Foods for Poor College Student!

swagoner94

Living on my own. Poor college student. Naturally, I buy the cheapest things that will last me the longest which happens to be predominantly carbs with little nutritional value. Does anyone have any recommendations for foods that are relatively "cheap", long lasting, but healthy. Example: oatmeal! I can buy packages of that for breakfast.

rrsuthy

Do you have a freezer? If so, you can make lots of soups that are nutritious and freeze them. You can buy chicken in bulk, cook it up and freeze it. I'm not sure what you have access to in terms of cooking, storing, etc., so not sure how to answer.

pittbullgirl

Canned beans, tuna, frozen veggies, granola bars.

I basically bought all of these for my sister who just went away to college.
Oh and poptarts and ramen noodles (not healthy but oh well)

anemoneprose

Stews (a little meat goes a long way) or spaghetti bolognese, make a pot & eat through the week

tarsha426

If you have a freezer buy frozen or can vegetables, cans of tuna, fruit, salad mix, can bean, low at waffles w cream cream cheese. Buy generic brand foods tend to be lower in price. Hope yo can stay with the fight in spite of your deficits.

swagoner94

Do you have a freezer? If so, you can make lots of soups that are nutritious and freeze them. You can buy chicken in bulk, cook it up and freeze it. I'm not sure what you have access to in terms of cooking, storing, etc., so not sure how to answer.

I have a fridge, freezer, stove, oven, microwave..

egh1974

Most college students spend the $ they do have on junk, including fast food. If that's you, STOP doing that at all and buy chicken breasts and cook and keep on hand. Also, boiled eggs ready and waiting in the fridge are a good choice. Or, try whole wheat pasta with tuna. If you add it up, it really isn't a lot more expensive to buy healthy food. You'll probably notice that you stay fuller, longer on the healthy stuff. The empty carbs in the crap food leaves you hungry and unsatisfied which adds up the bucks when you reach for more. Good luck to you!!!

UCSMiami

Protein powder, shaker, water. A 5lb tub should last you 70-odd main course mails.

Common BOGO items:
Pasta/tomato sauce.
Bread. dark meat chicken
eggs
canned vegetables and fruits

Common cheap foods:
potato
cheese
dry beans
rice
any unliked vegetables

apedeb09

Some staples in my house are:

Instant brown rice
Beans (black beans, garbanzo beans, red beans, any kind really)
Eggs
Canned tomatoes
whole wheat pasta
Any kind of fruit
Big tub of quaker instant oats (NOT the package. Buy the big one for like $5... I promise it will last you awhile and you can flavor it any way you like!)

Also look into making some, if not all of your foods from scratch. Pancakes, for example.. all you need is flour, baking soda, milk, eggs and butter. Cheaper and it tastes WAY better than the boxed stuff.

addysolari

Cheap and easy stir fry. Mi goreng/ top Ramen with blanched veges and scrambled egg

I use carrot and broccoli and cut them up then add them with the dry noodles then add boiling water to the noodles and let them soak which will also blanch the veges. While that soaks I crack two eggs into a coffee mug with a little milk and whisk it with a fork. Into the microwave for 1.5-2 minutes depending on your microwave power. The noodles are normally done by the time the eggs come out. Drain the water, add the egg and the sauce packets (or not they do have a lot of sodium) or just a dash or soy and sweet chilli sauce. Mix and enjoy

take about 5 minutes including prep time and costs about 2 bucks per serve

mistersassysquatch

I'm like the queen of cheap healthy food! I am currently addicted to tofu egg salad, though real egg salad would be cheaper. I can get 6 whole wheat pitas at Kroger for a buck or $1.50 (or make them myself when I have time for cheaper), then I stuff them with tofu egg salad and some thinly sliced zucchini or some lettuce. Some other ways to make pitas awesome:
-Spread a thin layer of natural peanut butter on, sprinkle on a few raisins, almonds, or apple slices, then sprinkle with cinnamon and cut into wedges.
-Make peanut butter hummus and toast some pita wedges in a dry pan and have pita chips and sliced veggies with hummus.
-Spread refried beans on a pita and top with salsa (which I make out of a can of tomatoes and half an onion and some garlic, plus some seasoning), then whatever else you like on tacos, then heat in the oven or a microwave and bam, Mexican pizza!

