eating well on a student budget

[delhigirl]

this post goes out to all the knowledgeable people on this forum.

I am back at university, far from home and crave home food terribly. I thought I was a fairly decent cook - both quality and quantity but cooking for one person on a regular basis (while keeping both eyes on the books) defeats me. It's not just about organizing all the ingredients every single week but using them effectively enough. For e.g. I had this romantic vision of eating rotis everyday. A complete washout - not enough time. So I made a stack of them and put them in the fridge. Well, they are edible alright but turn into sheets of rock the minute they are reheated (I don't know why).

I did promise myself that I'll eat balanced meals if i go back to school and not put on 20 pounds in the first six months. I don't eat out much and there IS a limit to how much cheese and eggs a human can eat.

So how does a vegetarian eat well on a limited budget of both time and money?

All suggestions and tips, shortcuts, recipes are very very welcome.

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Indian food is a godsend to me for eating well on a budget. I am an omnivore, but make myself vegetarian food every now and then because they are just another choice to me that adds nice variety. Making a big pot of dahl to have all week and/or freeze in meal sizes for later works for me. Channa and other pulses' long cooking time isn't a problem to me because they don't have to be constantly minded as they soak or cook. Very easy to take care of them during brief study breaks.

As for the bread, I'm terrible at making it, but am under the impression they can be kept raw in the freezer, then cooked as needed?

Pat

Edited September 17, 2004 by Sleepy_Dragon (log)

[Milagai]

arre delhigirl: i have SOOO been there done that!

1. stack of rotis:

- freeze them; sprinkle with water before MWing, and

zap for ONLY ~ 10 seconds. experiment for best time;

but basically the less the better.

- whole wheat tortillas make a decent substitute.

not great, but chalega.

2. i assume you have a pressure cooker?

- cook in bulk on weekends and freeze in small dabbas

that you reheat during week. you can make a full variety

and not get bored during week. cheap small freezer to MW

dabbas available at your friendly local dolalr store.

why not enrich a poor chinese family while you are at it ?

3. learn to love lobhia (black eyed peas) in cans, if you

don't already! they are VERY cheap, and easy to

make yummy sabzis (same recipe as for rajmah); i also

add frozen chopped spinach; one-dish nutritious.

i often find BEP in grocery stores for 2 cans 99c: lasts for days. can't

beat that with a stick!

4. make friends with married couples, and get invited out to

eat at their houses a lot

at the very least, pile onto their costco or sam's club membership

5. other CHEAP ingredients: cabbage; sweet potatoes;

frozen green beans; etc. these seem to be cheap year round,

while prices of other ingredients fluctuate.

6. make your own yogurt, once a week in large glass bowl.

the price does not even begin to compare with store bought,

and it is VERY easy to make at home.

there's lots more ideas; but not sure what you already are doing;

and also am sure others who have BTDT will chip in!

milagai

[deliad]

Milagai,

your suggestions are all very good but you are assuming that Delhigirl is in the US. I am not sure.

Where are you delhigirl??

arre delhigirl:  i have SOOO been there done that!

1.  stack of rotis:

    -  freeze them; sprinkle with water before MWing, and

    zap for ONLY ~ 10 seconds.  experiment for best time;

    but basically the less the better.

    -    whole wheat tortillas make a decent substitute. 

    not great, but chalega.

2.  i assume you have a pressure cooker? 

    - cook in bulk on weekends and freeze in small dabbas

    that you reheat during week.  you can make a full variety

    and not get bored during week.  cheap small freezer to MW

    dabbas available at your friendly local dolalr store.

    why not enrich a poor chinese family while you are at it ?

3.  learn to love lobhia (black eyed peas) in cans, if you

    don't already!  they are VERY cheap, and easy to

    make yummy sabzis (same recipe as for rajmah); i also

    add frozen chopped spinach; one-dish nutritious. 

    i often find BEP in grocery stores for 2 cans 99c: lasts for days.  can't

    beat that with a stick! 

