Kamisha Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 What foods would you love to know how to cook on a grad student budget?
LittleDarlings Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 Italian dishes! I love pasta but I want healthy Italian dishes. For me I want to just learn to eat healthy on a grad student budget. A lot of low fat and diet type foods are more expensive than unhealthy foods. It isn't necessarily about learning to cook it (because I can cook) it is more for me about budgeting and spending money on my healthy eating habits. I intend to go to a lot of natural/organic supermarkets and farmers markets.
spectastic Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 Steak marinated in any combinations of soy sauce, teryaki sauce, garlic, lemon. Seared on the outside, and cooked to a bright pink in the center. Vegetables like onions, green garlic, mushrooms, on the side, with a quick salad. I also like spaghetti. tastes good, cheap, good source of carbs, and really easy to make.
DerpTastic Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 I'm a huge fan of Chinese food. It doesn't even need to be high quality. I've never been one who needed quality food. I've lived on Ramen and cheap food for most of my life. I'm also a huge fan of sushi. Omnomnom.
spectastic Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 sizzle one of those jimmy deans and make 3 or 4 patties. make a sandwich with fried onions, sweet pickles, layer of cheese and some condiments. roll your eyeballs to the back of their sockets.
pears Posted February 23, 2014 Posted February 23, 2014 I constantly crave Japanese food, from sushi to soba. NYC is home for me, and I literally lived on top of a sushi restaurant (with dangerously good lunch specials), so I always had access to my favorites: Japanese curry, red bean buns, melon pan, onigiri, dango, takoyaki, ramen, etc. Also, I had a mall full of Japanese specialty food shops (each specialized in a type of noodle, plus other izakaya-style snacks or baked goods) near where I did my undergrad, so that only made my addiction worse, and reinforced the idea that "oh, I never have to learn how to make this stuff, because it's all right here, ready to buy!" Now, it's really hard to find the right ingredients to make what I'm craving, and it's expensive to get it online + have it shipped all the way out here. :/ Sad times.
legan Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 I have a really picky palate, and expensive tastes. Lobster is probably my favorite meal-food (obviously desserts go in a separate category), and that's not exactly grad-budget-friendly. I'd raise my own lobsters for food, if it weren't so absurd. But if I did that, I'd probably wind up naming them or something. And I still wouldn't be able to eat lobster.
glm Posted February 24, 2014 Posted February 24, 2014 When busy I turn to the slow cooker. It's simple to make lentils with whatever vegetables I have on hand, stuffed peppers, bolognese. Eggs, potatoes, and greens are always easy and tasty as well. ...But sometimes I just get Jack in the Box when anything else is too time-consuming
starofdawn Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Being a native Californian, I love Mexican food. Anything involving beans, avocado, cheese, and salsa sounds delicious to me. With those 4 ingredients, I can make many healthy, high-protein versatile dishes(especially if I decide to add chicken and/or lettuce). If I move back to LA to attend USC, I'll be looking forward to the 24-hr taco food trucks. Their soft, warm flour tortillas wrapped around juicy meat and grilled onions, topped with homemade salsa... gaaahhhh
jz19 Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Just wanted to put in a good word for french fries--super easy to make and shockingly underrepresented in this thread. DeafAudi 1
DeafAudi Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Just wanted to put in a good word for french fries--super easy to make and shockingly underrepresented in this thread. Recipe, please! I can never get them quite right.
jz19 Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Recipe, please! I can never get them quite right. Do you double fry? I follow this general format, but I'm not that fussy about exact temperatures. Also, I season with a curry salt mix (2 parts curry powder, 1 part white pepper, 1 part garlic powder, 1 part salt). Yum.
bgguitarist Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Just wanted to put in a good word for french fries--super easy to make and shockingly underrepresented in this thread. French fries are my crack. jz19 1
bgguitarist Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 I've recently become a big fan of veggie burgers...there are about a million recipes but anything with quinoa and beets usually turns out tasty.
pears Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Italian dishes! I love pasta but I want healthy Italian dishes. For me I want to just learn to eat healthy on a grad student budget. A lot of low fat and diet type foods are more expensive than unhealthy foods. It isn't necessarily about learning to cook it (because I can cook) it is more for me about budgeting and spending money on my healthy eating habits. I intend to go to a lot of natural/organic supermarkets and farmers markets. Have you ever tried zucchini pasta? A spiralizer can be on the pricier side, but it's a worthwhile investment if you bring kitchenware with you when you move; a peeler with teeth is a pretty good alternative. Basically, in lieu of regular pasta, you spiralize zucchini, and season + sauce it as you would pasta (example here). You can also treat spaghetti squash like pasta, too (another example). A few zucchinis or one spaghetti squash (M to L size) can yield a lot of food if you're only feeding yourself, and spaghetti squash keeps well in the freezer for the most part.
LittleDarlings Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Have you ever tried zucchini pasta? A spiralizer can be on the pricier side, but it's a worthwhile investment if you bring kitchenware with you when you move; a peeler with teeth is a pretty good alternative. Basically, in lieu of regular pasta, you spiralize zucchini, and season + sauce it as you would pasta (example here). You can also treat spaghetti squash like pasta, too (another example). A few zucchinis or one spaghetti squash (M to L size) can yield a lot of food if you're only feeding yourself, and spaghetti squash keeps well in the freezer for the most part. I think I saw something about this on Pinterest, does it taste the same?
dat_nerd Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 I'm sort of a health-freak, but I LOVE making salads. A salad with fluffy kale, carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, swiss cheese, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, soy protein, cranberries, avacado... mmmmmmm Oh, and chocolate. My diet consists of eggs, salad, and dark chocolate, all in equal proportions.
saltome Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 Chinese food. More specifically, food that is eaten in China....mostly prefer street food and family cooking. I lived there for three years, and fortunately started cooking a few dishes with the help of a local. He didn't actually show me anything, but we talked all the time about how to make dishes, and it was so fun. I really miss the markets I went to everyday for fresh veggies and meat, but I am able to make the dishes here in the states almost the same (can't get the variety of veggies here in Louisville, but I make do). Oh, and pizza. I love me some pizza. Content with standard fare chains, artisan, or frozen. Yum yum. And Mexican food. But maybe I crave those more now since it was extremely rare to get those in the city I lived in in China.....
i.am.me Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) I think you could learn how to cook lotsa different types of food on a grad student budget...just budget accordingly. Right now, my pantry is full of Japanese food staples since I bought a couple of new cookbooks... But mostly my current diet consists of lotsa tofu LOL - kimchi and tofu stew; miso and tofu soup; watercress, pork, and tofu soup; braised egg and fried tofu dish...I'm sorta all tofu-ed out. I'll be going for a short trip back to the homeland this summer and will take the opportunity to learn a couple of dishes from the street cart vendors like chive pancakes or beansprout stir-fry...for some reason the recipes here are not the same...wondering if the air pollutants + dirt give the dishes a special flavor... Edited February 25, 2014 by i.am.me
gingin6789 Posted February 25, 2014 Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Hot and sour soup, pork dumplings with a sauce made of vinegar and soy sauce, beef stroganoff, lots of soups, pastas (mushroom ravioli!!!!!), and noodles. Maybe teriyaki noodles. Mmm. I need to go make lunch now. I will be so lucky if I end up living with my boyfriend's family while I go to grad school near their residence. My boyfriend's dad is an EXCELLENT cook! I will help him cook, clean dishes, and learn his masterful chef ways ... Edited February 25, 2014 by gingin6789
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