I also like whole wheat (I get sprouted) and whole corn tortillas (Whole Foods has the cheapest whole grain corn tortillas, 3 packs for 4 bucks). A couple tortilla faves:
-Peanut butter or reconstituted peanut flour on one side, and Tofutti (or low fat cream cheese) on the other, then crushed almonds and fold it over.
-PBJ quesedillas! The peanut butter is so melty and perfect.
-Bean and brown rice (or another grain, like barley, quinoa, or millet) burrito stuffed with some steamed broccoli as well.
-Refried bean quesedillas. Or cheese if you eat it/can afford it. I like to add salsa and veggies most of the time.
-Toast tortilla wedges and serve on top of a plate of lettuce, and add some healthy nacho fixin's. I top with a nutritional yeast sauce, but you can sprinkle a little cheese and some refried beans or chili.

Some other things I really like:
-Indian food! Sooo cheap to make. Just google some dal (my favorite, just a bean pulse, basically) or other Indian recipes.
-Baked sweet potato with peanut stew ladled over (I halve the peanut butter because the amount added is usually a little excessive, and I'm a serious peanut butter addict).
-Oatmeal waffles: Blend 2 cups of oats, 2 cups of water, a banana, a pinch of salt, a little vanilla, and a tiny bit of a sweetener (optional), blend, and make waffles! I like mine topped with sliced banana, cocoa powder, and cinnamon
-Tofu (or egg) scramble with a variety of frozen veggies ($1 a bag at Kroger!) and some chickpeas.
-TVP is a super cheap meat replacement and super high in protein and fiber (if you don't have a problem with soy). I like to make little patties with okra or some other binder and make chicken nuggets. But I use it in tons of other things, too.
-Roasted veggies. Chop up anything in season (cheaper that way!) and toss in a little olive oil or earth balance and season however you want. Carrots are /super/ cheap so I add them to bulk up a lot of things.
-I make oatmeal raisin snack bars for when I'm at school out of raisins soaked in water and drained, and pulsed in a food processor with oats, cocoa, cinnamon, and some peanut butter. Before I had a food processor I had to blend the oats, dump them out, then did the raisins with extra water in the blender, then mix everything else in a bowl. It was a nightmare before my food processor.

Check the dollar store and Big Lots for food, too. I can get frozen fruit for a buck at the dollar store and my friend just told me his Big Lots has a bunch of healthy food, but I haven't checked it out yet.

ecka723

Do you know how to cook a variety of things? I've noticed that the more I prepare by hand (think pasta sauce, dry beans instead of canned, soups, etc.) the healthier it is, but not only that, it's way cheaper.

I make a lot of dried beans and freeze them for later. To use in burritos with veggies, with rice and sauce, with stir fry and soups. I make big batches of brown rice to eat. You could experiment with other grains.

I'm a vegetarian, but when I wasn't I used to buy meat on sale and portion it out into smaller portions before freezing it. If you have a slow cooker, it will definitely come in handy!

brraanndi

Eggs are cheap and you can make a wide variety of things with them. Such as omelettes, faux-pancakes, faux-muffins, quiche, boiled eggs for snacks, eggs baked in avocado.

I feel like an Egg salesman but now that I know I don't know how I survived without them previously.

corgicake

Get creative with the sale sheet goodies. I made some bacon and egg garlic bread sandwiches this weekend and popped most of them back into the bag for later. Said garlic bread was freebie of the week so I felt the need to do something with it.

qtgonewild

I get a lot of my foods/ snacks at big lots.

