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Help me eat cheaply
Loren Michael
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Okay, I'm at college again. I want to try to spend as little money on food as possible while maintaining a healthy diet. I can visit a supermarket essentially at will and I have access to a kitchen if I need it.
I have no refrigeration.
I have no qualms about making daily trips to wherever if need be, and I can eat pretty much anything. I love East Asian food and I'm fully capable of and happy to eat a brick of plain tofu if I need to. If I like something I'm fully capable of eating it pretty much all the time without getting bored of it, so if I stumble upon something that works and is healthy, I don't need a lot else.
What should I eat?
I have no refrigeration.
I have no qualms about making daily trips to wherever if need be, and I can eat pretty much anything. I love East Asian food and I'm fully capable of and happy to eat a brick of plain tofu if I need to. If I like something I'm fully capable of eating it pretty much all the time without getting bored of it, so if I stumble upon something that works and is healthy, I don't need a lot else.
What should I eat?
Loren Michael on
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Next up, bake yourself some damn cookies. You can easier control the healthyness of baked goods, and if your like me, you gotta eat something sweet now and then. I would say once a week or every 2 weeks go to a friends/family members and bake yourself a box of cookies. Takes about an hour start to finish including cleanup, and I'm sure you could do it on $5.00.
You need protien in your diet, but since you have no fridge I would reccomend some dried meats, preferably lower in sodium. Or cans of nuts. Both of these are moderately expensive, but I would consider protien a neccesity to "eating healthy".
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I've posted this recipe a bunch of times on here but I think it's that good: fried penne.
Ingredients:
• 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil (probably olive oil in your case—no refrigeration needed)
• 1 cup penne
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 kettleful boiling water
• 1/4 cup dry vermouth
• Salt and pepper
Directions:
1. Saute onion in butter/oil until almost carmelized. Add penne and continue to saute until pasta is coated in fat, about 1 minute.
2. Add boiling water to cover pasta, along with salt to taste. Stir, and continue boiling until pasta absorbs most of the water. Add more boiling water to cover, bit by bit, repeatedly, letting it get absorbed each time (like risotto), until the pasta is al-dente and pan is almost dry.
3. Add vermouth, bring to boil, and let pasta absorb liquid until a glazy sauce remains. Serve, with fresh ground pepper and grated parmesan cheese over the top.
...
You can add any vegetables you like in addition to the onions—zucchini, mushrooms, and peppers would probably be good. You can also add some minced garlic and/or red pepper flakes along with the penne.
I highly recommend pastas and rice for carbs; you don't need to refrigerate these and they are easy to prepare as well and for cheap, especially if you have some sort of rice cooker.
One thing to keep an eye on is sodium intake; cheap prepared foods tend to be very high in sodium (like ramen), so watch out for this. This "choice" ramen sounds like a good idea, but I have no experience with it as I draw the line at Ramen.
If it all possible, try to find at least a tiny amount of fridge space so you can keep butter or your preference of equivalent. Butter is very, very useful.
1 can of cream of mushroom soup.
1/2 cup of milk
1 can of tuna (drained)
Heat and pour over toast or rice or something.
Also, dented cans, day old bread, milk creeping up on the expiration date... all these things and more are gonna provide you a nice discount over all those rich folk and their unfucked up foods.
It's great to put canned meat over with some sort of sauce.
Not a day goes by that some place isn't handing out free tacos/burgers/salads/subs.
Taco Soup (aka "It's not chili, dammit!")
1.5 lb ground beef (browned and drained; optional)
1 can corn
1 can white hominy (don't drain)
1 can yellow hominy (don't drain)
1 can Rotel* diced tomatoes (Original)
1 can Rotel* diced tomatoes (Mild)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cans beans, rinsed and drained (black beans, kidney beans, whatever you want)
1 package taco seasoning
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch* dry seasoning mix
Put all ingredients in large pot and simmer for 1-2 hours (1 for more of a "soup", 2 for more of a "chili"). Stir occasionally. Garnish with shredded cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream, and/or black olives.
*The brand doesn't matter; it's just the kind my grocery store carries.
When I was eating inexpensively, I recognized that not every meal was going to give me the nutrients I needed for the day by itself, but tried to make sure that by the end of the day, I had something healty from each food group. For example, yogurt in the morning, a granola bar as a snack, some kind of protein like a bean burrito for lunch, and then something with veggies for dinner. Also, don't underestimate the good food you can get by joining campus groups. Usually it's pizza and/or bad calories, but if the rest of your diet doesn't include those things, they really act more as supplements to your diet.
