/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.16643106]

Student budget food thread:
how do I eat healthy without spending too much?

[Anonymous No.16643121]

unironically go vegetarian or pescatarian. cheap cuts of fish, eggs, milk, and dried pulses will get you pretty far with regard to protein. if you need carbs or fats just grab a big bag of rice or whatever pasta/bread is on sale plus some cheap oils like canola, soy, etc.

[Anonymous No.16643147]

'healthy' typically means 1 of 2 things

>low-cal to lose weight
or
>lots and lots of varying fruit/vegetables, good fats (olive oil, salmon, nuts, avocado etc), fresh aromatics, like ginger, garlic, and onions, and avoiding processed meat

If you're an active not-fat young person actually your goals/diet would be totally different than your typical 'how can i eat healthily (lose weight, also i probably have high blood pressure)' poster. Like the way to make a large amount of vegetables taste good is fat, oil on salads, roasting things saute with fat, and salt, salt salt on everything.

[Anonymous No.16643148]

OP here:
Here's what my plan is so far
>big bag of rice
>big bag of pasta
>large can of olive oil
>big thing of salt
>black pepper
>cumin
>thyme
>eggs
>cheese
>milk
>sardines
>buy fresh veggies
Anything else missing from this simple plan?

[Anonymous No.16643154]

>>16643148
some fruits (these can get pricey so watch yourself), oats, and peanut butter

[Anonymous No.16643163]

>>16643148
Beans

[Anonymous No.16643167]

>>16643106
Just eat boring food. Like rice, beans and frozen vegetables.
Basically a 3ed world diet

[Anonymous No.16643183]

>>16643148
>sour
vinegar (even cheap white vinegar is fine)
lemons/limes if you can afford it
>sweet
sugar (brown)
dark soy sauce
>salty
soy sauce
fish sauce

you can make a lot of food tasty by pulling between those 3 tastes.

i'd also get a chilli oil, paprika, and 5 spice as basic seasonings. Cumin would be no 1, but those others would be next.

good cooking (health and flavour) most dishes will be based on fresh ginger/garlic/onion

[Anonymous No.16643187]

make lentil curries (indian, ethiopian, your choice) side dish of chicken if you want, with rice, fills you up real good, cheap as fuck, healthy. also japanese curry, pretty much any big stew/curry with cheap ingredients with a lot of rice.

[Anonymous No.16643192]

>>16643148
>>big bag of rice
if you have the space get 2 big bags of rice
1 jasmine (short grain, stickier)
1 basmati (long grain, distinct grains)

it's nice to have variation, not gonna cost you more in the longrun to have 2 staple rice, and they each go better with certain stuff.

[Anonymous No.16643200]

>>16643192
I'd swap jasmine for a japanese or chinese medium grain, better as a "sticky" rice with lots of starch.

[Anonymous No.16643220]

>chicken thighs
>save the bones so you can make a soup at some point
>liver
>use spices as much as you can. cheap and tasty, will go further than having to buy herbs all the time
>ground beef is also pretty cheap too
>vinegar and worcestershire sauce

I don't believe you should go without meat, and this stuff is not expensive. Shit, if you combine this with a keto diet I guarantee you won't have to spend more than $20 a week on food

[Anonymous No.16643222]

>>16643200
jasmine rice is perfectly chopstickable even if you wash it until it isn't cloudy

it's just about using like 2-3 water

[Anonymous No.16643236]

>>16643183
>dark soy sauce
>sweet
you better specify the brand before he buys some 1,500 mg sodium per tbsp type

[Anonymous No.16643557]

Thanks to everyone ITT
Very helpful suggestions

[Anonymous No.16643724]

>>16643106
Grab as much frozen vegetables as your freezer can handle. their nutrient value is second only to fresh from the farm. Especially if you can heat them quickly, like in a microwave or a wok.

[Anonymous No.16643729]

>>16643106
Why do idiots get the big mac when quarter pounder exists?
2x.1lb frozen vs .25lb fresh

Sorry couldn't find fast food threads
Penis

[Anonymous No.16643766]

Pork belly, pork shoulder, chicken thighs are pretty inexpensive. Here a kg of pork belly is 5€. At a top class butchery at that. Or buy whole chickens and make stock, save the shitty parts of onions and other veggies, like the skins, they make good stock along with leftover bones, since you don't want to waste whole veggies for stock. Also at the supermarket look for discounted stuff, if you're cooking alone you can pick up the discounted close to best buy date produce and go through it before it goes off. Also just remember that if you ever get the itch to order a burger because its cheap or something, think that with the10 bucks that a burger costs you can buy a fucking whole bag of groceries.

[Anonymous No.16643812]

>>16643106
I don't think you can, and cooking is not really worth it unless you cook for 2 and are within walking distance to a grocer. The cost of gas and time will make any savings negligible.

