Pasta, beans and cheese

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

Catching up with some old uni mates at the weekend, we started reminiscing about some of our staple culinary creations. Pasta with baked beans and cheese (plenty off Lee and Perkins and black pepper) being one of my frequent contributions. I remember I had a friend at school who regularly had this, but my mum refused to cook it for me. So clearly I ran with my new found independence and gave it a regular slot on my menu. Clearly over did it mind because it’s not something I’ve ever had since. Any one else ever have this? Or fancy sharing any other master chef uni meals?

Personal favourite was pasta, mayonnaise and grated cheese. Preferably something with a bit of stretch like emmental. So lardy, so delicious.

Yes, me too, though I fry some veg (chopped mushrooms, courgettes, peppers) to go in it so it's kind of like a warm cheese pasta salad. It's real comfort food that I still have occasionally!

‘Pizza’ made of toast spread with tomato purée, a sprinkling of mixed dried herbs then cheese melted under the grill.

Cheese on toast with soy sauce. I still have this occasionally now, 30 years later.

I visited a friend in uni & she made me a toastie with cheese and beans inside. That’s something I’ve only ever eaten once in my life!

Baked bean toasties. 17p cheap Netto bread, 11p beans, and I worked out once that a can did a full loaf, so a week of lunches. Cheese was added if it was reduced!

I still eat pasta, cheese and beans (usually as a breakfast!) and my toddler loves it too. First had it as a teenager as a quick dinner between school and evening activities.

My worst (repeated) student one was roast chicken, gravy and rice.

Barbecue beef super noodles on toast with melty cheese on top 😋

Pizza sandwich.
Mini cheese and tomato pizzas, inside 2 slices of white toast. Even better if the toast had been spread with French mustard.
Also lots of pasta with butter and black pepper and garlic.
Fried egg sandwiches.

All at 3am when pissed ridiculous.

Ketchup sandwiches!

I was much more sophisticated.

Vesta Beef Curry - a dry mix that I think just needed boiling water added to it.

They also did a paella with dried prawns I seem to remember.

I actually like the sound of pie made with tinned ratatouille and cheesey mash on top!

I was always quite a good cook and so was my best friend and flat mate (still my best friend now 30 years later ❤) so we ate quite well and we still talk about food and recipes when we see each other now.

After Uni I lived in a house share and one if my housemates was obsessed with potatoes. So he would often have a huge pile if roast potatoes with instant bisto gravy ... and that was it. Or mash with a crumbled up Oxo cube mixed in, dolloped into a baking dish with grated cheddar on top and grilled til the cheese was brown. He didn't seem fussed about veg or protein .

Cheese and pot noodle sandwiches. Had to be mild cheese and chicken and mushroom flavour pot noodle!

Other thing was cheese and salad cream sandwiches

Stuffing sandwiches - very cheap and filling. And as a special treat we’d add a bit of branston pickle into the mix.

Jacket potato with cheese (hate beans)
Uncle Bens sweet and sour sauce with 1/2 a Turkey breast and rice
Mini Kiev’s and chips
Packet curry sauce and oven chips
Spag Bol, endless Spag Bol… 🤦‍♀️
Chilli and Nachos
Crisps!!
If we were dieting, crispbreads with low fat soft cheese, cucumber and ham. But it wasn’t naice ham, it was the slimy massive pack type 🤮
Then frozen cod steaks in butter sauce, peas and sweet corn for dinner. Could lose 7lb in a week on that diet! Oh for the metabolism of my twenties….😩

My uni boyfriend used to make pasta with ham chunks and campbells chicken soup as a sauce. Served on a bed of chippy chips. Bloody lovely it was.

I make it for the kids after we’ve had roast gammon, minus the chips.

Actually, I think it was bacon not ham back then. It was over 20 years ago

Tuna pasta Salad ughhhh can't go near it now ... or carbonara or pot noodle or any pasta for that matter!! 🤢

Bacon fried rice (had no chicken) cooked chopped bacon until crispy, Chuck in cooked rice, get it all coated in bacon fat, then add beaten eggs and fry until cooked, add a splash of soy sauce.

Stuffing sandwiches - very cheap and filling.

Again still have these but I put Brie and mayo with it now!

Mine was similar. Pasta, ketchup, tuna & cheese. All hot a gooey and melty. It was divine! I lived on it! Had it a few years ago and it was quite rightly absolutely vile!

You were living it up op. Dh and I couldn't afford cheese back in those days lol...just pasta and beans!

I have one dc at uni and one just left. They seem to have eaten a lot of takeaways. must be sending too much money!
I remember eating just linda McCartney sausages and pasta- I should have tried some ketchup-it was awful. I cooked proper things most of the time, being veggie definitely keeps prices down!
Instant semolina was my absolute favourite though.

@Georgyporky

I was much more sophisticated.

Vesta Beef Curry - a dry mix that I think just needed boiling water added to it.

They also did a paella with dried prawns I seem to remember.

You can still get them both in cheap shops. The paella isn't the same though-they took out the yellow colouring, and it hardly tastes of anything now. I used to love it, too.

Cheese on toast - we had a Netto nearby where you could get a huge, plasticy block of cheese for about 70p, so along with a 5p loaf of bread, that was a week's worth of lunches 😁
If I was having a very sparse week, the cheese might be replaced with cheap "spread".
For tea, it was usually veg stir fry with noodles, pasta in a jar sauce, maybe chicken curry (from a jar) if I'd just got my grant. I was at Newcastle so there was a lot of cheap food available from the Grainger Market, pease pudding in a stottie being a particular favourite.

I mainly used to eat childrens 'tea' type meals at uni - I was trying to eat healthily but wasn't a good cook yet.

So, pasta with various sauces (but not baked beans, mamma mia )
jacket potatoes
fish fingers, chips and peas.
pretty much on repeat.

Luckily I always lived with housemates that were good cooks so had some variety.
DH (my uni boyfriend) was terrible back then, I tried to avoid eating at his

I used to give that to DC often. Usually after they spat out in disgust lovingly prepared home cooking. In desperation I'd open tinned spaghetti, grate cheese on top and put baked beans on the side for protein. They loved it.

Naan bread topped with super noodles and grated cheese .