November 11, 2004

• You can make various prepackaged noodly things, but packaged food sucks. You should get a rice cooker, seriously. Then you can steam various foodstuffs. (CHINESE RED BEAN BUNS). Oh yeah and make rice.
• Ramen noodles.
• I hear George Foreman Grills are really tasty. Great for breakfeast & tender.
• An improvement on ramen noodles: Ramen noodle sandwich. Make sure you butter the bread.
• A George Foreman Grill per day keeps the doctor away? ...I think I could tackle the plastic cover, but gnawing through the element every morning could severly cut into class time...
• George foreman grill askme thread Healthy, cheap food askme thread There was also an askme thread on "well, my poor friend doesn't have an oven or a range, what can they do?" but I can't find it now.
• Eggs are wonderfully flexible---boiled, fried, scrambled, poached, on a sandwich, etc...and chock-full of protein. Peanut butter is good, too.
• 1/2 cup peanut butter; plain or chunky 1/2 cup honey 1 cup toasted wheat germ 1 cup peanuts; chopped or crushed 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Bar of chocolate (carob for healthy points) Mix together everything except the chocolate. Form into walnut-sized balls with wet hands. Refrigerate until firm. Break up the chocolate and then melt it in a bowl over the spout of your boiling kettle. Dip the balls in chocolate (messy, use a satay skewer to dip them). Eat them.
• Tuna-in-a-can was my friend in college.
• Peanut butter and jelly. If it makes it any easier for you, you can call them peenerbellies.
• I just ate a banana flavored jelly bean. Nutritional value: nominal. College diets are not so great. Try some monkey meat.
• I second the opinion on the Rice cooker (make your parents buy it) and make sure it is a good one. Get one with a cover that locks down and doesn't spit sticky starch steam everywhere; if there is a large asian community near you, there should be plenty of shops that carry good ones at a reasonable price. 1. Use it to make brown rice (much healthier, and you won't put on the "freshman 20") 2. For extra flavor use broth instead of water. 3. Add frozen peas, broccolli, chopped up greens (kale, spinach, etc--you can use scissors if you don't have a knife), mushrooms, carrots, etc 4. season to your preference (salt, soysauce, ginger, garlic, etc) 5. Check and see if cafe's in your area sell day-old bagels, etc. 6. Seasonal Fruit! It's cheap and good for you. Find a farmers market and buy local if you can. 7. Nuts. 8. Have your parents make some soups and freeze them. Don't buy canned soups, they are way too salty. 9. Tuna. Buy the oil packed -- it has actual flavor and it's better for you. 10. And since you are in college just do lots of drugs, smoke as much weed as you can get your hands on, and drink beer (more calories and a friendlier hang over) Have fun you little monkey!
• Thanks so much guys, you're all faboo. Will definitely look into the G.F. Grill and the rice cooker. Didn't realize you could steam with those things, but I am addicted to dim sum, so that'll be greaaaat. And Zanshin especially-- wise, wise words. Thanks.
• Aforementioned "no stove" thread.
• You don't have a stove top, freezer or an oven, right? Just a microwave, fridge and kettle? Some of my suggestions would be: Seasonings. Stock up gradually on some tasty seasonings and all your meals will taste better. Soy sauce, garlic, curry powder/paste, mustard, hot sauce, whatever. Curry in particular will make almost anything taste great (if you like curry of course). Baking potatos. They do really well in the microwave (prick the skin in a few places with a fork and wrap in damp paper towel, microwave a few minutes at a time until it gives when you squeeze it). You don't even need to keep them in the fridge as long as there's air circulating, a mesh bag on a hook works great. You can top a potato with just about anything. Vegetables are cheap and steam easily in the microwave, just chop, put in a bowl with a splash of water, cover loosely and nuke it for a couple minutes. Also, if you can make ramen you can make real pasta, it isn't even much more money. Just err on the side of undercooking it. Chop up some garlic, cook in a bit of oil or butter and add to cooked pasta with salt & pepper. You can add some canned chopped tomatos if you like but it's not essential.
