Just wondering what everyone used to cook/eat while at college. I'm stuck at only a few dishes (grilled steak, grilled salmon, grilled chicken).
Pasta with prego PJ sandwich Tuna sandwich Honey ham sandwich Baked chicken breast Skewered shrimp with old bay Steak
Eggs, Tomatoes, Onions and Cilantro makes for a good meal Chicken Fajitas are easy too. Tons of basmati rice with breaded chicken and hot sauce.
We get ordinary Mexican food for our daily, normal $5 meals. They used to serve "American" food like burgers and fries, but only for the first two weeks though....so I don't really get it because we don't really have a lot of Hispanics here. But we have this really awesome pasta place that is like a fast-meal version of traditional pastas. I'm not lying when I say they are best thing in the world (well, food-wise atleast)-and they come with a medium-sized drink -all of this for only 5 bucks.
It's only $1.00 a box I'll throw in whatever meat I have in the fridge: ham, grilled chicken pieces, or tyson breaded chicken strips. Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwiches Deli sliced chicken breast sandwiches Celeste frozen pizzas Marie Calendar Frozen dinners Instant noodles
Yeah, by the time I went school (late '90s - early '00s) they'd basically turned the colleges into mini-malls; so there was no problem getting regular old fast food any time of the day, and little or no need to cook. Of course, I gained a good 100+ pounds or so at that time, so maybe it wasn't a good thing.
I made pork chops, ham steaks, a lot of Hamburger Helper, chicken & rice, chicken & dumplins, hot dogs, hamburgers, sloppy joes, and spaghetti. Also, the guys rushing my fraternity were usually freshmen and sophomores who lived on campus and had meal plans. We got them to "swipe" us a lot.
I'm with you (although I should have been out of Closet Station like 10yrs ago), I eat healthy. Prolly keep this same type diet until I am married and let myself go. Its not hard to eat well if you have the monetary freedom. Save all my extra calories for the booze.
A VERY easy and good pasta dish that I put together with cheap ingredients one day: Half a pound of scallops(this is the expensive part, but a 4oz. bag of baby ones costs only a dollar at Albertsons). Substitute with shrimp if you want. 1 box of fettucini 1 handful of parsley 1 lemon Olive oil Chopped garlic to taste (2-4 cloves) Butter to taste Enough heavy cream to coat Chicken stock to deglaze Parmesan cheese to sprinkle Red pepper flakes to taste Boil the pasta until it is al dente, still a little firm. Meanwhile, sautee the baby or chopped scallops and garlic together in olive oil until almost cooked. The pan should be browned now, so add some chicken stock to deglaze it, but don't add too much. Then add some cream and butter and let it cook for a minute before adding the pasta. Once the pasta is coated, add a good amount of chopped parsley, red pepper flakes, and parmesan cheese. Mix well and finish with lemon juice when it's on the plate. Should feed 2 very comfortably.
When I feel like chicken, I usually make a sauteed duck foie gras. For beef I get fillet Minong. and for season I go to red lobster for some fresh tail.
Chicken or black bean quesadillas are pretty good/cheap to make. You can throw in veggies too, if you like.
college meal plans are nice and all, but #1 they are a ripoff of price, #2 you usually have to walk damn far to find the place to eat, and #3 the decent(healthy) food places close at like 6 PM. So much for dinner.
Everything. My mom was a great cook growing up and I learned a lot just watching & helping her. I got into cooking around the age of 13, when my dad & the old guys at the hunting lease decided us youngsters were old enough to handle dinner & that they'd rather sit around and b.s. with their cigars & scotch. I had a couple of roommates who had some serious chops in the kitchen as well, so that was cool. I used to kid my roommates that they were spoiled as hell. I'd work for my grandparents at our ranch - a day here, a weekend there, a few weeks in the summer (ugh) - and got paid partly with stuff: I'd get part of a steer (prolly about 100lbs or so, steaks, burger, chilli, etc...), a dozen or so fresh eggs whenever I took the 45 minute drive from Austin, a chicken here & there, a whole cabrito for special occasions. Granny would always hook me up with whatever was in the garden too: peaches, pecans, okra, squash, green beens, beets, spinach, greens, cucumbers, peppers, tomatos, watermelon, cantaloupe. Add to that the tasty bounty from hunting season: venison in all its delicious forms; part of a wild hog that myself or someone had killed; a wild turkey here & there; redfish, flounder & trout from trips to Htown & the coast; catfish from weekend trotlining/rednecking/boozing trips to our place up around San Saba. In trade, I spent significantly less money on booze & dope than I would have otherwise. It was a win-win for all parties involved. Funny that after re-reading this before hitting "submit", not much has changed, outside of bartering for substances with the roommates.
I think my meal plans in college averaged out to around $8 a meal. So yeah, $8 for a sandwich, fries, and a soda at Chik-Fil-A is a ripoff.
