Easy/cheap/studenty recipes for one or more please.

wigglywoozle · 24 August 2006 at 4:22PM

I want to make my youngest sister up a hamper and a recipe booklet for Uni in September. Must be cheap store cupboard type ingredients that she maybe only has to buy only a couple of ingredients for the rercipe. Anyone got any good ones? She's also currently doing Weight Watchers so lower calorie/fat recipes would be great!

Thanks

Kate x

seraphina · 24 August 2006 at 4:32PM

Get the Grub on a Grant cook book (I think it's now More Grub on Less Grant) by Caz Clarke - it's full of great recipes that I still use now.

It's divided into thinks like cooking for 1, cooking with limited space (ie only one hob ring availble) fast food, extra cheap food for the end of term, and food for crowds.

For example, last night I had the sundried tomato risotto from there - all you need is risotto rice, stock, onions and a jar of sundried tomatoes. She also gives hints for what to do with leftovers - so if a recipe calls for half a tub of creme fraiche, she gives suggestions as to what to use the other half in.

abbecer · 24 August 2006 at 4:49PM

A lovely dish is to fry mince and onions together and add a tin of baked beans. Very tasty with brown sauce and crusty bread. Yum!!

Rebecca x

Blairweech · 24 August 2006 at 5:06PM

I would recommend this book. I've got it and it's really good - loads of simple, easy recipes which taste fantastic without being your usual student fare (beans on toast, cheese on toast, toast on toast)

Or, if you really want to put the effort in, go to your local library, grab some cookbooks and type up suitable recipes, then put them into a nice handmade booklet for her. I'm sure she would appreciate a gift like that rather than a book bought from a store. You could also include favourite family recipes.

As far as hamper ingredients - storecupboard basics that you often forget when moving out for the first time. These basics can really add up as there is so many of them (I spent almost £200 on basics on my first shop!). So, things like tinned tomatoes, pasta, some herbs and spices (you could make your own mixes), salt and pepper etc. It'll be one of the most useful gifts she gets.

And if you're any good at sewing , make her an apron and pop it in.

Edit: That book, I bought for £4.99 in WHSmith. I think they still have the offer on.

gooismeid · 24 August 2006 at 5:14PM

When I was a student we used to do a very OS-style thing (before we'd even heard of it!) of making a BIG pan of what we called student mince, which was basically bolognese sauce (mince, tomatoes, grated carrot, onion, garlic, with whatever herbs we had, mushrooms sometimes too) and see how long we could make it last. So - you get spaghetti bolognese (add pasta), or lasagne (add pasta and cheese sauce), or cottage pie (add mashed potato), or sort-of moussaka (add sliced potato or aubergines), or you can have it on baked potatoes, or add chili and kidney beans and call it chili con carne with couscous or rice. See, that's a week's meals in one go! It can get a bit boring if you don't vary the veg you have with it, but that's the joy of introducing your sister to the OS style of living so she can follow the "reduced sticker" man around the supermarket at teatime, and get bruised veg from the market at 10p a bag. Good luck to her - I had it much easier when I was a student, left uni with a degree and NO DEBTS! It's all been downhill since then...

dolly_day_dream · 24 August 2006 at 6:19PM

When my daughter left for Uni last year she photo-copied all of her favourite recipes from my books + others that she found in the library and made up her own personalised recipe book. Then we went out and bought all of the extras like herbs and spices that make the difference to frugal food. We also made sure that she had the basics with her like rice and pasta and tinned toms so that she wouldn't have to starve immediately. Knowing that you have the recipe for your favourite banana bread can make or break the decision about whether you cook or not. 8p noodles and frozen peppers (29p at the mo at Mr Ts) are good standbyes. Make sure that she keeps nice things in her room and cheese always goes missing. Don't buy in the campus shop unless absolutely necessary it is always more expensive.

carrottopsuk · 24 August 2006 at 7:24PM

We used to make the following meal (sorry don't know timings, I just know when it's cooked):

Fry some chopped onion in Tuna Oil
Add tin of Tuna
Add value Tin Tomatoes
Add some mixed herbs
Then some frozen sweetcorn or frozen peas depending on what you prefer.

Serve with pasta or rice

Serves 2 people or she can halve the ingredients.

kittiwoz · 24 August 2006 at 7:44PM

My personal recomendation is Katharine Whitehorn's "Cooking in a Bedsitter". It was first published in 1961 and is currently out of print but it is widely available secondhand. It has good, simple but interesting recipes, advice for storing food, a storecupboard list, a list of essential kitchen items, tips on entertaining and parties and is also really funny, especially the chapter on the third paw!

I've read Cas Clarke's books but didn't get on with them. I found the recipes too simple to the point of being boring and I like my cookbooks with plenty of chat rather than just lists of ingredients and instructions.

leni · 24 August 2006 at 9:18PM

wigglywoozle wrote:

I want to make my youngest sister up a hamper and a recipe booklet for Uni in September. Must be cheap store cupboard type ingredients that she maybe only has to buy only a couple of ingredients for the rercipe. Anyone got any good ones? She's also currently doing Weight Watchers so lower calorie/fat recipes would be great!

Thanks

Kate x

Hi, I've got numerous weight watchers cookbooks, theirs one for cheap meals in 30 minutes that has loads of one pot quick AND cheap dishes! I'll have a skeg through them and PM you some!;)

Raffles_3 · 24 August 2006 at 9:37PM

You take a few lettuce leaves, tomatoes etc and you jazz up the salad with tinned fruit - peach halves, pineapple cubes, cashew nuts even - whatever you've got.

If you are slimming, brown rice is better than white.

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Easy/cheap/studenty recipes for one or more please.

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