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons curry powder (sweet or mild)
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala (see note above)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 medium onions , chopped fine (about 2 cups)
12 ounces Red Bliss potatoes , scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
3 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 - 1 1/2 serrano chiles , ribs, seeds, and flesh minced (see note above)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 medium head cauliflower , trimmed, cored, and cut into 1-inch florets (about 4 cups)
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes , pulsed in food processor until nearly smooth with 1/4-inch pieces visible
1 1/4 cups water
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas , drained and rinsed
Table salt
8 ounces frozen peas (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup coconut milk
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Toast curry powder and garam masala in small skillet over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until spices darken slightly and become fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove spices from skillet and set aside.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onions and potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are caramelized and potatoes are golden brown on edges, about 10 minutes. (Reduce heat to medium if onions darken too quickly.)
3. Reduce heat to medium. Clear center of pan and add remaining tablespoon oil, garlic, ginger, chile, and tomato paste; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add toasted spices and cook, stirring constantly, about 1 minute longer. Add cauliflower and cook, stirring constantly, until spices coat florets, about 2 minutes longer.
4. Add tomatoes, water, chickpeas, and 1 teaspoon salt; increase heat to medium-high and bring mixture to boil, scraping bottom of pan with wooden spoon to loosen browned bits. Cover and reduce heat to medium. Simmer briskly, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in peas and cream or coconut milk; continue to cook until heated through, about 2 minutes longer. Adjust seasoning with salt and serve immediately, passing condiments separately.
...
As you can see, the problem is that a lot of the ingredients come in cans. If you need a solo recipe, and are willing to expend a bit of effort, you can:
• buy dry chickpeas, hydrate small amount of them overnight, and use them in place of canned
• buy individual tomatoes
• leave out the peas or substitute a handful of snow peas or green beans
Brown rice is delicious. You can easily make a burrito with rice, black beans, wheat tortilla, and whatever else you want to chunk in there veggie wise.
1 can of Chili beans
1 can of Mixed vegetables
Begin cooking rice.
Open cans and place contents into microwave safe bowl.
Microwave for 1.5 minutes
When rice is done, stir in bean/vegetable mix.
Add cheese and hot sauce if budget permits.
Price per meal < $3
Coupons can be good.
This will sound crazy but consider stopping by your local grocery store every day or two and seeing what they have marked down. Around this area we have Kroger and the bakery/deli often has stuff tagged "for quick sale" which means it's cheap and you need to eat it in about a day. Baked bread (not bagged sliced stuff) will be good for a few days if you keep it in a ziploc. To be honest after college I've found it hard to just eat sliced bread (snobby, I know). A bread box in my experience has always turned into a breeding ground for tiny flies.
Consider cured meats that can be kept cool and dry in air tight containers without too much worry. Really hard cheeses can be OK if kept cool and dry.
If you can find a really big microwaveable tupperware container that can hold around 6 cups of water you can boil spaghetti in about 11 or 15 minutes. You'll need to watch for boil overs, and oven mitts are recommended because that stuff is going to be HOT.
Have you considered a cooler? I'm not sure on how much of a communal kitchen you have or how trustworthy your fellow students are but if there's a communal fridge that you could freeze some cooler packs in every few nights you might be able to simulate something of a fridge of your own in your room.
I wouldn't recommend buying stuff like canned chili though unless you check the nutrition and it's okay. But I was looking at some at the supermarket the other day and there was fucking 2g of trans fats in the 500ml canned chili. WTF
Probably not healthy, but it's sure as hell cheap...
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Made this tonight and it was very good, though in retrospect I shouldn't have cheaped out on the vermouth.
Depends on what meat you're using, back in college, this is what I would do if I fubar'd my food budget.
Canned Tuna - Cheap cheese sauce. Usually get some cheap alfredo packets at the store (the kind that you add like a cup of milk to it and heat). That should cloy well with the meat. That, or you can use a few packets of mayo from whatever food joint you just went to and add some pickle relish and have a po-man's tuna casserole. Sprinkle some parmesan if you can swing it.
Canned Chicken/Turkey - This will be a bit trickier as the canned meats usually have gobs of salt to keep them preserved. Hrm, in this case I would just mix a dash of barbecue sauce with some lemon juice and hot sauce and call it at that, mix the chicken in it and do a quick saute in a pan. You'll get a light dash of flavor with the chicken and you won't have to worry about oversalting it. Plus the saute will usually give the chicken a nice crispy glaze and that always is yummy.
Canned Chili/Beef Stew - Nothing really to add here, maybe some hot sauce if you want to spice things up a bit or a dash of lemon juice for some tang. If you have some bags of chips or crackers you can crush them over it and it works well.
Clam Chowder - This actually works really really well, especially on noodles. Just heat it like you normally would, usually on low heat, but let it cook a bit longer and use less milk. This will reduce the soup into more of a "stew" or "thick sauce" and it works great on rice or noodles. Just be careful not to overcook it, as it does burn easily.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
I'm a huge sucker for split pea soup, and it's fairly easy to make. Dry split peas are also cheap as dirt.
