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sargebaldy

college cooking

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So. I'm going to be moving out soon enough and am going to need some nice fairly cheap ideas for what to make myself. I'm an expert on breakfast but could use many more lunch and dinner recipes for my repertoire. I'm pretty openminded but also kind of picky, so nothing with say, ketchup as the main ingredient. Anyone have any ideas?

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If you like fish, pollock is an excellent one to pick up since it's ludicrously cheap, goes with nearly anything, and is very easy to prepare in a variety of ways. A simple meal is to bake it with a can of condensed mushroom soup (you can do this with chicken, also). Put some paprika and pepper on it for flavoring (there's tons of salt in the soup, so that's not needed). Goes good with rice or boiled potatoes. Hell, even if you don't like fish this is a good one, since pollock doesn't exactly have an overpowering flavor.

Of course a cheap-skate classic is pasta in nearly any form. Tortellini is my favorite, since it doesn't need a fancy sauce due to the filling. If they have a Trader Joe in your area, go there and buy their tortellini (or anything else of theirs for that matter). It's a fairly cheap store with very high quality goods (lots of European imports).

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Pot noodles, Rustlers hot dogs and burgers, Tescos micro-pizzas, Mcain Microchips..thats what i plan to live on when i go to uni LOL

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Take chicken breast, dump into fryingpan, add mushroom soup and milk stir and let it cook, dump in veggies if desired. If you get a rice cooker you can cook the rice and use the left over mushroom soup sauce to put on your rice. Not exactly the quickest meal to throw together but it's pretty good tasting and relatively healthy.

Stir frying is good too. You can use teriyaki sauce or soya sauce any kinda stir fry sauce, pour it in there, dump in meat and veggies, and nuke up some rice in a rice cooker.

Sandwiches make a good lunch. Sliced ham salami etc. Only thing that sux is that cold cuts don't last too long in the fridge. So you'll always be running to the deli.

Canned tuna and chicken can be good for quick sandwiches with mayo and a little celery. Trouble is the mercury content from the cans it accumulates in your system. joy.

Then there's good 'ol junkfood. People love living off that stuff.

Best idea would be to buy stuff in bulk. Have plenty of Freezer room. And of course, don't forget the beer. Beer is good. Beer is your friend. I hope this helped somewhat, your probably looking for quick things to throw together but anyways if I think of other things I like to throw together that I can't think of at the moment I'll let you know.

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POTGIESSER said:

Best idea would be to buy stuff in bulk. Have plenty of Freezer room. And of course, don't forget the beer. Beer is good. Beer is your friend.


This guy has a mouthfull of truth.

Also, you can always get good cooking books. Some of those cooking books for kids have good, heap and easy to make meals. Can't think of nemes right now, but I'll check.

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You can usually find Hillshire Farm turkey kilbasa (low in fat and very cheap). It comes in a package big enough for two meals and costs about $1 or $1.50. Buy some cheap canned corn or green beans and you've got part of the meal. Buy a cheap bag of potatoes and you've got another side wrapped in tinfoil. Surprisingly easy to make and you get a lot of food groups covered.

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Psyonisis said:

Ramen.

Indeed. Im sure i dont have to repeat my story about 88 bowls of soup for 99 cents.

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Psyonisis said:

Ramen.


Except that one those things has enough salt to kill a horse... Not the best thing to base your diet around.

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Alright. I've been there, and nothing works better then a package of english muffins, a can of cambells tomato soup, and some cheese and hamburger.

Cut them all in half and lay them on plate. Fry hamburg with tomato soup. Put mixture on english muffin halves. Put cheese on them. Nuke. Eat. Mini Pizzas!


If you are really hungry, pasta is cheap, as is most tomato sauces.

Oh. and potatoes.. just whip them in the nuker and you get baked potatoes.

The thing we live on mostly is limpton sidekicks. Quick and nummy.

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Amaster said:

Indeed. Im sure i dont have to repeat my story about 88 bowls of soup for 99 cents.


My econo trick: make ramen. Eat the noodles... leave the jucie... make rice in juice.. eat rice..

That's only if you are really in trouble.

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Silverwyvern said:

Alright. I've been there, and nothing works better then a package of english muffins, a can of cambells tomato soup, and some cheese and hamburger.

Cut them all in half and lay them on plate. Fry hamburg with tomato soup. Put mixture on english muffin halves. Put cheese on them. Nuke. Eat. Mini Pizzas!


You could do better by getting some of that square sandwich bread, putting some chilisauce and various spices on it, and topping with ham/cheese/mushrooms/whatever. In the oven (or micro if you insist) and you've got some fairly respectable "poor man's pizzas." No cooking involved other than the oven.

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ramen noodles, i love them but even i get to a point where i will not touch them.
oddlots/biglots is a great place to get good food cheap. usally at most $2 i do this for lunch, one is next door. however i would wonder about health, those things got to be loaded with shit

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david_a said:

Except that one those things has enough salt to kill a horse... Not the best thing to base your diet around.

