Tag Archives: easy

Eating on a Budget

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Why is money called dough? Because we all knead it! While this joke is hilarious, empty wallets and empty stomachs are not something to kid about. After our freshman year of
college, most of us lose the unlimited meal plan, so eating and cooking on a budget becomes a necessity. Lucky for you, I have
some tips and tricks that will help ease your worries and save you some money.

    ALDI is Your Best Friend

    • ALDI is a unique grocery store that has food humorously identical to the name brands you find at places like Publix and Walmart.
    • Everything is very affordable; you can get a loaf of bread for 89 cents or a gallon of milk for $3 (in comparison to Publix and Walmart’s $5).
    • There is an ALDI conveniently located on McFarland, so saving money is just around the corner.

When In Doubt, List it Out

    • Always make a grocery list, and stick to it! Try to have your meals planned out for the week so you know what you are going to need to avoid aimlessly walking up and down the aisles.
    • Check the sales ads before you shop at a store; most stores will have them posted on their websites (ex. Publix, Target, ALDI).
    • Southern Savers is an amazing website that has store ads and coupons for each week, explaining how to get the best deals.  

Bang for your Buck

There are plenty of ways to take a food item and use it in multiple recipes throughout the week. Below I shared some of my favorites:

    • One of the best ways my family makes food last is by getting a Publix rotisserie chicken to eat. Once we’ve eaten that for a day, I cut up the rest and use it to make so many other meals: chicken pot pie, chicken salad, chicken fajitas, chicken enchiladas, or even putting it in a soup.
    • Pasta is great because you can buy a package of pasta and use it with so many different sauces or recipes.
    • Potatoes are essential to keeping me happy, and you can use them more than one way. I often like to make potato skins one day, and save the insides for mashed potatoes the next night.
    • Tacos are not only delicious but also very versatile. After you eat tacos for a day, freeze your leftover meat and use it for something else later on- my personal favorite is taco soup.
    • Almost every week my mother uses our leftover food to make a pot of soup. Tacos call for taco soup, chicken is typically used in our tortellini soup, and you can even take all your leftover veggies (that I know y’all are eating to stay healthy) and add them in! Add a bouillon cube or some chicken broth and let it cook (it is best when you let it simmer in a crockpot all day!).

Bonus Bite

  • Don’t ever shop for groceries when you are hungry- you will end up with everything you are craving at that moment and will go way over budget.

Eating on a budget seems difficult, but it is actually easier than you’d think! It also challenges you to be creative with your cooking.

If you have any other tips or recipes to share feel free to leave them below!

 

 Gameday-Ready Potato Skins

  1. Wash potatoes and poke holes throughout each one
  2. Put these in the microwave, 2 minutes on each side (or until you can easily poke it with a fork)
  3. Take them out of the microwave and cut each potato in half, then let them cool for a few minutes
  4. Spoon out the insides of the potatoes (saving that for mashed potatoes later on!) **Be careful not to rip the skin
  5. Fill a skillet with a generous amount of oil on high
  6. Fry your potato skins on each side until they are brown and crisp
  7. Remove them and let the potatoes cool and drain.
  8. Fill the skins with cheese to the top and sprinkle on some bacon bits
  9. Bake for 10 minutes on 325 or microwave them for 30 seconds to 1 minute

 

 

Bake Sale cookies

Baked Goods Ballin’ on a Budget

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“At college, where money is usually tight and good meals are rare, the ability to throw together a decent meal for your friends would probably be much admired. One might even be reasonably expected to have a small but serviceable list of specialties that you could cook for your roommates.” This quote, while seeming to come straight from a college student’s diary, is from a chapter entitled “Virtue” written by world-renowned chef and writer Anthony Bourdain. In this chapter, he perfectly captures how much of a necessity it is to be able to cook for yourself, both as a child and an adult.

Specifically speaking to college students, most of us are “ballin’ on a budget” with no time to make hour-long recipes in between, class, friends, clubs, and sleep. While Bourdain argues that everyone should have a certain set of skills, most students don’t know the first thing about cooking. Luckily there are tons of websites that post easy to make treats (and other dishes). Tastemade, Spoon University, and Yummly are specifically aimed at young people and some of the best places to start out – PLUS they share their fun videos all over Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, so you never know when you’re going to stumble across your next favorite dish.

Tastemade has an app which makes it easy to find and save your favorite recipes as well as look up your favorite tastemaker. Tastemakers are the featured chefs, meaning that if you really like the style of one chef, you don’t have to go hunting around. They each have a small description under their picture on the website…just click right on their picture to pull up all their recipes. Clicking on their dessert category pulls up all recipes easy or difficult, healthy or not. This website may take a bit of hunting, but many of their recipes are long term go-to’s.

