Easy Student Meal ideas please.

Oops! Where’s that gone!
Posted but it’s flown into the stratosphere 😡
Slice thinly a chicken breast and lightly fry till cooked ( 2/3 mins) throw in a bag of stir fry veg, I always add a large handful of spinach, toss till cooked, another couple of mins, it’s quicker than heating a ready meal!! You can add sweet chilli sauce, or any sauce you fancy.

Kateykrunch

Thanks everyone so far, hoping for more please with ‘how to’ if possible. There will be access to fridge and freezer and yes I suppose it could be taken by someone else. Not allowed Air Fryer or Slow Cooker. She really wants quickish meals so not to have to sit guarding an oven for a long time lol. I am a bit woollyheaded at the moment and finding it a bit hard to concentrate and collate recipes and methods, hence asking for your lovely input, thanks again.

A large plastic box or two clearly labelled with her name! Hands off!

Most students respect each others' food in shared fridges or will share food and cook together. Will she be in Halls?

I bought DD a students' cookbook (there are lots to choose from) but I'm not sure how much she used it. A trip to IKEA for saucepans etc too.

No:2.
Lightly fry a chopped chicken breast.
Add tin of chopped tomatoes.
Couple of chopped spring onions.
A chopped courgette
Broccoli chopped up.
Any veg you like, simmer for 5 mins, job done!
Serve with garlic bread or flatbread.

Kateykrunch DD's meals all seemed to be variations on pasta with sauce!

No: 3
Tin of tuna, mix with mayo, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, then add some just previously boiled pasta cooked with frozen peas, sweetcorn,
Mix altogether.
I add chopped cucumber,lemon juice and parsley. Its yummy, and double quick!!

No:4
Lightly fry a chopped chicken breast, add mushrooms, tinned mixed peas/sweetcorn.
Add ready cooked uncle Bens rice any flavour, simmer for 5 mins, serve with bag of fresh salad.

Kateykrunch

Grandmadinosaur

Stir fries are very easy adding whatever protein she prefers.

Good idea, I’ll add that to my list, thank you.

We’ve taken to eating stir fry’s quite a lot as we buy chicken for the dog and are always thinking of ways to use it. I am always very careful about use by dates on them because I’m sure that bean sprouts can harbour dangerous bacteria. I always add a few cashew nuts ( if there are a left if I’ve raided the pantry for a late night snack).Oh and also add noodles and ginger along with the soy sauce.Such a quick, easy but very nutritious meal.

BBC Good Food has a lot of different student recipe collections

basic recipes www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-survive-student-basic-recipes

100 student recipes
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/student-recipes

Or else Youtube has a lot of student recipe tutorials that you can view online

They could swop to ready cooked chicken instead of fresh for even more speed.
And No:5
Heat together chopped tinned potatoes with baked beans.
Add chopped corned beef.
Serve with bag of fresh vegetables, spinach etc boiled for couple of minutes.
Hope these are useful.

I think it’s very kind of so many GN’ers to be taking the time to respond and type in recipes.

But I must admit I find it really hard to believe that a student (in this technical age of computers and mobile/smart phones) can’t easily check out online recipes for herself.

Am not being nasty in any way, it just puzzles me …..

This is one I wrote out with simple instructions for students in my family.

Spaghetti with lentil and tomato sauce

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, large, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, large, crushed
1 400g tin tomatoes, broken up, or fresh tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
225g split red lentils, washed
400 ml water
30 ml / 2 tablespoons red wine

Method
1. Prepare all the ingredients as described in the ingredients list above.
2. Heat the oil in a largish saucepan and fry the onion and garlic until they’re tender – about 10 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes, herbs, cinnamon, lentils, water and wine and bring up to the boil. Simmer mixture with a lid on the saucepan (not fully on) for 20-25 minutes, until the lentils are tender.
3. Taste, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. About 10 minutes before the lentils are done, start cooking the spaghetti. Half-fill a large saucepan with water, add some salt and bring to the boil. Add the spaghetti to the saucepan by holding it upright in the boiling water and gradually pushing it down into the water as it softens. Simmer the spaghetti until it’s just tender, or ‘al dente’ as the Italians say, then drain it.
5. Pile the spaghetti onto a warm serving dish, pour the sauce on top and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Serve with a green salad.