• You want protein + mass, which is what most of the world's great cuisines started from. I made Chinese food for years when I had little money and not much of a kitchen. Check out Jennie Low's "Chopsticks, cleaver and wok." But if you really can't cook at all: Combine drained and very gently rinsed canned white beans with tunafish, oregano, red onions, and olive oil. [Always use the best olive oil - it's like velvet to your body, and it lasts a long time. Keep the bottle away from the sun.] You can do a lot with that beginning. You can even add mozzarella.
• There are even rice cookers that you can use to make a small cake. No, really. My roommate and I owned one. Three settings - rice, porridge, and cake. It wasn't a big cake. According to the manual, it would have fed maybe three at the most. I never actually tried to make a cake using the rice cooker, and it went with my roommate when we both moved out of the Bay Area. It does occur to me, however, that if you can make a cake in a rice cooker, there are probably any number of other things you can make too.
• If you do get that rice cooker, there's this awesome Greek recipe I just learnt. You need: 2 potatoes, some frozen long beans/string beans (equal to or slightly less in mass to the potatoes) Olive oil (just a dash) Wee clove of garlic (or more if you like garlic) Some herbs (Basil and Oregano will do fine, get Herb de Provence if you can). Cut potatoes into chunks (approx. 6-8 piece each), put in pot with beans (no need to defrost them). Add enough water to just cover everything. Smash up garlic and throw it in (you can start the cooker by this time). Also a dash of olive oil. Leave to cook until the water has gone down by half. Leave to simmer, and throw in a small handful of herbs. Give it a stir from time to time to show willing :) You'll know it's done when almost all the water is gone. Trust me, it's delicious. My housemates couldn't believe I didn't sneak in some soup stock somewhere.
• Dried herbs are really good for cheap frozen foods and microwave stuff like noodles and mincemeat. My favourites are the King of herbs, and Oregano. Herbs de Provence is a nice mix of the Scarborough Fair song, amongst other nice stuff. Garlic salt is also pretty good to spice things up. Check out your local supermarket spice rack. Rule of thumb: If you like your dishes strong-smelling and robust, throw in the herbs when everything else is almost cooked. If you prefer a more subtle flavour, throw them in near the beginning, or rub into any meats or veggies before cooking.
• I used to use a plug-in tea kettle to make rice when I had no microwave. The kettle had a top that came off and I followed the directions for boil in a bag rice packets (often offered in white, brown, pilaf, long-grain, etc.), substituting my kettle for a saucepan. Add beans, seasonings, tuna, or toppings of your choice to make a simple meal. Speaking of microwaving, my current rice cooker is a small plastic thing that I like because I don't like leftover rice. It's a few bucks less than the plug-in kind.
• Have you got a grill? Pizza Toast (make toast, add ketchup and sliced cheese, pref some dried herbs and/or garlic pureé, grill again) was my favourite after-drinking snack at uni.
• It was in college that I started my love affair with couscous. Its very easy to make in a kettle or microwave and takes less than ten minutes from start to finish. You can mix it with anything from tuna to salsa and it'll still taste great.
• Okay, if you have similar rules to mine from Dorm life, you can't have a toaster or similar because it has heating elements, and they don't want you to burn the place down. So, you might be able to get by with an Adult Easy Bake Oven, which uses light to cook with, rather than heated coils, so won't go and catch fire on you. This will vastly expand the range of options you have for cooking. For microwaving, you have a lot of options. Sure, you can't sear meat in a microwave, but you can cook a wide range of items. For example, here is something that would impress the hell out of any date you might want to impress. As for me, I made fetuccini alfredo in my microwave, which was easy but unhealthy. Also, I made exciting things like toast sandwiches (Two slices toast, ranch dressing, with a slice of bread in-between; for variation, switch the toasted and non-toasted sections, and feel free to vary the dressing), pasta sandwiches were always tasty, etc. Also, depending on how much you like the people in your dorm, see if you can take a collection for a better microwave, if you're afraid to use it. $3 from everyone should get you something perfectly acceptable. Just a thought.
