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What did you eat when you were a student?

210 replies

Sunnytoday01 · 22/03/2025 17:49

I’m going back to the ‘80s but my diet was rubbish and I couldn’t cook. I used to eat a lot of toast and a hot meal would be Richmond sausages, smash potato and mushy peas or baked beans. My housemates and I would eat a cheese and tomato oven pizza occasionally. I even liked a pot noodle 🤣

I eat completely differently now but I can’t believe how awful my diet was and I didn’t seem to mind!

OP posts:
longhouselisa · 22/03/2025 19:34

Oh this is bringing back some memories!

Pitta breads with cheese, cucumber and salad cream
Veggie pasta bakes from the pub
Tuna pasta bakes from the pub
Curries (well known curry town!)
Kebabs made with freshly baked naan, chicken, salad and chili sauce after a night out
gorgeous freshly baked white bread rolls with raisons, sliced with butter and cheese from a student cafe on campus.

Not too bad actually, looking back!

Redhairandhottubs · 22/03/2025 19:35

So much crap! I couldn’t cook and had no interest in learning. I lived on baked bean and cheese toastie, fish finger sandwiches and pizza. Accompanied by lots of alcohol (pints of wine anyone?) and chocolate when I got the ‘munchies’.
I can’t think why I put on so much weight.

Brightredtulips · 22/03/2025 19:35

Savoury rice, plain pasta, toasters with whatever filling i could find. Made healthy pots of soup with veg and sometimes broth mixture

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boulevardofbrokendreamss · 22/03/2025 19:36

Mostly crisp sandwiches and cheesy chips from the SU

PenneyFouryourthoughts · 22/03/2025 19:37

Smirnoff Ice. (90s)
A lot of packet pasta, ready made.
Beans on toast.
Porridge
Quorn mince. Was gross then, still gross now (DD tried it as she was turning veggie. 🤮)

BCBird · 22/03/2025 19:37

Ate bean feast. Would make a shepherd's pie with some tinned ' meat', buy a pizza base and put own toppings on including luncheon meat😄 always made sure I had money for cake😄😄

toycat · 22/03/2025 19:37

00s student - thinking back to halls it was as mainly pasta or baked potato... and sometimes corn beef hash. We didn't have any fridge/freezer space really as people would fill it up at the beginning of term with ready meal type stuff

spotthespoter · 22/03/2025 19:41

I used get a lot of cheap bread on its sale by date and have various things on toast, sandwiches or sometimes pasta and cheese or whatever I could find in the reduced section meat wise to go with frozen veg.

ExtraDecluttering · 22/03/2025 19:51

Never ate in the uni canteens (I was in self catered halls then houses). A lot of chilli, spag bol, curry, things like beans on toast, toasted sandwiches, toast and peanut butter, cereal etc. Never cooked with housemates. Fast food wasn’t really a thing then (late 80s, there was a McDs but it was miles away). In my final year I got a job in pizza hut so I got a free pizza every shift which helped a lot.

Eyerollexpert · 22/03/2025 19:57

Also early 80's I used to eat the same things as I ate at home and rang my mum from the phone box to ask her how long to cook things for, pork chops, potato pie, corn beef hash. I had never had any kind of convenience food so it never occurred to me to. Brought up on a farm in the sticks never even had pasta😂

tangobravo · 22/03/2025 19:58

Indomie ramen

Flowersforcharlie · 22/03/2025 20:03

Alpen. Apples. Chocolate. Diet Coke. Egg mayonnaise and salad bap from the local bakery. Flapjack from the local bakery. Lager. And nothing else.

Goinggold · 22/03/2025 20:06

I used to get a sack of potatoes, I had mash all the time. Also cheese toasties, fish finger sandwiches and fried egg sandwiches.

merryhouse · 22/03/2025 21:28

Apples, crisps, lemon or hazelnut yoghurts, home-made fruit cake, masses of coffee and beer.

Friend introduced me to the Marmite and peanut butter combination, a bit of a hefty mouthful which we cut with cucumber.

First year I was still getting over my food aversions, so mashed potato and cheese with celery featured heavily Grin or I'd buy sliced ham, salad and chips from Vanbrugh snack bar. I think I may have had instant soup occasionally.

Once I'd discovered that I did like all this stuff after all, I made pasta with tuna tomato sauce, corned beef not-hash, chili and rice. Varied the pasta by sometimes using pilchard instead. Sometimes we'd have tuna pasta salad.

One of our favourite pubs had what they called "fusilli Lucrezia Borgia" which was mushrooms in a white wine and blue cheese sauce. It was always a toss-up between that and their massive chip butty.

