Broke College Kid

mollypop222

Hi! I'm an extremely broke college kid. Most of my food comes from a food bank. Does anyone have any good, cheap recipes?

Lounmoun

http://www.budgetbytes.com
http://www.lentils.ca/recipes-cooking/recipes/
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10490067/most-healthy-food-options-are-very-expensive-and-im-on-a-very-poor-budget-what-to-do/p1

Lounmoun

You might post what ingredients you typically get.
There are some sites where you can search for recipes by ingredient. http://www.supercook.com/#/recipes

mari5466

I just graduated from college. One of my friends actually was able to get on food stamps because he was a full time college student with no help from his parents who were not part of his life. He only used them when he was in school and after he graduated he didn't receive them anymore but he was able to get fresh food. Just an idea to help you along.

RaeBeeBaby

Of course the usual beans and rice and just add whatever spices and veggies that you have. You can make a lot of soup/chili/stew for very little money. Ask the butcher at your local grocery if they have any scraps of meat they'd sell you for cheap. I have done that and gotten a bunch of chicken scraps for just a couple bucks. Soup bones are also good for soup and add protein and nutrition from the bone marrow.

If you have a discount grocery store in your area you can often get great deals for cheap. Just google discount grocery or markdown grocery and you might be surprised. There's one near me that I never knew about until about a year ago. They carry overstock and items close to expiration that are still good. Yogurt for 25 cents and lots of produce. I've gotten large bags of apples, avocados and tomatoes for 99 cents each.

At the food bank, make sure you get as many protein items as they will allow - eggs, cheese, meat if they have it and any kind of legumes (beans, lentils).

Good luck to you!

blueeyetea

Check out this site and download the free pdf for recipes that cost $4/day. It was written specifically for people using food stamps.

obinnorie

Hmm, are you just feeding yourself or are you feeding a few people/any children? The only person I feed is myself and I don't find it hard really to do cheap healthy meals, they just tend to get boring very fast. You should pick out your proteins first, find something you can make a lot of (whether it be lentils, chicken, beans) and use that as a base for each meal for the week or for your main meal.
I shop most often at Aldi (literally unbeatable prices) and Walmart for the things I can't find there and then Jewel Osco for my specialty items (though amazon Prime Pantry is looking to be my new source for that)

I splurge at Jewel for my seeded rye bread (2.99/roughly 18 slices = ~$0.16 a slice)
Eggs (~$0.89 a carton at Aldi/~$0.07 an egg)
Green Peppers (3-pack $1.99 at Aldi/$0.66 a pepper)
Bag of Roma tomatoes ($1.99 at Aldi / varies by weight but roughly 5/6 tomatoes / maybe $0.40 a tomato

Toasted Rye with a fried egg (no oil, literally just cooked in a pan) or sliced boiled egg is a cheap easy lunch with sliced raw peppers and tomato on top or on the side for lunch comes 1.45 a meal.

Aldis are everywhere in the USA, same with Walmart.

49Elle

Avoid the white rice, white bread, jam, sugar,biscuits & processed cereals. Hard cheese is expensive both calorie wise and on the pocket ... so go for ricotta or cottage cheese - takes a bit of getting used to but ricotta is a good source of calcium and can be enjoyed in all sorts of ways- even as a baked cheese cake in a ramekin with a substitute sweetener. The wealth recipes here on MFP is a great resource.

Go to the library... borrow a book on wholefood cooking with pulses, lentils and beans and make these your staples. You can do so much with lentils... make a stew, dahl with a few spices over some brown rice, lentil & veggie burgers ect. are all very filling... you just have to educate yourself and your taste buds to enjoy these more dense foods and consequently you will lose more weight because you don't need as much to fill you up and the body has to work harder at digesting them. Soak oats for breakfast have it with a grated apple and yoghurt.

@obinorie had some great suggestions - it really is easy.

One piece of equipment I'd recommend you aim to save for is a slow cooker as you can prepare a large amount of food - say 6 servings of a chicken casserole or chilli with beans - while you are at classes and when you are home divide them up into freezer containers for times you don't have the time or energy to cook.

