[DaGeek]

I haven't seen one of these for a while, and the closest I could find with the search was years old, so I figured I'd start a new one.


Basically, this thread is for CGR'ers like myself who are college students and want to cook at home but don't have fistfuls of cash lying around, nor an incredibly large assortment of cooking utensils and the like. I have the basics: Frying pans, pots, some baking pans, cookie sheets, measuring cups, bowls, etc. But that's it.

What are some good recipes that make decently healthy meals that are quick/easy/cheap to make?

Let's hear it!

[Rainer.]

Two words: Slow Cooker.

[surferdude9375]

Frozen foods. Like 90 cents each. Take 2 of them and combine with a meat/veggie pattie if your a veggie like me. Profit. Will last you for a dinner and lunch.

[beanbag]

buy a big bag of rice and a big bag of lentils or other beans. when you consider the amount of food a bag of either makes, it's really cheap. also, rice and beans together make a complete protein, and apparently new research shows that you don't have to eat them in the same meal as long as you eat them the same day. personally, i prefer to eat them together although i like lentil soup. you can throw in meat every so often, and there you have it.

i buy canned or frozen veggies, since i don't eat fresh ones fast enough to keep them from going bad. also, canned/frozen are cheaper. i also eat a lot of fruit, which isn't too expensive if you buy stuff that's in season and on sale. canned soup also isn't bad if you can find it on sale.

watch out for ready-made meals, but if you can find a bulk/wholesale store like costco, you can get some good deals on bulk items like massive bags of fruit and veggies, cereal, and even frozen meat. my dad keeps me well stocked with granola bars from costco. haha.

[Ted Logan]

Originally Posted by Rainer.

Two words: Slow Cooker.

This.

You can slow-cook almost anything, and it's hard to mess it up! You can make halfway decent barbecue (as in slow-cooked, fall-apart goodness. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and steaks are grilled, not barbecued). You can make AWESOME homemade spaghetti sauce. Goulash. Corned beef and cabbage. Pot roast. Brunswick stew.

And some of the GREATEST things about slow cookers for college students: You can do it anywhere, even a dorm room, and recipes are usually intended to make PLENTY of leftovers, so a single recipe might last you two dinners and three lunches or even more.

Here is a GREAT recipe for a Chicago classic - Italian beef for sandwiches. It's almost perfect. Only problem is that you can't slice the meat - it falls apart because it's so tender. Real Italian beef sandwiches are thinly-sliced.

EDIT: I forgot to mention - you should saute some green peppers and white onions to go on the Italian beef sandwiches, or if you don't have the energy to do so, throw some potatoes and carrots in with the meat for some classic pot roast vegetables on the side.

[bobthecockroach]

Some things that are healthy, filling, and cheap:

Carrots
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Really, pretty much any root vegetable (beets, rutabagas, turnips, etc.)
Lentils
Beans
Any grain (quinoa, wheat berries, bulgar, rice, etc.)
Pasta
Bread (look for frozen bread [the best is Alvarado Bakery Sprouted Barley Bread] or freeze your own, and please, no white bread)
Corn
Any winter squash (butternut, acorn, etc.)
Peanuts (in moderation)
Eggplant

Some things that are not quite as filling, but still healthy and cheap:

Lettuce
Cabbage
Apples
Bananas
Peas (which you should pretty much always buy frozen)
Onions (granted they're usually used for flavoring other things, but still)

Some things that are not quite as filling, but still healthy, and when in season / on sale are cheap:

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Any summer squash (zucchini, yellow, etc.)
Mushrooms

Some things that are not plants, but are still healthy in moderation, filling and cheap:

Eggs
Bone-in chicken thighs

Pretty much everything on this list can be had for close to $1 / pound when the time is right. Also, 90% of what I do in the kitchen could be done with a single skillet and a single burner on the stove. Equipment is very, very rarely a problem.

---

Also, if you like Indian food, you're set. Get the book 660 Curries by Rhagavan Iyer (spelling may be wrong) and rejoice. At least half the book is healthy, dirt cheap, delicious and easy to make.

---

To go into a little more detail on equipment, I would say you need these things:

A knife
A cutting board
A big skillet with a lid
A saucepan for boiling things in (with a lid), should be big enough to hold at least a half pound of pasta
A baking sheet with an edge so things won't fall off the side
A big heat-proof spoon to stir / serve

Pretty much everything else is a luxury.

---

Some general ideas for food preparation:

Roasted root vegetables
- Get some root vegetables
- Cut them in pieces
- Put them in the oven at 350
- Wait until soft
- Eat

You can also roast corn on the cob (30 minutes at 350). This is absolutely the best way on earth to cook corn. Don't shuck it until it's cooked.