 
 

Spoon University is run by real students. This website offers articles on the college lifestyle alongside their recipes. Some of their tabs include Spoon Healthier, <20 minutes, <5 ingredients, Microwave, and Hungover. With these fun tabs and their dessert tab containing everything from Chocolate Chip Muffins to Flourless Bacon Brownies, this website really is geared towards college students.

Yummly also has an app and is arguably the easiest website to navigate even though some recipes are for more advanced cooks. Their tabs are Just For You, Seasonal, Popular Now, Quick and Easy. By typing in baked goods, I received a list of baked good types: Christmas, Vegan, No Eggs, For Kids, With Alcohol, etc. When selecting regular baked goods, I was pleasantly surprised at the questions they asked me to filter my search response – what flavor must this dish have, would you like any fruit in the recipe, what type of bread are you looking for, how much time do you have, and so on.

 Not everyone is destined to be a famous chef, but cooking is a teachable skill at any age. When first learning to cook, it is best to start with appetizers or desserts and ease your way into the entre. Starting with baked goods from these websites allows for beginners to experiment with something fun, easy, and tasty to share with friends.

The Right Way to Snack

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While it’s ideal to only eat the standard three meals a day, for most college students that just isn’t realistic. Whether it’s a late night full of studying or an all-day Netflix marathon, snacks are a must. In between meals, it is too easy to find yourself reaching for a bag of greasy potato chips or a tub of Ben and Jerry’s. These processed treats taste delicious, but so many alternative snack options exist that aren’t loaded with sugar and unnecessary calories. Finding healthy snacks options keeps off that dreaded freshman fifteen and still satisfies your cravings.
Salty Snacks
When I looked at the snacks I eat on a regular basis, I realized I could replace these snacks with healthy, tastier options. For example, when you feel like eating handfuls of those greasy potato chips, choose to make your own. With a few simple ingredients, you can indulge in real potatoes sliced, salted, and cooked to a crisp in a microwave. To find out more on how to make them yourself, check out “The Dreaded Freshman Fifteen.” Another yummy snack for your salty snack craving are kale chips. All the latest diets have incorporated this leafy green that is full of nutrients. Just drizzle the kale leaves in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pop them in the oven for 10-15 min. You can always add salt and vinegar or grated parmesan cheese for a savorier chip. Only a few short steps to make a crunchy, nutritious snack!
Mini-Meals
Sometimes if you feel really hungry or just bored, you may want a snack with a little more substance to fill you up. Resist reaching for the Bagel Bites, Hot Pockets, or even calling Dominos because you can make something even better. On www.Pintrest.com , I found a recipe for a single serving pizza that will do the job. This homemade pizza’s costs less and makes for a healthier snack – what’s not to love? This recipe calls for an English muffin, tomato sauce, cheese and any topping you like. Just warm in the microwave, and you’ll have a mini pizza with warm melted cheese that’ll be sure to satiate your hunger.
Sweet Tooth Satisfiers
If you are like me, sweet tooth cravings occur regularly. Instead of eating candy bars or ordering Insomnia every night, try Nutella energy bites. These only take five ingredients: oats, shredded coconut, chia seeds, honey, and Nutella. Mix them all up in a bowl and then roll into one inch balls. Their benefits include easy preparation and no baking time. A fruity snack to munch on are frozen banana poppers. Slice up a banana, dip into Greek yogurt or melted chocolate, freeze, and enjoy. Freezing them makes them take on an ice cream effect that is addicting to eat. What a great way to snack without consuming excessive amounts of processed sugar.
As you can see, alternatives exist for almost all of your favorite daily snacks. With just a little effort to stock up on the necessary ingredients, you find yourself snacking the right way in no time. If you have any suggestions for snack recipes you love, please share below in the comments!

Kale Chips
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Wash and dry the kale leaves by pressing them between paper towels
• Rip off the thick stems
• Using your hands, rip up the kale into smaller pieces if necessary
• Toss kale leaves with olive oil in a bowl
• Spread the leaves on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper
• Bake for 12-15 min or until the edges of the kale curl up and turn brown
• Let cool and enjoy!

Frozen Banana Poppers
• Scoop any flavor of greek yogurt or melted bakers chocolate in a bowl
• Slice bananas up
• Dip banana slices in yogurt/chocolate
• Place coated banana slices on plate/wax paper and freeze for an hour roughly

The Crock-pot: A College Student’s Best Friend

Whether it’s struggling to find time to cook at your apartment or having to drag your supplies to the dorm kitchen, we have all faced issues when trying to cook as college students. We need something that is easy to use, doesn’t take much time, and is very versatile in the type of meals it can cook. Let me introduce to you the crock-pot. It isn’t new but not many college students have them. I have found that crock-pots are an essential appliance.

