Easy, Healthy Foods?

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rcpratt

Lifer
Jul 2, 2009
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Well, to cut to the chase - I'm a college student and I'm trying to start eating healthier, as well as working out a few times per week. The problem is that I'm not much of a cook and generally don't have much time. Does anyone have some lunch or dinner recipes that are easy to do, fairly quick, and not overly expensive?

Currently for dinner I generally have chicken two or three nights a week, but the rest of the nights are usually frozen pizzas or similar. I'd also love to know what kind of healthy things you all snack on. I'm not a big veggie dish type guy, but I suppose I'm open to just about anything.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

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Your best bet is to buy into your college food plan and eat a variety of foods avoiding too much deep fried foods.
 

rcpratt

Lifer
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Bit late for that, unfortunately. Just started my last semester, don't have enough money to buy into that right now.
 
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MagnusTheBrewer

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Eating at your school is still cheaper, more convenient and, offers more variety than you can cook on your own. Particularly when you don't have much cooking experience.
 
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Eating at your school is still cheaper, more convenient and, offers more variety than you can cook on your own. Particularly when you don't have much cooking experience.

Really? Eating at my school was significantly more expensive than eating on my own.

OP: The best thing you can do is learn to cook. You can do amazing things with basic ingredients and a recipe. Chicken is fine. You should try to integrate things like brown rice, beans, fruits, veggies, turkey, beef, ground meats, oats, etc. The easiest thing for me is to get up 10 minutes early, throw a bunch of stuff in the crock pot, and come home to some delicious chili. You can look a ton of recipes up online. You just gotta be creative and find some good, healthy stuff ingredients.
 

rcpratt

Lifer
Jul 2, 2009
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The meal plan for off-campus students is not at all cheaper, I've looked into it. There's also going to be a time very soon when I no longer have that option at all, so I'd rather stick to this route.
 

mav451

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Celery/carrots/non-citrus fruits - bananas/apples: have these replace ALL of your junk food snacks. This could be painful if you like candy/chips/chocolate haha.

As for main meals, really you have a ton of options. Frozen chicken breast is a good staple and canned tuna will work as well. I'd probably just stick to those two, and just mix/match/make up stuff to go along with it. And the no-brainer is eggs, since anyone can cook an omelet.

If all else fails - just cut down on portions.

I still remember this one line from a UFC guy who was training, basically he said if it doesn't grow on Earth, you shouldn't be eating it.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

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Is it possible to cook for yourself more cheaply? Yes.
Is it more convenient? No.
Do you save any time cooking for yourself? No.
Will you make the effort to eat as great a variety of things as offered by the school? No

I'm a Chef and think that everyone should learn to cook for themselves. However, I realize that most people are unwilling/uninterested in cooking. They are only interested in eating and, often, view that as a waste of time. I have attended several universities as a student and have worked as a Chef at several universities so, I have been on both sides of the equation. I recommend eating at school and focusing on your education. Learn how to cook in your spare time or go to culinary school.
 

M0oG0oGaiPan

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Dec 7, 2000
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digitalgamedeals.com
steak n potatoes
turkey burgers
ground turkey. You can make chili. Tacos?
Beans n rice.
oats and blueberries and some whey
eggs. scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, etc. Eat the entire egg. Not just the egg white.
Just spend a couple hours one day a week and cook a bunch of shit and put it in bags/freeze it for the rest of the week.
 

rcpratt

Lifer
Jul 2, 2009
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Celery/carrots/non-citrus fruits - bananas/apples: have these replace ALL of your junk food snacks. This could be painful if you like candy/chips/chocolate haha.

As for main meals, really you have a ton of options. Frozen chicken breast is a good staple and canned tuna will work as well. I'd probably just stick to those two, and just mix/match/make up stuff to go along with it. And the no-brainer is eggs, since anyone can cook an omelet.

If all else fails - just cut down on portions.

I still remember this one line from a UFC guy who was training, basically he said if it doesn't grow on Earth, you shouldn't be eating it.
Thanks for the advice, guys.

Replacing my junk food snacks is also something pretty high on my priority list, as you mentioned. I used to drink 4-6 carbonated beverages a day (I know, I know...) but completely went to water about two months ago. I never thought I could do that, so I'm sure I can move to healthier snacks. I'm not a huge candy/chocolate guy, but I do indulge in chips or salty foods far too often. I think I'm going to try some celery or carrots...is some dill dip for the carrots or peanut butter or something for the celery okay? I'm also hoping that if I make some meals more filling than a frozen pizza it might cut down on my snacking.

Currently when I do chicken, I make it with something like this kung pao chicken kit, shared with the roommate. I know it's not the most cost effective way to make that, but it's nice to have it all in one package...and it's good. Is something like that okay to do with chicken?

As for the eggs, I do love eggs prepared pretty much any way. I never really got into a routine of making breakfast at school, but I'm sure I could get into the habit. How important is it to add in some eggs for breakfast every day?
 

Kipper

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Feb 18, 2000
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Cook large quantities in advance and freeze. Then, portion it out into containers and move a container in the fridge the day before you plan to eat it.

Buy a ton of whole chicken legs (drumsticks, thighs, etc.) or chicken breasts, if you prefer. I prefer thighs because they are easier to prepare and more tender.

1.) Place in a casserole dish and season with rosemary, pepper, and other spices. Easy on the salt because it tends to destroy the flavor of herbs.
2.) Chop celery, carrots, and onions, and surround the chicken with it.
3.) Peel a head of garlic, throw the whole cloves in with the chicken. Add ginger if you like the flavor. Cover the dish with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
4.) Preheat oven to 300F, place the casserole dish inside and bake until the chicken is FULLY cooked (this means internal temperature 185). Generally 30-40 minutes should do the trick.

