When you’re in school, you can quickly get tired of the restaurants and food available on campus; and even if you make your own food, you can quickly run out of recipes that interest you. Insert this article! The meals are quick, cheap recipes that all cost less than fifteen dollars and contain simple kitchen staples that can be used for an abundance of other recipes. These recipes are very beginner-friendly for those of us that will burn down our kitchens. (I only eat turkey and chicken, but these recipes can easily be subbed with your protein of choice.)
1. Meatballs and Rice
Meatballs are a food that comes in clutch quite often for your broke college girl. A bag of family-sized Italian meatballs might run you twenty dollars, but it’s definitely worth it considering that one bag can give you 3-6 meals (depending on how many people you need to feed). One of my house’s favorite meals is meatballs in brown gravy and rice. This is a very easy recipe to prepare. I usually make it in a crockpot. Packets of gravy are cheap, and two packs will cost about three dollars. To cook, simply combine the gravy packs with water and the meatballs, then put those in the crockpot on high. These saucy meatballs will make a tasty topping to some plain white rice. Minute Rice is a great option for this, mainly because it can be cooked in your microwave.
2. Semi-Authentic Chicken Tacos
My dad made me these chicken tacos long ago, and the most important part is getting the right seasonings in your chicken. A pepper of your choosing, garlic, adobo seasoning and a bouillon cube will create a very tantalizing chicken seasoning. After the chicken is seasoned, wrap it in aluminum foil, along with butter, and cook until soft; this will change your life! Next, warm-up some tortillas and cut a cucumber into slices. Squeeze lemon and lime over your chicken and serve! This is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, I promise you won’t be disappointed. I’m pretty sure adding in some cilantro lime rice would kick this recipe up a notch, but you’d be surprised how good the chicken and cucumber taste on their own.
3. Quesadillas
Quesadillas are my boyfriend’s favorite food, and I’m sure if you’re not already preparing some, you’ll love these. Quesadillas are an easy dish to make and sure to make everyone in your house happy. Ground turkey, cheese, tortillas and black beans are all you need to make this quick entree. Cook your ground turkey and season however you usually do (I use taco seasoning), and then add your black beans and cheese. Refried black beans and Velveeta cheese are cheap and quick choices, but experimenting with different ingredients always leads to new and exciting discoveries. Once you have your filling, sandwich it in between two tortillas, then cook them on a skillet with very little oil (if you choose). My pans are pretty crappy so I choose to lube them up.
I hope you try these easy recipes and enjoy them as much as I do!
~friendly reminder to give yourself credit for all the hard work you do~
HXCO