Maxwell ReedAs a college student, especially one without a job, I’m always looking for ways to eat without spending a fortune. If I spend money on food, it’s usually to order some greasy junk when I’m tired after a long day at school.
Luckily, in my case, I still live with my family. There’s plenty of food around for me to make and enjoy, but that won’t always be the case. However, some day, I’ll have to start really budgeting and critically think about what food will sustain me every day of the week.
And so, I wanted to try something different. Screw fast food, it was time to eat some damn good homemade meals!
So I made some ramen.
Just what you had envisioned, right? The college diet often isn’t a healthy one, but if you know what you’re doing, you can do a lot to elevate simple foods into something truly delectable. And even better, you can do it for a pretty low price.
The Shopping
For my first low-cost meal, I wanted to grab some things that I figured I’d be buying a lot of in the future, things I could make easily when I’m off on my own. So I drove over to Ralph’s.
My first stop was to get some potatoes. Five regular-sized russet potatoes were about a pound, which added up to $4.09, so about $0.81 each. Not bad. I didn’t want to just bake some potatoes, though. I wanted to really spice things up… two jumbo white onions ($1.29 each) and a couple green onions (for just $0.99 total) would do the trick.
A personal favorite of mine, and something that’s always easy to make, is an old-fashioned grilled cheese. And the beauty of it is you can make it with any bread! So, I headed to the clearance section at the back of the store, where there’s always some priced-down bread. Lo and behold, there were 15 ounces of sliced French bread for just one dollar. Is it the nicest bread in the store? Absolutely not. Could I totally get better? 100%. Does the price tag melt all of those doubts away? You already know the answer.
You can’t have a grilled cheese without the cheese, so I had to get sliced cheese too. Sargento cheese happened to be $2.29 off when I was there, quite the bargain. I picked up their smoky hot colby-jack and smokehouse cheddar for just $5. Given that amounts to 20 slices, it’s quite the deal. That wasn’t enough for me, though. I needed the ultimate college snack to go with it: chips. Not only were Kettle brand chips on sale, but I had two different coupons for them, too. Making it so, instead of having to fork up $5.29 a bag, which would’ve been my biggest expense yet, it was $1.99 for some sea salt chips… and $1.19 for jalapeno chips of the same brand. Had to feed the family, too, y’know? It all adds up to a way more affordable meal than I could be getting at places like McDonalds, and it’ll taste way better.
My last stop was to get something for the ramen I was planning on making. I’d already picked up green onions, but I knew eggs were where it’s really at. I got a dozen of Kroger, large, cage-free eggs for $2.79. Eggs can improve basically anything, especially ramen. After also getting some garlic salsa ($3.99) that my dad loves, I grabbed a Sprite + Tea bottle for $2.89 to round things out. I know it isn’t healthy, but I’d never tried it before, and it was worth it. Get it if you haven’t had it, trust me.
Everything amounted to $30.09 in total for about eight items. For a normal shopping trip, that’s actually pretty good. Tack on the fact that I saved $11.98 via coupons and sales from the grocery store or P&G, and you bet it felt good to walk out of there. So I drank the soda on the ride home and got ready for a long night of cooking. It was going to be very worthwhile.
Baked Potatoes
I decided to start with what would likely take the longest, the baked potatoes. Making two of them was about a 30-minute process, especially when taking into account the extra ingredients prepared. I’ve always had a fondness for baked potatoes, but I’d normally just put butter and maybe some regular old sour cream too. This time, with all the ingredients I acquired, I could do a lot more. Sautéed white onions from the store, green onions sprinkled on top, and whatever else I could find around the house. That ended up becoming a sour cream sauce, shredded cheese and spinach.
Everything combined just made the baked potato shine so much more than it would normally. It is a perfect vehicle for different flavors, providing a stable foundation for other flavors.. The spinach and onions were both great additions, as not only did they taste so good, but they felt good to eat. Always gotta get your veggies in. And let’s not ignore the sauce: you get heat from the spiciness of the chili-onion, the flavor of the added spices, and that cool feel of the sour cream brings everything down.
The amazing thing about baked potatoes is that you can swap ingredients based on what you have available to you and make something just as good as whatever recipe you’re following. Don’t have shredded cheese? Put some sliced cheese in the middle when it’s still hot so it can melt into it all. Not a big fan of spinach? Maybe peppers would be the right choice for you. Take what you have and have fun with it; that’ll make the prospect of eating things like baked potatoes a lot more appetizing.
Grilled Cheese
More than baked potatoes or ramen, grilled cheese can truly include any combination of cheese and extra ingredients that you could think of. In this case, making four small grilled cheese sandwiches with the smokehouse cheddar and smoky hot colby-jack did the trick, along with those sea salt Kettle chips. I also hadn’t used all of the sauteed onions for the baked potatoes, so I added some of those into the grilled cheese too. Often, people dip grilled cheese into tomato soup or different sauces, but I decided to make my own to add inside it. You’ll see the vision.
Honestly, this was one of the best grilled cheeses I’d ever made. The imitation burger sauce paired so well with the two cheeses and the onions, with those sea salt chips being exactly what was needed to push it over the edge. It was far from the healthiest grilled cheese I could’ve made, but sometimes you must indulge.
If you want something better for you, swapping out chips for some pickles would be a nice, simple change. I’m a big fan of tomatoes in grilled cheese, and spinach can work very well, too. If you don’t want to pay extra for notable name-brand cheese, you can always just get some cheap American cheese and make it happen. Or if you wanted mozzarella instead, getting some parmesan, garlic and balsamic glaze with the aforementioned tomatoes will knock your socks off.
Ramen
My mom swore up and down that Sapporo Ichiban Original was the best store-bought ramen she had had, even though it was almost a whole dollar more in price than Maruchan’s ramen noodle soup (I went with the soy sauce flavor). I thought it should be put to the test. One dollar isn’t a big price difference, but when you’re on a budget, things like that are crucial. Both were cooked at the same time in different pans, and got the additions of egg, spices, green onions and tomatoes.
Much to my surprise, the Maruchan ramen was my clear favorite. It was much more scrumptious, providing a strong saltiness that really complemented the added egg and veggies. The tomatoes were an especially good inclusion as a soft, sweet note to combat that salty taste. There are a lot of other veggies that work well in ramen, such as mushrooms or carrots, and different spices you can try out.
Being a college student really sucks sometimes. You don’t always get the time to shop and cook and prepare meals, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying. There are always different sales, coupons and deals you can get at different grocery stores, and if you really want to, you can make it work.
I am incredibly grateful for my mother for teaching me about food and keeping me fed for all my 20 years of life, and with exercises like this, I know that I can do the same for myself and anybody else I may want to feed in the future.
That’s the real lesson: eating on a budget doesn’t mean having to settle for food you don’t actually want or another drive-thru run. With just a little planning and a few smart choices, even the average college student can make affordable meals that are both filling and enjoyable on a weekly basis.