If you choose your foods like you are a diabetic - which I am sure the food bank caters for... that would be a good start.

Great you want to invest in you.. it takes a bit of effort to learn how to cook, but if you think about it we eat every day so why not make it interesting and healthy in our own best interest.

obinnorie

12dream wrote: »

One piece of equipment I'd recommend you aim to save for is a slow cooker as you can prepare a large amount of food - say 6 servings of a chicken casserole or chilli with beans - while you are at classes and when you are home divide them up into freezer containers for times you don't have the time or energy to cook.

Slow Cookers are a god-send. you can usually find them at your local Goodwill/Savers for fairly cheap. I found my 4-qt one for about 6$ at Goodwill. There are tons of 2-3 ingredient recipes that you can find via google for crockpots, but you just have to be mindful of sodium & sugars in any sauces/stocks that you use.

Rice-cookers with steaming baskets are very useful too, hard to find at resale stores but relatively in-expensive for the use you will get out of it if you buy it new. for example, Walmart.com has one for 19.99 right now. you can literally cook an entire meal in one by steam a piece of chicken breast (or fish) and some veggies while the rice cooks. TaDa!

RaeBeeBaby

blueeyetea wrote: »

Check out this site and download the free pdf for recipes that cost $4/day. It was written specifically for people using food stamps.

I purchased the book Good and Cheap by this author when Amazon was running it on their pre-Christmas sale. It's a good book for beginners looking to eat well on a budget but I had already figured out most of what's in it. The website has just as much info. Thanks for the link!

Great insightful advice by many posters. I notice that OP tossed out this message and then has never checked back either here or on MFP so may doesn't really want to know. Perhaps she will log back in and read what people have taken the time to write. If not, hopefully it will be useful for others.

CafeRacer808

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

blueeyetea wrote: »

Check out this site and download the free pdf for recipes that cost $4/day. It was written specifically for people using food stamps.

I purchased the book Good and Cheap by this author when Amazon was running it on their pre-Christmas sale. It's a good book for beginners looking to eat well on a budget but I had already figured out most of what's in it. The website has just as much info. Thanks for the link!

Great insightful advice by many posters. I notice that OP tossed out this message and then has never checked back either here or on MFP so may doesn't really want to know. Perhaps she will log back in and read what people have taken the time to write. If not, hopefully it will be useful for others.

Was just about to suggest the same book. I did some pro bono work for a non-profit organization that educates people in low income communities on how to eat well on a tight budget and this is one of the books they gave out.

kbmnurse

Get a job. My daughter goes to college Ft and works 2 PT jobs.

AnarchistKitchen

Cheap recipes!
https://richbitchcooking.wordpress.com/

GemFromJannah

Oats are really cheap for a big bag and they feel you up. Have oats for breakfast each day. Maybe add some fruit to it like a finely chopped apple and sprinkle a small pinch cinnamon. Cinnamon will help regulate your sugar levels until lunch and help you not want to snack.

Eggs are fairly cheap too, omelette or scrambled or boiled or poached, stops you getting board because you can cook them differently each day. Eggs are Cheaper source of protein than chicken/meat/fish. Protein keeps you full longer than carbs and will help you avoid snacking.

Make lentil and carrot soup for lunch. Lentils are a cheap source of protein which costs less than meat/chicken/fish. Carrots are a cheap veg and filling, plus good nutrients. Make a big pot and heat a bit each day.

Baked Jacket potato with tinned baked beans for dinner. Some veg are expensive, tinned beans are cheap and count as a portion of veg and they're a cheap protein source also. Potatoes are filling and unless you're trying very low carb diet they're fairly healthy. You could also do baked potato with tinned tuna, and add some lettuce or cucumber.

These are three cheap healthy options.

dutchandkiwi

If you are broke Jack Monroe is the one to turn to https://cookingonabootstrap.com/ She was desperately poor with a 2 year old at one stage. Plus the food is really really nice

Queenmunchy

As posted above, www.budgetbytes.com is a great resource. Cooking and freezing portions will help with budget, time and energy.