If your DC have been in halls with a small shared kitchen, what sorts of meals did they make?

[StartingAgainFGS]

DC is away to halls in September..I want to give them a list of some meal ideas that they can fall back on and not waste their very limited budget on take out!
They have access to the bog standard electric hob, fridge freezer and microwave.
What have been cheap and hopefully healthy staples for your dc?

Pasta with sauce (various)
Chicken curry or similar (provide with spices)
Big pot of sausage casserole or chick pea curry (in one Le Creuset style pot)
Risotto
Fried chicken and veg

Might be worth buying an air fryer if there’s no oven. Cheap ones are available

Bags of frozen mixed veg which DC can chuck into any pasta sauce/stir fry. Cheap, varied, always available and doesn’t go off like fresh veg. (Have to negotiate freezer space though!)

Definitely they'll need an air fryer and a toaster and kettle. I lived off spaghetti hoops on toast and pesto pasta as a teen student. That and McDonald's. Not very healthy!

It's also worth finding out how big the fridge freezer is, or if there's more than one. Could they have a small fridge in their room?

We had one with a small freezer at the top between six and it wasn't really big enough to keep much frozen food in the house.

No oven ? If you can affordable an air fryer then food like fish fingers would be nice and easy?

Pasta pesto
Packet noodles
Pasta pesto
More packet noodles
Pasta pesto

Bought her an air fryer which she never used.
She does at least tend to throw some veg in with it and takes a multi vitamin.
She seems to have survived! I know that's not helpful from a practical point of view but hopefully it's reassuring at least.

Chicken and vegetables, cooked in one pot, made with frozen vegetables and served with rice.

He baked quite a lot though.

One of the flatmates had an air fryer.

Is this in catered accommodation?
It's very unusual not to have an oven of some sort.

Check whether they can take any small electricals with them - not all halls allow airfryers, rice cookers, slow cookers etc

Check that the hall will allow an air fryer (not all will).

For food, DD lived off pasta with a tomato sauce and whatever meat (bacon, chicken, sausage) thrown in with salad.

Or rice with cut up meat and vegetables mixed in (can use frozen mixed veg).

Both easy and not a lot to cook.

Pasta and sauce
Pasta and pesto
Ready made/tinned soup and bread
Beans on toast
Jacket potato (literally a potato in the microwave) with cheese/beans/coleslaw and salad
Cous cous with chopped veggies
Microwave rice packets
Spag hoops on toast
Scrambled egg with torn up spinach (in a microwavable pyrex jug)
Microwave porridge
Sandwiches
Cereal

Mostly we found it depended on what dishes and vessels were clean. If they could only find a bowl then might have a bowl of beans or a bowl of hoops or a bowl of scrambled eggs and balance a slice of toast on top to dip in, or just a bowl of cereal. 😂

Another vote for pesto pasta and instant noodles.

Stir fries (small wok) and pasta.

A point to note is that food they are not fussed about at home, might become more interesting if it's quick/easy/cheap to cook.

DD would never cook eggs for herself at home, but she's realised that scrambled eggs or omelette is an easy filling fallback and often does so at uni.

the nosh student cook book was excellent

dd lived off chick peas

Yup. DD has just done a year in halls doing this. Stir fries were great for her, as there are massive variations, it's a good way of getting vegetables in, and using up leftover ingredients. Another flatmate also had an airfryer, which helped.

Wraps with various fillings
Lots of salmon with rice and veg (use boil in bag rice)
Halloumi burgers

DC1 and friends ate a lot of chicken in some sort of seasoning with rice and frozen mixed vegetables or fresh tenderstem broccoli or frozen jacket potatoes with tuna mayo and salad.
DC1 prefers to cook one big dish like curry, chilli, bolognese or casserole and has it in various ways, either with rice or pasta, then on a jacket potato then in a wrap or a sub roll, then he saves a portion for the freezer for a low cooking week.

Dd does a lot of meal prepping

Pasta bolognese
Chicken thighs with some kind of grain (couscous or rice)
Tuna pasta
Tofu, veg & noodles
Steamed fish, spinach & grains
Avocado based salad
Chicken or tuna wraps with salad

Definite themes emerging @StartingAgainFGS

My list conflated DD (low effort veggie) and DS2 (foodie meat eater) lol.

Goid point re checking if air fryer is allowed - we actually got ds’s when he was in a private rental in second year.

I am also surprised if there is no oven in sc halls - check that too. Oven opens up a lot of quick stuff. Also check freezer space - frozen veg like broccoli is a great shout. It takes one person four meals to eat a fresh head of broccoli

Food theft is not limited to food, ds3 kept toilet paper under lock and key.
Dishes piled in the sink, filthy smelly with no one able to wash their own.
Both boys had roommates who needed help paying for food.
As a parent be prepared it’s not great.

Unfortunately this was also our experience of 1st year halls. Absolutely manky with food spilled everywhere including floor. Never cleaned. Bins never emptied. Hello maggots. Very limited prep space and overall a bit of a shocker. You may find that some takeout/sitdown cafe stuff on campus is very reasonably priced. This is what my DS had to do in the end as the kitchen situation was just not working. Another at the same uni had his mum batch cook and freeze so he didn't need to actually do anything cooking wise - his kitchen was shared with about 15 people and a total stinking nightmare. Another of his friends at the same uni just ate freezer food like chicken and chips because the prep space was so cluttered and filthy.

You might get lucky, but be prepared!

DD shared with 3 other girls and 4 boys, they had 2 fridges and 2 freezers, so got 1 shelves of fridge and 1 draw of freezer. I brought a tall freezer with 8 draws for them all to share. The halls provided kettle toaster, microwave and full cooker. 2 other parents brought 2 big air fryers. They had a roator for cleaning, although everyone done their own pots and pans. By Xmas time, they were all cooking and eating together 3 nights a week. They all throw a few quid in and someone would task a meal, could be a roast, spaghetti bowl, fajitas, normally those that cooked didn't do the dishes. They also use to do online food shops and transfer what was owed to each other. DD went to live with 3 of the boys the following year in a house share and they still all eat together regular

Everyone in my halls bought their own small fridge/freezer as theft and filth was hard to deal with. We did have old fashioned big rooms though.

Toasted sandwiches were really popular when I was at uni. Basically out anything between slices of bread and toast it 🤣

Just to note DD laundry unit at uni only took liquid washing detergent not pods, so woth checking. They also had to provide own toilet roll, and DD took her own bathmat

Very few halls allow fridges or freezers beyond what has been provided. The only exception would be for medical reasons, and even then the appliance is often provided by the uni.