Meals for Uni

babyshoes

Definitely wait on the kettle, toaster etc until she sees if anyone else has brought them. I have seen student digs with exactly what you describe - multiples of things that you really only need one of in a kitchen! There may well be at least one person in the house whose parents just buy everything not listed, so they will have all that stuff anyway. Previous students may also have left bits and pieces behind, you really just need to see it before you buy anything more than the basics you already have.

Will you be travelling with her? If so, perhaps you can take a good look at the kitchen when you arrive and go out with her to buy things later that day, or she can let you know what is missing and you can put money in her account for it. She will at least have the basics, so doing without for a short time won't be a major problem. Students are adaptable - I remember using variously: a heater, a frying pan and an iron (covered in foil) to make toast/toasted sandwiches, and a kettle to boil eggs / warm milk during my time as a student. She'll be fine!

P.S. Potatoes baked in the microwave are a good, quick standby, even if all you have to top them with is something buttery at the end of the month...

uolypool

Get her to have this site on her computer, so that she always has cheap recipes and tips to fall back on.[/QUOTE]

Butterfly Brain , this is exactly what I told ds2 last year and have repeated it to ds1 this year as he is now off to uni. Ds2 said this site was so useful to him and saved him a small fortune , so much so that he also got the rest of the people on his floor using it.:D

snowleopard61

http://studentrecipes.com/

Apologies if someone has already posted this link. Some of them are wonderfully basic both in terms of simplicity and cheapness!

A tip rather than a food suggestion: if she can persuade flatmates to take turns with her in cooking at least some of the time, they will all save because of economies of scale, and it adds variety. I tried to suggest this to my daughter when she went away for the first time last year, but she had the worst imaginable bunch of housemates (she didn't choose them ) and is also very disinclined to bother with cooking herself, despite my best efforts and the scrapbook of cheap nutritious recipes I compiled for her! I'm hoping for better things this year as she's moving in with friends she likes.

totallybored

mrs_motivated wrote: »

Wondering if you guys would give some more advice. She is in a five bedded flat, with shared kitchen, living room and bathroom (:cool:). She has shown me the list of things provided which are cooker, four ring hob, fridge, freezer and microwave.

It doesn't mention kettle or toaster or anything else.

Now so far, I have bought her a cheap set of stainless steel pans, tea towels, kitchen knives, cutlery, plates, cups, glasses etc. a casserole dish. Baking tray. Now I am thinking if everyone takes the same that's gonna be a rather crowded kitchen!

It seems a bit silly for one flat to have five can openers, five toasters etc. and I am wondering if I should wait until she meets her flat mates and give her some money so they can buy 'what's mssing'?

Don't bother with a kettle or toaster. Chances are someone else's mum will have bought one and if they haven't they can all club together and buy cheapo tesco value ones for a fiver.

I wouldn't bother with whole sets of pans, plates and cutlery either. 2 pans at the most are enough or a pan and a frying pan. Plates, glasses and cutlery I used to have 2 of each so I could feed a guest or bf! Give her a cheap tin opener and a bottle opener. These always went missing so it doesn't hurt for everyone to have one.

I lived in 3 different student houses and found that keeping my plates in my cupboard worked best as others will not wash up! In my last house me and a friend stored all of our kitchen stuff together in a big box and shared it between us.

Try and get to the flat early and take her to the supermarket so she can get her share of the fridge and freezer before someone else comes along and fills it with bread and ice or something equally as annoying! Also keep any snack stuff like chocolate and crisps in her room as these will get stolen at some point!

mrs_motivated

totallybored wrote: »

Don't bother with a kettle or toaster. Chances are someone else's mum will have bought one and if they haven't they can all club together and buy cheapo tesco value ones for a fiver.

I wouldn't bother with whole sets of pans, plates and cutlery either. 2 pans at the most are enough or a pan and a frying pan. Plates, glasses and cutlery I used to have 2 of each so I could feed a guest or bf! Give her a cheap tin opener and a bottle opener. These always went missing so it doesn't hurt for everyone to have one.

I lived in 3 different student houses and found that keeping my plates in my cupboard worked best as others will not wash up! In my last house me and a friend stored all of our kitchen stuff together in a big box and shared it between us.

Try and get to the flat early and take her to the supermarket so she can get her share of the fridge and freezer before someone else comes along and fills it with bread and ice or something equally as annoying! Also keep any snack stuff like chocolate and crisps in her room as these will get stolen at some point!

Thanks for this, useful tips. I bought her three pans (£6 for 3 from ikea) and two plates, bowls, side plates and a pasta bowl from tesco. The cutlery was from tesco and is a 16 piece set, again cheap and cheerful.

