College budget meal ideas?

That are HSP friendly, anyone know of any?

I'm looking to lower the food bill for a month to play catch up with some other bills, and I'm looking at how much we spend in food right now. I figure we can do a simple college budget for a while. I'm sure a lot of people here have done the broke college student thing so I figured maybe you guys could help?

I would like to keep it hsp friendly though, two of us in my household are hsp, and while my roommate isn't bothered by most foods I'm sensitive to some things. I kinda want to avoid the Kraft Mac & Cheese with hotdogs, and Ramen diet most college kids live on (that will get me sick faster then anything.)

So ideas anyone? I figure a thread like this could help other hsp on a budget who want to stay healthy too.

The main thing is to buy unprocessed whole foods that are very cheap, like beans, bulk cheese, cheap lean cuts of meat to freeze. Having a well stocked kitchen of quality foods bought on sale means never having to pay anywhere near full price.

In college, I usually managed to get by this was on an extremely limited budget. I NEVER lived on bolagna, hot dogs and only a little ramen as decent pasta was also cheap as were potatoes.

You can live on the foods of your farm too. Why eat hot dogs when you've organic eggs and vennison? Why eat boxed mac and cheese when you've fruit and veggies you canned and froze when in season?

melodiccolor wrote:
You can live on the foods of your farm too.  Why eat hot dogs when you've organic eggs and vennison?  Why eat boxed mac and cheese when you've fruit and veggies you canned and froze when in season?

It's primary I get bored of the same things every day so I was looking for ideas. I'm also about out of deer, we've got one shoulder left, so looking for ideas of good yummy stuff that can be made cheep... I'm not creative at times so hoping people had ideas that were different and things I'd never thought of...

We're planning on doing a few stir fry type things, some rice dishes (yes normal rice not instant), stuff like that already. Have roster destined for slow cooker once I get a hold of onions, carrots, and potatoes.

...I also said I didn't want ideas like the boxed mac and cheese stuff and hotdogs... that stuff just isn't appealing at all to me anymore due to the salt content.

Ah, you're looking for recipes--we have a couple of good recipe threads.  I can add more ideas as can others.  Also google ways to make egg dishes, bean dishes, rice dishes and anything else you have plenty of.

Recipe threads: http://funhsps.niceboard.org/t1271-yummy-recipes?highlight=recipes
http://funhsps.niceboard.org/t1310-rho-s-recipes?highlight=recipes

At Sam's request I am posting a very inexpensive dish I used to do shared rental in college when it was my turn to cook.

Mexican Rice Casserole

In a large pot
-2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth or water)
-1 diced onion (or onion powder)
-3 cups fresh vegetables diced or chopped fine such as peppers, spinach, any dark leafy veggie, any squash, tomato, mushroom
-1 Tbl butter or oil
-2 tsp about, chili powder
-crushed garlic or garlic powder
-salt to taste
bring to a boil
add
-1 cup uncooked long grained rice
bring to a boil again, stirring, then reduce to a simmer covering tightly, cook until all liquid is absorbed, about 23 min.

Remove from heat, add 2 cups cooked beans and 1 cup grated cheese, cover tightly and let sit for another 5 to 10 min for beans to heat and cheese to melt

Stir thoroughly and serve.  Makes 4 servings.  Pair with some fresh fruit for a complete meal.

Brown rice alternative--use long grain brown rice and cook for 45 min.

(Note, I don't measure spices so it's a rough guess for the chili powder.  Use your judgement on that.)