<p>I have a meal plan that I can use 6 times per week, and I was wondering how everyone is dealing with balanced nutrition and not starving the body. I just don't want to eat caf food anymore, because they are expensive and I don't want to spend time going to the caf and waiting in a line, etc.<br>
Do you cook in the dorm? If you do, what do you usually cook? If you don't have a kitchen in the dorm, what do you do with limited source-such as microwave?
Any recommendation on easy recipe that can be done within 5-10 minutes?</p>
<p>I have an expensive meal plan, I don't cook.</p>
<p>I think its a myth that cooking saves you money. During the summer, I did an experiment where I would cook every single meal. It ended up costing about 7 dollars a meal, and I was really stingy in my buying habits. I could go lower, but I would be absolutely miserable (eating pasta everyday). At my school, the average meal is about 7 dollars. It costs about the same amount of money, you get healthy nutritious food, you get variety, you save time, and you get the opportunity to talk to people at the table.</p>
<p>So no, in my case cooking is not a good idea.</p>
<p>What were you making for $7 a meal, lollybo?</p>
<p>At my school it's mandatory for all residents to have a 19-meal plan, but I get sick of the food at the dining hall too sometimes, so I just heat up frozen dinners or soup. I've only cooked from scratch once or twice--it's too much of a hassle, since we have to bring our own cooking supplies, and I'd have to buy all the pots, pans, and utensils I'd need. Buying your own food can get seriously expensive, though, so you might want to compare it to how much the food at the dining hall is costing you.</p>
<p>lollybo $7 a meal is ridiculous...</p>
<p>Buy a Costco-sized pack of Ramen and you're set for like a couple weeks of food. >.></p>
<p>At my school it was closer to $12 a meal. There were plans which had like $5 a meal, but that would require 19 meals a week and that would be horrible. The meal plans upperclassmen get are almost $14 a meal, which is just insane. Most of the kids who get them, as far as I know, just do it to eat Shabbat dinner on Fridays and Kosher meals on holidays because meal plan is cheaper than buying them individually. </p>
<p>I am off the meal plan this year, and it is cheaper than the meal plan. If I was more careful with money it would be a lot cheaper. Eating ceral for breakfast puts that meal at less than a dollar a day. Buying a loaf of bread, sandwich meat, or PB&J and making a sandwich for lunch makes a pretty cheap meal too. For dinner if you cook pasta, Ramen, mac&cheese, or soup your dinner also comes out to a few bucks max. That might be under $5 for the day. If you buy your own food to cook full meals it can be just as expensive to make a meal for one person. However, the marginal cost of making enough food for one more person isn't so bad. A few times I've cooked dinner with friends (pad thai, eggplant parmigiana, etc.) and it cost less than a few bucks for each person. You should either look into cooking a big meal with a few friends or making a lot of leftovers to eat for lunch or dinner the next few days.</p>
<p>I spend 7 dollars meal because I like good food, and I often buy side items. Entrees at my school usually do not exceed 5 dollars.</p>
<p>Cooking your food costs about the same and also costs time, so why not cut time out of the equation and eat at your local dining hall.</p>
<p>Because for most people, cooking your own food is cheaper than being on a meal plan, which is why we're wondering what you make for yourself. Are you buying prepared food or prepared sides? If you are, I can see that adding up, but not if you were making it all yourself, and likely making enough at one time to eat later in the week.</p>
<p>I did eat a lot of "outside food" in the first few years of undergrad. After that, I made all my meals. It was cheaper. I spent the same amount of money to feed myself for the full day that I spent on one fast food meal. Even if it cost twice as much to make my own food, I would because I got to eat healthy. There were no healthy options at my school.</p>
<p>Eating on my school's meal plan is about 25$ a day (give or take) so it really is going to save me a lot once I join a co-op or go independent. </p>