...And you're done. You can do the same with fish, although the herbs will be different and I prefer to wrap fish in parchment paper and bake instead of putting it in the large dish. This requires minimal time, the larger the casserole dish the more you can cook, and the stuff can be portioned out for consumption during the week if you wish. Then all you have to do is prepare a vegetable and starch - which takes literally no time at all.

Edit: Spend $5 and buy a meat thermometer. When you test the chicken, be sure that the thermometer is fully inserted into the thickest part of the thigh/breast/etc.
 
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Occ

Senior member
Nov 11, 2009
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There is healthy, and there is improvement. I'm in a similar situation, and generally dislike spending significant amounts of time cooking. I try to avoid garbage junk food or anything that's pre-made. So what I'm listing isn't going to be ideal, but it will be relatively cheap and fast, hopefully without being outright unhealthy. Some easy things you can do:

Burgers! Get access to a bbq if possible or use a george foreman (< $20). Grab lots of fresh lettuce and tomatoes and pickles. The foreman is good for any meat, as long as its not too thick. Burgers take 5-10 minutes tops. You can buy cheap burger patties by the bag for pretty cheap.

Sammiches. Tuna fish can be alright, but you have to mix the tuna and mayo and putz around with that. You can always rock the PB&J or PB&honey. Grab some pre sliced meat and cheese that comes in the re-sealable bags. Turkey is probably healthiest. Nice thing about sammiches is it overlaps nicely with your burger supplies, and they're modular. Meaning you can do a simple condiments+meat+cheese, or go for the whole shebang and add lettuce, tomato, pickles, + any other veggies you can stand.

Macaroni and cheese! hell yeah. You can get generic kinds for < .50 cents, just need some milk + cheap margarine or butter. Takes 12-15 minutes, but a good chunk of that is boiling the water, so you can do other stuff while you're making it.

Eggs in any shape or form are good. Scrambled is probably the fastest. I ate so many eggs in the past couple of years I'm kind of sick of them now. They're kind of cheap, but consider that you only get 2-3 decent meals out of a dozen.

Granola! Tasty and probably healthier than regular ceral, though I'm partial to a knock off brand of frosted mini wheats myself (can be bought in bulk, in a bag, about half the price of kellogs). If you're feeling adventurous, you can grab some yogurt or slice up some fresh fruit stick it in the granola. Pretty tasty.

Soup! Heat and serve. I usually go with Progresso lentils, then toast a bagel + cream cheese and use it as a sop/spoon with the lentils. usually everyone looks at me weird, but i likes it.

French toast! Good with a roommate to split. Get a loaf of bread (or more!), a buncha eggs, and some milk. You'll probably need 8+ eggs to do an entire loaf. Whip up the eggs in a bowl large enough to dip the bread slices in, then add however much milk you feel like and spice with Cinnamon if desired. You can cook these in a frying pan, but its much better if you can score a cheap gridle. make way more than you can eat, and then wrap the rest and put it in the fridge. last a long time and you can nuke it and add syrup pretty quickly.

Sometimes you can score some cheap steak. I like to keep an eye on petite sirloin, which can go down to 2.99 a lb. Assuming you can get some, also pick up some powdered potatoes, which are actually really tasty. Also grab some frozen veggies and you can have yourself a balanced meal. you can broil the steak in an oven, or slice it up and cook it on a foreman.

Grab some olive oil and fry up some chicken. pretty easy and quick, and flexible. get some pasta roni thingies and mix, they have a bunch of different kinds. sometimes the pasta by itself is enough of a meal.

You should try and have some fresh fruit around. Bananas always seem to be cheap. Other fruits it depends on the season and stuff. Grab a fruit on the way to class in the morning. Personally my staples for fruits and veggies are bananas and carrots. Good work ditching the pop, and try to limit yourself to 1 bag of chips and crackers a week. I usually get the baby carrots, so they're probably minimally nutritional, but hey, what can you do?

How's your kitchen tool supply? You should definitely get:

A strainer. For pasta, which you should try and make a lot of since it's easy and generally can be combined with lots of different sauces for variety.
A pot. Pasta, veggies, soup, etc.
A frying pan. For eggs an whatever else.
A small george foreman grill. for quick meat cookin and cleanup.
A cheap gridle if you can find one (try walmart). useful for eggs, french toast, pancakes (also easy, just buy the dried powder mix and follow directions).
 

rcpratt

Lifer
Jul 2, 2009
10,433
110
116
Wow, that's quite a list, thanks. As for the kitchen, I've got plenty of pots and pans, thinking about grabbing a small foreman grill. Yesterday I also bought a few nice pyrex containers to store food, a mixing bowl, and a casserole dish thing.

I hate bananas, but I might grab some green apples the next time I shop. I actually did grab some baby carrots and light ranch dip yesterday. I hate carrots too, actually, haha, and haven't gotten desperate enough to eat them yet. I didn't buy any snack food at all yesterday, which I figure is the best way to not eat snack food. If it's here I eat it and I'm pretty bad with portion control.

Last night for dinner I made a bunch of tuna pasta...just tuna, whole grain pasta, milk, some spices, and a bit of sharp cheddar. It was surprisingly pretty good, and I had a pretty good amount to throw in the fridge. This morning I had three eggs, scrambled. Had some more tuna pasta for lunch, and a thing of applesauce for a snack later in the afternoon. Probably not the best thing for you, but they're real small. For dinner tonight I fried some chicken breast in olive oil, threw in some General Tao's sauce that I bought and some peanuts, with white rice. I bought some burgers yesterday so I'll probably do that tomorrow.
 
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