Spent years 2 and 3 in a hall that provided breakfast, so began each weekday with fried egg and bacon followed by two slices of brown bread and apricot jam. And coffee, obvs.

Third year I got a toastie maker so had toasties for lunches - either cheese or corned beef, with tomato or beansprouts. Also had a teapot so would make a large pot of tea. I think it was round about this point that I got into lapsang souchong.

Friends instigated a Sunday tradition called "polite-ish tea" which was a bring-and-share sitting mostly on the floor. IIRC hummous featured heavily, and taramasalata.

Following year 3 of us shared a house and got more into veggie-inspired cooking, millet and bulgar wheat as well as lentils and several different beans. Friday Project at church served a great mushroom soup.

£2.99 red wine suddenly started being interesting. If there was a party I'd take Hungarian, Bulgarian or Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon (I and the other two people present who'd brought Cab Sauv would discover each other and share).

I found out a lot about food at university. I came from a fairly standard English lmc background where we ate potatoes every day and only started having savoury rice when the bread strikes of the mid-70s got really annoying. Takeaway was fish and chips and we never went to a restaurant. I remember the student handbook in my first year talking about how the canteen food could be a bit hit-and-miss: "ever had moussaka without aubergines?" As I'd never had moussaka at all, and could barely identify an aubergine in the shop, never mind on my plate, I realised I was stepping into a different world... then I turned up to the department reception and was offered a glass of sherry. I mean, it was totally a weird colour but it was recognisable so I felt comfortable again Grin

PhilosophicalCheeseSandwich · 22/03/2025 21:30

Marmite on toast, mainly.

Gowlett · 22/03/2025 21:36

Beans on toast
Spaghetti on toast
Super Noodles
Tortilla Chips
Cake
Chocolate
Ice Cream
Happy Meals
Pizza Hut
Chicken Royale
Chinese
Debenhams Wednesday Tea
Alcopops
White Diamond
Tea / Benson & Hedges

LaPalmaLlama · 22/03/2025 21:38

pasta and pesto, humous on toasted pittas, chips from the van. Toast and butter. I could cook but CBA- not much has changed there tbh.

weirdly when I look back at photos of me in my rowing kit I was really jacked. Like how? I must have been majorly protein deficient. 🤣. Also despite eating minimal fruit and veg I had great skin and never got constipated or anything. Ah, the benefits of youth.

CatchingUpWithPeopleIsAmazing · 22/03/2025 21:39

Lots of pasta and toast and cider. Sometimes chips with curry sauce. How I didnt get scurvey I'll never know!

LaPalmaLlama · 22/03/2025 21:41

CatchingUpWithPeopleIsAmazing · 22/03/2025 21:39

Lots of pasta and toast and cider. Sometimes chips with curry sauce. How I didnt get scurvey I'll never know!

Fortunately for students, chips contain quite a lot of vitamin c 🤣

CatchHimDerry · 22/03/2025 21:44

Absolutely shocking. My current self would never 😂

I was poor at first so bowl of spaghetti hoops and bread rolls. Might have the little sausages in as a luxury

Pot noodles

Giant frozen Yorkshire pudding with meat in it from Tesco 😂

when I had more money it was all takeaways and it took me years to lose the weight I put on

Ahhh youth

VivienneDelacroix · 22/03/2025 21:45

Peanut butter and toast
Weetabix
Cos lettuce
Litres of Vanilla Shotz

That was it. The same thing everyday.

hoarahloux · 22/03/2025 21:50

I rarely used the kitchen in first year bc my halls flatmates were vile! It was sandwiches and snack foods from the SU shop. And wine. Branston pickle on white bread was my staple and I still crave it sometimes. I first discovered the Korean brand Shin Ramyun here and still eat it 15 years later.

Second and third year I would walk to Morrisons and get the bus back. Much more gourmet: frozen chicken, stir fries, cheese from the cheese counter. Plus the 3 for £10 wine from the SU shop again.

jjeoreo · 22/03/2025 22:06

Student 2006

Beanfeast - urg, yuck

My now husband used to make sausage and cream couscous which we would eat directly out of the saucepan when very stoned

Every Sunday a walk down to the big sainsbury where we would put everything in our trolley for a massive roast and it would come to £50 at the most. Custard, madeira cake, cherry lambrini

EBearhug · 22/03/2025 22:13

Soups, stews, stir fries, chilli, spag bol, curry. I had a reputation for always using chilli, ginger and garlic. Also salads. I did eat vegetables most days. Sometimes in the form of pizza toppings. I was also fond of spicy spuds from Fagito's, which now stands at the top of Mill Road without opening...

SugarPlumpFairyCakes · 22/03/2025 23:03

Fish finger sandwiches
Fried egg sandwiches
Sandwich spread sandwiches

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