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Let's make a list of meals for a student to learn to cook

65 replies

MyOtherProfile · 01/10/2025 20:45

What would you help your kids know how to cook ahead of going to uni? My youngest will hopefully go next year and has suddenly decided she wants a broader list of meals she can comfortably cook, which won't break her bank.

What would be on your list? We already have chilli, spag bol, a couple of simple curries. What else would be cheap, quick and easy, and preferably freeze well for future meals.

OP posts:
idontknow54789 · 01/10/2025 21:40

More useful to know how to make a basic white sauce, a basic red sauce etc and then have some understanding of what can be added for flavour for various dishes. Would be the basis of a lot of dishes - Mac and cheese, shepherds pie, bolognaise, chilli etc.

AliceMcK · 01/10/2025 21:47

I’d go quick and easy

Eggs
omelette's, scrambled, porched, served with everything from chips, toast to salads. Make into quiches, mini or big, some pastry add veg seasoning and make or even just bake as a frittata. Same with egg fried rice, couple of fried eggs broken, chuck a cheap pack of microwave rice in, handful of frozen veg, soya sauce and chilli and there is enough for dinner and lunch the next day.

Pizza dough or pastry dough, freeze in sections, they defrost easy to make pizzas, dough balls, pies.

Teach how to use up leftovers, mini pot pies fry up left overs, add a bit of extra veg maybe gravy add to pie dish use some defrosted pastry to top. chuck left overs on pizzas, in omelettes, quiches etc..

friendsDisUnited · 01/10/2025 21:54

I think a few of these suggestions aren’t suitable for a student kitchen. Do they really have a freezer with space for batch cooks? Also dishes like curry work better in large quantities.
Other suggestions sound good and I will add the old favourites beans on toast and pasta tuna sweetcorn.

Interested in this thread?

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UpMyself · 01/10/2025 22:01

I mentioned white sauce in that I said cheese sauce.
Pastry is not difficult.
Using up leftovers is a good so some ideas for that.

Food hygiene!

caringcarer · 01/10/2025 22:03

Chicken gnocchi. So easy to make but quite impressive to taste and eat. Method takes 12 mins to prep and 40 mins cooking time in oven. Dry fry 2 chopped chicken breast. Strain off any fluid. In a baking dish empty a packet of gnocchi, chop up 2 peppers. I do one yellow and 1 red. Add to dish, add chicken, chop up a mozerella ball and add to dish, add 1 pot of red pesto and about 1/3 tube of tomato puree and a squeeze of garlic puree. Add a pint of chicken stock. I use 2 Oxo cubes in boiling water. Pour some double cream over top and a bit of grated parmesan. Put in oven 180 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with a handful of green salad put of a bag.

As a variation you can swap red pesto for green pesto and swap red and yellow peppers for green peppers. Half amount of tomato puree. It becomes a different meal.

Pork steaks in cider casserole. Quick dry fry 4 pork steaks, chop an onion finely, peel 3 carrots and cut into pennies, chop up half a swede, add a pint of cider and a vegetable stock cubes. Add seasoning. Oven 180 degrees for 1 hour 10 mins. Serve with petit pois and mashed potatoes or you can peel and chop 2 potatoes and add to casserole with a bit more water.

Lasagne soup. Cook a packet of minced beef, strain of any fat, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, 1/3 of a tube of tomato puree, a beef stock cubes in 1/2 pint of water. Add a chopped mozerella ball and generous grated parmesan, add 120g of double cream, break up lasagne sheets and stir in. Simmer until lasagne pieces are soft. Serve with garlic bread or a part baked bread roll. Sprinkle with parmesan.

All of these dishes are so easy to make but the finished meals are delicious and people think it must have taken ages.

My DS can cook all of these meals and his friends are impressed.

caringcarer · 01/10/2025 22:06

It's often possible for each student to cook one once a week for everyone in house. I told my DS learn to cook 3 different meals well. The other nights you can have a pizza or a jacket potato and mini steak.

Peclet · 01/10/2025 22:09

Miso paste, soy sauce, crushed garlic and ginger, chilli flakes. Water. Mix, bring to simmer. Add noodles and veg/protien. You have a basic ramen.

omit the miso and add red Thai curry paste. You have Thai ramen.

omit the miso and soy, add Indian curry paste you have Indian stlye ramen.

delicious. Hearty, can add any fresh or frozen veg you like. Add a fried egg on top for even more yum

store cupboard staples and cheap AF to make.

Seeline · 01/10/2025 22:23

Over the course of 8 student years, none of my DC have ever had housemates willing to cook/shop together. It's not common.

Most students have at most a single shelf in the fridge and a drawer in the freezer - sometimes less.

Most have a single base cupboard and high level cupboard to store all cooking equipment, crockery and store cupboard ingredients.

The possibility of large amounts of batch cooking are limited - both in terms of storage of initial ingredients and freezing of finished dishes. Similarly most only have room to store small pots and pans.

Nomorecoconutboosts · 01/10/2025 22:29

My dd will likely do quite basic stuff - so being realistic she’s unlikely to regularly (if ever) do something like a shepherds pie.
nachos are a favourite, salsa and grated cheese on top - plus jalapeños in a jar. She might get some sour cream dip too.
leftover dips are good to dip celery/carrots in as another snack.

very basic pasta such as pesto.
Pizza to share or eat alone!