4.  make friends with married couples, and get invited out to

    eat at their houses a lot 

    at the very least, pile onto their costco or sam's club membership 

5.  other CHEAP ingredients:  cabbage; sweet potatoes;

    frozen green beans; etc.    these seem to be cheap year round,

    while prices of other ingredients fluctuate.

6.  make your own yogurt, once a week in large glass bowl.

    the price does not even begin to compare with store bought,

    and it is VERY easy to make at home. 

there's lots more ideas; but not sure what you already are doing;

and also am sure others who have BTDT will chip in!

milagai

←

[Milagai]

Milagai,

your suggestions are all very good but you are assuming that Delhigirl is in the US. I am not sure.

dohhh! you're right!

i just saw myself in her.....

where are you indeed, delhigirl?

milagai

[delhigirl]

:) milagai you are right. you did see your old self in me. I am in the US. Would I be whinging if I were in India right now? Probably not. I would be at the friendly neighbourhood chaatwala pigging out on tikkis and golgappas.

:(

i don't even want to think about that.

Black eyed beans here i come!

[delhigirl]

when you say - 'freeze them...' do you mean raw or cooked?

[worm@work]

Hi Delhigirl,

Am a tiny bit surprised because am a university student myself here in the US and find that veggie Indian food is probably amongst the cheapest things to live on. I basically spend a large part of my Sunday cooking for the remaining part of the week. I think Milagai has given u tons of good advice :).

I buy cans of black eyed peas & garbanzo and make a variety of preparations with both.. besides the traditional chole and gujarathi style black eyed peas, I tend to innovate and make for instance, a south indian version of the chole ( a la sundal) and some dal type preparations with the bep. I also make tons of dal of a couple of varieties and eat them through the week. i find that heating the dal on the gas itself rather than in the microwave andf then adding the tadka just before I eat the same makes it feel a whole lot fresher somehow :)...

I tend to chop beans, cabbage and okra and keep them in the fridge on sundays and then I make a quick sabzi with one of these during the week. I only do this instead of making the sabzi completely and freezing it because I'm this pigheaded girl from this stupid south indian family where everyone believes that the food one is eating must be prepared the very same day :D, so u dont need to do that.

If I'm in a terrible hurry, I just put some khichdi to cook in the pressure cooker (moong dal = oh so healthy and khichdi = hot and tasty home cooked meal!!!). I then eat the khichdi with microwaved papads (takes half a minute to make 3 papads :) ) and some pickle. I make coriander chutney once a week and carry chutney sandwiches with tomatoes and cucumbers to school every other day. Saves me money and beats the food in the cafetaria anyway. I also make grilled hummus sandwiches with cucumber slices or some such.

I dont have the patience to make rotis everyday.. i rely on the whole wheat tortillas or frozen pillsbury rotis and amazingly, am quite used to them now and would rather do that than eat something unhealthy outside.

I also make a lot of mushroom mattar and other mushroom based sabzis coz mushroom takes very little time to cook and tastes rather good no matter what one tries to do with it. I make a ton of spinach in n different ways and eat them with rice or rotis depending on what I have on hand. Overall, I find that there are some vegetables that are much more amenable to quick-fix, no frills cooking and stick to those during school time. When I have a day off or time to cook more elaborately, then I indulge myself with some fancier dishes :).

Hope at least some of this was useful. I find that the Shan Sindhi biryani masala makes a mean (and yet quick) veggie biryani if u add enough vegetables of different types. I even add small blocks of paneer to the same and it works well for me.

School life is so much fun here in the US (in my opinion at least) and I think the food void can be filled to a reasonable extent quite easily :).

-w@w

[Geetha]

Keep handy like w@w has said Dal, pre-cooked gazabano, also pinto or kidney beans, rajma. Being short of time you've not time to test your taste of other peas beans available I haven't yet ventured into BEP yet.

Keep good spices ready and available, like hing turmeric ( can do wonders for a simple sabji), other spices you're really used to very well.

Keep tortilla, can use it for a snack in odd late evening snacks, pack the toritilla in layers with sabji (leftover ) and cheese, pop into oven regular heated one.. in 2-5 mins you have a really filling snack-meal ready. Use any type of tortill for this and see what you like, I liked the small and medium thick ones.

