Teaching students to cook on a budget

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I am doing a lecture on low cost, easy cooking for my college students. I am only a nominal cook though. I do a lot of rice and beans, which we will certainly talk about.

What advice would you guys give a kid starting out about food and food budgeting? These guys (and the class is strongly male) will be going into freelancing jobs where the hours are long and the pay is wretched. I know a lot of you are great penny pinchers and great cooks- share your wisdom please!

Thanks!

 

[dntd]

You can tell them about planning ahead and reusing left overs. Sy they had bought a preroasted chicken, the first night they eat a hot meal, for lunch a salad with chicken and for dinner home made soup with the bones. Of course crock pot cooking works to help stick to budget, so does a low cost rice cooker.

 

[saddina]

Strong flavors can mask medocre ingredients. a 99 cent bottle of teriyaki, a tsp at a time can give flavor to bland chicken and frozen veggies. Tomatoes can be grown in a 5gal bucket on a patio, and have flavor store ones can't touch. Potatoes are cheap filling and easy to bake.

 

[Southernbelle]

My favorite way to make cooked chicken is to boil it in bouillion - it's so tender! I put a whole package of chicken breasts in a pot, fill about 1/2 way with water and add about 8 chicken bouillon cubes. Let that simmer about an hour. Remove all the chicken. Chop up one chicken breast and toss it back in the pot along with carrots, celery and some noodles (they can even use spaghetti noodles, if that's all they have) and POOF - homemade chicken noodle soup.

Take those other cooked chicken breasts and put them in the fridge. You can make chicken salad or chicken quesadillas or if you're a little more adventurous: chicken pot pie or chicken a la king.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Teach them the value of spices. I've been sliding cheap cuts of meat by my family that way for YEARS...LOL! You can make anything taste good..even grocery store mutant chicken will have flavor with the right ingredients. Potatoes are versatile. Noodles are versatile. Bread is versatile. They should continually stock those items and the rest is just....whatever floats their boat

 

[Amyable]

We usually only buy meat when on sale, and then stock up. A pork roast can last for several meals. Potatoes and pasta are very versatile and cheap. Frozen veggies often go on sale and don't cost much anyway. In-season fresh produce is less expensive and can be frozen for later. Don't buy processed or premade foods (expensive and unhealthy!) such as pancake mix or cake mix. It is sooooo much cheaper to make it from scratch and tastes loads better. A really great cookbook for simple food prep is Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything". And for great food at good prices, find a farmer's market.

 

[Boyd]

as much of a carnavore as I am, most of our meals have a good balance.
One of my favorite meals on the cheap that'll fead 8-10 folks

2 - 1 1/2 lb bag frozen stir fry veggies from Sav A Lot .99/ea
3 - Large chicken breast... figuring 3/4 lb chicken .99/total
2 - Cans of cheap beer / .99
Spices - Dash of seasoning salt, soy sauce/ salt and pepper, butter .99 total?!

So to tally it up cuz I love round numbers......... 5$ for 10 people or 10 meals at .50 apiece for a single person. They'll love cooking with beer, trust me. After one day on campus when I ran out of milk, i still sneak a can into my honey nut cheerios from time to time

 

[seismic wonder2]

#1. Plan to eat the same thing two or more times per week.
#2. COUPONS! figure out what they are.

 

[SarahFair]

Write the grocery list BEFORE you go and dont go hungry.

I can feed my family of 4 for under $80/week usually
More when we get cleaning supplies..

Made this the other night. Pretty cheap and pretty YUM!
http://www.campbellskitchen.com/Rec...oryId=2&ref=/RecipeCategory.aspx?categoryid=2

 

[bumpershoot]

all the advice so far is right on track. I would add two things: 1- learn to make bread and 2- know and love your crock pot.