college student budget
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Think about specifics instead of vague terms like healthy. You want enough calories to fuel your activities. You want so much protein per day. http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/good-protein-sources You want several servings of fruits and vegetables per day. http://www.chowhound.com/assets/2011/05/FRUIT_VEG_SERVINGS.pdf You want nutrition and to feel satisfied from the foods you spend your money on. Protein, fats, fiber help people to feel satisfied. You might get more nutritional bang for your buck eating spinach than iceburg lettuce or oatmeal vs a poptart. Logging everything you eat or drink will help you see what works well for you.
Most people don't want to spend all day in the kitchen even when they are long out of college. There are lots of quick recipes on the internet. Search for quick and healthy recipes.
http://www.cookinglight.com/food/quick-healthy-recipes
http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy/packages/healthy-every-week/quick-and-simple.html
Ask your family for recipes or think about the things you had at home.
Make a list of meals you like... you can just rotate through that list for a month or two before changing things up. It is fine to have a limited menu. You can eat normal foods you like and lose weight.
You might pair a fast food hamburger or slice of pizza with a salad. Increase the vegetables on your plate and reduce the portion size of higher calorie foods.
Watch things like oils, condiments, sauces or dressings. It is easy to add a bunch of calories with that stuff.
I cook dinner every day. I don't cook breakfast or lunch most days. I eat things like yogurt, sandwich, granola bar, fruit, leftovers. I get lunch from a restaurant once a week.
Cook double the amount when you cook and eat leftovers the rest of the week or put them in the freezer if you have the space. Soup is great for reheating or freezing. A lot of recipes freeze well. Search for once a month cooking or freezer cooking or feed the freezer recipes.
You can also precook meats on the weekend to throw in casseroles, soups, sandwiches, stir fries, on pizza, salads, tacos. You could buy a whole rotisserie chicken from a grocery store deli and use the meat from that chicken for lots of different meals.
You can buy dry beans cheap and cook them and freeze them to use in recipes later.
Slow cookers are great tools. I'm using my slow cooker today for stew. It took about 30 minutes to prepare ingredients (cutting vegetables, browning meat) and throw them in to cook all day.
Eggs cook quickly. You can keep hard boiled eggs on hand.
Raw fruits and vegetables require little to no preparation to eat.
Peanut butter is cheap and versatile.
Quick sandwiches can be part of a healthy diet.
Frozen vegetables are easy to prepare and you can take out just what you need and reduce waste which is great for your budget.
You can mix beans or lentils with ground meat.
Use the food you buy. Reduce waste. Planning meals helps.
Make cooking a social event. When I was in college my friends and I pooled our resources and cooked together once a week. It was fun and we divided the leftovers. We did things like soup or lasagna.
I drink mostly water or unsweetened tea and use my calories for food. I'm not spending a bunch of money on drinks that way either.
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I was a college athlete too, and while our dining hall was actually great, I lived in a townhouse 2/4 years and we did cook. I was a lightweight rower so I stretched a lot of things out with chicken stock, V8 and frozen vegetables. But I think having "elements" or "modules" and being able to combine is still what I do. Like having big bowls of cooked protein in the fridge, along with (one of my favorites) steamed green/red/yellow peppers....As far as protein, I love buying a big bargain pack of chicken breast, marinading it, and broiling or grilling it all on the weekend. Then it can just go into plastic ziploc bags in your fridge.....Big batches of cooked ground turkey, also. That and the chicken -- you can take a million directions with sauce or additions. Italian or thai or tex-mex or whatever you feel like. If you put on the rice cooker in the morning, then it's just five minutes of picking things out and throwing it into the microwave.
Another funny thing I like is the individually plastic wrapped sweet potatoes for the microwave. I also used to make a lot of "cup muffins" -- flaxmeal, a little oil, an egg, spices and blueberries, zapped in a coffee mug in the microwave. It makes a very low carb "bread" (if you care about that) and the flax is great for you.
I'll second the rice cooker. I have a pretty fancy one (zojirushi) but it's SO worth it. Makes perfect rice or oatmeal, and it will keep it hot and perfect for HOURS after it's cooked.
