Surviving College Life

Posts filed under 'food & recipes'

Fast, Easy Meals & Snacks on a College Budget

It’s not easy being on a budget and enjoying a yummy, easy-to-make meal. The secret to eating well (and healthy!) without spending much is eating at home-once you start heading out for fast food, your costs can really skyrocket.

But if you’re new to the cooking game (as a lot of college students are) you probably can’t get past the fact that you don’t have the time to cook something fantastic, or you don’t have recipes you can make cheaply.

You’re in luck! I’ve rounded up some great recipes & resources for your-enjoy!

For today, here are a couple quick, tasty snack recipes. You can make these in the dorms with just a microwave and an oven or toaster oven!

Easy Baked Potato

First, prep your potato by washing it well. Poke holes all over the outside with a fork (this will keep it from exploding while it bakes!). If you like to eat the potato skin, too, you can rub the skin with olive oil or a little bit of butter to add flavor-yum!

Microwave Directions: Cook on high for 2 ½ minutes. Flip potato over and cook for 2 ½ more minutes. If you have an old microwave, you might need to repeat this process once more to get the best results.

Oven/Toaster Oven Directions: Bake at 425 F for about 40 minutes, then check. If it needs to be more tender, add 5 more minutes and check again. I like to eat mine with cheese, sour cream, or a little butter in them for flavor. Mmm. Add chili to it and you’ll be really full!

Creamy Chili Dip

This was one of my favorite things to eat in the dorms… but I don’t recommend eating it every day:

Directions: Add one can of chili (I like Dennison’s) and 1 small package of cream cheese (a lite or fat-free package to make it healthier) to a microwave safe bowl. Cover with a paper towel (to keep it from making a mess) and microwave on high for about 2 minutes. Stir. Continue to microwave in 2 minute intervals, stirring each time, until the dip is a creamy mix of the cream cheese and chili.

It seems like a weird combo, but it is oh-so-good to eat with some chips or crackers! (I like Fritos or Wheat Thins with it). Add some apples, on the side, too-they compliment the flavor perfectly. I’m getting hungry already!

Photo: spaghetti on the table by mapelc

7 comments February 25th, 2008

How to Get Free Food in College

Honestly, even though I’ve graduated, I still get pretty excited about a free meal. I’m starting to think that feeling never really goes away. So, whether you actually need to get food for free to stay in budget, or you just want a good free-slice-of-pizza pick-me-up, here are a few ways you can find free food on and around your college campus:

Free Food at the Cafeteria
One of the most sure-fire ways to get free food is to put in some hours working at an on-campus cafeteria. A lot of them offer free food as a benefit (it doesn’t come out of your pay or anything). I worked at the caf for about 6 months my sophomore year, and got free food every time I worked-not leftovers, either, but an actual fresh hot meal. Nice.

Student Discounts
Be on the lookout for this any time you’re at a local restaurant or eatery of any kind-especially the smaller non-chain places. One local pizza place down here gives you a super-cheap deal if you show your ID, other places you can get a free drink.

Also, check for student discount coupon booklets. We have a free one for San Diego colleges called the Student Dollar Stretcher.

Clubs, Films, and Seminars
Most people know that the best way to draw a college crowd is free food-I’ve seen clubs offer everything from pizza to boba, and all you had to do was go to a meeting. There are also a lot of one-night seminars or film showings where free food comes in to play-they want the room full, you want a free slice of pepperoni with double cheese-it’s a match made in heaven!

Look Online
Did you know there are actually websites that track free food events on college campuses? One called Hungry Hungry Coeds tracks free food offerings for a random smattering of schools-from Georgetown to UT Austin-and the upcoming free food events. (They’ve also got a pretty funny page of tips about how to get the optimal experience out of foraging for free food at school.)

**update** Wisebread recently posted a great blog article with lots of other ways for college students to eat for nothing. Make sure to browse through the comments there, too–they have some good ideas!

Happy eating!

Photo: pizza by André Montejorge