The *Student* Food Groups

ballooba

Most of us are at least aware of the basic food groups. As students you are also aware that most of your budget is spent on alcohol. If you don't agree then you probably aren't getting the full benefit of college life.

This leaves the food budget a little tight and thus many culinary masterpieces are born out of the cheapest of ingredients. Most normal people would not consider eating one of these so called 'meals'.

The question I am therefore asking you is what is your favourite cheap meal? I.e. made from stuff you find in the back of the cupboard, stuff thats always there, etc. I have taken the liberty of starting you off.

1. Pasta and Pesto (possibly with cheese)

2. Splurghetti (Baked Beans, Cheese, Spaghetti, Onions) Delicious.

TomTom

Koka noodles
They never seem to go out of date and once you force a few fork fulls down your neck you get used to them.

ArwenEvenstar

Bread.
plain, toasted, fried, blaaas....or with furry green bits scraped off

pasta/noodles. Just slap on a bit of cheepie pasta sauce, and a few of those sad veggies from the fridge.

Tesco "prison food"
...and the end of day specials. (the only way most students afford either meat or cake lol)

Ketchup.
No matter how horrible a "put the contents of the press together" is, you can always cover up the taste

Nicotine.
If you smoke enough cheap rollies, then you won't feel hungry. The 2 best diet plans are a> being a chain smoker, and b> being a student. This way, you get the best of both worlds
*joking joking!!*

JessieG

cuppa soup.........and rice with anything throw anything ....sauce , or those sad veggies and hey hey you have dinner

Gordon

I used that pasta pesto food group for quite a while when in college.

Also good is
Baked potato with cheese
rice (just rice) and beer to drink
baked potato with yoghurt
french toast
7 egg plain omelete

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Cereal... Porridge and some of the Tesco own brand products are good value.

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Agree w/ the ketchup hypothesis...it tends to make any meal palatable !!

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French Stick tends to be quite versatile (i.e. you can put a host of food types into it), it lasts long and is relaitiviely cheap

scojones

pasta stir-ins.
Sweet+Sour chicken with rice.
Spaghetti Bollocks Naked.
Those Tesco Value pizzas.
Gold Gummi Bears.
Pistachio Nuts.

ballooba

BTW ::
Sausage, Chips, Curry Sauce is only something like €2.65 from the DIT Aungier St canteen. Imagine where they found the pork for that? Actually don't..... might put you off.

^CwAzY^

Ahh god bless college canteens, don't burn a hole in your pocket like everywhere else. There are some good ideas here but most of the ideas make me feel sick just the thought of them

b20uvkft6m5xwg

OK this sounds disgusting but...well I like it from time to time

*Cup of Porridge
*Can of Tuna
*Onion or Mushrooms

In a pot...5 to 10 mins later you've got nutrional feast with good proportions of carbs, protein and fibre.

Now thats student food for ya

b20uvkft6m5xwg

In re: Canteens

The UCD canteen is fecking scandalous...its shiite expensive compared to other colleges and the food is generally poor too

carrotcake

Originally posted by ^CwAzY^
Ahh god bless college canteens, don't burn a hole in your pocket like everywhere else. There are some good ideas here but most of the ideas make me feel sick just the thought of them

you obviously don't go to tallaght!

Panda

in gmit casltebar, usually the only canteen food that i'd eat are rolls from the sannich bar.
but sometimes they have tasty mash....

other than that,
noodles are a must but the taste packets they put with them get old pretty quick so ive started putting some powdered soup instead, mushroom, chicken etc. tastes pretty good too.

pizzas,
pasta and cheese with mushrooms, scallions and chopped rashers. now thats a meal.
also eggs are great, scrambled especially, it only takes a sec to microwave em.
also fried rice. scallions, rashers and crack an egg into it.

shopping in aldi makes life cheaper.

DadaKopf

There should probably be an actual "Student Food Group" that collectively lobbies their colleges and the government for better food and food subsidisation for students.

Continually, students have had to put up with pricier, less nutritious food.

Maybe students wouldn't have to eat cheap, pre-packaged crap if the universities and unions acted more responsibly. In the end of the day, eating crap is unhealthy, decreases your ability to concentrate in lectures and to perform well in exams.

It's simply unacceptable that universities have been getting away with this - either raising prices in college-owned restaurants or outsourcing to private companies.

