Cheap & Easy Meals - Tips for a Uni Student

PowerB on 10/03/2016 - 14:31

I recently moved into residence at the University I attend and I'm finding that I'm struggling to organise meals for myself. I usually have either EasyMac or a Coles branded Pie for Lunch/Dinner and sometimes I just can't be bothered eating either so I skip a meal (or I cheat and go to HJ or Dominos). I realise that I can't survive on EasyMac and Pies for my year here, so I'm hoping to get suggestions on some meals that are cheap and easy.

I am in a shared house on campus, and there is not much fridge/freezer space at all (we all share), which is a pity as it limits my ability to cook meals in advance as well as have a supply of frozen foods. Cupboard space is also limited, but I can move things into my room if needed.

Thanks :)

Food & Grocery

Comments

  • ugene41 on 13/03/2016 - 00:38
    +1

    Soylent. It's cheap, nutritious and great for a meal replacement when you literally cbf cooking/getting takeaway.

    • Lucky13 on 13/03/2016 - 01:21

      Lol yeah this ones supposedly not made from ppl haha https://www.soylent.com/

    • [Deactivated] on 13/03/2016 - 11:41

      Soylent isn't cheap. It's $80-$100/week per person. You could eat good cuts of meat and seafood daily for that price. You could live on rice & beans with some meat mixed in for a month for the same amount.

      It's for people who don't give a crap about food/drink and just want the process taken care of. Not for people who want to save money.

      • ugene41 on 13/03/2016 - 15:16
        +2

        Really? How do you manage to eat good cuts of meat and seafood for less than $4 a meal? Genuinely interested.

        • [Deactivated] on 13/03/2016 - 17:56

          I said daily not every single meal.

        • ugene41 on 13/03/2016 - 20:43
          +2

          @tantryl:

          I guess if it means you're having rice and beans for every other meal, you can replace your daily meat/seafood meal with a soylent and it will be even cheaper.

          For the purposes of a student, living in a sharehouse with limited freezer/fridge space, you're going to struggle to find a more convenient and nutritionally complete meal than soylent for $4.

        • [Deactivated] on 14/03/2016 - 11:24
          +2

          @ugene41: No argument on the more convenient part.

          Simple cheap meal that I just had:

          1 rashers of bacon (~70g) - ~206 Cal - $0.63 ($9/kg)
          2 xlarge eggs - ~201 Cal - $0.66 ($4 per dozen)
          200g brocoli (coated in left over bacon fat) - ~78 Cal - $1.20 ($3 per 500g frozen bag)

          33.7g Protein, 32.9g Fat, 11g Carbs, 5.6g fibre

          Total - ~485 Cal - $2.19

          And that's an expensive meal. Meat, eggs and veg. Low carb. It's cheap for a high protein+fat meal but it's not a cheap meal.

          Soylent is great for convenience. It's nutritional profile is interesting but it's benefits versus a non-processed meal are highly arguable.

          It doesn't taste as good as real food and it's expensive relative to them.

          Really nails the convenience thing though, can't argue with that.

      • Sinful on 14/03/2016 - 11:14

        https://diy.soylent.com/recipes/australian-soylent-10-improv…

        $6 a day.
        Has everything your body needs.
        I was on it for 1/2 a year.
        I'd have it for 2 meals a day.

        You don't get sick of the taste…. which was the main thing I was worried about.

  • love2buy on 13/03/2016 - 06:01

    Baked beans poured onto hot steamed rice. Cant get easier than that.

  • lost69 on 13/03/2016 - 08:02
    -4

    ROFL, indebt yourself to the government for years whilst eating third world scraps and living with other smelly foreigners - rice and beans!! YESSSSS! - all for a dubious piece of paper that won't guarantee or even get you a job. Welcome to 2016!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Excelsior on 13/03/2016 - 15:48

      You sound a little salty. Speaking from experience, perhaps?

    • skywards on 13/03/2016 - 17:43

      What are you studying?

  • Deebu on 13/03/2016 - 14:06

    Chicken pesto pasta - costs about $12

    Aldi branded basil pesto is only $1.80 compared to $4.50-$6 at woolies and coles

    I usually add canned corn, capsicum and sometimes kidney beans/ 4 bean mix depending on how much chicken i put in

    it makes at least 6 full take away containers

  • Hahuh on 13/03/2016 - 18:25

    Let me see:

    Easy menemen/ shakshouka:

    Peel tomatoes, dice em/ grate em. Add oil to pan add rtomatoes, stir until X cooked. Add seasoning. Crack an egg if desired and stir until cooked.

    Casadia ( think that's how it is spelled).

