ARRH

hello all,

im a student in nz, and i don't eat right. i usually, correction, always get takeouts. i think since this year has started (end of february) i have only cooked dinner once! and it was pasta! basically what im asking is, does anybody have some good, easy to make recipes for 1. healty, tasty, all that.

thanks,
sander

HiThereDear

Sandwiches. I eats 'em all the time and I just lost 20 lbs. Carl Buddig Turkey, with non-fat cheese, non-fat mayo, etc.

ARRH

i have eat soo much subway. but i get bored of it though sometimes, although it does always taste good. but i just want some nice easy real meals that i can make. something light. something tasty

Cynthetiq

get some chicken breasts... grill them on the BBQ or in a pan... marinate them in italian dressing or some salt and pepper.

dice them ..
use them for with Salad and have a Grilled Chicken Cesar Salad...

whole...
Have them with rice, pasta, mashed potatoes

whole...
make a grilled chicken sandwich

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rockzilla

You can't mess up a stir fry, and they only take a few minutes to make, buy some vegetables, lots of big grocery stores even have pre cut ones if you're no good with a knife, some chicken or beef, once again you should be able to find some pre-cut, but it's usually more expensive. Fry it all up in a pan with some oil and garlic, and dump it on a pile of rice or ramen noodles and you're set.

And there's nothing wrong with pasta either, you can make your own sauce pretty easily, there are millions of recipies on the net, and you can make enough for 3 or 4 servings and then just re-heat as needed. If you don't want to make your own sauce, most of the premade bottled stuff is pretty good too.

There's probably tons of other stuff waiting to be discovered at your local grocery store too, frozen pizzas, pre-cut salad kits (I swear by this stuff) There's all kinds of other stuff out there that takes 10 minutes of work to cook, you just have to look around.

The best part is, it's all cheaper than takeout, and once you know what you're doing, usually better tasting.

ARRH

yeah. my main problem is actually not that i dont like to cook. i do actually. my pasta is the best pasta around! but i dont like to cook in the kitchen i have at the moment. im flatting with two girls, and the kitchen to be honest is just uggh! not that its that bad, but when i cook i like to have everything prepared, and clean and all. i guess thats why i dont even bother. and, i just dont have good apparatus. at home, in my mums kitchen, its fine. all the nice stuff. but here, the pans suck, everything is old and worn. maybe thats the reason why i dont do it.

anyways, thanks for the ideas... keep em comming!

Bobnik

When you get the time and money, extend your herbs and spices collection. This allows you to modify prebought sauces. If all else fails, get your biggest saucepan, get everything not rotten out of the fridge, chop it up, cover with water and boil the bejeezus out of it for an hour. This has been known to give surprisingly good results.

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Hedgehog

I wish I had known this in college...

Buy a rice cooker. It makes perfect rice every time, and you can just toss whatever is at hand in there with the rice. Buy spices and test out what you like.

You can literally spend pennies on a meal this way.

isandro

Rockzilla's got it: stir frying rules! That's what I did for most of my college time. You don't even need a very good pan for it- just go down to your local toko and find a basic plate-steel pan, rub it down with oil on both sides and heat it allover until black. Just keep it away from stuff that sticks, like egg and such.
Then you'd need one more pan to cook the rice, a spatula and a knife that you hide in your room after your done with it, and you're all set!
You can use the wok also to fry the veg for pasta. A friend of mine made pasta with, ehm, carrots, courgette, some more veg we found lying around and some tomatoes. Finish off with some basil and grated cheese.

Or you might try the pasta salad. Boil the macaroni or whatever as usual, then rinse thouroughly with cold water and set aside to drain in a sieve.
Cut up some ingredients, like tomatoes, cheese, paprika, ad some corn, capers, salmon, ham, bacon, whatever floats your boat. You can use a bit of mayonaise or garlic sauce and a bit of freshly chopped basil.
Basically you can just toss anything together. Usually there's one thing that will dominate the flavor, the rest is variation in texture or compliments the taste. Best to eat with a piece of bread and some garlic butter (i'm a garlic junky)

Good luck man!

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rat

A quick and easy one:

Homemade spaghetti.

1lb ground beef or italian sausage

1 container (choose an appropriate size) of unflavored spaghetti sauce

Garlic Salt

Marsala Cooking Wine

McCormick's pre-packaged Italian seasoning (if not using italian sausage)

1) Brown the meat on a medium to high heat. Remove meat from pan, drain, clean out bottom of pan with wadded paper towels to remove grease/burnt parts.

2) Pour in sauce. Cook on medium to high heat (varies from stove to stove). Usual rule of thumb is to use roughly 1lb 10oz (sorry it's not in metrics) for every 1lb of meat. For a meaty sauce, use less sauce; and vice versa. Apply mild amounts of garlic powder and italian seasoning. Then adjust the taste by applying the marsala wine to remove the 'bite' of the salt. Tasting is a must for me, as I don't measure (eliminates the need for measuring spoons ), so taste the sauce as it cooks. The taste generally changes from start to finish, so adjust it accordingly with the garlic salt and marsala wine.

3) Boiling the noodles is done while cooking the meat/sauce, and generally takes longer than the sauce, so let the sauce simmer on a low heat, but keep an eye and a taste on it while it's there. Top off with fresh grated parmesan, fresh cottage cheese or ricotta and a pinch of oregano as you see fit.

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cheezdip

I like to get some instant noodles from the asian market, some chicken broth and some frozen veggies. I add a little salsa or other spices. Very easy soup.