The flavor packets have MSG in them. If you were to get rid of that and just use the noodles with your own ingredients, they shouldn't be quite as bad.

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Heres a cheap spaghetti recipe that can keep you fed for a few days.

Buy
1 pound of ground beef
1 28 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
A bulb of garlic (no, you won't use all of it)
Basil (1 tsp)
Oregano (1 tsp)
Pepper
2 pounds of Angel hair pasta (this is about how much the sauce will go for. of course it varies by how much sauce you add per serving)


Preparation
Take 2 cloves of garlic (you can use more if you really like garlic) and chop them. Throw them and the beef in a pot and brown. When the meat is evenly brown on all sides (about 7-10 mins) bring the pot slightly off the burner so one edge of it rests on the top of the stove (tilting it). Push all the meat and garlic on to the upper side. Use paper towels to soak up the grease.

Put the pot back on the burner. Add the crushed tomatos and the tomato sauce. Grind in seven turns of pepper (if you use a shaker put in what looks like a visually good amount, it isnt really critical) Add 1 tsp each of basil and oregano. stir and bring the sauce to a boil.

When it start boiling put the heat to low. make sure that even when its low that the sauce is still bubbling. let it simmer like this for 30-45 min.

When the sauce is going to be ready make as much pasta as you think you will eat at that sitting.

Storage
When your done put some saran wrap on the pot and put it in the refrigerator.

Reheating
When you want to reheat the sauce take as much as you think you will need and PUT IT IN A SMALLER SAUCEPAN. reheating the sauce over and over again will make it taste like shit. taking it out to reheat preserves the flavor.




I probably made the recipe seem complicated but it is really simplicity in itself. make it once and you'll be able to do it by heart. Its good eating, keeps well, and the ingredients can be adjusted a bit for your preferences.

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heh, that's really close to the spaghetti recipe I already know (I had my mom show me how she did hers). I guess that's more the kind of thing I'm looking for, some real food that takes some time to make but isn't all that expensive. Mini pizzas I really like too though I use a slightly different recipe. Ramen.. doesn't really fill me up.. and I don't care for the taste, so it doesn't do me much good. Judging by what everyone else is eating I'm feeling more comfortable already in my cooking abilities :P

Does anyone maybe know any good Mexican recipes? All I can make is quesadillas and burritos, and I haven't even learned to make the tortillas by hand yet.

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i'm going to be headed off to college soon. this is pretty helpful stuff. i was planning on a ramen diet.

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sargebaldy said:

Does anyone maybe know any good Mexican recipes? All I can make is quesadillas and burritos, and I haven't even learned to make the tortillas by hand yet.

It's called taco bake. You get some beef, onions, tomatoes, peppers and whatever other vegetables you want in it, cheese and seasonings (unless you already have some), and also some lasagna noodles. Then you boil the noodles, cut up the veggies and prepare the meat on a skillet with taco seasoning. After all that's ready, just arrange it like you would lasagna, with cheddar or pepperjack cheese in between the layers as well as on top. It takes a bit over an hour to cook, but it's a pretty cheap meal and tastes damn good. You can either serve it to a lot of guests or just save the left overs, which are equally delicious. :)

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Walmart, sadly, is your friend. You can get a month's supply of hamburger patties for about $12, I think. Better yet, get a BJ's Wholesale Club card.

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We don't have either here, instead we have a WinCo (short for Winning Company) which is the greatest place on earth. The aisles are completely ridiculous. For instance, candy and makeup are on the same aisle and there's a whole aisle devoted to beans. You bag your own groceries and the place looks completely ghetto on the inside. It's not a small place but there never seems to be more than 2 or 3 employees in the entire building at once. It's employee run and everything's dirt-cheap, and the only supermarket chain I've ever come to love.

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I have a hundred recipes for simple snacks/meals but I have no idea if they are expensive or not cause I've never had to buy my own food on account of the fact that my mom is too nice to me. Maybe I'll post a few here later when I'm not so tired.

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sargebaldy said:

So. I'm going to be moving out soon enough and am going to need some nice fairly cheap ideas for what to make myself. I'm an expert on breakfast but could use many more lunch and dinner recipes for my repertoire. I'm pretty openminded but also kind of picky, so nothing with say, ketchup as the main ingredient. Anyone have any ideas?


You have to take into account what's going to be available for frying/baking/whatever in your new living place. Is it a dorm? An apartment?

For instance, in a dorm, they probably wouldn't allow an oven. :)

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Lots of Lipton instant rice/noodles. Lots of "Complete Meal" boxes. Pizza from Papa John's. Sandwiches. Canned soup. The occasional TV dinner. Sometimes a Lunchables package.

That's what I live off of. I have some ramen but I rarely eat it.

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Gokuma said:

The flavor packets have MSG in them. If you were to get rid of that and just use the noodles with your own ingredients, they shouldn't be quite as bad.


What's the big deal with MSG anyway? AFAIK, it's only harmful to people that are allergic to it.