• Hmmm, I usually eat these microwave bread with chicken/beef/etc thingies when I want something easy. I don't know if they have those were you are - they are called Bakpau over here. Just put them in the mircowave for 50 seconds, and yay: warm easy food. And for microwave food they are actually not at all that bad.
• Popcorn. duh. Avoid microwave popcorn. It sucks, and you don't know where it's been or what oil it has, etc. Get a hot-air popper. Pop the popcorn. Melt some butter in the microwave. Butter. Not goddam margarine, unless a doctor told you to or something; you're not going to be eating this every day. Butter. And not the cheapest no-name butter in the fridge, either, the good stuff. For the standard half-cup of unpopped popcorn -- enough for a couchful of people -- you'll want around 2--3 tablespoons of butter. It'll look like a lot, it'll feel like a lot, but ya gotta remember that this is where 90% of your flavor is coming from, and it's air-popped so you're not starting with all that skanky whatever-oil that's on the nuked popcorn. Salt liberally, have a Coke with it. If you're feeling funky, you can also get an oil spritzer and instead of butter, spritz the popcorn with good extra-virgin olive oil and, again, a liberal dose of salt. Like with the butter, quality matters here. Like with the butter, you'll want a goodly amount on the popcorn. It's good in its own way, but it ain't butter. You'll also want a nice big bowl. Either way, it'll be on a different planet of goodness from that microwave crap.
• Start with instant oatmeal, instant potatoes, instant rice, instant grits, instant couscous, instant noodles (not necessarily ramen). You don't want to sit there stirring a pot. With this stuff all you do is boil water and pour on top. Mix with canned tuna, canned ham, canned chicken, canned vegetables, canned beans. Top with cheese, spices, powdered sauce/gravy. For a little more money you can also get jars of stuff like curry paste or various asian sauces (thai peanut sauce mmmmm). They sell a lot of good stuff in cans. Not just vegies, but entire vege casseroles. Get some of that green bean and cream of mushroom casserole in a can, microwave it, pour some boiling water over instant rice, and once the rice is done mix it all together. Or get corn and beans in spicy mexican sauce, mix with rice, cheese on top. Cheese is your friend. Also, someone said baking potatoes in the microwave, and I'd like to add sweet potatoes to that, for variety and also because they're very healthy. Except the skin, which is toxic. Top with honey (which is a healthy sweetener and good in oatmeal). Bread lasts longer in the fridge. Pita bread and tortillas will last even longer than that. Spaeking of tortillas, put beans and cheese on one, microwave it for 1 minute and roll it up when it comes out for an easy burrito. I don't know if I'd file that under comfort food or post-drinking-binge food. Get the biggest jar of peanut butter you can find. Add some peanut butter and honey before microwaving a bowl of cream of wheat, and you'll be set for a while. If you don't have a real kitchen, I wouldn't waste my time with real recipies. There'll be plenty of time to cook after you graduate and have a kitchen (or start dating a girl who lives off campus and has a kitchen). Also, most of these things (except the cheese) can be kept on your shelf, giving you more room in the fridge for beer.
• And, if you want to make your own microwave popcorn... yeah, I'm a Good Eats freak.
• instant rice can of seasoned black beans can of seasoned diced tomatoes package of diced feta cheese cook rice. heat beans/tomatoes. mix together. mix in feta. good with cornbread!
• Vegemite *tips hat to all my down under friends*
• Get yourself a glass mixing bowl for the microwave, and you're well on your way to making rice crispy treats. Those and coffee got me through school!
