Uni Recipes - Please add to this! Anything cheap and easy to prepare

[Ventress]

Hi all,
As we discussed on the year 13 thread, our young people are sometimes not the best with preparing cheap and healthy meals so this thread is give them some ideas 😊

Please join me in adding your ideas and recipes 😊

Here we go…

Curry
tin of coconut milk
tin of chickpeas, drained
tin of sweetcorn
1/3 jar or so of Patak’s
whatever veg are kicking about - frozen peas, green beans, cauliflower, sweet potatoes all work well

a chicken breast, diced (optional)

if you’re using chicken, brown it off in a wok/big frying pan first.
then add everything else, cook for 20 mins until veg and chicken are cooked, and sauce has thickened up.

flatbreads
mix equal volumes of Nat yoghurt and flour. Add mustard seeds or coarsely ground black pepper. form into patties. Fry.

Let’s not forget these super-easy ones for when groceries are low and time is short!

Marmite Pasta

Cook some pasta, drain and reserve.
Melt butter in the hot pan, add Marmite to taste (a little goes a long way), and stir in well
Add pasta back to the pan and coat it with Marmite butter while still heating on the hob
Serve with any veg or salad (seasoning with pepper and ideally grated Parmesan cheese)

Boursin Pasta

As above, but using Boursin cheese instead of Marmite. Parmesan can be dispensed with.

This is a fab thread!
Pasta bake- handful of raw pasta per person, spoonful of cream cheese per person, I use a whole pack of passata for a family but probably half, cheese and crisps on top, put in oven until pasta is cooked. Dhal- boil red lentils with turmeric only- no salt, fry some onions, a chilli and curry powder ( maybe ginger and garlic paste if pushing the boat out) when lentils soft, tip the onion mix into it, season. I might get DS a microwave rice cooker ( 1 cup rice to 1 1/2 cups water, shove it in, micro 20 minutes). Bean chilli- fry onion and peppers, open tin of mixed beans, add taco seasoning. I have hundreds of spices but it's probably easier to get tubs of ready mixed.

Italian Bean Stew Recipe | Stew Recipes | Tesco Real Food https://share.google/aQO6ZqGk8C0tOavaI

This takes a bit of time to prepare but is cheap and healthy, and delicious as leftovers too

These are fab - I’m definitely going to try these out with DS ! I absolutely don’t want DS to think that uber eats is the default “nothing in the house” option.

I think the idea of frozen veg is excellent. I guess it depends how much freezer space each student has but having a bag of frozen mixed veg would be great. Plus (in DS’ case at least) a bag of frozen fruit for his milkshakes/smoothies. Plus some little bags of ragu , chilli or curry for major convenience 😊

Look forward to you contributing @gingercat02I’d love DS to have the options from a proper dietitian given his stupid height (6’5”) and low weight!

It’s a long time since I was a student but some of my favourites were:
pizzas made from french sticks.
before I was confident cooking meat I used to buy sliced chicken/beef from the counter in the supermarket and heat it up in gravy - served with mash and veg.
chicken and pepper cooked and mushroom soup added to make the sauce with curry powder. Served with rice. I loved that.

rice pouches are expensive but they are cheaper in home bargains. They are good for a standby dinner.

I keep thinking of more!
Cheats carbonara
Boil pasta of choice
Fry off bits of bacon or mushrooms or both.
Beat a whole egg and add a handful of grated cheese, parmesan preferably but any will do
When the pastas cooked add a few spoonfuls of the pasta water to the bacon pan, take off the heat and stir in the egg and cheese mixture, quickly.
Drain the pasta and stir it all together.
Lots of black pepper.

I had a small Amazon “middle of the night” accident and bought some rice pouches. They were only £5 for 6 pouches, which seemed pretty good value . I got egg fried rice and savoury chicken rice. he can use these with stir fry or anything really!

heating meat with gravy and serving with mashed potato is something I used to do too 😊

mmmm, carbonara 😍that sounds really good.

i thought of making other slow cooked things in advance and then putting these into small bags for the freezer at university. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/ragout an obvious one would be ragout. Some recipes in the bbc link.

I’m going to put together a “kitchen box” which will have all the long life stuff in it - herbs and spices, pasta, rice, stock cubes, condiments (vitamins 🙄) I’m sure to have more when I start going through the kitchen cupboards.

