College student looking for cheap, healthy & non-skilled cook friendly dinners :)

I'm in the same boat. I find if I prep food ahead of time for the week it makes it much easier! Chicken is one food that is easy to experiment with as it goes with most things. Try adding cinnamon and garlic to boneless skinless chicken thighs. Green tea is also a great way to give your metabolism a jump start!

My daughter is in the same place that you girls are. We have found Tyson make fresh pre-seasoned boneless skinless chicken breast that have great flavor and don't add a bunch of extra calories like so much of the seasoned or packaged meals etc do. We find them at Safeway in our area.

Gordon Ramsay had a ton of cheap, easy foodie recipes. If you can spend a little money up front on spices, they can help you transform staples like fish or chicken into all kinds of delicious dishes!

Chicken, peppers, mushrooms, chopped tomatoes is a winner. Add some basil, garlic and oregano. Serve with pasta. It was one of the main dishes I made at uni. The herbs and spices will never be wasted if she get a few essentials in.

Get a crockpot, add 4-5 chicken breasts, water, and seasoning. Let it cook for 6-8 hours and now you have meat for the whole week and you can do lots of things with shredded chicken from salads to enchiladas.

Eggs, roasted veggies, chili, (soups in general), fresh fruit, healthy casseroles. (I make a zucchini enchilada casserole sometimes that's adapted from skinnytaste.com), stir fries, rice and beans... The possibilities of cheap and healthy food are endless! I am largely into simple meals as well and if it's low maintenance, all the better. I've always bought my grains in bulk and it helps to buy dried beans and cook them. I usually boil them all in water and then freeze them in gallon sized bags until I need them, I usually have two or three different kinds in my freezer at a time.

Im a graduate student. I gained my freshman fifteen twice, once when I moved to undergrad and another fifteen when I moved to grad school.

Now I'm really focused my diet. I buy bulk boneless skinless chicken breast and freeze individual servings in bags. Through out the week, I defrost and prep it. For me, the simplicity makes up for the lack of variety.
Usually, I stir fry it ( no oil, but in a ceramic fry pan!) With whatever veggies I've got on hand. I've got a lot of spices that I add to it to create variety. Curry, chipolte, carribean jerk, Italian. Spices have helped me break my cheese addition. Before, i used to smoother everything in cheese if i didn't like flavor. But now, spices changed everything.

Often, i put the stir fry over brown rice or lettuce, or cabbage and mung bean sprouts ( so cheap and easy to grow yourself. Seriously. I mostly hate diy but i love the sprouts) sometimes, i use uncle bens rice mixes because they already have great flavors.
The best part is I can easily double the "recipe' and save half for lunch the next day.

A crock pot is also really helpful. Sometimes, I throw chicken and veggies together at night, keep it in the fridge overnight, and put it in the crock pot in the morning so it's ready for me after class 8 hours later.


For quick foods, steel cut oats, Greek yogurts with added frozen fruit, chocolate rice cakes, canned tuna, eggs, and peanut butter have been great for when I'm too tired to cook.


Good luck! Healthy cooking is a journey, not a destination.
Let us know how it goes

Soo this has nothing to do with dinner, but I just made breakfast quinoa cups (found on Pinterest) and they were super helpful for when I have early classes or just don't feel like making breakfast. You could eat them for lunch or dinner too if you'd like. You just mix cooked quinoa with eggs, meat, cheese, veggies and pop them into a muffin pan and bake! My boyfriend even enjoyed them!

Steam your vegetables or if it black cabbage consume it raw (chop it up into small pieces) mixed with some rice and cheese. Cooking kills a lot of the B-vitamins so basically a lot of people do not know they are killing the nutrients in the food so they are killing the key part of a food.