Hungry College Student

Kelll12123

I gained the 'freshman' fifteen during my first two years of college. I lost it all over the summer, but I'm going back to school this weekend and want to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle on a budget. I worry about eating nothing but carbs and fatty food (and alcohol) and gaining all the weight back.
Does anyone have suggestions for healthy meals that are cheap and easy to make? I can cook, but anything with uncommon ingredients is a pain because I have to fill my kitchen with things I won't use often.
I really like meals that can be microwaved. What about frozen meals? Are there any cheap frozen meals that aren't disgustingly high in carbs, fat, and sodium?

Mygsds

Take a look here.......


www.budgetbytes.com

Tons of recipes, several which I have used.... Best to you..

ana3067

Understand your caloric maintenance needs, buy food that you can afford and eat until you have reached your maintenance needs. It doesn't matter if that happens to be met with apples and carrots or bacon and donuts. Although composition of your diet will impact your body's composition; if all you care about is staying the same size though, you don't need to be all that concerned with macronutrients.

akchildress24

My suggestion is to start your day right with oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. In-expensive, healthy and will keep you full till lunch.

NuggetLovesEdie

Budget Bytes has a lot of really good recipes. Sometimes I find her stuff to be a bit bland though.

Some of my favorites are the black bean quesadillas (I make a double batch and freeze them), and her kale salads. I make salads in jars once a week. The trick is to layer the dressing in the bottom then things that won't get too mushy in the dressing then other solids, then greens, and finally nuts if you are using them. Here's a link to where people post about them: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/820452-salad-in-a-jar?hl=salad+in+a+jar&page=1

Thug Kitchen is totally crass and has a lot of good, inexpensive recipes that freeze well. I especially like the tamale pie (I eat it for lunch or dinner instead of breakfast) and quinoa oats.

Eating mostly vegetarian/vegan stretches your food budget, is better for your health, and the planet. I shoot for 70-80% vegan/vegetarian. I like Forks Over Knives, Thug Kitchen, Happy Herbivore, and Mark Bittman VB6 (vegan before 6pm). Other healthy recipes from Eating Well.

I also tend to treat meat as a flavoring instead of "the main ingredient". This lets me get 8 servings out of a stir fry loaded with vegetables instead of 2.

Also, if you haven't seen this brilliant cook book yet, it's designed for people who get food stamps (SNAP benefits), so it's nutritional eating on a budget: https://8b862ca0073972f0472b704e2c0c21d0480f50d3.googledrive.com/host/0Bxd6wdCBD_2tdUdtM0d4WTJmclU/good-and-cheap.pdf

I seem to do best when I prep my food ahead for the week.

I make a batch of oats or other cereal grain and freeze it in a cupcake tin, then after it's solid, wrap and freeze in a freezer bag. I do a similar thing with multi-grain pancakes... make a whole batch or a double batch and freeze them with parchment paper in between to reheat in the toaster. I"m currently grooving on no-cook "overnight oats" (http://www.katheats.com/?page_id=3889)

Then I will make either salads in jars or whatever I make for lunch or dinner Friday or Saturday as a double batch that freezes well (enchiladas, lasagne, stirfry, beans/grains/greens, things in the crock pot (chili, thai curry soup), twice baked potatoes, polenta bowls, pasta, etc).

Whatever I make for dinner on Sunday night I also make a double batch of something that will keep in the fridge or freeze well.

My standby when I was in grad school was soup and bread. I would make bread (It's MUCH easier than you think) on Sundays and keep the soup (mostly from whatever leftovers were around) simmering. A week's worth of lunches was pretty painless that way.

Making your own frozen/microwaveable meals is a LOT less expensive and a LOT more healthy than buying them already prepared.

When you get a good stock built up, you can eat a different meal every lunch and dinner because you've got an amazing freezer full to choose from.

ebyrnes66

These are my favorite recipe sites for healthy takes on beloved foods:

http://www.skinnytaste.com/
http://www.emilybites.com/

In the long run it'll be cheaper to prepare your own food than to buy prepackaged stuff, and healthier as well. I suggest maybe picking a few recipes to get you through the week, pick a day to prepare them all, portion them out and then freeze them, so that you can reheat the individual portions at ease throughout the rest of the week. Might be harder to do with some recipes, but soups, burgers, casseroles and the like are pretty suitable to this. There are definitely tons of similar food blogs that you can find to suit your tastes and dietary needs (I'm not that big on clean eating or low sodium for example, but there are definitely blogs that focus on those!). Just do a google search for healthy food blogs and see if any catch your eye!

Also, about alcohol:

http://getdrunknotfat.com/

As a fellow undergrad, I'm not gonna encourage you to get blitzed every weekend (it's bad, regardless of how it affects weight) but if you drink, drink smart. Diet soda and liquor in general is the best you can do in terms of bang for your buck, and stay away from anything that doesn't taste like alcohol, because it's usually because of the sugar content. Malibu, Fireball, various Schnapps, Malt beverages, scary jungle juice punch, all of these are not your friend. Just don't overdo it with the drinks in terms of quantity and content, and you should be fine. :drinker: