Oatmeal porridge: mix ½ cup of porridge oats and 1 cup of water in a bowl, add a pinch of salt. Microwave for ~2 minutes. Serve with milk, sugar, jam or whatever. Rumor has it you can fry leftover porridge, but I've never tried.

Take cold leftover mac & cheese (homemade works better, kraft dinner is too mushy). Add a little salad dressing or mayo, a little chopped green onion, celery and a little chopped pickle (my fave) and you have an impromptu pasta salad. Even just with the green onion its good.

A Foreman is invaluable. You can pick up premade burger patties in the meat section for just a couple bucks (Wal-Mart groceries, anyway). That's cheap and easy.


My recent favorite is cheap, so easy and actually delicious. Someone mentioned making a calzone with pre-made pizza dough (the refrigerated kind in a tube). Getcha a package of that and flatten it out on a baking sheet. In the middle of one side, put some diced tomatoes (you can go fresh, or pick up a can - they even make them with seasonings already in there). Spices are good, but not required - oregano, italian seasoning, etc. Add any pizza toppings you might want (I've tried canned mushrooms and pepperoni), and plenty of mozerella. You can also add a little ricotta and romano cheeses, if you want to splurge. Fold over and seal the edges well, and bake at 350 for about 20 - 25 minutes.

My son is 6 and will eat nearly the whole thing if I'd let him.

Oh, and muffin mixes. Just add milk or water to most of them. You can add extras you may have, like banana or nuts. I once chopped up an apple and threw in a batch of apple cinnamon. Yummy.

For breakfast...I was always a fan of the cereal or oatmeal that came in single servings. Its cheap, easy and a good start to the day.

Omelets (spelling?) are cheap and easy. Get a bunch of eggs and any kind of cheese or meat and you can put it in an omlet (that looks wrong also). Try to put a can of black beans (drain the can first) with some cheese and and good salsa on top or mixed in...good stuff.

-1 can salmon
-A roughly equivalent amount of instant mashed potato flakes
-1 egg
-Chopped onion (you can get this in dehydrated form, it's sold in the spice section)
-Whatever other seasonings you have -- red pepper, garlic salt, and a little bit of smoke flavoring work really well.

optional: a little bit of beer for extra flavor, plus some extra potato flakes to soak it up.

Mash it all together, form into patties, and fry 'em up on a skillet on low-medium heat until golden brown and nice and hot throughout. Use a little cooking spray and you have a very healthy meal, or use about a half inch of vegetable oil and it's wonderfully artery-clogging.

Canned fish in general kicks ass for cheap dining. VERY high protein, low fat, and a good source of calcium if you don't mind eating the kinds that have softened bones in it.

Quick, easy, cheap and tasty. Serve with potato bake and salad if you wanna splurge :)

MARINATED CHICKEN WINGS

INGREDIENTS
12 chicken wings ½ bottle teriyaki sauce
¼ cup water

DIRECTIONS
1. Marinate chicken wings in sauce for 1 hour.
2. Add water and cook covered over high heat until chicken starts to come away from the bones.
3. Remove lid and turn constantly as liquid boils away.

1 lb of frozen corn
1 can of black beans
2 cans of mexican stewed tomatoes
Any Spices you like.

Drain excess liquid from can and thaw the corn.
Mix together in a large bowl and eat or heat it up and but in a tortilla.
Takes care of many food groups, corn = grain/starch, beans = protein, tomato = fruit/vegtable. I could live off this stuff.

My advice to all college students is to get a rice cooker. Rice is dirt cheap, and you can throw in anything from a can, add water to the mark on the cooker, close the lid, and press the button and 15 minutes later you have a delicious meal that won't put 15 lbs a year on you. Rice cookers are also dorm-approved.

also, one of the glorious things about cooking in college is the privilige of making the garbage omelet on saturdays. Get a frying pan, toss in darn near anything that isn't turning green in the fridge, add 3 eggs, cheese, cook, and flip. Or scramble it instead.

Actually, they largely aren't.

Very few dorms I've been in or around (I worked in residential life for a while) on this campus and others allow appliances such as rice cookers in the rooms themselves. In my personal dorm, you had to use your rice cooker in the floor kitchen or risk being written up by the RA.

ALWAYS check the rules for your dorm before buying/bringing ANY small appliance into a dorm room. As an RA I always hated having to tell students that no, they couldn't use the new microwave their aunt had bought them for graduation and no, coffee pots aren't allowed in rooms...and George Foreman grills are a big no too.

/threadjack

this is one to make when you don't have a hot date that night. Garlic & oil pasta. Boil pasta.

Saute chopped garlic in olive oil.

Add pasta to pan once garlic is lightly browned, and toss.

You're done.

Tastes great, tastes expensive, costs almost nothing.

Potatoes are cheap & can be used in tons of ways.
Where i'm at at least once a month you can find a ten pound bag for 1 or 2 bucks on sale. unpeeled, cleaned, microwave for 3 to 10 minutes depending on size and you got a baked potato. peeled & cooked the same way then mash'em, add milk & or sour cream and youve got cheap mashed potatoes. make extra mashed so you can take the left overs & make potato pancakes by forming flat round paties, butter a pan & cook to golden.

Also, anytime you have the cash to eat fast food go to a place that has the condiments set out so you dont have to ask for them & stock up.

Go to Wal-Mart or your local grocery store and get yourslef a $1 loaf of French bread, some cheap cold cuts, and whatever chees you want. Cut off a section of the loaf and slice it in half (top/bottom not left/right). Lay them crust side down on a paper plate, put some meat and cheese on (veggies if, you choose to do so, can go later), pop it in the microwave for a minute or two (just make sure the cheese has completely melted). It's good with bologna or some nice sandwich meat as well. For a little extra flavor, put a little extra virgin olive oil on the bread first.

Also, fried bologna or turkey is cool. Just put it in a frying pan on the stove and let it get a little brown or black.

And as many have alreay said, get a Foreman. It's the easiest way to grill fish I've found, and I've cooked just about everything on it.

Hate to make another post, but wanted to chip in on this. This is AWESOME. Just be careful when selectin and cooking the garlic. Get it too brown and it tastes god-awful. And don't use "flavored" olive oils. When they get hot they emit an ungodly smell and taste like poo on a stick. I recommend Bertolli brand for olive oil. Good quality and not that expensive.

I'll join all the people here in praising the Foreman grill. It's great! you can cook so many things on it very quickly.

Burgers are easy to make. Veggie burgers taste pretty good and are definitely healthier. And if you want more options, salmon burgers taste great (they're less than 1$/patty at Trader Joe's too).

On a personal level, I like having lots of oregano on everything (I just eat it on its own sometimes.. but you don't have to :) ).. One small jar of it lasts for a while and isn't that expensive. It just gives a great taste to everything!

*a future of going to college with the grill has been shattered *

What's the rationale for their prohibition, somehow a fire hazard, eh ? :confused:


thanks,
keyshawn