Meal ideas for students to cook themselves

[MollyHuaCha]

Anyone fancy building up a few suggestions for students in self-catered halls or houses? I like the idea of giving DS a list of do-able meals. Here are a few already on the list:

Spaghetti and meatballs. This Jamie Oliver recipe is good.

Ham and cheese omelette - nice and quick!

Baked potato with cheese and tinned tuna

Sardines on toast

Possibly a spectacular fail with my links... apologies if they don't work!

I'll try again...

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/meatballs-and-pasta/

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1664635/spanish-sardines-on-toast

When I was a student I lived on pasta with cheese sauce and bacon.

I'm planning on getting DS the new jamie Oliver 5 ingredients book in the hope he eats something other than pizz and Chinese

When I was a student I didn't learn how to paste links into MN...

Toast. And fishmonger sandwiches are normal student fare. And noodles.

Salmon penne pasta

Boil pasta
Fry frozen peas in a little butter
Add smoked salmon
Stir in double cream
Add salt and pepper

All ingredients have a long shelf life and really delicious

Some sort of stew/casserole perhaps? Nothing wrong with a curry from a jar either. To be honest, apart from chilli and spaghetti Bolognese, I lived off Findus crispy pancakes and fish fingers when I was a student.

Good to teach them how to make a bolgnaise sauce and a white sauce. Both can then be adapted to make other dishes.

Although they could cook pasta and a few basics I spent a few weeks before uni teaching DC a lot of my own recipes and printed them off.
It was not as straightforward as it sounds because if they are learning from scratch the instructions have to be extremely precise. It's no good just saying chop and brown onions for example .

What I also did was a lot of stuff about how to choose and buy meat and vegetables, storing leftovers and re-heating safely. How to use jars of sauce in different ways - what to add and how. All seems obvious but most 18 year olds even if they cook are not used to actually buying the food. A trip round a supermarket comparing prices per 100g and looking at sell by dates was also useful.

DS1 is now a very good and enthusiastic cook

DS2's just asked me to re-write his dog eared cook book ready for year 2 as he is now vegetarian. Which is kind of nice because it shows he actually used it.

Nice ideas. We've been doing a crash cookery course in the last few weeks. So far two pans have been burnt and had to be thrown away. I think the smoke alarm will soon need new batteries due to overuse...

Hairy bikers Spanish chicken
Spicy chicken drumsticks with noodles
Spaghetti carbonara
bbc good food chicken and chorizo jambalaya
Cottage pie (just mince in gravy.veg and topped with frozen mash)
Sweet and sour chicken is easy too
Pilaf to go with stuff
Chilli - we like ours stuffed in soft tacos with melted grated cheese on the top
macaroni cheese

Although not really a meal, My 3 DS's aged 11, 12 and 15 can make scrambled eggs, toast and beans. I figured If they are ever stuck/hungry they can make something other than Pot Noodle. (shuffles off to look for Jamies 5 ingredient book)

Good housekeeping do a book called The Bumper Student Cookbook which is quite good.

The recipes are probably dated, but when I went to uni I had a cookbook called 'Cooking in a bedsitter' which was great as it assumed you were able to store very little, had no freezer (as I didn't in my first 3 student places), and what you bought had to be in scalable portions - for instance, a packet of 6 sausages would have been 3 meals and gone off or been stolen by the time I got to the end of them.

Things like a really basic tomato sauce for pasta, stir fry, white/cheese sauce, bolognaise/chilli type thing (basic frying mince, browning onions technique), cooking rice, and baked potato will go a lot further than a recipe book though as they can look up anything online, but if they can't chop and fry things its not going to work.

Learning to shop is important, as is the use by dates, storing and reheating food, plus how to adapt leftovers. For instance, you can't buy a packet of mince for one, so you start as spag bog, then add beans, chilli powder, peppers to make it chilli - you can't do it the other way round! And stretching things out - like adding lentils to the spag bog

Since he finished exams I've given DS a budget and expected him to buy and cook for himself ..harsh but my mum did it and it was a real eye opener then for me. And it was for him but it has meant he's become adept at the Tesco reduced counter for meat fish and cheese also he's gotten into offal and will happily cook hearts and liver ....he's not gonna be popular with some of his flat mates but they're cheap healthy cuts of meat. I think it's really helped him

I'm a lot in love with the 'sachets' you can buy with like seasoning and a cooking bag, the chicken ones are good and I love the Colman's beef stew. You just put the meat, some veg, the seasoning and whatever liquid it says on the packet, in the bag then tie it off shake it about a bit and stick in the oven. So simple, and yummy.

As students we lived on pasta and sauces mostly. Splashed out on casseroles sometimes because we liked the convenience of one pot that you stuck in the oven. So I'd be teaching them a few of both.

Having said that, I also plan to ensure (even if it kills them/me) that DS and DD leave home able to cook the following (yes, I've thought about this too much):

A really decent steak ( you can't go wrong if you ever need to impress with that!)
A decent, tasty salad that they can take to people's houses when asked to do contribute.
At least one meat and one veggie pasta sauce for everyday cooking (my proposals are my famous sausage/ fennel sauce and roasted tomatoes with pesto, avocado and goats cheese).
A decent mince for spaghetti bol/ mince on toast/ jacket potatoes/ lasagna
One vegetable soup from store cupboard ingredients
Roast chicken, including roast potatoes
Lamb or beef stew
How to make a basic casserole (or stew as above).
Scrambled, fried, boiled eggs and an omelette.
Pancakes
Also, how to jazz up a shop bought pizza so that it's a million times nicer.

Ideally, they'll learn more including cheese sauce, curries, stir fries etc. But that's my bare minimum based on what they can live on easily and cheaply, even as students.

Quesedillas

My 3 DS's aged 11, 12 and 15 can make scrambled eggs, toast and beans
Well yes of course, but that's enough to grab a snack, not really proper cooking. Half a dozen proper home cooked recipes helps stave off the boredom of convenience food. DS2 though he could live on Macaroni cheese but was soon pretty bored with pasta every meal.

If they are meat eaters a slow cooker is brilliant. DS1 used to put it on before setting off to uni and it was ready whatever time he got back. He and his flat took turns at cooking sometimes and they all used the slow cooker.

Hazily remembers student days which involved fish finger sarnies and kebabs for the most part. I knew how to cook many things. Didn't bother though ;-)

We got DD a George Foreman type grill thing and she found that really useful for cooking chicken fillets, steaks, lamb chops etc and Mediterranean vegetables to go in a wrap with cheese.

Other staples were Omelettes, tuna pasta, baked potato, pizza and salad, curries using ready bought jars of sauce and stir fry using pre-prepped veg.

Quite often she buys ready meals (stews and casseroles in microwaveable pots or Moussaka/Lasagne) and she steams veg to go with it.

When my kids cook (they are mid-late teens and both can) they tend to follow a recipe from BBC good food. Chilli, pasta and chicken tray bakes have been done in the last fortnight - all pretty good.

I bought mine each a slow cooker, and they've found them really useful.
Also, they both have a copy of 'A girl called Jack'. It's a brilliant budget cookbook.

I'm in the middle of teaching DS1 a few things before he goes off in a week or 2.

Last night was chicken with garlic, cider and cream (a Nigel Slater recipe and more of a 'if I need to impress' kinda recipe) and tonight is a one pan meal of sausages with carrots, celery and tinned pulses.

Tomorrow will be chicken, chorizo and peppers to go with rice or pasta.

I worry that even if he can cook a few decent meals, he'll still be living on toast