Also slow cooked ratatouille for the freezer 🙂

Also, a bathroom box with toiletries and cleaning materials 🙂

Just reading the “cheap and nasty food” thread and lots of tins are suggested - hot dog sausages, potatoes, soups (particularly mushroom). Plus packets. Some good ideas that I will add to my “kitchen box” 🙂

Yes to chorizo! DS is in his 2nd year of uni, buys a chorizo that he puts into almost everything (including omelettes) and it still lasts 3+ weeks...

With 'pot noodle' type products, add dried soya chunks or soya mince to up the protein. I also add spinach leaves. Makes a cheat meal.

My DS prepares big batches of meatballs, pork and beef, lamb and turkey. Usually just mixed with breadcrumbs, some water and onion and garlic powder. He cooks some in the oven and leaves some raw and freezes them on a baking tray then they go in freezer bags. Then he uses them in loads of different ways.
Meatball sandwiches,
in tomato sauce with pasta,
in goulash sauce with rice,
in IKEA style gravy with mash,
in a tagine with cous cous,
on a skewer like a kebab with pitta and salad,
with roasted veg and halloumi as a traybake,
with bulgar wheat and salad,
just as a snack on their own.
They can be eaten hot or cold, don’t take up masses of room in the freezer, defrost quickly and can be cooked in the air fryer or a pan, you can just take out exactly what you need so little waste, ready cooked ones will go straight into a hot sauce and defrost in there. So versatile and pretty cheap.

Yes! This! The idea that any of my kids in any of their uni halls could have batch cooked is laughable. They sometimes struggled to get access to oven etc even for their evening meal. Quick, easy and as nutritious as possible was what was called for. Kitchen hogs were unpopular.

Life is easier if you’re lucky enough to have fellow student pals who want to cook with you and eat together - but there is no guaranteeing that.

Youngest child was lucky in this respect with halls ‘corridor buddies’ having at least one communal meal a week involving great experimentation or just ordered in pizza. Her grandfather was absolutely delighted to be what’s apped pre Christmas from the entire student flat as they tried to cook a communal Christmas meal (for his tips on how they could do the best roast potatoes for their last meal together pre returning home for Christmas. )🤣

For mine in halls it was more the issue of space to keep anything in bulk either food or ingredients. One freezer drawer which is what both of mine had doesn’t hold much and the cupboards have to store their pots and pans as well as food. Unless they keep things in their rooms.
One of DD’s flat mates was sent with a crate of chopped tomatoes, a sack of rice and a huge bag of pasta. Which left her with literally no room for anything else.
DD had cleaners who were amazing for the communal areas and they would tell all the parents not to send huge amounts of food because the amount of food they chucked away was disgraceful.

Omg Christmas meal! To be honest I think I’d just go for frozen roasted potatoes (but I am a wuss!)

with the sport schedule I think DS may be eating at strange times so , hopefully , he will be okay to get to the oven 🤞

Place marking to read later
DD is trying to love overnight oats, so will be experimenting with it. Recently found out peanut butter, now spreading on everything ( DS is highly allergic, so we don’t usually buy it and never gave her as a small kid, to avoid cross contamination)
A nice sunny side up and toast would be her dinner every night!
Will they be okay to have an air fryer/slowcooker/ smoothie maker? wherever I visited I think they said only toaster and kettle, that too in common rooms

DD and DS could have extra gadgets in their halls but obviously everywhere is different however even if it’s allowed I would wait until they get there to actually see the available space and to see what everyone else brings. Both of them ended up clubbing together with others for air fryers, slow cookers and a teapot in DS1’s case.
They’re unlikely to be cooking much in the first week or so with all the £2 pizza offers and freshers events.

Mix tin of ratatouille, tin of chickpeas and a jar of curry sauce for easy vegetable curry. Serve with boil in the bag rice.

DS has been enjoying turning any kinds of leftovers into burritos - either as is or warmed on a dry frying pan. Chilli & rice, scrambled egg & bacon, all sorts!

This is what I sent them for pack lunch now. Themos pot is such a faff to get heat up when kids leave before 7 in the morning. Other than rice, everything goes in wrap, and added cheese in form of burritos or quesadillas 😬😬

I eat a lot of those.