Student Recipes?

[KaidaPyralis]

Whilst I am currently in catered halls, the food is often a little...interesting :!: ...and we don't get lunch

Does anyone have any simple recipes that are possible with limited resources?

Kaida

[Kolohe]

It might help if you tell us what resources you do have- microwave, fridge space, market nearby, any food prep area or group kitchen.

A couple really basic suggestions- if you get some artisan/herbal vinegar you can store them anywhere and may be inspired to eat vegetables instead of going for fast food for lunch. You can get pesto or olive tapenade in a tub and use it as a not-so-boring sandwich spread.

Kolohe

[jcrowfoot]

Yep, not to mention knowing what kind of food store you can get to, as well... for good recipes it's all about you can find, and what you have available.

Here are some stuff that you can do even if you don't have a real kitchen. I lived like that when I first lived in Chicago, and was working all the time so I had little money or time, but didn't want to live on pizza and frozen dinners!

All I had was toaster oven and a hot plate in those days, not even a microwave or a working sink.

1. Buy a sack of greens. I like to get them in bulk, since you can examine everything you buy,... but sad sacks work too. This is about eating healthy on a budget, but to practice it you must practice care.

This, however, is expensive. Here's a cheaper option....

If you can't do this, then get a big metal lid mason jar by hook or by crook and get some (clean) wire mesh, and a handfull of seeds... I like mung beans or broccoli seeds. Wash thoroughly with soap and water, and before use be sure to sanitize this jar in a bowl of very hot water with a drop or two of bleach... that will kill most organisms that you'd want to worry about. Rinse with distilled water, and use boiled water (cooled!) to feed your new seeds. Place in a sunny area, and check every 24 hours until they sprout. Eat! Once they've sprouted, you want to put them in a breathable bag with a *damp* paper or clean tea-towel. Use within a week.
Start a new batch a few days after you decant the old into your refrigerator.

Note: Make sure your seed source is designed for sprouting. You can find them on line, or at a Co-op, or even at whole foods, and at health food or vitamin stores. They are usually in the bulk section.

When I lived in Michigan and on disability, I'd harvest Purslane and wash that and eat it. I went to a park with a significant wilderness area and did that... it grows all over the world and is one of the most nutrient laden greenery you can eat. It's also really tasty! Salty with a touch of sweetness folowed by the "green" taste. Most inoffensive green in existance and no one eats it! Gardners who are interested can also buy purslane seed from "Seeds of Change" catelog. Remember, it's a weed about everywhere, so have some containment. It also likes wood laiden and salty soils. Oh, and it takes virually no effort... just a little water once in a while. Remember that it likes dry areas. I swear this is a plant that could help stop the hunger/malnutrision problem, if only people knew to eat it!

Another tasty green is the European Violet, which unlike it's African cousin is very edible. It also has significant sources of Vitamin C, which are chemically different from the kind you get from citrus. These leaves are also very yummy... heck, if I had a choice between violet and any arbitrary green, I'd pick violet every time. It just tastes... yummy, it has a slight fruity flavor. It tastes better than even spinach.

If you live in the South West, you have other options. For example, baby tumbleweeds are in fact, very good for you! They are also faintly salty tasting, rather like perslane, though pack a bit more fiber. If you get them young enough, they are like eating snap peas... only stem. Be ware the tips, which can be sharp... but on the baby plants even those aren't bad.

Then, there's lamb's quarters/pigweed. These are pretty much the same plant adapted for different parts of the country. The YOUNG leaves are quite edible, and while not as personally yummy as the above, are still in the "you feel like you are in the grocery isle" standard of flavor.

Oh, and fresh parsley works as a salad, in my book... and it's also incredibly nutritive. The stems aren't as strongly flavored and are nice and crunchy, like celery... I used to snack on it with peanuts and Doritos when I was studying back in college. I found that if I ate something with actual vitamins in it, the studying was more effective for effort expended.

Wild-harvesting tips:

The plants I offer here are in about every weed book you could name. Farmers hate them. They are non-native and invasive... so have at em!
Google the names I gave you, as there are websites about them offered up by local naturalists, gardeners and farmers.

Make sure you look at many pictures and drawings before you pick and eat. There are look alike plants out there... and NEVER try to wild-harvest parsley!!! It looks too much like other more poisonous plants for even experts to be sure.

Don't harvest near roadways or parking lots.
Check the history of a park you choose... make sure it wasn't a dump or a paint factory in the 19th Centaury. If it was farmland, that's better as long as they didn't dump chemcals there.

[Makbawehuh]

Hummus.

You need some time ahead to let the garbanzos soak, but after that it's a matter of boiling, mashing and adding spices. You're supposed to put tahini in it, but I'm not a big fan of sesame, and hummus on it's own is bland enough that you can couple it with just about anything... A pretty simple way to go about it is to buy some tortillas and greens and make wraps. I like to slather mine with large-ish amounts of wasabi. It's also very good with cucumbers and bell peppers.

The garbanzos are a thing you can buy canned or in bulk; If you buy them canned, you just need a food processor. I prefer to buy them in bulk and boil them myself, so that I know how they've been treated between drying and going in my mouth.

Edit- to make it into an actual paste, oil of some kind (I prefer olive) is recommended. There are lots of really wonderful recipes on the internet.

[Banjo]

Hooray for this post!

I am struggling through the same ordeal. My dining hall isn't as bad as it could be: we have some halfway decent vegitarian and vegan options. It is, however, impossible to know what is going into your food, where it comes from, etc. Also, I don't think there is a single whole grain in the entire dining hall...just that awful dyed brown Wonder Bread. It's hard to eat anything healthy in the dorms with only a microwave, and greens don't keep very long because all we have is a tiny mini-fridge shared by six people; they don't fit.

I keep deciding to cleanse my body of all the college crap I eat, and consume just fruits, veggies, water, tea, and whole grains, but then 7pm rolls around and all I've found to eat within those constraints is a fruit cup, and I go crazy with hunger and eat the same old crap.
We do, however, have a Trader Joe's reasonably nearby so things could be worse (We also have a Whole Foods but what college student can afford that? Not this one!)

Additionally, I have a bit of a black thumb and keep accidentally murdering plants. I am trying to fix this, though, in gradual steps...I've kept a spider plant alive for nearly three weeks now .
So, maybe growing my own veggies would be a good way of combining my goals of eating healthy and being more creatively nurturing to plant life.

Wow. Sorry, I got a hold of some caffeine earlier and my system is not accustomed! It's 4:00am and I'm rambling.

[Marzipan]

woo! good post
I am in a student village so we are not catered for. have to cook aaall my own food o: shocking, I know. I generally just shove in whatever which isn't always so good so this will be realy helpful.
One thing i did that i do kind of like is kind of mashed potatoes with carrots, parsnip and bacon, you mix it all together then put it in a dish in the oven with lots of cheese all mixed in and on top (or under the grill if you can't be bothered to wait).
I usually always make too much though o:
half a carrot, one parsnip, two rashers of bacon and three/four medium sized potatoes ...? maybe would work. substitue ingredients if you dont like any, obviously
Bit vague. sorry i am terrible with recipes. Invest in a student cookbook, they can actually be helpful on occasion.