Easy Student Meal ideas please.

This vegetable biryani is quick, easy and delicious.

Make some supper dishes together, sometimes using a recipe and other just experimenting and cooking with what you have in the fridge/cupboard. Let them know that you learn from experimenting and that it’s OK to make mistakes and improvise and it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Paperbackwriter

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!

My son could cook before he went to Uni but he had a wobble before he went for ideas and cooking for one as he had always cooked for a family. He just needed a bit of direction to give him confidence. By Christmas at Uni he was cooking the Turkey dinner for 13 with just the occasional text to ask questions. Last year he cooked us a turkey which was far nicer than I could ever cook as he is prepared to faff about more than me!
5 years later he is making proper Tiramasu, a beef wellington to die for and many other very tasty dishes. He regularly gives dinner parties.

Sago

KatyKrunch

Equipment and a “starter box” would be useful.
I would make sure she has one good saucepan and one lidded frying pan and some silicone tongs.

Oil, tinned tomatoes, tomatoe purée, stock cubes, soy sauce, salt and pepper, cornflour, garam masala lentils, kidney beans chickpeas,pasta, tuna and rice.

All my three were able to cook competently when they went off, two bothered the other just ate junk!

They are all now excellent and keen cooks with a healthy diet.

I would love to be tasked with teaching a young person to cook.

I hope you have fun together.

Oooo thanks Sago, when are you available lol.

WOW…..thank you so much to all you kind people for taking some time to give me tips, recipes, ideas and actual ‘how to’ instructions, I am really grateful to you all.

Forgive me, I'm really not trying to be rude, but I couldn't help agree with someone else's comment that surely it's easy for the young person to look online or buy a book if they really haven't a clue at 18+, but also, as you say yourself you're not a cook but a pierce and ping person - love that description! - why would your friend ask you to do it or not be able to help their child themselves? Perhaps I misunderstood, and you kindly offered.......

hamster58

Forgive me, I'm really not trying to be rude, but I couldn't help agree with someone else's comment that surely it's easy for the young person to look online or buy a book if they really haven't a clue at 18+, but also, as you say yourself you're not a cook but a pierce and ping person - love that description! - why would your friend ask you to do it or not be able to help their child themselves? Perhaps I misunderstood, and you kindly offered.......

Perhaps there is an issue for this young person which doesnt need detailing here. I wonder why you and the other person you agree with needed to comment as it is just completely unhelpful.

If she can use a slow cooker in her accommodation, a very simple beef casserole could be cooking while she is out, ready to eat when she gets home.
Ingredients are a pack of cubed beef, an oxo cube, a level tablespoon of flour and some hot water.
While the kettle boils, put the flour into a plastic bag, add the Oxo ( fold back the corners of the foil on the Oxo, press the back of a teaspoon onto it to break it up without breaking the foil, then tear the foil and pour the crumbled contents in with the flour) close the bag and shake it around a bit to mix. Open the pack of meat, add it to the flour, close the top again and shake and squidge it around to coat the meat with the flour mixture.

Pour it all into the slow cooker and add enough water to almost cover the meat. Stir well, and wipe the sides of the slow cooker with a bit of kitchen roll if they have got messy.

Cover, switch on to "auto" if it has that setting (It will heat at high for the first hour, then low for the rest of the time) If not, cook it on low. Cook for at least 4 hours, and it is better after six.

Serve it with frozen mash and tinned carrots, and mop up any excess gravy with bread. (for best value, buy a big bag of Auntie Bessie's or supermarket own brand and just use as much as you need each time. She could even eat just mash for an instant snack in 2-3 minutes, with grated cheese and some chutney or a sliced tomato)

Variations - use cubed chicken and chicken Oxo instead of beef, pasta or rice instead of potato, add some Auntie Bessie frozen dumplings to the slow cooker half an hour before it is ready..

Elegran

Not allowed use of a slow cooker.

Jenner The coddled eggs look just the thing for me recovering from a bad chest infection. I haven't felt like eating at all (happily that has resulted in the much needed loss of a few pounds) but I really fancy that. Thank you!

