Student Eats

Because the maintenance loan can either cover booze or bread- not both.

It’s said the Beatles lived off beans on toast for a year while touring. Don’t do that to your body. If you’re savvy enough with your cooking, there are some dirt cheap, bog simple meals that you can stock up on and prepare in minutes.

Ingredients:

Jacket potato a la bean

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Jacket potato
Baked beans
An egg?

The method:

Place the potato on a microwavable dish, carve cross into the middle (this is where you add the cheese and butter if you are being extravagant) and pop it into the microwave for 10 minutes.

While your potato is being heated, warm the baked beans on the hob. This should take around 5 minutes on medium heat.

That leaves you just enough time to wash out the pan, half fill with boiling water and add your egg. Boiled or poached, it’s a lovely addition.

Leave the egg in the boiling saucepan for 2-5 minutes- (2 for runny, 5 for hard)

With a slice of bread, this meal clocks in at a decent 600 calories (more if you add cheese) enough to sustain you, and give you some extra nutritional goodies to boot.

The jacket potato is full of anti-oxidants- which help fight free radicals and protect your body against some cancers. They also contain “resistant starch” which cannot be fully broken down in your large intestine, and so feeds the beneficial gut bacteria there.

One of your five a day after a mere two table spoons, baked bean is a succulent sauce to moisten that (sometimes dry) potato. But wait- there’s more!

They contain fibre and plant-based protein as well as thiamine- which supports energy production- zinc- to boost your immune system- and selenium- to keep your thyroid heathy. Thyroid health controls all manner from your metabolism, to energy levels and general wellness.

To load up on protein, and add some variety to a very brown meal- a fried or poached egg is a good inclusion.

As a matter of fact, protein can be quite hard to break down, and consuming it can be seen to raise your body’s metabolic rate, letting you burn more calories as you go about your day’s activities.

Price:

jacket potato- 25p

Tesco savers baked beans- 30p;

Pack of 10 eggs- 1.75 (18p each)

73p

2.) The soupy noodle

Time: 10 minutes

Ah, a good Thai Pho- how do you make one, you ask?

On a budget- the answer is simple.

-Noodle nest
-Soup

This is around 500 calories by itself (depending on the soup) though if you add strips of meat or a boiled egg, you can easily get it up to 700.

Oven cooked chicken breast, some grilled beef or fish are excellent meat add-ons to layer atop it, and you can get a kilogram of frozen chicken breasts for a fiver. (This would be enough for a week’s worth of soupy noodles!)

Crunchy side salad- £1.00 per pack- and Ryvita cracker croutons are also worth trying.

Method:

Boil the kettle, and half fill your trusty saucepan! Then on a full heat, add your noodle nest. The joy of noodles, is their speed. Unlike pasta, which can take over ten minutes, these will be done in three.

Plop them into a bowl, empty the boiling noodle water from your pan, and warm your soup of choice.

Mulligatawny, vegetable or tomato are good favourites, though mix and match.

The nutritional goodness depends on the quality of the soup. Obviously a savers range is less likely to have fresh ingredients, and so is probably not the healthiest. More expensive soups that reside in the chiller isle tend to be made with good quality ingredients and are more likely to have the nutrients your body needs.

The noodles themselves are there for the carbs; to give you energy through your day and keep you full until the next meal.

Price:

Noodles- £1.00 for six nests. That’s less than 20p per nest.

Soup- between 30p and £2.00

50p (potentially)

3) Fishy Pasta

Time: 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

-pasta
-fish
-tin of chopped tomato/ jar of pesto

Oven cooked white fish fillets on a bed of succulent pasta. Tomato or pesto flavoured- your choice.

400/500 calories (400 tomatoes, 500 pesto)

Method:

Of all the meats, whitefish is one of the lowest maintenance. No basting or fussing required- simply wrap it up in tinfoil (mostly to catch the oil) and pop it on a baking tray, then put it in at 170 fan oven for 15-20 minutes (depending on the size.)

While that’s cooking away, boil the kettle, add pasta to a pan and entertain yourself on social media for 10 minutes while the pasta bubbles away.

75g grams (2 handfuls) is around 300 calories, and an average portion size.

You’ll know when this is al dente because when you spear it on a fork it will cling to the prong. You need to take it off at this point, when it is still a little firm.

If it falls apart or slides right off, it has gone past al dente. (Though that might be just how you like it.)

Strain this in a colander, then add the pasta and fish fillet to your sauce pan and warm them through with your chopped tomatoes or your pesto.

It’s even nicer with cheese or herbs, though on a shoe string budget, beggars can’t be choosers!

Although high in carbs and gluten, pasta is not the dietary bogey man it is sometimes mistaken for.

Wholegrain pasta is especially beneficial. It takes a few extra minutes to cook, but is full of fibre, copper, selenium and manganese, all of which contribute to ha healthy immune system.

It’s also higher in fibre than refined pasta, so satisfies your appetite for longer and may lead to less snacking.

Whitefish is chosen here for its cheapness, but its also low in fat and high in omega three.

Price:

whitefish: 50p per fillet

Pasta £1.00 – 1kg ( 7p per portion)

Pesto- 90p per jar

£1.47 per portion

All in all, these are better alternatives to take out, and certainly cheaper.

We’ll be updating the list from time to time, so don’t forget to check back!