Can be served with a baked potato (microwaved) instead of spaghetti.

Can be frozen.

I live alone so my meals have become quick and easy.
My go-tos are spaghetti or other pasta and a sauce made from scratch:
Onion, garlic, courgette, mushrooms fried in olive oil add tinned tomatoes or a pasta sauce.
Spiced fried rice with nuts is another.
Baked potato (microwave) with toppings.
Salads.
Omelette.
I make soups too. Carrot, sweet potato, coconut milk and curry paste.
Leek and tattie.
I like cooking though and I'm vegetarian so find most ready meals are not nice.
I hope your student is filled with confidence!

Spaghetti bol with pre washed spinach. Use one of those tomato based jars of sauce and add onions to the mincemeat. Spaghetti from Aldi or similar, just boil 10 minutes. Nice white wine to go with it. Easy Peasy.

Would a casserole be any good ? Chicken or sausages with veggies. Nutritious and easy .

If she has access to a freezer , one of the things that I found when I first lived in a bedsit (many years ago!) was to base things on cook once for two meals. So I would get a larger amount of stewing steak, then do the first basic to both meals, So begin by chopping up onions, a green pepper , a couple of sticks of celery and 2 or three carrots. Then start with a frying pan and a little oil, and fry the onions until soft - fried onions have a totally different taste to my mind - and also quickly fry the pepper. Then brown your meat in the same pan. so then divide it into two and from there you add the chopped up vegetables to both and at that point you add gravy and any good stock you might have to one, and to the other a decent curry sauce from a tin or packet . so then you an cook them slowly in a pan or oven would take both dishes on different shelves and hey presto you have a casserole for one day and a curry for another. Both will be even better for leaving for a day anyway, so with the casserole you could have a jacket potato that you cook whilst the casserole is reheating, with the curry the simplest would be a packet of rice that you open the lid and cook for 2 minutes in the microwave. You could do rice from scratch which would be cheaper but the packet idea again is quick to do. The main point is that you only do one lot of cooking to get two decent meals that you an do easily when you are tired. So if you made the effort to cook these up say sunday you definitely have a decent meal to come into on monday with little to do. You need to get into that idea of cooking something from scratch but that is going to be worth the effort. it can be easy to end up eating poorer quality food or getting instant stuff with very little vitamins etc . Jacket potatoes , I found also meant if you had only a little bit left from a bolognaise or casserole you could do your potato and make up some fresh coleslaw with onion, cabbage and I put carrots in mine and celery, then a dollop of mayonaisse or salad cream and a little lemon juice . So then you have a very nourishing potato with your salad , filling and warming on a cold day. Another great favourite is baked apples. Get a good bramley apple , make sure it sits flat on a surface (I get odd looks as I check this out) so then you core it and run a knife right round the circumference. Then add your filling. I put sultanas or raisins, brown sugar (I dont take sugar in my coffee so any packets of sugar i get with a cup in a cafe I bring home and you can use those to add ) and add a pinch of cinnamon an mix that up and into the apple and then into the microwave. a lovely warming quick sweet. You can go mad and add some home made or packet custard or push the boat out with a little cream. Then of course the greatest waste not want not. If you have a banana going a bit brown, peel banana , put in dish add brown sugar (as before) a little orange juice and if you have a very little whisky, or brandy , that makes it even better . Stick into microwave and hey presto cheaper version of banana flambe! You can feel virtuous too as you are using up old fruit and not wasting it. (Perhaps I should not encourage the student to add the alcohol but to GN's who have had a tough day can recommend it for a warming and cheering quick pudding!! Hope these are useful ideas

I wonder whether Jack Monroe’s Tin Can Cook book would be any help? Tinned food may not be as nice as fresh but it’s easy to store and cook and will provide perfectly adequate nutrition. Her recipes are cheap and generally need only the most basic cooking equipment.

I’d say rice with chopped up stuff in, pasta with chopped up stuff in and to experiment with herbs and spices and tinned things in there too.
If she could have a few basic lessons first she probably won’t go far wrong. Unless of course she never learned to boil an egg.