• Unhealthy, but gooooood: Boil up some beef-flavored ramen noodles. Before you cook the noodles, crumble the noodle-brick up in your hand so the noodle pieces are small. Now cook them, and drain off all the water. Now heat up a can of chili. Okay, now get yourself some Tostitos or other corn chips. Spread 'em out on a plate (we used to just open the bag carefully along the seams and use that as our plate). Spread the noodles on top of that, and dump the chili on top of that add cheese or whatever you like. Eat. Yum.
• Ghetto Alfredo. 1 stick butter 1 lb. Pasta 1/2 lb. Parmesan cheese Step 1.Cook Pasta, add butter and cheese. Step 2.Mix concoction in large pan. Step 3.Do NOT use plates or bowls, eat directly from pan, preferably with large serving spoon. Best eaten while wearing nothing but a yellowed t-shirt and holey boxers, watching Telemundo, stoned or drunk out of your mind. I'm not talking from experience, I swear
• I lived on terrible cafeteria grilled-cheese sandwiches in college, but after that it was couscous. To be completely ghetto, flavored with boullion cubes. Easy as ramen, about as healthy, and nonperishable. ...may bookmark this thread; I love to cook, but there are days when I don't even want to look at that damn stove.
• This thread it sooo getting printed off and stuck to my fridge. Mmmm, ghetto fooooooodddd.
• If you have access to a toaster - my friend makes garlic bread and brusetta (sp?), with just a knife, two bowls to mix ingrediants (butter and garlic, tomatoes, basil, whatever else goes in brusetta), and puts them together in a wonderful snack/lunch. But when in a dorm room, I ate mostly dining hall and take out for dinner (in many places, take out is as cheap or cheaper than trying to cook for one). Things I made in the room were mostly for breakfast or snacks: * oatmeal - get quick oats, they can be made with just pouring boiling water on (amount by how firm you like them), and let to stand for a few minutes. They are firmer than instant oatmeal, and don't have all that unnecessary sugar and chemicals. I add only a pinch of salt, a spoon or so of brown sugar, and milk. It's a good hot breakfast, and extremely healthy (good fibre, protien and can lower cholesterol). * Bagel with Marmite - YUM. (It's like Vegemite, only better). I live in the US, so I have to smuggle my supplies in. But would work well with peanut butter (no refrigeration needed), any other healthy spread you like. If you have access to a freezer, you can freeze any kind of bread for months. * Fruit and raw vegetables. If you eat out/ take out, you won't be getting much of this. Almost no preparation (you can peel carrots by scraping with a knife, or buy baby carrots), and they are delicious and nutritious. Keeping is a problem - carrots last, as do apples (keep cool, maybe outside the window, but don't let them freeze.) If you have a good small shop nearby, you can buy these as you need them. * Tea and coffee, hot chocolate mix, juice powder - also milk can be bought powdered, which tastes bad when drunk straight, but is fine in tea or coffee, even oatmeal. * Stores of cookies or crackers - all sorts of snacks keep perfectly for ages. The big thing is finding food pleasure in simple things. I used to love the taste of good chedder plain on bread (don't even try to keep American or process cheese around - it's terrible and doesn't keep, whereas a good block cheese keeps for weeks in the fridge - cut off any mold when necessary, and keep going). Oatmeal is a very simple, but delicious and nutty flavour - with my dark brewed coffee it was the perfect breakfast, and gave me a morning ritual of peace and contemplation. I left the complicated or rich food for when I did eat out.
• In a large bowl, mix a can of pink salmon (drained), some chick peas, some cashews; finely chopped carrots (or some other crunchy veggie), fresh onion, fresh garlic; a little curry powder (the real thing not that crap from the supermarket, go to a middle eastern grocer) a liberal amount of olive oil, squeeze a little mustard in there; get a cold beer out of the fridge, take the bowl with you to wherever your TV is and eat. Cheap, nutritious and delicious.