Personally, I enjoy cooking, but since I work three jobs and am a full-time student, I never have the time to actually make a meal. However, by using a crock-pot I can have a meal prepared as soon as I get home. You put your ingredients in the crock-pot before you leave for class and by that night you have supper ready and possibly lunch for the next day. It is probably one of the easiest ways to cook and takes no talent, so you can’t use “but I don’t know how to cook” as an excuse anymore.

While there are many perks to using a crock-pot, the best part is how versatile the meals are. You can cook pretty much anything in a crock-pot. My favorite crock-pot dish is roast. It can be cooked in several different ways and usually lasts a few days. The roast can be served over fries, biscuits, with vegetables, and even in a quesadilla. But if that isn’t for you then there are many other options. Want to cook something easy to eat after a long day? Soups and chilis are a great fix. Want to test your chef skills? Sure thing, try making some spicy chicken enchiladas. Have a craving for a meal your mom used to cook without a crock-pot, but that’s all you have time to use? Surprise, surprise, you can google how to adapt recipes to be cooked in a crock-pot. No matter what kind of food you want, there is most likely a way to cook it in a crock-pot.

Although crock-pots are amazing for meals when you don’t have time to cook at the end of the day, you may be surprised to know they can also be used for desserts. If you are ever thinking about how you can impress your family when they come down for the weekend, or if you are just craving something sweet, and don’t want to make the journey to the dorm kitchen, a crock-pot can be your lifesaver. From decadent cakes to cobblers and even puddings, you can make anything your sweet tooth desires.

Crock-pots are very underrated and should be used more often by college students. They don’t require fancy technique and when using sites like Pinterest for recipes the possibilities are endless! Maybe instead of asking for clothes or the new iPhone for Christmas, you should ask your parents for a crock-pot instead.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookie

Microwave Masterpiece

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College is filled with a bunch of teenagers living on their own for the first time. This sounds like a great time when thinking about it as a high school senior, but look at the fine print of living independently: food does not magically appear in the cabinets anymore. College students have to get out of bed to go to the supermarket and spend their own money for groceries. Money? Is that even accessible to college kids? Those home cooked meals are out of the picture. You might be thinking, “Um…mom, can you come back with those pulled pork sandwiches that I used to complain about because I felt like we had them too often?” Yes, the dining hall food is an experience, but it quickly gets old. Greek Life food is such a pain to have to walk or drive to the house for a meal. Granted, I can make my own home cooked meals, right? However, if preparing the meal requires an oven, then I would have to climb to the 7th floor to even possess the cooking appliances.

As a college student, you have to learn to work with what you have and the resources that surround you. We do not have ovens in every dorm room, but we do have microwaves. At home the microwave may only be used to reheat leftovers, heat up a precooked meal, or pop the snack that pairs great with a movie, but in reality it can be used for so much more. Obviously, we consume the elementary meals, like Ramen Noodles or the small Easy Mac bowls, known for being a college student’s best friend, but they do not keep our stomachs full for long. Finding simple and cheap meals that the microwave can bake while providing the same satisfaction that fills one’s stomach after eating at the dining hall or fraternity/sorority house is not as difficult to obtain as it seems.

Eggs. French toast. Cinnamon rolls. Pizza. Cakes. Potato chips. All these foods seem near impossible to make in a dorm room without an oven or stove (unless you sneak in a hot plate burner), but with a tweak to the typical ingredients, you can easily make them with a microwave.

Sifting through recipe upon recipe on the internet for these microwaveable treasures, I was able to come across one that stood out to me: a cookie, but not just any cookie…the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. These sweet treats bring back memories of carving pumpkins, decorating the house with spooky creatures, dressing up in costumes, and eating with friends before a long night of running from door to door to trick or treat. Halloween always promised these magnificent cookies, though I never would have known that they could be created in a cooking appliance other than an oven.

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (especially when baked in a microwave) do not require a significant amount of time or ingredients to create. These cookies only take up to 50 seconds to bake in the microwave. So, if that sweet tooth kicks in, challenge yourself to bake a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The list of ingredients includes:

  • 4 tbsp of all purpose flour
  • 1 ½ tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp canned pumpkin puree
  • 1 tbsp butter (melted)
  • 1/8 tsp + 1/16 tsp ground cinnamon
  • chocolate chips

No need to deprive oneself of warm cookies anymore. The microwave is a quick and easy way to make delectable treats.

Recipe:

  1. Combine all ingredients except for the chocolate chips into a mixing bowl
  2. Stir until the ingredients create a sticky dough
  3. Spoon out the dough and form separate round dough balls
  4. Add chocolate chips to the dough (make sure to squish them in)
  5. Cook in microwave for 50 seconds