1 tbsp oil
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized chunks
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
pinch salt and pepper
650 ml chicken stock
200 g dried long grain rice
200 g broccoli florets ( you could add another veg' as a substitute)
50 ml single cream
60 g cheddar cheese, grated

Heat the oil in a large, lidded pan over a medium heat and then add the carrots. Allow it to soften a little (around 4 minutes) then add the chicken.
Once the chicken is sealed, add in the mixed herbs, salt & pepper, stock and the rice, stir to combine and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat to simmer and pop a lid on the pan. Leave for about 15 minutes to cook.
After 15 minutes lift the lid, add in the broccoli and pop the lid back on for a further 5-7 minutes or until the rice is cooked to your liking.
Remove from heat and stir in the cream and cheese so it’s well combined and melted.

All in one pot so less washing up too!

Sago

Lentil/chickpea dhal.
Vegetarian ragu,
Meat ragu,
Veg/meat chilli.
Omelette,
Mac and cheese.
Recipes for the above are all available online.

This is largely what I ate as a student but I was vegetarian so no meat. All my dahls were lentils in those days. I don't think I called ragu "ragu" then either though.

Also, cauliflower cheese, endless soups, moussaka, spaghetti and lasagna, eggy bread, pancakes (sweet and savory), casserole.

I had a copy of Cooking in a Bedsitter which alerted me to adding sausages to my stews when
"entertaining".
A student from "Persia" showed me some dishes I'd never have come across on my own at 17.

I think students share techniques and ideas a lot. You probably only need to be able to cook 3 or 4 things to be fair.

I'd show them how to make a cheese sauce, make a soup, make a ragu type sauce. Prepare veg. These are basics.
Good luck.

Also, take them shopping.
You need to be able to understand shopping to cook on a budget.

Not an easy task. Jaime Oliver does meals with only 5 ingredients quick and easy, which might be a start also there is a utube series:

Jump to key moments of utube: student learns to cook

Stir fry is great ansdI think fillings for baked potatoes served with salad.

You could learn together and create a ring binder with the successful recipes

One pot roast using carrots, onions, garlic, cauliflower, potatoes (new or old) with chicken fillets etc, seasoned with salt and drizzled in Olive Oil. You don't even have to peel the potatoes, onion or garlic. You just squeeze the latter 2 items out at the end. It is just divine.

For quick microwave meals with rice, microwave rice cooker is great. You can add other ingredients in the last stage of cooking.

I also use wraps or soft Pitta pockets a lot. I blitz mushrooms, peppers, onions, chopped bacon or the like in the microwave for two minutes. Fill a wrap or Pitta pocket with mozzarella and the other ingredients. Pop back in the microwave for 1 and a half minutes and you have something a bit like a low calorie pizza. It makes me hungry to think about it.

I'm currently doing this with GS. So far he has learnt how to make a meat pie with tinned steak and a basic sauce for all sorts of things: Double cream, butter, grated cheese, season lightly with pepper and powdered mustard- melt it all together stirring occasionally and leave on one side till needed - keeps in fridge and reheats beautifully. Use on veg, pasta, as quick caul cheese and mac cheese etc. Also how to Scrunch up mince for home made burgers and just fry with a bit of sliced onion. And a basic batter for pancakes/Yorkshires. And a scone mix with pepper and herbs added, fry on both sides in a round to cover the pan and cover with tomato paste or bol sauce topped with grated cheese. Fried cheese sandwich.
Basic pastry and cake making skills which can be adapted as he thinks fit.

Some great suggestions on here. But.. I can't help wondering how on earth anyone can get to university-age without learning at least some cooking basics? Has this girl been 100% catered for all her life? How come nobody's ever shown her any cooking skills? Genuinely curious here!

@cardiffmum who can be found on Instagram and the internet often does thrifty feasts for a week for £25. All the ingredients are purchased from a well known discount supermarket and the recipes are planned so that they use all ingredients purchased over the course of the week so no wastage. Recipes are usually for four people but could be halved and a portion frozen for a future meal. She would need to have a range of basic seasonings, oil, Worcestershire sauce sauce, soy sauce etc. The recipes are really tasty with a number of vegetarian options. Hope this helps.