student meals

[mattjs895]

ok, so i've been a student now for 4 months, and well still can't cook anything good, so was wondering if anyone had any good recipes they have come across.

the best meal i have so far manged to make was a pasta with mayo and tuna, quite nice,cheap and filling

[stinkwheel]

Egg noodles are great. Cook in about five minutes.

Here's one I used to do a lot.

Get your wock. Chop and fry an onion. Take some diced turkey or chicken and brown it in the wok 'till cooked through. Throw in some sliced pepper, maybe some sliced mushroom and cook briefly (not too much or it all breaks up). Add salt and pepper.

Now bung in a can of campbells condensed soup (mushroom or chicken, one can per four people roughly). Bring to the boil and serve on a bed of egg noodle. Add a dash of sesame oil to the noodles for extra flavour or some toasted sesame seeds.

You can have this on the table in 20 minutes flat

Or hows about this:
Lumps of chicken (thighs or breasts). Arrange them in the bottom of a lightly oiled caserole dish.

Now mix up some madras curry powder (say three dessert spoons), about six dessert spoons of granulated sugar and a tablespoon of oil in a jug. Mix in vinegar until it forms a thinish paste and coat the chicken with it.

Cover it with tinfoil and bung it in the oven at about 200 degrees until done (stab the meat with a skewer at the thickest part, if the juice runs clear, it's done). Take the foil off for the last 10 minutes so the meat browns and goes crispy and glazed. Serve on rice.

I always buy basmati rice, you can't really go wrong with it unless it boils dry. Simply bung a handful per person in a pan of boiling water, give it a stir and boil for 20 minutes. Give it a stir occasionally to stop it sticking together. Check it's done by testing a piece between your teeth (should be soft right through). When its done, drain in a collander, pour a kettle of boiling water over it and serve.

Or sausage casserole (serves four and not really a casserole, but what the hell). Fry a chopped onion and some sausages in a deepish pan. While youre doing this, put some chopped tatties on to part-boil. Chop up the sausages, bung in a can of plum tomatoes, a can of value beans (use value beans, more sauce in them) and a drained can of red kidney beans. Stir it all up and bring to the boil. Chuck in your part-cooked tatties and simmer, stirring occasionally until the sauce goes thick. Add a big squirt of brown sauce for added flavour. Marjoram or oregano can't go wrong in tomato-based dishes.

[Simple]

poach an egg, toast some bread, get soem brown sauce... = mmm runny yolk'd eggy toasted sarnie.. excellent.

House mate keeps eating pasta in white sauce.. looks so bland.

Bean on toast is ace too, esp when it's 4 tins for 99p
or those batchelors 'pasta n sauce' which are usually on offer BOGOF

I just had scrambled eggs, the eggs I liberated from the farm before I left. The brown sauce was rescued from flat mate's cupboard
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[Harold_Shand]

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[Simple]

[TheShaggyDA]

Seeing as students are all poor, how about something nice and cheap?

https://www.kurtsaxon.com/foods002.htm
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[angryjonny]

1 x can of chopped tomatoes
1 x any vegetable

= an acceptable pasta sauce

</armando iannucci>

[techierob]

easiest way to start is to just buy one of those packets of stuff from the supermarket and follow the directions. Pasta bakes, fried noodles, spaghetti bolognese, macaroni cheese, fried rice, stews, caseroles and chilli con carne are fairly simple (but tough to wash up after). Just keep some fresh onions, veggie stock cubes and tabasco sauce handy. Oh, and rice cookers save a lot of hassle - I think ikea still sell them for 15 quid.

Failing that, pot noodles and beans on toast are the way to go

[Annabella]

[numark1]

I'm such a shit cook. Only managed the first term because i get other people to cook for me. I tried pasta a few times and fucked it and a shepards pie which wasn't actually too bad.

All else fails eat supernoodles - i can just about make them

[carvell]

The jars you can get of curry and bolognaise etc. are fairly cheap and very easy.

Just brown some mince/cook some chicken, chuck the jar in, leave for 20mins and you're done. Have some rice on the go at the same time and you've got a meal.
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[JonB]

El de paso or Supermarket equivalent fajita kits are absolutely immense, all you have to is buy the chicken, peppers and onions. It is not the cheapest meal.