Again using eggs. Whisk say 3 eggs(can add a little,milk). Pour into a baking dish and
add , cut up ham, chopped tomatoes green peppers and onion. Grate cheese on top. Bake in oven for 20 minutes - should look like a fat omelette, crustless quiche or frittata. Yummy

Kateykrunch

I am no cook, I am of the pierce and ping brigade, but have promised to help my friends daughter get Uni ready by helping her with some basic, healthy, nutritious, yet super simple and quick meals. I wonder if you have any tried and tested ones please, to add to the few I can think of. Preferably using the microwave and/or oven and hob (AirFryer not allowed) Many thanks in anticipation.

If the girl cannot cook at all, and many people can't, start with the basics: boiling potatoes, cooking mince (if she eats meat) boiling soft and hard boiled eggs, frying eggs, tomatoes, bacon etc. boiling pasta, and making a simple sauce out of a tin of tomato purée, a little oregano, or thyme, salt and pepper.

A staple of University life when I was young was toast, or fried bread with fried eggs and a tin of baked beans warmed up.

Include frying a piece of bread and cheese and making cocoa.

Easiest ever soup recipe.
Large pan. Add chopped carrots, frozen spinach, swede, potatoes, stock cubes, tin of tomatoes, water, mixed herbs (lots). Put chicken thighs on top. Boil. Simmer 40 mins. That's the soup done. Or remove chicken fot use the next day.

Any suggestions for GS 18th birthday gift? He will be getting some cash but we'd like to get him a gift to open as well.

@KateyKrunch

I agree sometimes posters like to interrogate the OP, as if there is some kind of hidden agenda. I’ve had that.
Just concentrate on the helpful replies.
Xx

ajp46

Any suggestions for GS 18th birthday gift? He will be getting some cash but we'd like to get him a gift to open as well.

Try starting a new thread/discussion.
👍😀

My apologies Kateykrunch. I wasn’t trying to interrogate you at all, it just didn’t make sense and seemed a hard way to achieve the required result. It was just a curious observation. These are conversations, as best we can achieve, and frequently posts go off at a slight tangent. I hope you have got the help you need from others

The most useful and versatile meat is mince .
If you can cook it -the variations are endless .
I have to admit to it not being my favourite as I never seemed to stop batch cooking it for my children at university .
Egg dishes are easy .
Baked potatoes are a good stand by .

I don’t think that students would be looking up recipes in a book, much more likely to go online to find out what recipes they have the ingredients for.

When my nephew and daughter started uni I gave them boxes of basics.
Packs of different pasta
Tinned tomatoes
Tinned beans various types
Bags of rice now it’s even easier with the cooked rice that’s available
Tinned veg and potatoes
Tinned tuna
Packs of cooked lentils cous cous mixed grains
Supermarkets own packs of sauce mixes spag bol chilli sausage casserole curry etc
Every week I would get pics from them both with the basic simple meals they prepared. It gave them the incentive to steer clear of expensive takeaways.

My 2 sons’ contribution to the student kitchen was a toastie maker/panini press.
Quick, cheap, easy sociable light meals for any time of the day or night.

Boil rice and chopped up favourite veg then stir in pesto. Surprisingly good. Plus you have a jar of pesto to then use on pasta. Stir fry with noodles as well - fried egg and/or peanuts on top for protein.

Pasta bake using soup!
Cook some pasta (any sort)
Add some protein - (ham, chicken, prawns, spam, etc) and some frozen peas (or other veg)
Stir in some chicken soup from can.
Pour into a serving dish, grate some cheese on top and put under grill to brown (but you don't have to brown it)
Easy peasy!

Instant noodles. Take 2 mins and you can add whatever you want from meat to veggies to sauces. It's also super cheap for students. My grandkids love them. Here are some ideas of what you can add.

I think those see through fridge /freezer storage boxes with lids would be useful for students.
You can write your name on them along with what's inside. No getting mixed up with others food then .