[Anonymous No.16643851]

>>16643106
Ate a whole lot of spaghetti bolognas when in University. Price up from Tesco:

>500g 20% Minced beef £1.49 1260 kcal
>500g spaghetti 20p 870 kcal
>500g bolognas sauce 65p 210 kcal
>Total £2.34 2340 kcal

Split that into two meals, skip breakfast, add some bread/cheese/butter/cheapest apple for lunch and you can live on £2 a day. Cheese sandwiches are great because you can use a little cheese of the bolognas too, the apple prevents scurvy.

[Anonymous No.16643905]

eat delicious shitty foods while you can desu.

beer and pizza 5 times a week at 35 is a whole lot harder on the body than at 20.

[Anonymous No.16644365]

>>16643905
Beer and pizza 5 times a week is terrible at any age.

[Anonymous No.16644575]

>eggs
>frozen spinach
>rice
>cans of black beans
>cans of tuna
>look for deals on cuts of meat or get a bag of frozen chicken breast/thigh

You can also get herb/chilli plants to save a ton in the long run. I bought a chilli pepper plant for 5 dollars at a farmers market thats already paid itself off and more. You can also look into growing your own potatoes, onions, carrots, etc. from leftover scraps.

[Anonymous No.16644657]

>>16643148
Cut the milk
It's a waste unless you're making soups.
Add instant, plain oatmeal and butter to your your list. Add beans or popping corn if you're a snacker.

What are your cooking tools, OP?

[Anonymous No.16644676]

Bens. Lotsa bens.

[Anonymous No.16644817]

Break down your shopping into protein (pb, eggs, meats, fish), carbs (pasta, bread, flour), veg, herbs/spices, and grocery (soap etc). Then bookmark the ad pages of every store within range. Every week pop open the ads and see what the sales are. Over time you will get a sense of the real price of foods and what is a deal to spend on.

Some tips:

>Buy in bulk at the lowest price then shop for smaller amounts as you go
>find the discount aisles in each store you visit, they all have at least one area
>Immigrant markets are your FRIEND. Find where they are and get their ads.
>You can buy some food and toiletries online cheaper, and at higher quality (e.g., bulk bags of good rice, paper, etc)
>If you have the room freeze your on-sale protein and get your veg fresh
>Potatoes, onions, and carrots sell dirt cheap in bulk bags. Learn to cook with these.
>Rice is a staple and there are a thousand ways to eat it
>Learn recipes that stretch out proteins with vegetables, rice, and pastas
>search for deals on herbs and spices like a thirsty simp and over a long period of time you will build a formidable spice collection
>Buddy up with the deli and butcher personnel and they will hook you up

[Anonymous No.16644854]

efficiencyiseverything.com

cheapest source of fat, 5kg of pig fat or a gallon of oil
cheapest source of carbs, a sack of rice
cheapest source of protein, eggs
cheapest source of nutrients, liver

[Anonymous No.16645043]

>>16643148
Might wanna get a bag of chickpeas or lentils in there too. Otherwise, seems pretty good. Tinned oysters aren't a bad idea either; they're high in iron.

[Anonymous No.16645069]

>>16644657
None yet.
Thinking:
>sauce pan
>saute pan
>pot
>colander
>wooden spoon
>knife
>spatula
>cutting board
Anythind else essential?

[Anonymous No.16645080]

>>16643106
rice, eggs, soy sauce, all you need

[Anonymous No.16645092]

>>16643106
Food pantries if you must. Potatoes, rice, beans. Cheapest chicken you can find. On sale meats. Multivitamin.

[Anonymous No.16645096]

>>16644676

[Anonymous No.16645678]

>>16645069
If you're an unmarried college student, you need less stuff. Also, do you have a stove top and kitchen, or an electric toaster oven and skillet hotel kinda deal?

For me, the essentials are:
>2 big ass cheap bowls
>1 cooking pot
>1 skillet
>colander
>cutting board
>paring knife
>tongs
>cookie sheet pan
>more bowls (for eating out of)

Pick any knife you want desu, but I think a cheap small one gets most jobs done. Big bowls are the #1 forgotten thing by every student in my dorm who thought he was some gourmet cookaroni.
Don't be without a bowl on college, OP.

[Anonymous No.16645686]

>>16645678
Also, yeah I sound like an idiot for listing MORE when I am telling you LESSSsss

Just master the art of making pizza dough in college and become the witty poonslayer you were meant to be, OP. Try not to spend too much money though!

[Anonymous No.16645691]

Eat in the campus cafeteria.

[Anonymous No.16647595]

>>16645691
They close at 5.

[Anonymous No.16647610]

>>16643154
I'd like to add that Mexican grocery stores often have rather cheap fruits