What did you eat when you were a student?

[Sunnytoday01]

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!

A whole thread and no one has mentioned TVP! We used to buy it cheap from the market and soak it before making a godawful curry. Raw it had the appearance of winalot (remember that?). Hydration did not improve matters

I remember 'Sosmix'

Omg sosmix and tvp from the "scoopy" shop. You had to add loads of flavour as they were so tasteless and to hide the texture! Late 80s/early 90s.

Sosmix is another thing I'd forgotten about.

I used to make up the whole pack into sausages and freeze them. I was batch cooking before it was fashionable!

Crisp sandwiches
Ready made pasta out of a packet
Spag bol

For breakfast I’d have porridge pots that you just add hot water to, those nestle multipack cereals that you can add milk to and no need to use a bowl.
Never ate anything for dinner unless I ordered a takeaway.
Takeaway or microwave meals for tea.
I gained 2 and a half stone over 3 years and had the audacity to wonder why😂.

Stag chilli from a tin, sponge puddings from a tin, pasta with anything, paste sandwiches, battered sausages, fish finger sandwiches were a treat. We were really broke a few times and foraged for nettles and made a horrid soup. Also scrumped apples on the way back from the pub and had those in numerous ways including in a revolving pasta bake with cinnamon.

Pasta, pizza, pints and pills. Good times.

Bean feast,pot noodles, crispy pancakes, cauliflower cheese grills and Linda McCartney sausages and burgers circa 1990.

Pasta with dolmio stir in sauce, smash and beans, pot noodles

Sizzle and stir chicken curries
Recipes from the Cranks Cookbook (when we were being posh)
Mi goreng noodles
Captains pies (frozen fish pie)
Cajun chicken baguettes
Chicken shop

In the market in the city, there was a pork/bacon butcher who sold the trimmings from their rasher cutting machine for 10p/lb…some weeks it was just skin and bits of bone so I didn’t bother but lots of weeks there were big chucks of bacon or decent rashers from the end of a run where they got a hole in the middle but were still good. I made lots of bacon sandwiches or mac’n’cheese with bacon from that. They also had good deals on chicken breasts and diced turkey meat. There was also a good cheap fruit and veg stall there where I’d pick up a good few bits.

spaghetti Bol, knorr pastarias occasionally, HM curry…

id also go to the butcher when I was home for weekends and grab a bunch of meat that mum would pay for (bag of mince, a lamb chop, pick chop, etc) so basically stretch that for a week.

I did eat well because I've always loved cooking. I'd make a lot of Italian dishes, fish dishes, curries abd Mexican food. I always ate a lot of vegetables. Sorry if that sounds smug! I also used to binge drink and smoke.

I had an appalling diet as a student, I don’t know how I survived ( full time student for 6 years), I never prioritised food and underestimated the impact It would have on my health

Fried egg sandwiches, tuna toasties, rice with soy sauce chicken, a lot of dhal with rice or (homemade) bread
Takeouts were: 4-cheese tortellini in cheese sauce, grilled pork chops with chips and slaw, lasagne

First two years I lived in college and had a (cheap and okayish) 3 course dinner every night! 3rd year I lived in a house share in France with 2 other English girls. We weren't amazing at cooking but we did ok - lots of pasta! 4th year back at uni living with my boyfriend. We cooked pretty normal basic stuff - pasta, curry, sausages etc. This was in the early 90s.

Dd is at uni now and has astonished us by getting quite into cooking in her 2nd year (having never shown any interest at home!). She's been making homemade soups, traybakes and stews.

kwiksave's own brand! I remember their cheese spread fondly, it was probably made of plastic. And a lot of pasta.

I was a vegetarian and had a few set piece meals that I could cook, so...

Cauliflower cheese with brown rice
Chickpea curry with more brown rice
Pasta with lentil "bolognese" or with garlic mushrooms
Jacket potatoes with beans
Cheesy chips from the kebab van
Massive chocolate chip cookies from a market stall (one of these as a whole meal)
Lots of cheap wine and pills

Thinnest and prettiest I've ever been, mind.

Interesting thread! I've got memories of eating Iceland cheapy veggie burgers, pasta and baked beans. I can't really remember eating anything else 😳 My friend and I also used to enjoy the Iceland Irish Medow (cheapy version of Bailey's) Another memory has just unlocked of the local takeaway place knowing my order, on my way home from a night out: again, a veggie burger. If my friend reads this, she'll know exactly who I am 😂they would know her order too.

Forgot the Haribo star mix which would see me through writing an essay

I was a vegetarian and I ate a lot of eggs and toast and really big cheese salad sandwiches from Woolworths deli counter. My ex was training as a chef so he then started cooking or taking me out to a local pizzeria or curry place.

She was an unsung doyen of the time

Haha I was coming on to say toast! Mostly toast and cider. Sometimes chips or noodles. For a while I lived above an amazing pakora shop who took pity on me because I was so thin and gave me free pakora, that was great 😁

(I eat much better now, and am definitely not thin enough for anyone to take pity on me 🤣)

I don’t think mine was too bad, I had one of those student cookbooks and used to have a go at different things. I was a fussy eater when I was younger but I improved at uni ..I can remember..
tuna pasta or various tomato sauce pasta
chicken breast baked or sausages with mash and veg and loads of ketchup
a noodle dish with pineapple and chicken
that packet Big Soup
chilli or curry mince with rice.
If I was feeling rich M@S tinned chicken curry
Baked beans with loads of spices added
baked potatoes with kidney beans in chilli sauce.

This was the age of supermarkets selling 2p beans and 5p tinned tomatoes, so that was the basis of my diet.

i also remember in halls girls making smash sandwiches and cheap tinned hot dogs which was grim, as was the food in halls.

I didn’t know how to portion though so ate too much frequently

cheap bread, Dairylea triangles, cheap version of super noodles, Marlborough lights, vodka, fish fingers and Diamond white cider. And my granny made me up wee bags of tins of stuff when I visited. Oh and pizza toppers. And my flatmate ate rollmop herring and smoked woodbine. I’m so glad that’s not me anymore!