What consists of the student diet?

[o0BigDave0o]

As with many people around my age (17+) Education is a priority in life; mainly university. I've heard many stories of students attempting to cook absolutely anything from absolutely anything! I know of people who lived off noodles for 3 years straight, pasta seems to be another favourite =P
There are some real money savers out there to help aid students; and I know how tight a students income is, so how about sharing some of your budget meals that are regular served on the students table?

 

[baddude1337]

I didn't go Uni as I didn't really want to, college was enough for me.

But a lot of my friends do live of ready meals and noodles, like Rustlers and Pot Noodles. Just convenience I suppose. I personally can cook (I was one of the few guys to do Food Tech in my school) I just can't be assed.

 

[GeorgW]

Pasta for me! If I need protein I'll just head home for dinner.

 

[Deverfro]

Bulk Buy rice

 

[supermariner]

i was up until very recently a student
and my diet consisted of deep fat fried chips
twice every day for two years

 

[FriedRicer]

PIZZA!...No, seriously pizza, Chinese and ramen is all you need.And like 8 cereals...My second semester when I ate my 1.3k meal plan away.lmao

 

[SimuLord]

I'm 33, but might as well be 19 for where my lifestyle has me right now, in college and surviving on a budget of about $1100 a month for rent ($575), utilities ($100 for heat, electricity, and Internet service), paying off a computer ($100 a month for the next year), and getting from one end of town to the other on the bus ($70). So I think I qualify (since after the previous I'm left with about $50-60 at most a week for food, and then only if, y'know, I never go out on a date or to a movie or buy a game or otherwise try to entertain myself).

Realistically, it's more like $6 a day. So, in that mold, here's stuff I get for under $6:

- Homemade cheeseburgers. I buy a pound of ground beef for $3.29, a pack of buns for $1.25 (yay, Target!), pickles and barbecue sauce are negligible. The buns are usually repurposed---after using up four of them for four quarter-pound burgers what remains gets used as something like garlic toast for...

- Pasta and sauce. $1 for a pound of pasta, $2.50 for a jar of good sauce, makes two meals at $1.75 each. Add in the leftover bread, some butter, and garlic powder (dirt cheap on a per-meal basis) and you're golden.

- Something I call Bachelor Chow (and I've been calling it that since 1996, Futurama fans.) A pound of ground pork ($4.29 at Whole Foods), half a bag of whole-kernel frozen corn (90 cents for the portion, $1.79 for the bag, also at Whole Foods), and about a third of a bottle of A-1 Sauce ($1.43 for the meal, $4.29 for the sauce at Raley's, occasionally found as low as $2.89 at Target or Wal-Mart). Bit more expensive but so deliciously worth it. Your mileage may vary depending on your opinion of steak sauce.

- Fast food: On Tuesday and Thursday Del Taco has cheap deals---3 classic tacos on Tues., 3 chicken soft tacos on Thurs., for $2.09. Add in nachos, a drink, and sales tax and it comes to $5.55.

Looking forward to getting this computer paid off so I can have that $3 a day back in my budget!

 

[Radeonx]

Well, since I now live in a house I can cook real food, but when I lived in the dorm my diet consisted of Ramen, Easy Mac, and the pizza business that ran out of my dorm's basement.
Nowadays we make whatever we want because we have a stove and such.

 

[Dash85]

chicken...fried chicken. Also I make pastas, some with beef, some with sausage. I eat grilled cheese sandwiches alot too. Also, I tend to look for deals in grocery stores, you can get some pretty kickass stuff on the cheap. It also helps if you can cook

 

[Mr. Self Destruct]

Like the holocaust, but abit worse i think

 

[Gigano]

Chickpea Pasta, basically pasta with tomato sauce, some spices, and blended chickpeas to add substance. Easy to make and dirt cheap.

Spoiler: Recipe

500 gram of spaghetti, tagliatelle, fettuccini or bocatini
1 laurel leaf
2 cans of grinded tomato
2 pieces of garlic, squeezed
2 tea spoons of dried rosemary
boiled, skinned chickpeas, equivalent of 1 can of tomatos
Salt and pepper
Some Chili depending on preferrence

Pour everything except the pasta into a casserole and heat it at weak heat for half an hour, blend it, add salt, pepper and if you like Chili, and reheat it while boiling the pasta.

I usually only make it when I have vegetarian friends over though, otherwise I can't really get by without a daily dose of meat.

 

[Gioll]

Bulk Buy rice

This, Someone In my halls at uni got a bag of rice as big as his torso for a fiver or so, and it lasts and can be cooked for practically any meal and can be eaten with such a variety of things

I'd also suggest buying enough and cooking food for multiple portions when you cook, Not only is it easier to cook, but you can freeze the other portions to eat when you don't have the time or energy to cook properly. also I think it works out cheaper in the long run

 

[ramboondiea]

i eat fantastical for a uni student, i put about £30 a week for all my shopping (not just food, but bits and pieces) and its all about simple things with a twist, iv got about twenty packs of 19p noodles in, coupled with sum garlic and chorizo and youve got a brill meal,
home made curry sause and race- acnt beat that, lobbies nice easy meal and i can feed atleast 4 people with that for £2. iv claimed a corner of the kitchen just to keep my spices and preservers and the like,

 

[BlueGlowstick]

I'm trying to get into school, and they talk about the "Freshman 15" here. People party alot here.

I eat fast food (cheap- dollar menu) & pizza. No noodles. they get too soupy.

OffT: WTF!! these damn captchas are asking for quotes & shit!

 

[SimuLord]

Incidentally, my vegetarian friends tell me that the best cheap source of protein in the world is rice n' beans (something about "complementary amino acids"), and since every civilization in the world that discovered agriculture at some point in its history has a dish involving a grain and a bean (go ahead, look around the world---turns out it's true, and that whole complete-protein thing is why), you can eat a wide variety of food based on two simple and dirt-cheap ingredients.

I haven't tried it m'self (never had any luck cooking that stuff and making it come out, and the person in my life who could divorced me), but at some point this year I might try the "around the world in two ingredients" thing and see how it turns out.

 

[MikeZealous]

I generally get a crapton of cheap canned foods (79cents to 1.00 a meal) spaghetti as was mentioned before, and cereal. Bulk cereal is pretty nutritious with milk, and its pretty cheap all things considered.

 

[TheColdHeart]

I survived on a fairly decent diet at uni, yeah some days I ran out of food and had to make do with things like crisp sandwiches and ketchup on rice. And I had an unhealthy addiction to Fish Fingers, I used to eat those things every day pretty much. But as long as you do the spending correctly you can eat pretty well. Economy bags of noodles/pasta/rice were a good start.

Although my housemate is now at a cookery school and at uni used to often make awesome meals if we went 1/2s on ingredients and stuff.

 

[Fursnake]

Mac and cheese+ tuna fish. You can actually cook the mac and cheese in the microwave if you know what you are doing.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

Simple: Pop Tarts and off brand cereal for breakfast, Cup o Noodle for dinner, and for a change, All You Can Eat Pancakes at Denny's on Fridays.

 

[Togs]

Yeah you can eat "the student diet" but if you actually try it you will feel like crap