Many students entering college struggle with keeping up with their eating habits. Whether it’s because they’re used to having their family cook for them or they’re limited to how much money they have to spend on groceries. Here are some easy and cheap ways to eat good while in college.

 

Instant Food/ Meals

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Cup Noodles- There are many different brands and types of instant ramen that you can explore. The cheapest and most common brand is Cup Noodles or Maruchan Instant Lunch which retail for $0.28-$0.38 each. Each brand comes with a variety of flavors such as chicken, beef, shrimp, and many more. An easy way to get a dose of protein as well is to crack an egg into the cup of noodles before you microwave it. You can also buy Spam for $2.68 at Walmart and fry it and cut it into your cup of noodles, or any other type of meat/veggies. If you are someone who loves more flavor, it is easy to simply add to the broth as well. You can add soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic salt, or Siratcha. There are many other brands and types of instant noodles such as Bowl Noodle Soup, Top Ramen, Nissin Raoh, and many more.

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Instant Rice- Rice can be incorporated in many different types of meals and recipes. From burrito night to fried rice, which are both affordable and easy things to make. Convenient stores sell a variety of instant rice, Minute Rice which you can microwave in one minute, Cooked White Rice which comes in a bowl packaging and you microwave for a couple of minutes as well, Knorr Rice Sides which comes in different flavors like chicken rice, brown rice, wheat rice, and a handful more. Rice can be a good side for any meat or veggies you may have.

 

Canned Foods- Canned soups are very easy and fast to make and is affordable to make! You have many options to choose from like chicken noodle, broccoli cheddar, wild rice and chicken, tomato soup with grilled cheese. These canned soups all range from a couple cents to 2-3 dollars each, with most likely a deal that comes with it as well. Some canned soups can come a bit bland or too salty which is super easy to fix. You can either add water to the broth or add seasoning to it as well. Canned soups can be microwaved for 1-3 minutes or cook it in a pan until it’s at the temperature you desire.

 

Frozen Foods- Frozen full-size pizzas are very easy to just pop into the oven and enjoy. You can also buy frozen chicken breasts in bulk for a way cheaper price as well. A big bag of frozen French fries are a really good snack to have or side for a burger.

 

Quick Meals

Cheesy Meals- There are so many things you can make with a bag of shredded cheese and either toast, chips, or tortillas.

 The first thing you can make that’s quick and easy is a grilled cheese. All you need is butter, toast, and cheese. You heat up a pan and spread butter on both sides of your toast. Then you add the cheese and put the two pieces of toast together and leave it on both sides until it’s toasted to the way like. This takes only a couple of minutes and you can enjoy it with your canned tomato soup or ketchup. You can do the same thing with tortillas and make quesadillas as well.

Nachos, nachos, nachos. I think that nachos are personally my go-to snack or whenever I am hungry but not too hungry. Lazy nachos, you just spread out tortilla chips onto a plate, spread cheese on them, and microwave it for about one minute until the cheese melts. You can eat the nachos just like that or you can add whatever toppings and sides you like, like sour cream, guac, salsa, olives, hot sauce, whatever your heart desires.

 

Fried Rice- The ingredients you will need are: rice, eggs, soy sauce, butter, frozen veggies mixed blend, and whatever meat you would like to add or seafood or no meat. You can use the instant rice mentioned previously or if you have a rice cooker or cook your rice in a pot, I will have that going first. After you have started the rice, I would cook the meat that you are using first. With pork, beef, chicken, you can simply season it with salt and pepper and fry it on a pan. Once you’re done with the meat products set it aside. You can also substitute this with shrimp, bacon, Spam, whatever you have accessible. After you are done cooking the rice, you would put the cooked rice into a large pan with oil and butter to it. Then you mix it around and add soy sauce. This is all on preference, so add as much or as little as you’d like. After that, add the mixed eggs into it (2 eggs should work well). Add salt, pepper, and the meat that you had cooked up earlier, and your frozen veggies at the very end so that they do not burn. Cook until it is a bit crispy on the outside and it’s ready to eat! This meal should serve you many servings so you can save it for lunch and dinner the next couple of days. This meal also is very affordable and should not cost more than $5-10.

 

Burgers- You can easily spend $5 dollars on a package of ground beef or turkey that can make you 10 burgers. Jenny-O is a really good brand of ground turkey and they sell their packages for $5. Normally with the patties, I would season them with some Johnny’s seasoning, pepper, and garlic powder. Roll them into little balls and flatten them out into patties. You can cook them on a stove top in a pan easily or if you have a grill that works too. Once the patty has been cooked for a while and is good all the way through, I would add a slice of cheese on top and close the pan with a lid so the cheese can melt. You can get buns for an affordable price, add lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and whatever toppings you would like.

Salads- Salads are a quick and healthy meal for college students as well. You can either buy a package of spinach, mixed greens, kale, or sticks of roman lettuce. You can either enjoy it with a dressing you like, such as, ranch, blue cheese, honey mustard, balsamic vinegar, the options are endless. An easy way to spice up your everyday salad, you can add bacon bits, croutons, shredded cheese, and even boil an egg or two to add to it.

 

Spaghetti- I think that I make different variations of spaghetti at least once a week. It is a three-step process and will taste gourmet in my opinion. To begin, you start off with your choice of meat. You can use ground beef, ground turkey, meatballs, or any other meat, it is completely optional, but you can choose to add mushrooms as well at this point. Put these ingredients into a pan with oil and add garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper, save these seasonings because we will need them again in the sauce. Once the meat is cooked all the way through, add the sauce into the same pan and turn the heat on low.  

 

Eating and cooking good in college does not need to pricey or challenging. I hope that you can take some of these recipes or ideas and eat good, while being in college.