Stick it all in the pan and make some lovely fajitas, they are tasty and you have a great laugh when your mouth is on fire afterwards.

Fortunately me and my girlfriend have quite a lot of experience cooking, inc an A level in Food technology, so as students we don't really struggle with cooking.
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[JodieWodie]

Argh..my memories of being a student were dreadful

I was skint as skint can be. I had £25 a week to pay elec, books, bus travel and food. It was a nightmare


At weekends, I slept until about 3pm, got up... ate a tin of beans, and went back to sleep. The warmest and cheapest way to survive the hours!
Occasionally I would 'just visit' my Auntie, and get a free curry as they use to booze it up and have a curry on a Saturday

If I were to cook and get some veg down me it would be a stew. Albeit it a watery one
A few cheap veggies, stock cube, bit o' gravy, cheap cuts of meat, (as I find chicken is quite expensive)
Boil it al up. Yum
I also used to make a few dumplings, (cheap to throw together). these bulked the meal up, and stuck a bit of fat to mi' ribs

At present on 'poor days' we have some pasta with those dolmio stir-in sauces. Nice bit of garlic bread. Job done. That would cost you about £2. And very quick and easy too.
Also in Tesco you can buy tins of chicken in white sauce for £1.60, (they are nice, trust me). Nice pile of rice. Lovely. And a tin would do you twice! Two meals for £2. You could also bung some sweetcorn into the chicken too. Added colour and veg!

JO x
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[angryjonny]

Hyeh - back in my student days the supermarkets were battling it out over baked bean prices. They were 3p a can at one point. I also used to get Asda's own brand super noodles for 11p a pack if I was feeling a bit flash.

[JonB]

I remember when baked beans were -1p. But you were limited to like 10 cans per purchase, so you would be 10p better off.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Rookie]

Spaghetti bolognese is very easy and quick, and you could do 3 or 4 servings on £5, and this is from my local Spar-a-like, so not the cheapest.

Fresh beef mince: £2.69
Dolmio/Ragu: £1.69
Onion: 7p
Spaghetti: 99p

You can lower the cost by buying onions, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and/or frozen mince. But the cheaper you go, the worse it gets, with the mince (in my experience). Frozen mince turns to powder in bolognese. And if you're doing a proper one instead of Dolmio add butter, milk, garlic, paprika, oregano and mixed herbs.

You can make it interesting by using those ultra thin noodles, mixing them in, and boshing it in the oven for 10 minutes with grated cheese on top. Makes a brilliant pasta bake.

Another one I'm a fan of is steak sandwiches. I got about 2 1/2 pounds of pretty decent rump steak for a fiver at the local market, add in the cost of bread, butter and sauce and I ate for 3 days for about £7. And there's nothing better than lording it up over the other blockmates eating steak all day while they eat beans.

Gives you rotten guts though.

[numark1]

[Simple]

[angryjonny]

[JonB]

I disagree, I eat beans quite often and I can tell the difference between Heinz, Branston, Stores own brand and value.

I can tell you Branston beans are the best.
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[angryjonny]

I guess I'm not destined to become a bean connoisseur then.


Speaking of connoisseurs, wine is something I think it is worth paying a lot for, simply because of the duty on it. Duty on wine is a fixed amount, so the more you spend the less of it is duty as a percentage.

For example, buy a bottle of wine at 3.99 and only about 65p of that pays for the wine itself. The rest is duty, store markup and VAT. You don't get good wine for 65p. Now pay 7.99 for a bottle and £3 of that goes on the wine itself. So you're getting almost 5 times the value of wine for twice the price.

[Rookie]

[TheDonUK]

As said spaghetti bolognaise has been our staple in the halls (my recipe is secret),but when me and the lads get organised we take it turns to cook for the rest, if you dont cook you wash up... Can feed alot for very little... Mince + Dolmio/Ragu + Pasta.

We have a weekly fruit + veg market on campus, very cheap and good quality, so i usually have satsumas, bananas and apples to munch on,

If after something more substantial, a good cheese on toast with Lea and Perrines usually does the trick

[Simple]