Do you have a food scale? It seems like *so* much work and overkill and I resisted it for the longest time. But it's easy, and it's a great way to know how much (particularly) protein you're having.0 -
Oh very cool! That cup muffin sounds good. Lol I've never heard of it but I thank you for sharing. I'll definitely try that one. Rice cooker and crockpot are on my list of buying lol seems like everyone keeps telling me that's important so I am going to invest into one or the other.. Maybe both. I love the whole buy a big package of chicken breast and cook it to last a week. Lol I'm doing that currently and definitely works for me!!!! I'm always under my protein amount on here.. So maybe I do need to add more. I do not have a scale, I never thought to get one either.michelle7673 wrote: »I was a college athlete too, and while our dining hall was actually great, I lived in a townhouse 2/4 years and we did cook. I was a lightweight rower so I stretched a lot of things out with chicken stock, V8 and frozen vegetables. But I think having "elements" or "modules" and being able to combine is still what I do. Like having big bowls of cooked protein in the fridge, along with (one of my favorites) steamed green/red/yellow peppers....As far as protein, I love buying a big bargain pack of chicken breast, marinading it, and broiling or grilling it all on the weekend. Then it can just go into plastic ziploc bags in your fridge.....Big batches of cooked ground turkey, also. That and the chicken -- you can take a million directions with sauce or additions. Italian or thai or tex-mex or whatever you feel like. If you put on the rice cooker in the morning, then it's just five minutes of picking things out and throwing it into the microwave.
Another funny thing I like is the individually plastic wrapped sweet potatoes for the microwave. I also used to make a lot of "cup muffins" -- flaxmeal, a little oil, an egg, spices and blueberries, zapped in a coffee mug in the microwave. It makes a very low carb "bread" (if you care about that) and the flax is great for you.
I'll second the rice cooker. I have a pretty fancy one (zojirushi) but it's SO worth it. Makes perfect rice or oatmeal, and it will keep it hot and perfect for HOURS after it's cooked.
Do you have a food scale? It seems like *so* much work and overkill and I resisted it for the longest time. But it's easy, and it's a great way to know how much (particularly) protein you're having.
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The cup muffin thing is actually officially a South Beach hack for having something bread-like. It's not particularly low in calories but it has a lot of good things in it.
I just fired up my rice cooker actually. The food scale is actually a much easier thing to use than it seems, and boy, I got religion about chicken breast vs ground beef once I started using it. The chicken just seems like it doesn't add up nearly as fast
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michelle7673 wrote: »The cup muffin thing is actually officially a South Beach hack for having something bread-like. It's not particularly low in calories but it has a lot of good things in it.
I just fired up my rice cooker actually. The food scale is actually a much easier thing to use than it seems, and boy, I got religion about chicken breast vs ground beef once I started using it. The chicken just seems like it doesn't add up nearly as fast
Haha oh really? Interesting. Well I mean I'm sure it's a moderate amount of calories and that's fine with me. Do you always use your food scale? What made you decide to purchase one? I used to buy ground beef.. Which hey I might again if I want a burger. But.. Honestly I stopped because I noticed I couldn't come up with easier meal plans like I can with chicken breast but that's just my opinion. I do know you make a lot with hamburger meat. I guess I just do better with chicken lol0 -
College student here. I usually only have time (patience) to cook a really nice meal on the weekends. For me, microwaving veggies to get them cooked and raw plain fruits are my lifeline. Pretty boring, but filling and relatively inexpensive. Canned food is my weakness. So simple! Soups, veggies, fruits, you name it. Open it up, nuke it for a minute, and a (relatively) healthy meal for under a dollar. I can't do any eating out. Even fast food is usually more expensive than eating in for me.0
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withoutasaddle wrote: »College student here. I usually only have time (patience) to cook a really nice meal on the weekends. For me, microwaving veggies to get them cooked and raw plain fruits are my lifeline. Pretty boring, but filling and relatively inexpensive. Canned food is my weakness. So simple! Soups, veggies, fruits, you name it. Open it up, nuke it for a minute, and a (relatively) healthy meal for under a dollar. I can't do any eating out. Even fast food is usually more expensive than eating in for me.