<p>My tip is to buy/cook eggs for cheap protein (fried egg with rice is a pretty good meal, imo... but I'm Asian...). Cereal for breakfast. Unless you're cooking with friends, try making enough food every time you cook for 2-3 days (saves time overall in case you get lazy, cheaper too). Try to find out where the kitchens are at your school (and invest in a crock pot, VERY handy). </p>
<p>Allrecipes.com has some good, quick recipes. Know some good fallback recipes (pestos, spaghetti, simple meat cooking, etc.).</p>
<p>I made stir fry most of the time. Sometimes I made pasta. I also bought a lot of drinks, my dorm had no fountains and I can't stand lukewarm tap water. Part of the reason my meals cost about 7 dollars per meal is that I bought precooked white meat. If I bought raw chicken, it would have taken more time to cook and prepare. I also bought cereal and deserts.</p>
<p>The cost of food can be brought down by buying in bulk (Costco, Sam's Club), but you have to cook a lot and actually finish all that stuff you buy, not to mention you have to either be creative with stuff or eat the same thing over and over.</p>
<p>People say how "nutritious" the cafeteria food is... I'm not sure what they are eating!</p>
<p>I was eating the so-called "healthy" food from the cafeteria or the quick-shop (would get a sub sandwich) and was always quite a bit over the recommended amount of sodium.</p>
<p>Eating during college is just unhealthy. You have to manage the best you can and hope it doesn't hurt you too much...</p>
<p>I won't have time when I move offcampus to cook good food each night, but I plan to probably (and hopefully) cook 2-3 nights per week at least. I think I can do 20 meals per week much cheaper than the $1500 per semester that I'm paying now! And I think it'll be healthier.</p>
<p>So is 6 meals per week not sufficient enough?</p>
<p>Well, assuming that you eat breakfast every day in your dorm room, which many do anyway, 6 may be enough. Eat a sandwich for lunch every day and you can get dinner at a dining hall nearly every day, or make your own dinner a couple times a week and you can get lunch and dinner sometimes.</p>
<p>Cooking is, in general, cheaper than eating out. Of course if you don't shop intelligently (precooked white meat? Really?) it won't be, but if you plan out your meals even decently it is cheaper. Pasta is ridiculously cheap to make, chicken is pretty cheap, stuff like rice is cheap, theres a long list of things that are much cheaper to make than to buy, and not that hard to make either.</p>
<p>lollybo: buying precooked chicken isn't exactly what most people would consider being "stingy" with their buying habits! If you don't have the time to actually cook your own meals then precooked stuff from the grocery store adds up, but that's not what most people consider cooking their own food.</p>
<p>Buying groceries and cooking for yourself is much, much cheaper than cafeteria food if you budget. Tip: buy a bunch of spices right away; it might seem a little expensive to start with but they'll last for ages and will keep your cooking from being boring if you experiment with them. Buying rice, pasta, and whatever other non-perishable staples you like in bulk works well. I'm not too familiar with cooking in limited facilities, since I always lived in cooking dorms with a kitchen in my suite, but I'd bet you could use a rice-maker in a dorm room. They're great for steaming things in addition to making rice, plus easy cleanup.</p>
<p>I'm not in college yet, but I plan on getting one of those microwave cook-books. True, things like stews and stir fries are pretty easy to make in their own right, but there are a ton of simple things that require zero effort if you're feeling lazy.</p>
<p>I view it as a tradeoff between time and cost. I thought cooking stir fry with precooked chicken was time consuming, doing so with raw meat would be even worse. Less money, but more time.</p>
<p>I think for some cooking could be viewed as a hobby- for me it is just a chore. Hence, I would rather do something else other than cook.</p>
<p>Invest in a George Foreman grill. Seriously, it is a lifesaver. I don't have a meal plan at all, I don't spend ridiculous amounts of money on food, and I'm a terrible cook - but it's virtually impossible to mess up. Chicken is cheap and easy to cook. Pork isn't too bad, either. Neither is hamburger meat.</p>