EDIT: And for that pasta sauce, be sure to follow two important rules when cooking pasta: do not add oil to the pasta, and mix it in with the sauce as soon as it's drained. The oil inhibits the pasta from soaking up the sauce, which is a bad thing (although it does make it stick less and prevents the water from foaming over). Mixing in the sauce right away will help bond the flavors or something.

Oh, and if you have a store nearby that sells creme fraiche (like good ol' Trader Joe's that I mentioned earlier), be sure to pick some up. It's sorta like sour cream except that it's capable of being cooked without destroying itself. It's absolutely amazing for making sauces...

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Bolognese is easy to make plus you can freeze your surplus, or 'stock', and simply defrost for sandwichs (Yes. Bolognese sandwich.) or microwave and add cheese or pasta.

Your stock is made up, for those who don't know, by sticking your surplus ingredients in a pot and boiling them down, the same thing can be done for any meal, and you can add the watery bits of stock to gravey or sauces.

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I just use cayene pepper to flavor my ramen. I hate those cup/bowl kinds. Cayene pepper is your friend. Here's one for ya:

1.Take white cheese kraft dinner, boil it.

2.Afterwards instead of using milk, butter, and that cheese packet boil mushroom soup and dump it in.

3.Take tuna, fresh or out of the can, and mince it up and dump it in.

3.Take pickles, chop 'em up and throw 'em in. (Decide how many you want to use as it can overpower the dish.)

4.Mix it all up put it in a casserole dish, grate some cheese on top or peanut butter (if your pissed drunk and it's somehow humorous) or leave it.

5.Leave it in the oven for like 20 minutes @ 350 I think... or was it longer? meh.

Give it a whirl.

Now if you want the best bang for your buck in terms of cheap beer just buy forties of either colt45 or bullmax. They're raunchy tasting as shit but they get the job done and you can make a pyramid out of the bottles. Old English and Old Stock run for a little extra. Just don't drink more than one at a time and for god sakes don't mix it with anything else! Unless it's buds.

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Here's a few of my recipies:

Pizza Tasties
Get a bunch of Triscuits , pour some pizza sauce all over it (that cheap stuff that comes in a squeeze bottle), then top it with parmasean and/or grated mozzerella. Nukem them, bake them, or broil them until the cheese melts, then eat them as you woudl nachos. There may be something that works better than Triscuits, but I'm not sure what that would be. The whole thing is kind of a sodium overload. :D

Dan's Super Breakfast Sandwich
Get two slices of raisin bread (the variety with nuts works rather well for this). Toast it if you want to. Spread cream cheese over both slices. Cut up a banana and place the slices on the sandwich (there will likely be extra slices that you'll have to eat). Enjoy. Optionaly, you can pour some honey on it as well. I used lavendar honey on it once and it was rather tasty.

Mini-Pizzas
Just put some pizza sauce on a bagel or english muffin, then put sliced or grated mozzerella on top. Add a dash of garlic powder. Cook until melted. You can put any toppings you have lying around on it too.

Italian Chicken Sandwich
Get some frozen chicken patties, put some pizza sauce and mozzerella on them just like in the previous recipe. Broil them until it melts. Put on a hamburger bun. Mmm...tasty goodness, and invented these long before they were ever in fast food restaurants. Fuckers ripped me off.

Cheapass Fajitas
Get some of that pre-cut chicken in a bag. Put it in a pan with some spray or oil. Pour some taco seasoning on it and scramble it until you're pretty sure its all cooked in. Put on a tortilla. Optionaly, you can add sour cream, black beans, or something like that. Roll it up and enjoy.

Also, I enjoy getting some tortillas and a tub of hummus and ripping off pieces of the tortillas and dipping them into the hummus. Very healthy and rather cheap.

And some recipies I didn't invent myself:

Tuna Melt
Get a hot dog bun. Take some tuna straight from the can (strain first of course) and fill the bun with it. Place a couple slices of American cheese on top. Bake until the cheese is melty and the bun is crispy. Optionaly, add Bacos for extra flavor.

Cinnamon Toast
Take a bunch of sugar. Pour some cinnamon in. Mix until you have a medium-light brown mixture (the color of chocolate ice cream). Get some bread and butter it. Put the bread on a cookie sheet and evenly pour some cinnamon-sugar on each slice. Broil until the cinnamon blends with the butter. It shoudl sizzle as it is doing this. Just let it do that for about 30 seconds or so and take them out. Enjoy.

Some more tips:

- Sandwiches are good. They're tasty, pretty cheap, and rather healthy. Just never buy more lunch meat than you can eat in 3-5 days.

- Garlic powder is your friend. Whenever pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, or mozzerella is involved, I add some of this stuff. I even add it to store-bought frozen pizzas before I cook or nuke them.

- Use the oven as much as possible. It tastes way better than the nuker.

- Aside from being used for cinnamon toast, cinnamon-sugar is a good topping for applesauce.

Hehe, I like cooking.

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