Hey quick and simple! Sounds great. Just got some soup for whatever reason never thought of it unless someone made mention!! Thank you for sharing with us0 -
Some food life hacks that work for me in the 'low money, no time, wanna be healthy' times.
1. Growing the herbs - I'd second skinny malinky. Fresh herbs are costly, but beyond easy to grow. Great way to get flavor at little cost.
2. Groceries -
- For some staples, if you have any grocery stores that are for certain regions of the world (Asia, Africa, Polynesia, Mexico) those can be a great resource for cheaper prices or bulk buying for items that are common in that area of the world.
For spices, I have got the best prices on spices, in bulk, from Indian groceries. Seriously, I would highly recommend hunting one down if it exists in your area. Really good spice resource.
For nuts, some mediterranean grocery stores have had good prices for these sometimes in my experience, especially pistachios. some good spice prices there, too, and other items.
We used to get corn masa, rice, and/or pinto beans in bulk from the Mexican grocery down the road, and sticky rice, soy sauce, rice noodles, won ton and spring roll wrappers and certain more exotic vegetables were super cheap in large amounts from the Asian grocery store.
- Sales on meat. If you eat meat, seriously - buy what's on sale. Whatever it is. Even if you've never eaten it before. You can figure something out, truly. And it will seriously save your budget.
- as you are getting a slow cooker, I would buy beans dried, not canned. HUGE budget saver, and you just soak dry beans overnight, put them in the cooker in the morning before school, on low, and they are done by the time you get home. Does enough to freeze some for later use. Except don't do this with kidney beans - they actually have to be cooked at higher heat or they can be poisonous. I had no idea this was a thing until an acquaintance ran into this! http://www.medic8.com/healthguide/food-poisoning/red-kidney-bean-toxins.html
3. For vegetables and fruits -
- Chopping up veggies and keeping them in the fridge for snacks for the next few days gives you something easy and healthy to eat when you get peckish, so you're less likely to eat junk food, you know? Some veggies store best in water, like chopped carrots. Keeps them firm and crisp. I tend to pick one time of day to do this - right before bed, or when I'm just getting up, for example - and just take about 5 minutes to chop up a pile of veggies for a couple days. You can keep something healthy around to dip them in and get a pretty filling snack, if you make it protein based, like cream cheese (can mix in a few herbs and make it into a dip) or hummus.
- fruit bowl - always good to keep stocked with foods quick to make
4. Nuts and nut butters -
- nut butters, if you can find some healthy ones cheaply, can make a good, filling addition to soups. Check out various recipes from some regions in Africa, where nut and sweet potato dishes are more common. Very tasty and inexpensive.
5. Eggs -
- very good not too expensive protein source. Quick to cook, so if you haven't tried cooking eggs much, just a week's worth of cooking and you get pretty good at it (I cannot eat eggs, so never cooked, them, and suddenly had to start doing so for kids. Took me a week before I was making omelets. Seriously, super easy to learn, with help from the internet). Can also cook a few days in advance, like a bunch of hard boiled eggs, say. A quick breakfast can be leftover veggies or meats from the night before mixed in with scrambled eggs or an omelet. If you haven't made one, an omelet takes, oh, 5-8 minutes to make. The lower side if you have the veggies already from the previous night.
6. Bentos-
I'd highly recommend checking out bento meals. Japanese lunch boxes, where the lunch box is the box and the plate all in one. The premise, though, is to put in a lot of little things - usually a grain plus veggies and a protein source (like eggs or meat, typically) - in the meal. So many times, people will save left overs from the night before, or two nights before, that are small and might not normally be save. Like one meatball with a teaspoon of tomato sauce, with a few teaspoons of the broccoli salad, plus rice, plus a couple chopped fresh veggies, and so on. It's a nice way to use leftovers instead of eating that 'last bite' to not waste it. It's also quick, easy to carry, and tends to be pretty nutritious and can be easy to make. This website is a good resource to start off with:http://justbento.com/handbook/bento-basics
Recipe and food prep ideas:
For freezing:
muffin tins, and small size muffin tins, are awesome - grab a few at a thrift store and use them to freeze small portions of things you can use later, like mash potatoes, sauces, small servings of things. When frozen, pop them out and store them in a plastic baggie for later use. It's a quick way to make something healthy that you can thaw quickly later, you know?
wax paper - if you put wax paper on a cookie sheet, and then dole out small portions of something mushy in texture (oatmeal, mashed potatoes) onto it, and freeze it, you'll get small portions that will freeze in that shape, and then can be put into a plastic baggie and stored for later use.
