with foil covereing it.

Hot Dogs are cheap too.
 
[quote name='gweenpea']In case you want to impress a girl. . .

Easy chicken recipe-

Need boneless skinless chicken breast
tin foil roll
owen
BBQ Beans
Cheddar Cheese

Pre Heat oven to 425 F
Cut foil into squares, and fold down the middle to make a triangle. Open back up
put a spoonful of BBQ beans in the middle of the square
put a frozen chicken breast on top of beans
add more beans
fold up foil around chicken so that it will not leak
put chicken in oven for 45 minutes
Add cheddar cheese on top

if you want to spice it up add onions, green pepper, pepperjack cheese, whatever you want really.

![/QUOTE]

hard to pull off in a dorm room....
 
Are you going to be in a dorm or in an apartment? EKU had a rule that if you lived within a certain mile radius to the campus for at least 6 months, then you didn't have to be in a dorm.

You can't beat the above suggestions on food because that's honestly the way to go. A few little tips I did learn while dorming it though, since most campuses won't let you have a open heat source like candles or grills in the dorms:

A clothes iron is great for grilling sandwiches... just be sure to put a paper towel between the bread and the iron so that the bread doesn't stick to the iron. And go easy on the butter if you plan on using the iron for clothes too (which I never did, just fold or hang straight from the dryer!)

My roommate and I got around the grill rule by buying a box of cheap Wal-Mart bottled water (the solid cardboard box), emptying it, and cutting the bottom out. If you're paranoid about the handhold openings, saw a bottle in half and split it down the middle, then tape to the two upper halves inside the hold to make it look like bottles are still in there. We had a Small George Foreman Grill that sat on his desk in plain view and just covered it with the box when not in use. The Residence Hall Monitors can't move or open stuff when they do their rounds unless they have the police present, so DON'T give them a reason and you are golden! This is also the best way to make hot pockets; hot flaky crusts and gooey, cheesy insides. Yum!
 
I'm pretty burnt on ramen meself but, if you must do it, and cheap is the theme try it this way. I'm a firm believer that if you are eating shit food, you're going to feel like crap. My friends refer to it as gourmet ramen, and really, it's not much more expensive and a lot more healthy this way.

Get the water to a boil... throw in about half of the seasoning packet. Chop up about a quarter of an onion and a clove or two of garlic. Dash of cayenne if you have. Throw in some broccoli, onions, garlic, chopped carrot, whatever you like.. Boil that for a few minutes and then throw in your noodles.

Other good things to add:

Edamame
Drop an egg in and stir it quickly near the last minute of cooking. This is delicious.
Keep a bag of shrimp in your freezer and throw in five or six.

Broccoli, eggs, onions, garlic and carrots all keep for a long time in your fridge. A month or so. And they are all extremely cheap.

So now you have no excuse for subsisting on paltry ramen ever again!
 
True, but OP didn't mention wheere he was living so I threw it in there. If you are stuck in a dorm hot plate and the frozen ravioli. Being in a Dorm usually shrinks your choices to pre packaged junk food.

For Dorm cooking
You can use an Clothes IRON to make grilled cheese sandwiches. It isn't that bad. Just don't use iron on clothing after. (EVER)

For Apartment cooking
Chicken fajitas are real easy too.
Thaw chicken in 1 part lime juice 1 part lemon (make enough to cover chicken) in refrigerator during the day
cut up onions and green pepper and chicken (some stores seel a fajita veggie mix if you are real lazy)
cook in a skillet for ten minutes, and serve with tortillas and all the fixings.

The Lime juice is a must as it makes them smell great when it is cooking.

hell I should write a cook book. CheapA$$ Cooking. I will give CheapyD a cut of the profits. . .

[quote name='PKRipp3r']hard to pull off in a dorm room....[/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='gweenpea']True, but OP didn't mention wheere he was living so I threw it in there. If you are stuck in a dorm hot plate and the frozen ravioli. Being in a Dorm usually shrinks your choices to pre packaged junk food.[/QUOTE]

yeah, dorm living suxxorz
 
[quote name='daria19']Some grocery stores sell rotissere chickens. Precooked, meat for several meals for $6 or so.[/QUOTE]

he has a point... that one 6 dollar rotissere chicken could last you a few days if you know what to do with it vs 3-6 bucks every day at MCD.
 
woah answer explosion... Thank you all for the info. Im actually going to cut and paste most of it to make a list and pin it to the fridge

And i apologize for not being specific but yes i will be in an apartment.

Some of these are great! I love the idea of takin ramen and upgrading it with fresh vegtables...

Thank you all once again!
 
[quote name='Lice']Some of these are great! I love the idea of takin ramen and upgrading it with fresh vegtables...[/QUOTE]

Agreed, I wanna try that out, too.
 
:cry:

Lice officially moved out today. Helped him move all day.

I'm an only child now.

:cry:

He wont be on CAG now. Because he doesnt have internet and wont get it for a long time.

:cry:

Im so lonely.
 
Ramen

My friends used to buy spaghetti sauce (like Ragu...yeah, I prefer to make fresh sauce but you can't be too picky in college) and pour those onto ramen noodles. I thought it was gross but it was a nice change for them.
 
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