Easy Student Meal ideas please.

Lot's of easy and tasty ideas here: www.fabfood4all.co.uk/students-survival-guide-to-cooking/

Ours could make tinned tomatoes and a carrot into soup, lentil soup, cauliflower cheese, salad, bread, savoury bread pudding by age 11. Easy student meals.

When mine went to uni I spent the summer holidays teaching them to cook.

I don't remember doing this, I think my son was used to cooking at home anyway.
He did say he didn't keep any of his kitchen equipment in the shared kitchen, as other people would think nothing of using his crockery and pans and not washing them up!

What I did do, as soon as he'd finished his A-level exams, was to tell him that from now on he'd be doing his own laundry.
He was a bit surprised, but happy to do so.
I said that he needed to be used to the routine of doing it.

@Kateykrunch
When mine went to uni I spent the summer holidays teaching them to cook. We covered all their favourites and I wrote a little book for them to take.
I also took them shopping to show them how to choose basic stuff. It sounds obvious but they wouldn't think of checking dates etc.
It was much harder than I expected to teach the cooking because I have been cooking all my life and don't adhere too much to recipes. Also most recipes assume some basic knowledge. School cookery lessons had taught them nothing of use. We had to start from scratch with how to peel and chop veg.

A French Omelette

A baked jack fillled with pizza toppings and mozzarella or provolone

Cheese burgers on burger buns with cheese, tomato and lettuce

A homemade Minnestrone Soup

A homemade Chicken rice or chicken noodle soup (can use fideos - tiny pasta noodles )

Mac and Cheese

Left over roast chicken sliced up and made into a chicken salad and served as sandwiches

Fish & Chips

Grilled cheese a million ways

An aubergine lasagna: instead of pasta lasagne

Order in a Pizza once in awhile

Eggy bread: break an egg into a dish and scrabble it up with a fork. Put any slice of bread into the dish and let it soak up the egg for a few minutes, both sides. Fry gently in a frying pan until golden on both sides. Serve with tomato ketchup.
McCain’s frozen baked potatoes. You get four - not particularly cheap for what it is, but brilliant for students. She can just add a can of tuna and grate some cheese on the top.
A broccoli head. As a super-veg, she can buy one and keep it in the fridge for a week. Chop it up and steam in the microwave in any container containing some water.
She also just needs a bag of pasta with which she can add the ubitiquous tuna and cheese along with a jar of pasta sauce.
Chicken supreme - one can of chicken in white sauce from M&S and some rice. Either cook the rice from scratch (cover rice with boiling water from kettle for ten minutes) then microwave for twelve, possibly adding a bit more water. It can be a bit bland though - she can add some frozen peas. Or those packets of pre cooked rice you can get from LIDL etc. in fact the low-cost supermarkets should be her go-to. Things like ramen and all the things to go in ramen are often great value in there and easy to keep as well.
Sharing with other students, means she’s likely to get other tips from them re favourite fast recipes. When my son was at university, they had a thing where one of them would cook a meal on a Sunday for everybody.
Lastly, make sure she has good containers for keeping foodstuffs in. Some of the student “digs” are borderline health hazards and rodent infestation is not unheard of!!!!!

Most youngsters enjoy (not necessarily every meal) curries or chilli style dishes. Most supermarkets have a range of sauces which can be added to meat or veggie recipes. Caveat: use sparingly at first until she discovers what strength suits her.

Awww, thanks so much for all the further bits of advice, tips and meal ideas. I’m planning on having a go at 1 initially, by taking her shopping for the required ingredients and then letting her cook whilst I hover in the background. I feel that if she has the knowledge to produce 5 basic but healthy meals that will give her the confidence she is currently lacking. Again, thank you for your help.

On the difficulty of getting shopping, my son had a Tesco Clubcard and the students in his 13 people block joined together to do a weekly shop. Somebody could always be there for the delivery during the day or they could have an evening slot. They would share the delivery fee. There was always At the end of the year, he bought some Pizzas, using the Clubcard points, for them all to have on a Social Night together. It worked really well. There were a fair few points because they were able to have their beer and wine delivered too!

From experience of our GCs, both were in Halls for their first year.
GD chose not to have her meals in the Uni cafeteria, (payable in advance along with her fees) but found that getting into the kitchen on her floor was difficult as others were often in there, so she would buy something from the Cafeteria anyway or go for a take way, probably not very healthy, but as a vegetarian she is picky about ready meals and hasn’t suffered as a result. As the only supermarkets locally were expensive and food shopping isn’t easy to carry back to the Halls.

Our GS, also in Halls, for his first year opted for the ‘meals included’ also a vegetarian, found the food ok, he still tried to cook in the kitchen on his floor occasionally but again often found that others were cooking away and he would have to wait to eat. One tip is to have a box in their room with their cooking utensils in, if left in the group kitchen items have a tendency to go missing.
However, what he noticed was that some students had a stand for their phones/iPad and would watch YouTube and do their cooking following the online cooks.
His second year in a shared house, he has found many cheap restaurants, but bought himself a stand for his phone and cooks following online cookery lessons. He still has to lug shopping back to his flat from a local quite pricey store though.

Bear in mind that your student will have to go out shopping for food, possibly carry it all on a bus back to Halls but will probably pay extra from a small local store and go out each day to shop.
If they are lucky they might get part of a cupboard to store food in but more likely they will have to keep it in their room.
A box for the fridge is a good idea, but they will need to see how much space they will get, it’s usually 10 or so students per kitchen.
I understand the need to be able to cook, but students are resourceful at finding good cheap food, possibly close to a bar!
And until their second year, when they will have almost unlimited access to a kitchen and a fridge I really wouldn’t fret too much about it.

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 .

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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

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.
👍😀

@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

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.

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.

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.

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