It may sound incredibly frivolous to some, but with the government constantly telling us to eat better day-in-day-out, shouldn't they practise what they preach and actually make it possible for the average student to eat better?

beardedchicken

essential student food groups:

coffee/ red bull group
doghnut/ jaffa cake group
marlboro light group
beer group

that is all

ballooba

Essential student ingredients seem to be ::

*Cheese
*Pasta
*Noodles
*Cuppa Soups
*Ketchup
*Spuds
*Eggs
*Rashers
*Random Vegetables

All seems fairly innocent when you see it in a list like that, then you read the stuff above! I'll never look at a scallion in the same way again. If we could invent some sort of master dish incorporating all the above ingredients we would be rich beyond our wildest dreams.

pugwall

I lived off Ramen noodles for a week in the states last summer. They were abargain at $0.10c per pac. They were only $0.07 with the VIP card:D

schrodinger

Sausages, spicy wedges and curry sauce from the IT Tallaght canteen. mmmmmmm.......food might go get some now. /me licks his lips

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

ykt0di9url7bc3

being....a...student....can...barely...afford....Oxygen.....

Chaos-Engine

Guniness serves too perposes

or a quick stir frie with anything and everything. Its very health.. too healthy for a student like myself

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Having read through a few responses I got a bit of an urge for some baked beans which I hadnt had in ages. To my suprise, I found that tesco have a Value Brand version for only 22 cent !! [Full can 420 g]. So I bought a can last night and they were really nice, just as tasty as the Heinz variety etc.

At 22 cent I dont think you can beat that for some cheap student grub

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Originally posted by daveirl
You've not been to UCC have you?

No, but I sympathise with you.
I mean I'd bring food into college with me if I could but i can only fit so much in my bag when I'm cycling.

So that means having to go off campus to buy food or be at the mercy of the College Caterers. [The later being the case ]

^CwAzY^

Keep em coming lads i'm getting some good ideas from this thread

po0k

1x Can of John West Tuna in Sunflower oil (from the 3-for-2 tin pack)
2x Slices of toast, buttered with real butter - none of this pissabout spreadable shit
a few slices of cheese - any type, any brand, any state of decomposition
Salt, pepper, chives, chillie sauce, whatever you have lying about.
Heat up the grill
put tuna on one slice of toast, cheese on the other.
Place both slices under the grill, melt them.
Apply condiments of choice/neccesity.
Apply Slice A to Slice B.
Consume with tea.
Follow up with some really cheap 'n nasty buscuits, possibly those Jestives with the little chocolate chips if they're available for the €1.95 (They're worth it costhey're really choclatey and the pack is nice and heavy ~450g afaik).

I lived like this for about 3 months.
There was a bit of real meat here and there again, a bit of mince, prehaps a burger or a rasher now and again.

Dunnes Stores 2-for-3 Garlic bread sticks ae good for a filler too.
And Aldi cup-a-soups.

Aldi = Good for edible convenience food
Lidl = good for cheap 'n nasty buscuits and condiments/sauces etc. and Techie stuff (Speakers etc.)

I wouldn't buy eat in there tbh.


Creamed riceis a godsend too though.

Victor

Student food groups:

Ols: mostly alcohol
Ines: Caffeine and nicotine
Grease: Nearly any fastfood product
Ketchup
Chocolate

seamus

My daily ritual basically involves

Tuna Wrap or Roll + bottle of sprite for mid-morning breakfast

Go home and cook what I can find, or order in (once a week at most).

If there's no food in my house, dinners can consist of anything from fried pasta to a mountain of toast. Ahhh the joys.

I gave up on the UCD canteen a while ago because even though they do decent veggie stuff, it still costs too much.

Mr.Applepie

Originally posted by 80project
In re: Canteens

The UCD canteen is fecking scandalous...its shiite expensive compared to other colleges and the food is generally poor too

Hah You should go to the DCU canteen. You have to be a millionare to eat there on a regular basis

evie

UCC is absoloutley astronomical in price!

The food is awful. If you want to get anything other than a plate of chips and beans, you're gonna be charged for it.

Thanks be to God I live at home and only have to eat in college when I stay late to study, ie never!

Snowball

Abs
Mac'ers
Super Shacks
Goodfellers
no star pizza
local hash dealer
and so on..............

leeroybrown

There seems to be some fruit and vegetable shortages in the average student diet.

When I was in college it was:

Spaghetti Bolagnase
Various Pasta Bakes
Chicken Curry and Rice
Sandwiches and Rolls (lunches)
Potatoes, vegatables and meat.
Pizza's

And the occasional investment in quality dinners.

The funny thing I found is that over all eating deccent quality healthy food works out as cheap if not cheaper as the junk you can replace it with. I also reckon that the healthy food is a lot easier to get from home without hassle.