What food ideas can my DD make at college (age 16)

[KatyMac]

Hi btw I'm talking about myself as KatyMac's DD. I'm going away at 16 but don't know what (healthy-I'm going to dance college) food ideas to make from scratch. And I don't want to eat pre-prepared. :D

This is in 18 months time btw (Mum told me to say that)

I used to live on a lot of pasta as a student.

Wholewheat pasta cooled, with tinned tuna, mayo, Sweetcorn, peas, peppers mixed makes a great easy lunch, and you can batch cook and keep in the fridge. An easy lunch or dinner with a salad.

Also nice warm with a tomato sauce, and ham or chicken instead of the tuna.

Will you have a microwave? Jacket potatoes with beans and cheese, or tuna mayo is easy and filling.

Beans on wholemeal toast is still a good meal, lots of combined proteins, and anyone can make it.

Good luck in college!

Pilaf is cheap, delicious and can be made very filling, here's my recipe:

Fry some onions, add Pilau rice seasoning, add mushrooms, meat, quorn pieces etc and fry for a bit.

Add rice with a bit of quinoa, then double the amount of rice in stock.

Bring to the boil, wrap the saucepan lid in a teatowel, put the lid on and turn the heat right down. Leave alone for 20mins

Add chickpeas and peas, then replace thelid and leave for 5mins.

Stir in a knob of butter and serve with a hard boiled egg.

Poppy - That sounds delish. I like rice dishes. Do you think that would taste as nice cold, e.g to take into college with me?

Binfull-Mummy says I will have a microwave. I do like the idea of taking cold pasta with me, something I do at the moment, but you gave me different pasta fillings/toppings which will make it more interesting. Thankyou

Erm I'm going to keep a notebook of recipe and food ideas.

Perhaps your mum could buy you a wok? Very quick, nutritious and easy to make stir Frys with chicken strips, in a little sesame oil, for 5 mins, then add slices of onion, carrot, peppers, mangetout, baby corn etc.

You can buy bottles of stir fry sauce, or add some low sodium soy sauce. Add cooked rice or noodles.

Oooh, I do love stir frys. Mummy said "We'll see " :D

I was always terrible at cooking rice (too wet, not fully cooked, you name it) until in my 20s I learned to do it using this recipe. It takes slightly longer but requires minimal effort. Rice cooked this way is fab with a bit of soy sauce and a few veggies stirred through it.

1 measure rice - NOT easycook, preferably basmati. Half a mugful is a nice measure for one.
2 measures water

Put rice and water into a pan that you have a well-fitting lid for. To improve the fit if necessary, wrap the lid in a teatowel and knot it above the handle. Bring rice to the boil. Put the lid on straight away and turn the heat down to the lowest possible; leave for 12 minutes. Don't take the lid off to look. Turn the heat up briefly and then off. Leave the pan for 12 more minutes without looking. The rice is ready.

Eggs are your friends - learn to make an omelette. I'm not brilliant at it so won't post a recipe - I'll bet your mum knows, or if not, try Youtube?

Thanks Joan. I've never tried cooking rice and probably would have failed miserably the first time I tried without instructions. I do like omlettes and tried making it once(failed attempt) mum ended up saving it, so she can probably show me how. Thanks

Yes to a wok or a small frying pan.

One pan chicken.

1 chicken breast in the pan and cook for 5 minutes on medium.

Add courgette, tin toms, red pepper, yellow pepper what ever you fancy and some stock (cube and water) simmer for 15 minutes or until stock reduced and chicken cooked.

Frittata is easy.

Whilst frying chopped onion and bacon mix a couple of eggs with a splash of milk.

Add egg to the pan and stir around and then add some spinach and feta cheese, cook to set - if you have a grill it's great to set the top.

If you can get hold of a small slow cooker it will be your best friend and every one will want to come for tea I can post lots of sc recipes.

Thanks Bluelights that would be really helpful. Like I mentioned earlier I'm putting together a collection of recipes, so anything will be really useful (I'll talk to muma 'bout the slow cooker). I could hold mini dinner parties to showcase all my new recipes

Look on the BBcfood website, lots of ideas there.

If you get a sc (£15 in argos) you can pop a jacket potatoe in over night on low and then take to college with a tin of tuna etc for during the day.

A toaster and toastie bags could be a great help, lots of healthy fillings for a toastie + salad.

i live by the bbc good food website it hardly ever fails me.

When I was a student a lot of people had the Student Cook Book

which did them well - lots of cheap quick simple recipes.

Thanks. I like the tin of tuna idea. I had a look at the book and it looks really good. I'm probably not gonna invest in an sc yet, as I have a while to go :).

Soup! Learn lots of soup recipes. You can basically bung anything into soup - make sure lots of veggies, pulses, legumes etc. Make a big batch and freeze into portions. Easy, warming, healthy and nutricious.

Here is my favourite soup recipe:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/333614/red-lentil-chickpea-and-chilli-soup

Hello, yes it is nice cold, dp takes it to work with him most days.

Since you are also talking about taking lunches into college - if you make things you can heat up again (like the soup daddyorchips suggested) you can get big thermoses for warm food, some of them even have divisions in them so you can put a portion of pasta and a separate portion of veg (for example) in. I've seen them in TK Maxx pretty cheap. Then you can always microwave something before you leave in the morning, stick it in your food thermos and it'll be warm for your lunch.

I have no recipes- sorry :)

But my suggestion is think about what you like to eat, Google some recipes, choose one that looks cheap and easy and make it.

Practice lots before you go, experiment on your mum, following a recipe is actually remarkably easy.

TK Maxx and Ikea are good places to get cheap cooking stuff if you need it. If you get a wok, get a non stick one, I have never managed to season a non non-stick one.

I ate a lot of tuna pasta at college - pasta, tinned tuna, tinned or frozen sweetcorn and a cheese sauce. Learning how to make white sauce (just add cheese for cheese variety) is a good investment.

Bean chili is nice, and cheap (sadly can't eat it any more as I've developed an allergy to most beans) - tinned or dried beans, whatever you fancy (prepared according to packaging), an onion, green or red pepper if you can afford it, tinned toms or passata, spices of choice (dried, fresh or lazy chili, cumin, etc).

I also ate an awful lot of cheese on toast at college.