Hey y’all! As most of you know, I am currently a college student at Utah Valley University. Today I wanted to tell a little story about the transition from cooking back home where I had full access to our family pantry to cooking out here at college where our pantry rarely has more than a couple boxes of cereal and some packets of ramen.
Growing up, my parents always talked to me about the importance of budgeting and spending my money wisely. Well, back home that was easy because rent was free, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were free, and my parents were very willing to help with any other reasonable purchases that I wanted to make. Really, the only things that I spent much money on back home were clothes and eating out. For example, I was able to fuel my obsession of crème brûlée (pictured below).
Coming out to college, I was shocked. Rent wasn’t free anymore. I had to buy whatever food I was going to eat, and my parents slowed down on helping me pay for things in an effort to instill better spending habits in me. I very quickly learned that eating out on a student budget is not possible. Well, I love food, and I especially love good food, so I knew that I had to find a way to eat well, and keep myself from going bankrupt, so I set out to become the best budget cook that I could become.
The first thing that I wanted to figure out was which foods were my friends, and which foods were my enemies. On the friends list, I found that eggs, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, and a few other foods really gave you a bang for your buck. For the enemy team, I learned that most seafood, premade meals (like bagged salads,) and name-brand items are pretty pricey. I also discovered that other foods like poultry and beef can be afforded on a budget, but it’s best to pair them with something like rice to help you eat less of the expensive item.
After calculating my monthly food budget, I figured that I would be able to spend about two dollars on every dinner. With that budget in mind, I set out to make the best dinner that I could. I decided that a chicken stir fry was the path I wanted to take. I started by cooking one chicken breast. I added a little bit of soy sauce and brown sugar to the skillet as the chicken cooked to give it a sauce. While the breast was cooking, I cooked some rice noodles until they were soft and tender. Once the chicken was mostly cooked and the rice noodles were ready, I added the noodles into the skillet with the chicken and added some vegetables from a frozen vegetable medley bag. After a few minutes, the stir fry was ready, and it was delicious…well it was definitely not my best chicken stir fry, but for the ingredients I had I thought it was pretty great!
Now, to prove that good cooking can be cheap, let’s add up some prices: Chicken breast: $0.75, rice noodles: $0.25, vegetables: $0.50, soy sauce: $0.40, brown sugar: $0.10. For those of you who don’t want to add it all up, the total is right around $2.00!
I know that cooking on a budget can seem like a daunting task, but it’s possible! Focus on cheap ingredients, and make them the focus of your meals. Find the foods that are your friends and learn different ways to prepare them, and wait patiently for the day when you’ll have your own fully stocked super pantry!
What cheap meals do you love to make? Comment them below!
Foodie 101 