Chili can also be very cheap to make, and extremely healthy. It also freezes really well. Instead of using beef, try using chicken breast instead. Tastes amazing, and it cuts out a huge amount of fat and cholesterol.
You can also give bean burgers a shot. Actually rather tasty. I've found adding a small amount of soy sauce can give it a much heartier flavor.
Rice and beans is always a great side. Easy to whip up. Makes a fairly solid meal too.
And as for rice itself, learn to make rice pudding. Very cheap to make and rather low in sugar for a dessert (since rice is so bland, the sugar goes a long way). It makes a really nice breakfast as well.
Heck, I recommend every one to keep several bags of dry rice and dry beans in the cupboard, along with a container of plain oats. If anything ever comes up that financially rapes you, it's nice to know you've got something to fall back on if you don't have money for shopping. A single person could easily survive off of five bucks a week off those. I've been there, even eaten plain oatmeal (kinda like soggy cardboard).
Don't go out to eat, at all, even McDonald's isn't worth the money. Try to eat all the leftovers. Iced tea makes a great beverage that's fairly cheap, and beats the hell out of soft drinks. Dairy is pricey as hell, use it sparingly.
As for sweets, peanut butter balls are awesome, fairly healthy considering it's a treat, and easy to make:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup non-fat dry milk
1/4 cup honey (recipe calls for a half a cup, but I think that's too sweet, and I like to add a bit of molasses)
Oats, coconut, cereal... something to coat them
Mix together, roll into balls, roll into your coating. Chill them, then munch on them while blowing up dudes in TF2.
edit:
Damnit, just saw the bolded no refrigeration. Stick with canned beans then. Cooking dry beans is best if done in large amounts. Rice, on the other hand, only takes 30 minutes.
You can cook most basic things that call for milk with canned milk. if you buy liquid milk, organic milk is usually hella pasturized and keeps longer and better.
You can also buy a cooler and keep it in the coolest part of your room - the dark, cool, dry environment can be kind of a root cellar for your eggs and stuff.
Do you have some weird dorm rule against having a fridge? If expense is the factor, just bide your time until you can find one second hand. It's not that hard around a college. You might be able to get one cheap or free when someone moves.
I'd say a steamer and rice/veggies are your friends.
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A great recipe I recently stumbled across for eating what is normally one of my least favorite veggies: kale. It's vegan (but you won't notice), it's quick, it's easy, it's relatively cheap, and none of the ingredients save the ones you should be getting fresh anyways require refrigeration. You wouldn't think kale, peanut butter, and pineapple would really mix well together, but somehow it works! I think it goes best over a bed of couscous, but I'm sure rice is fine.
African Pineapple Peanut Stew:
1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 bunch kale or Swiss chard (4 cups sliced)
2 cups undrained canned crushed pineapple (one 20-ounce can)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce (I usually use tapatio)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
(no need for garnish imo, but the recipe calls for peanuts and scallions)
Wash the kale and cut it into 1'' strips. Sauté the onions and garlic for a few minutes. Add the pineapple and the juice in the can and simmer. Add the kale and simmer for a few minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer.
Brown rice
Oatmeal
Beans (I like red ones, but all of them are good)
Whole wheat flour
Whole wheat noodles and pasta
Lentails
Nuts (ussually more expensive then above things)
Raisins
Canned soup (sodium is typically very high though)
Ramon noodles (not very healthily)
Also most root vegetables are cheap, keep well and are healthily:
Potatoes (strachy), yams, carrots, beets, onions, garlic, radishes
Fruits would also be good. Apples, oranges, bananas; you don't need a fridge for them.
This. A quick local search on Kijiji turned up a trio of bar fridges under $50, a couple with busted freezers being used as "beer fridges" for ~$20, and one for free. Hit up Craigslist and enlist some buddies/roommates, offer to give them beer once it's been chilled in your new fridge.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Rice cooker should be considered a requirement. 2 cups of rice + 2.25 cups of water + chicken bullion (I use this mexican Chicken + tomato stuff that comes in a jar) + soy sauce = meal.
since everyone is posting rice recipes my favourite, a Mexican one.
http://www.chef2chef.net/featured_recipes/mexican_rice.php
dead easy to make, taste grrrrrrrreat.
If you're stuck cooking a single serving at a time it's going to be more expensive and vastly more time consuming.
Steel cut oats are by far cheaper, healthier, and tastier; they just take forever to cook. I do mine over night in a crock pot.
Note to you: Buy a crock pot
This indeed, a fridge (preferrably with a small freezer) would be a good investment. Especially around moving time, these things tend to grow in the wild on a campus.