Bownzi

I know that it's hard not to buy crap... But by reading the labels you can limit the crap and stay healthy...you can do it

swagoner94

I found this very helpful everyone thanks!
I've been noticing my diet since moving has unfortunately been predominantly carbs and sugar
Last year I was on campus and had a meal plan so I had tons of healthy options (as well as terrible ones but I was good at choosing the healthy stuff). Off campus is a different story. Pretty much I have oatmeal, cereal, or whole wheat english muffins with cream cheese for breakfast... a granola bar for lunch.... and whatever the people I live with make for dinner, or I go out -_-
Compiling a grocery shopping list. After this week's paycheck I'll be buying stuff.

Thanks for the help. If anyone can think of other things for my grocery list... you have till Friday

Papillon22

This site might help you: http://www.budgetbytes.com/

spaingirl2011

Do you live near a Trader Joe's? I'm a poor grad student and I find that I can buy a healthy week's worth of groceries for about $50. I love making a big batch of ground turkey pasta sauce, freezing the sauce in individual servings and pouring it over spaghetti squash (which, depending on the size can give you about 3-4 servings that you can eat over the week) or steamed broccoli slaw. Your freezer is your friend. You can buy food in bulk, prepare it and freeze it into individual portions (which makes great and healthy convenience food--instead of ordering pizza). I have lots of good freezer ideas so feel free to message me if you want more!

jadedhippo

Im a college student too and I struggle to get healthy foods for less (also groceries where I live are expensive).

Is there a local fruit and veg shop where you are? I find supermarket prices for those are too high.

My staple foods are brown rice, potatoes and frozen veges.
Frozen and canned fruits/veges, beans and sauces are a Godsend
Stock up on dried herbs and spices so you dont have to have bland food. Search the internet for good combos.
Eggs. Adding a fried or poached egg to meals can bulk it up a bit.

I usually have yoghurt, muesli and berries (frozen) for breakfast, and if you package it correctly you can take it with you (early morning classes ugh)

Generic brands are not always as nice and its a challenge to make em work sometimes.

totem12

Cheap student essentials:

Tuna
Soup
Carrots
Bananas
Apples
Lettuce
Brown rice
Canned fruit/veg/beans
Oatmeal

At uni I lived off spaghetti bolognese, tuna pasta bake, protein+salad sandwiches and fruit snacks (and instant noodles...) find the cheapest veg you can and get creative with adding them into things to make them bulkier and healthier (carrots in spag bol, red onion and peppers in pasta bakes etc). Frozen veg and meats are cheaper.

abelthephotographer

Living on my own. Poor college student. Naturally, I buy the cheapest things that will last me the longest which happens to be predominantly carbs with little nutritional value. Does anyone have any recommendations for foods that are relatively "cheap", long lasting, but healthy. Example: oatmeal! I can buy packages of that for breakfast.

If you're interested PM me and I can let you have some recipes I made up which, if you make in bulk, work out at about £1-25 per portion. Then to really fill you up, add 75-100g brown rice or wholewheat pasta. They're mostly meat-free (although I'm not a vegetarian).

Cooking in bulk is the way to go if you live on your own like I do - freezing what you don't use. I made a veggie curry at the weekend (8 portions), so when it gets busy I know I have something full of fresh veg (and around 300 calories!) to heat up. See below, with a decent portion of brown rice I'm knocking 6-700 calories and it's as much as I can eat.

Staples in the cupboard:

Value range chopped tomatoes (31p/400g at Sainsburys) I absolutely swear by these.
Value bags of mixed peppers
Tins of tuna, anchovies, mackerel ...
Pulses and beans of all varieties, esp. chickpeas, or dried for even more cheapness if you have time / inclination to soak them properly.
Get a massive bag of stewing veg and roast it. Add stock and whizz up in the blender, and you have soup galore ... or do the same with that bag of value peppers, a load of garlic and some onions. It tastes divine with some herbs ... personally I would stay away from shop bought soups as they are more expensive and have lots of salt in them ...

Three-egg omelette (including about 150ml semi-skimmed milk and a teaspoon of cheap pesto) plus any leftover veg you have = awesome and cheap as chips ...

Or - I've tried some of these recipes and they've been great. You can't get cheaper, either:

http://agirlcalledjack.com/category/below-the-line-budget-recipes/

HTH