CharlieChaplin99 · 01/10/2025 22:34

The list you have is good OP.

but maybe add Stir fry, cooked breakfast, roast dinner and accompaniments they often do a flat or house Christmas dinner, stew.

BBC Goodfood is her friend.

UpMyself · 01/10/2025 23:00

Student cookbooks tend to be a bit unappealing. A good fairly basic cookbook is probably better, but make sure your DC knows how to scale down the amounts to make a meal for 1 (or 2 if they want leftovers).

Sugarnspicenallthingsnaice · 01/10/2025 23:15

This thread is a whole new world to me.

My adult sons a) could cook anything listed above by their mid teens by being involved in the kitchen from a young age and following recipes they liked on tiktok etc, they didn't need to be specifically taught any recipes before leaving home, and b) would never actually cook any of it for themselves day to day, they live on takeaways and pot noodles/air fryer crap. Proper cooking is only done to impress women.

Barbann122 · 01/10/2025 23:27

I came here to say dahl but I see that’s already been a popular suggestion!
Minestrone soup, jambalaya, omelette are all things you can adapt depending on what you’ve got in so are good basics. And drop scones are easy tummy fillers when cash is tight!

AiryFairy1 · 01/10/2025 23:27

5 o’clock apron on IG is currently doing a student cooking series- narrated as a letter to her DD at uni - it’s very sweet and some good ideas as well. I’ve saved loads for myself!

MyOtherProfile · 02/10/2025 07:47

UpMyself · 01/10/2025 23:00

Student cookbooks tend to be a bit unappealing. A good fairly basic cookbook is probably better, but make sure your DC knows how to scale down the amounts to make a meal for 1 (or 2 if they want leftovers).

I agree. We bought my eldest a couple but they weren't great so he focused on making sure he could cook his favourite meals.

Also it's nice to get personal recommendations.

This thread is full of great suggestions - thanks all.

OP posts:
friendsDisUnited · 02/10/2025 11:13

I’d hate to think a child of mine would live on take aways and air fried crap. Unhealthy and expensive. I think the whole aim of this thread is to avoid that!

tiredangry · 02/10/2025 11:36

Seeline · 01/10/2025 22:23

Over the course of 8 student years, none of my DC have ever had housemates willing to cook/shop together. It's not common.

Most students have at most a single shelf in the fridge and a drawer in the freezer - sometimes less.

Most have a single base cupboard and high level cupboard to store all cooking equipment, crockery and store cupboard ingredients.

The possibility of large amounts of batch cooking are limited - both in terms of storage of initial ingredients and freezing of finished dishes. Similarly most only have room to store small pots and pans.

Agree with this. That was what my DS’s halls were like, only a bit worse. People left manky food, sink was full etc. Bins grim. Kitchen was a party room due to location and size and it was dirty and busy. My ds could hardly use it.

you can have skills, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to actually use the kitchen like you can in your parents’ private house!

chuzzlewitthechipmunk · 02/10/2025 11:41

Look at 5oclock apron on Instagram or her website. She’s a professional chef with more of a focus on fsmily food now and her daughter has just gone to uni, so over the past few weeks shes posted lots of things for her daughter to cook.

PixieandMe · 02/10/2025 11:44

I made a really good one I saw on Facebook last night. Big hit, everyone loved:

Beef mince
Gnocchi
1 carrot (grate)
1 tin sweetcorn
I jar Passata
Cheese (grate on top)

Mix all in a dish, put grated cheese on top and bake in oven.

Simple.

Clonakilla · 02/10/2025 12:24

Things I used to make: stir fry, lentil curry, pasta bake, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, omelette, shepherds pie, lasagne, chick pea curry, sausage and mash.

Sugarnspicenallthingsnaice · 02/10/2025 13:29

friendsDisUnited · 02/10/2025 11:13

I’d hate to think a child of mine would live on take aways and air fried crap. Unhealthy and expensive. I think the whole aim of this thread is to avoid that!

I don't like it either, but they're fully grown men and what they eat is up to them. It's not a lack of skill that's the problem, I've done my part there.

user1471538283 · 02/10/2025 13:47

I hate cooking and I'm not good at it but my DF taught me now to do lots of things. The thing that I was amazed by was my ex being able to get things out of the fridge that needed using up and make a meal. Like Spanish omelettes or paella or filled pancakes.

Maybe you could teach her to look for reduced items and how to build meals around it?

Hoodlumboodlum · 02/10/2025 14:08

Basic roast, even if it's with chicken/beef pieces rather than a meat joint.

Stir fry

Beans on toast for a quick meal

Porridge or overnight oats for a filling breakfast/supper

Toad in the hole

Tuna jacket potato

Sausage, mash and veg

Soup

Curry

Mydahliasareshit · 02/10/2025 14:09

Yes, essential to show them the yellow ticket time in supermarkets, and market stall veg at half price on Saturday afternoons etc. Also to shop for pulses and fruit at Asian stores.

Tiredofwhataboutery · 02/10/2025 14:16

I think one pot meals are good so beef stew type stuff (cubed beef same price as mince in Aldi) barley, lentils, root veg. Big pot and freeze in portions, defrosts well and is a complete meal. You can serve it with greens to be healthy.

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