• If you have a microwave, you can approximate a salade Niçoise. Nuke some little red potatoes, quarter them, throw them in a bowl. Trim green beans, nuke-steam them, diagonal-slice them, throw them in the bowl. Open a can of tuna fish, throw it in the bowl. Salt, pepper, olive oil, a little vinegar. Mix. Eat. Saves me on hot Mazama summer days when I can't even think of running the stovetop in my tiny loft.
• PY, I'm going to try your rice cooker. I've set two microwave steamers on fire, trying to nuke-steam rice in them. Though it is possible that no implement can resist my aura of entropy. I destroyed an expensive teakettle by boiling it empty, just two weeks ago. Apples and bananas are still safe, I think.
• Start with Chik n' Biscuit snack crackers. Add canned cheese product (the kind you spray out the whipped-cream-can nozzle). Sit back while your stomach bloats. WRT Ramen noodles: How many monkeys drain the water off BEFORE adding the seasoning packet? This is the only way I would eat them in college. Or now, even. I also used to make myself hot dog sandwiches. Bread, processed cheese slices, two hot dogs cut lengthwise. Cooking optional.
• I second Tinfoil Sorting Hat's opinion on the noble couscous. Just put the couscous in a bowl, add some bouillon powder, pour on enough boiling water to just cover the couscous, then cover the bowl (with a plate or something) for about 5 minutes. Then stir in whatever you like or have around. (Or just olive oil.) Mmmmmmmm. Or there are always canned baked beans on toast. Or a bagel. Microwave beans; scoop onto bread product; grate cheese on top if desired. Instant British ghetto food.
• Electric kettle? When I worked in the scene shop, what we had was a coffee maker, so we learned to become dazzling cooks with it late-night. If you can boil water, you can make ramen. If you toss an egg into ramen at the very end of cooking it, the ramen will taste a million times better. You can make nachos on a coffee maker heat pad, I'd imagine your kettle can do 'em too (unless I misunderstand the kettle). You can make nearly any type of pasta you want, and that's usually dirt cheap. I learned to eat a lot of foods that don't have to be cooked (like the Italian peasent blend of cheese, fruit, pesto and bread). Of course, I lived off of fla-vor-ice for about three months (seriously) when I lost my job, so I might be a bad one to talk to. But between Asian (some sort of stir fry/rice dish), Italian (noodles) and Mexican (either beans or nachos) you're pretty much set. If you can get oil into your kettle, you can cook fried food, like falafel (Bill O'Reilly's breakfast). You might also be able to make pita bread pizzas, depending on your hotplate.
• Good luck goetter. I'd guess that you might get the cooker for less at a local store if they carry it. Coffee maker cuisine! I don't regularly drink coffee, but I've thought of trying to make soup or something else with the office machine. I didn't know there were so many more possibilities - like nachos.
• I don't want any coffee from the kettle that's had oil in it. Thanks.
• I wouldn't mind some coffee essence with my split-pea soup.
• I forgot to mention that a chopped green onion (and a handful of frozen peas if you've got 'em) are really, really good in ramen. It makes a huge difference, just add it at the end when the noodles are done.
• No grill? How about an iron, but not for the clothes routine. I used mine to make terrific grilled cheese sandwiches. Use real cheese and healthy bread, whatever spread you prefer and, after assembling, wrap in tin foil and grill on a nice hot iron. Don't use the steam though, unless you come up with another recipe for irons.
• Y'all rock, in a resourceful manner. What meals might one prepare with a curling iron? Water pick? Space heater?
• I bet a space heater could be used to smoke meats.. put the chip pan right on the heating element, I'd wager...
• Instant noodles recipes. mmm... got a million of them. Get frozen vegs and frozen mince. Pack them in one serving portions when you buy them, saves alot of hassle when you cook. Put a bit more water than you usually would for cooking noodles, chuck the frozen veg and meat in, let it cook a while before throwing in noodles. I've had string beans, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, onions, minced pork and beef with noodles before. Just about anything that can stand to be boiled will go well with noodles.
• Stray, i just found this cookbook review that may be the answer you are looking for.