    Grab those mission tortilla bread wrap things. Get shredded cheese. Add that , then grab something like a green capsicum, red capsicum. Putted olives. Blah blah. Add some oregano. Fold. Throw it on a grill press/ pan or grill

    Salad

    Grab 4 bean mix or red beans in a can. Wash it. Add, red onions, seasoning, oil, parsley and lemon

    Chicken fingers frozen, boil potatoes turn it into a salad by adding mayonnaise or coleslaw mix

    Instant puddings,

    Soups? Lentil. Grab Lentils (red) add salt and blanched it in warm water for 20 mins. Wash 3 times. And drain. In a pan oil/ onion sweat it till pink or brown Add lentils and cook a while whilst stirring constantly. Add water till you get the consistency you like. And season. Add diced or cubes potatoes is desired

    Can do that with many soups

    Pasta. One day with white sauce and veggies. Carrot. One day bolognaze style.

    Dips. Tzatziki. Baba Ganesh, capsicum dip. Olive dip. You can by these and use it as an aperitif with toasted bread for the mornings.

    Buy cheeses and olives dips and jams and mix it up for your daily breakfast. Eggs poached, fried, omelettes crepes or pancakes

    Polenta?

    Make koftas. Or meatballs.

    Grab a Coles chicken and make Coleslaw

    Fish etc

  • dtc on 13/03/2016 - 21:03

    No one has mentioned the best cheap meal: hamburger. Get some mince, squish into hamburger shape, cook. Put on bread with cheese and whatever else (egg, lettuce etc). Microwave some veggies and you have a fully healthy meal covering all needs. And you can cook like 10 at a time and eat for the next 4 meals. No one ever gets tired of hamburgers.

    Also as others have mentioned, dump tinned tuna into/onto stuff whenever you can. Rice and pasta and tuna are matches made in heaven (when you can't be bothered).

    Another cheap option is chicken legs. Cover with a marinade or just sesame oil and put into baking tray into oven. Bake. It's like $4 for a kg of legs, that's several meals as well

    • gringo on 14/03/2016 - 04:13

      rissoles are slightly better for you and go further - grate carrot and potato into the mince + chopped onion, add salt+pepper and an egg, mix up and roll into balls, coat with flour and pan fry.

      • dtc on 15/03/2016 - 11:46

        Well, true - but you have just added 5 more steps to the cooking process. Sure its only a few minutes but we are talking efficiency!

  • esty on 14/03/2016 - 09:31

    Canned Tuna and rice!

  • shannonn54 on 14/03/2016 - 11:15

    When I was at uni in the late 70's shared with 4 others, we always had a huge stock of tomato sauce … add water and you have tomato soup, we didn't have maccas or dominos bullshit, we just survived; the current bunch of uni students would die if they had to attend classes all day, work p/t at evenings and stay up studying and doing assignments till 2 am.

    Best way to save money and eat is get job as a waiter in a restaurant, free food if the chefs a mate

  • imahapyboy on 14/03/2016 - 11:25

    find a girlfriend and ask her to prepare for you

  • telljoolz on 14/03/2016 - 12:31
    +1

    I love tacos.
    I loved them when shared housing. I love them now.
    The only thing you need to really cook is the mince and heat up the shells.
    Refried beans go well with tacos and come in a can so dont need refrigeration, until you open them of course but surely your house mates will let you store a lil can in the fridge :)

  • watts on 14/03/2016 - 14:16

    If you're in a share house then is it possible to share cooking? Each person cooks a big shared dinner once a week. If there's 4-5 people then that's most dinners taken care of. It can work well if people take a bit of effort. Saves time, money and gives variety and probably better food.

    Sandwiches or similar for lunch. Cereal for breakfast. Bag of apples or other cheap fruit.

    In some share houses we've chucked in money each ~$30 and done combined shopping at the local market. Can be ok, but I wouldn't recommend it.

    • anastasiastarz on 14/03/2017 - 02:16

      Sounds wonderful! But then all the allergies, and preferences… ughh I wished my housemates were normal.
      - dairy free (by choice)
      - dairy & gluten free (by choice)
      - doesn't do fructose and onion/garlic
      - doesn't eat anything green

  • Davo1111 on 14/03/2016 - 15:36

    Sleep with someone who works the late shift at coles or woolies. They get the sticker discounts + you get the staff discount card.

  • AlienC on 15/03/2016 - 09:03

    Nachos maccas pizza

    Then mi goreng when you get sick from the above

  • JoyVee on 08/04/2017 - 23:25

    once had a book on cooking in a thermos.Porridge was easy to prepare and quick to eat next morning especially in winter. Can buy cheap thermos in OP Shop Maybe you could google some recipes for thermos. Peter Russell Clarke had way of cooking simply in your hotel room. Recall he steam ironed a fillet of fish between non stick baking paper. use google as there are great budget recipes to be found.

  • poppit88 on 19/05/2017 - 02:29

    1 packet of maggi 99% fat free noodles
    1 small tin flavoured tuna
    1/4 to 1/2 a cup of frozen veg

    Cook noodles per directions. Add Tuna and Frozen veg. Microwave for 2-3 mins or until hot. Top with Chili sauce and fried onion rings (the kind you get from your local asian store)

    You want those asian style tunas ie: Green Chicken, Panang or the Chilli. Even the smoked tuna isn't to bad.

    I have it for lunch.

    Tastes awesome and kind of healthy.

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