Ultimate college guide
 

I still can't cook for the life of me. What are some easy to make, good, healthy food for your average college kid?

Pasta! Get brocolli, pasta, and some salt. Boil it together in a pot. Get out a skillet, put some sauce in there, cut some garlic, onions, peas, carrots, whateve ryou like, and stir a bit. When the pasta is ready, pour out the water and put in a dish. Cover it with the sauce and eat :).

Skinless chicken breast, it's really easy to broil and you can add any kind of sauce to it you want.

This is assuming that you have access to a stove. If you don't then stick with some mircowavable pasta meals and low fat tv dinners.

A simple and healthy meal would be to cook some cooked chicken breast (or deli meat if its cheaper), a few cheese slices, lettuce, tomatoes, and maybe some green/red/yellow peppers and put in a tortilla shell --> an instant wrap!

A bunch of us in the dorms would collaborate together - one would make pasta or rice, another would make chicken (like above), someone else would make a salad, etc. and then we'd all share. That's something you could do if you wanted to make mealtime easier.

Healthy? I have the normal "ramen" budget, but I try to make it a little more nutritious.

Something I'm fond of doing is using a steamer (they're the most useful things in the WORLD) and steaming some veggies: broccoli, green beans, potatoes, etc. Then I cook the ramen, crack an egg in it about 2 minutes before it's done cooking along with some cubed [firm] tofu. Add in the steamed veggies and -- while it's still ramen -- it's made a little better for you ;).

Since eggs are hella cheap per dozen, it doesn't really cost that much. Frozen veggies can be a cheaper way to go as well.

Or, if you have enough money to blow on food everyday, go raid your local Trader Joe's or Whole Food's market. They have great tasting health food and most of it is heat and serve.

Yeah, I should shop at Whole Foods. I'm in the city where it started, after all :). But it's soooo expensive...I could never get my roommate to buy groceries there. That, and it's pretty far from campus. But if you work there, you get to take home lots of freebies! Like, all the leftover stuff that they can't legally sell to the paying public, but it's still okay to eat....my cousin worked for them for about a year, and brought home free stuff all the time.

Not to mention the pay and benefits are good.

I heard a rumor that colleges have these things called "meal plans."

Because college food is shit. And I'm in an apartment so, going back to campus takes 10 minutes of walking.

What are your available appliances?

Well... Some of us who have actually been to college (and coincidentally have coherence to prove it) know that the food at any college cafeteria sucks ass.

Anyway Trigunnerz... To answer the question, mixed spaghetting is surprisingly quick and cheap to make. You'll need the following:

- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large chopped onion
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- Salt And pepper - to taste
- 2 cans tomato sauce
- 1 1/2 cup Water
- 1/4 pound Uncooked spaghetti
- Grated Cheese

Heat oil in a skillet. Add the onion and cook until soft. Add beef then stir and fry until meat is no longer pink. Add salt, pepper, tomato sauce and water then bring the skillet to boil. Break spaghetti and sprinkle in a little at a time, stirring into sauce. Cover tightly and wimmer 20 to 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Serve with parmesan cheese.

You could feel all you and your roommate for 2 days with this. :D

I'm going to go with the Pizza Omelette, which can pretty much be made from left-overs(excluding the eggs).

Basically, take your frying pan, butter it up nice. Take your eggs, crack 'em open, and scramble them. Add milk if you like, I prefer no milk. Then pour your eggs into the frying pan, have the heat on low and place a plate over the top of the frying pan like a lid.

Wait awhile, and once the eggs have formed into a consistant omelette, pour some left over spaghetti sauce ontop of it, using a spoon to smooth it out and spread it about. I usually microwave the sauce before adding it, as I dont want to over cook the eggs waiting for the sauce to heat up. Then spread some cheese on top. Replace the plate/lid on the frying pan and wait a few minutes.

Check to see that the cheese has melted, then use your spatula to get the omelette out of the pan, folding it onto your plate. Viola. You are done. Enjoy.