Grain salad
- Get a grain (just about any grain will do, I like quinoa, but if you like rice or pasta or bulgur or spelt or amaranth or any other grain, use that)
- Boil it until soft
- Mix it with any fruit, any vegetable, any bean and any herb (mango, onion, black beans and cilantro is good; maybe try apple instead for a cheaper version)
- Add a little oil and vinegar
- Chill
- Eat

Veggie soup
- Put some veggies and veggie stock in a pot on the stove
- Wait until tender
- Eat

Cabbage stir-fry (I may have invented this, oh well)
- Cut up some cabbage into shreds
- Cut up any other vegetables you like
- Heat some oil in a skillet
- Throw all the vegetables in
- Heat until tender
- Add soy sauce to taste
- Eat (no need for rice, the cabbage adds plenty of bulk)

Chicken thighs
- Cook an onion up in your skillet
- Pour in a cup of water
- Nestle the chicken thighs down in the onion and water
- Put the lid on and reduce heat to low
- Wait until chicken is cooked through
- Eat

Scrambled eggs on toast
- Scramble eggs and season (in that order)
- Make toast (you don't need a toaster, it just wastes counter space; use the broiler in your oven)
- Put eggs on toast
- Eat

Banana curry... just try it
- http://kajaldreams.blogspot.com/2007...ana-curry.html

Lentil sloppy joes... these are way more delicious than they have any right to be. Seriously. I would eat these every day all day long.
- http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbreci...?RecipeID=2059

[Ted Logan]

bob just won the thread.

By the way, although he suggested chicken thighs and eggs in moderation, I am a HUGE fan of milk, whole chickens, and eggs. They're cheap, and they're healthy. A whole chicken, prepared properly, will give you a great deal of food for several days. I like to roast or smoke a whole chicken on the grill, but it's easy to roast a chicken in the oven and it doesn't take very long. The only thing that may complicate matters is that I have found brining absolutely necessary even with chickens that have been "enhanced" with salt water or chicken broth. If I don't brine the chicken for an hour, the texture is often ruined by the time it's cooked all the way through on my grill The alternative to buying a whole chicken is purchasing just chicken breasts. Here's the secret: You get more for your money with the whole bird, and you don't have to thaw it first!

And here's the great thing about the whole chicken - as good as chicken breast is, the leg tastes better and it's still healthier than red meat. And if you don't like dark meat, it's probably because you've never had it prepared properly.

I know, bob's probably going to say that too much chicken, eggs, and milk in your diet will lead to cholesterol and omega-6 fatty acid excesses, but considering most Americans already eat tons of red meat and highly-processed chicken products, switching to these three, less-processed foods and treating beef as a once- or twice-a-week treat will in fact be a healthy choice.

You can also make your own sandwich meat this way. Cold chunks of chicken or pot roast on whole grain bread is about 10032% better than whatever you buy thinly-sliced from the deli.

OH! I almost forgot. Ask for a bread machine for Christmas! Then start making your own whole wheat bread. It tastes awesome, it's good for you, and it's much cheaper than buying loaves. Bread makers have a "dough" setting where the machine kneads the dough and lets it rise, and then beeps to tell you it's done. You then put it on a baking stone or in a loaf pan, cover it and let it rise again, and then bake it yourself. The result is FAR superior to baking the bread in the machine, and FAR better for you than most of what you get at the store. We often will make one loaf on the baking stone for eating with other food, and one in the loaf pan for sandwiches. Here's a picture of Heather's latest loaf, which was aMAZing.

[bobthecockroach]

Originally Posted by Ted Logan

I know, bob's probably going to say that too much chicken, eggs, and milk in your diet will lead to cholesterol and omega-6 fatty acid excesses

Not at all. I'm not a nutritionist, nor do I want to be one.

I would, however, say that too much chicken, eggs and milk could lead to not enough vegetables. If you only eat one vegetable a day because you get full on chicken, then you should cut back on the chicken to make room for vegetables.

[Ted Logan]

Agreed

[DaGeek]

Holy cow, so many amazing ideas. I'm definitely going to try Banana Curry, and it sounds like I need to invest in a slow-cooker! I love slow-cooked meat and pot roast, so I have no idea why I didn't think of that before. Guess that's what this thread's for...

[bobthecockroach]

A few more things you should probably keep your eye on:

stonesoup
My New Roots

Especially: My New Roots: Kickin' Chickpeas (greatest snack on Earth; it will take a few tries to get them just right; I recommend doing what she says [sans pistachios cause they're expensive] then lowering heat to like 250 and waiting 'til they get really crsip)