Ice cube trays - also great for storing small things for use later.
Quick chicken marinading - If you get a bunch of chicken breasts in bulk, or any meat, here's something you can do. Put each piece of meat in its own plastic baggie. Then mix up a few different quick sauce, marinades. Some easy ones are soy sauce plus a little brown sugar or chopped garlic, tomato sauce with a few spices, lemon juice and olive oil plus salt, and so on. Then add some of one of the sauces to each baggie. You end up with a few baggies of the same meat, but with different sauces, all ready for future use. I have heard some people leave that overnight in the fridge, to marinate the meat, and then freeze it and you can thaw the meat later, already to be cooked with its own sauce. I have heard some freeze it right away, and then let it thaw for over a day, so that they have thawing + marinading time. I don't know if one works better than the other, but useful, anyway.
Hummus - Hummus either takes a little while to make, or a little more money to buy. I make mine from scratch. You can buy canned garbanzo beans, which are already cooked, but they are more expensive so I buy cheap, dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans), soak them overnight in water. The next day, I cook them on the stove until very, very soft. This can take an hour or two, or 3-4, depending on age of the beans and your altitude (so usually a weekend day is best). Unless one has a food processor, you can blend up in a blender until smooth - cheap to get a blender used at a thrift store, usually. If it's too thick to blend well, add a little lemon juice or olive oil here. Pour into a bowl. Mix with (possibly more) olive oil, salt, and lemon juice until desired consistency and taste. You can also roast any veggie until soft and slightly browned, and blend up as well and add to the chickpeas when partially blended.
Most hummus uses tahini as well - sesame paste - but it tends to be more expensive in the states unless you can find a mediterranean grocery store. I got my recipe from a man who lived in the middle east and where he lived, according to him, tahini was cheap, but olive oil was expensive, so it was a status symbol to make hummus with only olive oil and no tahini. :-)
Sauces
pesto - the pesto we're used to is the basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts, salt, and a bit of cheese, all mashed up/blended together. But you can make all sorts of combinations of things and use like you would a pesto sauce, even if you only have a blender. A lot of them don't use cheese at all, and many may just use olive oil + something green. Nearly any fresh herb blended up with olive oil and salt works well. Sometimes small or soft vegetables work as well. I've seen one that was olive oil, broccoli florets, and roasted walnuts (the walnuts added to the cost of the dish, though). It's not too hard to make, and when you do
Veggie - Most roasted vegetables, like roasted peppers, you can blend up and either use as-is or add combinations of: olive oil, garlic and/or onion, powdered chile, herbs, lemon juice. Can add broth to thin them out, if needed. One nice one I've found was roasted peppers mixed with a little chopped hot chile pepper and chopped garlic, with a teeny bit of lemon juice. Chicken broth to thin it out. You can use these on pasta or over meats, or as a dip for other veggies, even.
...and that's all I've got right off hand. I know there's some more, but I'm totally blanking, I'm afraid.0 -
I'm a college student, too, so I understand your struggle! My biggest time saving tip is to meal prep and make good use of a crockpot. On Sundays, my boyfriend and I prep our lunches for the week, so we don't have to worry about it through the week. Also, a crockpot is your best friend! Most of your favorite recipes can be adapted for a crockpot. Set it before you leave the house, and you'll come to a hot meal at the end of a long day!0
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I'm a college student, too, so I understand your struggle! My biggest time saving tip is to meal prep and make good use of a crockpot. On Sundays, my boyfriend and I prep our lunches for the week, so we don't have to worry about it through the week. Also, a crockpot is your best friend! Most of your favorite recipes can be adapted for a crockpot. Set it before you leave the house, and you'll come to a hot meal at the end of a long day!
Nice!! Thank you for sharing!!! Crockpot is on my list of to get items lol=)0
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