To be honest, I haven't spent a lot as we hit ikea and it was cheap and seemed quite good quality (however i have to say ikea is my idea of hell on earth, it took me two hours to find my way out:eek: I just hope there is never a fire in that place)

I am really hoping she has nice flat mates especially as they will all be sharing one bathroom. Hope everyone remembers toilet duck and loo roll:p

Malfiore

Definitely worth waiting on the kettle and toaster, I remember there always being cupboards full of unused appliances at uni as everyone bought the same things!! To echo what some people have said, it's good to wait and see what the other people are like who she ends up. They may be into cooking and want to chip in on a SC or sandwich toaster for example, or they may all live on beans on toast in which case it's something to think about if it would only be for her.

My favourite cheap and easy meal is cheesy, beany, bacony potatoes.

In a casserole dish line with par boiled sliced potatoes, bacon (optional to be honest and you can use veggie bacon as I now do), beans and grated cheese, repeat as many times as you want/can. Makes loads of food and is VERY filling so you don't need much per portion. I bulk this out with bread and butter so it can go really far if having a tight week/month etc, and it's delish!!!

Veggie casserole is great, cheap and filling as well. You can get one of the seasonal veg packs from the supermarket or reduced veg/end of day market veg for this. Carrots, potatoes, swede, onion, parsnips, squash, sweet potato, leeks etc. Bung it in a pot with stock, season as liked (I use salt, pepper, sage and thyme for a traditional one, but I also experiment with what I have like paprika and chilli flakes or something, you can't really go wrong!) and cook until veg is tender. Again good with bread and butter or you can throw in some beans/pearl barley/rice etc to bulk it out.

totallybored

mrs_motivated wrote: »

Thanks for this, useful tips. I bought her three pans (£6 for 3 from ikea) and two plates, bowls, side plates and a pasta bowl from tesco. The cutlery was from tesco and is a 16 piece set, again cheap and cheerful.

To be honest, I haven't spent a lot as we hit ikea and it was cheap and seemed quite good quality (however i have to say ikea is my idea of hell on earth, it took me two hours to find my way out:eek: I just hope there is never a fire in that place)

I am really hoping she has nice flat mates especially as they will all be sharing one bathroom. Hope everyone remembers toilet duck and loo roll:p

Keep half of the cutlery set, it can be used next year or when the first half goes missing. The more stuff there is in a student kitchen, the more washing up there will be sitting around waiting to be done.

Don't count on toilet duck! And wait for arguments over buying loo roll, I resorted to hiding mine in my room one year. No matter how nice the flat mates are they are 5 strangers probably living away from home for the first time so there will be mess and arguments. If they're all female that bathroom queue might be a nightmare too!

samanthaneww2d

mrs_motivated wrote: »

Wondering if you guys would give some more advice. She is in a five bedded flat, with shared kitchen, living room and bathroom (:cool:). She has shown me the list of things provided which are cooker, four ring hob, fridge, freezer and microwave.

It doesn't mention kettle or toaster or anything else.

Now so far, I have bought her a cheap set of stainless steel pans, tea towels, kitchen knives, cutlery, plates, cups, glasses etc. a casserole dish. Baking tray. Now I am thinking if everyone takes the same that's gonna be a rather crowded kitchen!

It seems a bit silly for one flat to have five can openers, five toasters etc. and I am wondering if I should wait until she meets her flat mates and give her some money so they can buy 'what's mssing'?

when my son went they all chipped £3 which bought a basic sandwich toaster and toaster and then put names in the hat for who could take it to the next place when they moved

samanthaneww2d

PasturesNew wrote: »

Things you can do with a tin of soup: http://www.campbellskitchen.com/TenRecipeUnder10.aspx?documentId=3

i think this is a great site have bookmarked it for my son thanks

[Deleted User]

hi, my daughter is also starting uni the end of this month. I have looked at loads of student cookbooks and ended up buying her this one as it had the most reviews and also teaches them about stock cupboard, budgeting, freezing etc. Its http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_12?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=student+nosh&sprefix=student+nosh%2Caps%2C575 I am sending my daughter off with a box of supplies, which are mainly tins, jars and cook in sauces, dried pasta, noodles etc. She does know how to make sauces, but is lazy and probably wont, so i think things like value pasta sauce (39p) over pasta, you only need 1/2 jar, with either tuna or cut up ham is good, plus packs of chicken etc. If you find out what her local supermarkets are, you could send her a home delivery from Tesco or somewhere, although i want to limit these with my daughter, otherwise she will never learn to cope on her own. Tesco value peas 4p, blitzed with a cup of stock makes a filling and cheap soup. Teaching them a basic mince recipe and how to bulk it out is good, but sounds like your daughter has a good knowledge of these things. I think once they can budget, they will have more money to spend on other things. Oh yeah, i have packed my daughter protein drinks and meal replacement high calorie things as an emergency, so if she does not cook, she can have one of those. Good luck to your daughter and hope she has a nice time.
Snowleopard thanks for the student recipe link.