Tadka use ginger for energy flavour boost( good tadka does the trick), if you can use coriander leaves.

small treats help keep things right in place too. Try to make a favourite dish of yours once in a while and at odd times spurious comes to mind here. That is what study is all about food and love all mixed up

Edited September 18, 2004 by Geetha (log)

[Milagai]

Delhigirl: chapatis store cooked.

Cook a large batch, wrap in foil, then freeze.

To use: genctly pry apart, sprinkle with little water

and toaster oven or MW for minimum time needed.

milagai

[susruta]

There are so many ready made Indian foods on the market now that you barely have to cook. Most Indian grocery stores stock dozens of kinds of frozen breads from every region of India as well as frozen entrees and dishs in cans and packages that don't need to be stored in the refrigerator. They're not always great but they are good in a pinch. You can buy them in the Indian grocery stores that are ubiquitous in the US now. Every large city has an Indian shopping area and Indian grocery stores abound in the suburbs as well as small towns and university towns.

Of course, it's boring eating ready made foods all the time so do as the French do: make meals that combine ready made and home made dishes. Also, Indian food has the advantage of improving for a few days after prepration so it encourages you to make things in larger batches than you would do otherwise.

However, my rule of thumb is that when I am cooking only for myself, I won't eat any dish more than three times or more than twice in a row.

[gingerpeach]

Here's another student who loves how budget-friendly Indian food is on the wallet! I did not grow up with Indian food but started cooking it when I decided to eat more vegetarian food in grad school. One tip I would like to add is, if you enjoy cooking your own beans (as I do; I find that sometimes canned beans are too soft for my liking), you can cook up a big pot of them and freeze them to store. This works well with firmer beans - kidney beans and garbanzos. I've never tried black-eyed peas but I imagine they would work ok as well.

[da_coolestofall]

Procedure for rotis:

1. Half cook them, make sure they are considerably soft.

2. Stack them up by sprinkling some water on top of each and if possible buy some parchment paper and put these in between the rotis. For a budget friendly solution, the pieces of paper can be reused.

3. if making them only for a week, do not freeze them, instead put the stack in a zip lock and just refridgerate them.

4. Take out desired number and either microwave them or put them in a toaster-oven.

Microwave: as mentioned earlier, sprinkle some water and only microwave for 10 seconds, also make sure you dont heat a stack at one time (some will trun into sand papaer and the rest will be cold). Heat them in a single sheet.

Toates oven: skip the water and heat for 1 minute. Often they will actually puff up in the oven (it's a thing of beauty when that happens).

5. ENJOY!

[delhigirl]

:)

thanks all! attempting to put some of this good advice into action.

you shouldn't be surprised w@w because there is a difference between having things done for you and doing them for yourself. i know there is loads of indian stuff available here in the US ...it is just a case or being organised enough to manage everything on a daily basis.

I'm not too big on buying frozen breads for some obscure reason i can't put in words. And I discovered what I was doing wrong with the rotis - microwaving them for 4 minutes. heh heh.

getting better at this. gingerpeach...your point about the canned vs. soak-your-own beans is good. I'll probably soak some this weekend.

PS: Made soup this weekend out of a whole pumpkin (enough to feed a family). It's pretty good even if i say so myself!:)

[Pumpkin Lover]

This thread is fantastic. Yay for all us university students.

There's a lot of stuff you guys have listed that I don't know how to cook: can anyone share recipes for the dishes listed on the thread? Khichdi, coriander chutney, chole, mattar, etc.? I'd be much obliged.

Also: what you do guys suggest I keep around as far as an Indian pantry for cooking quick dishes?

Edited September 27, 2004 by Pumpkin Lover (log)

[worm@work]

Hi Pum'kin Lover :).

Yep, Yay us university students who are forced to be creative in our cooking since we are so constrained on both our time and our wallets :p. Am posting recipes but mind you, these are my quickie recipes that I use for day-to-day cooking. I might tweak these if I'm cooking for guests or some such.

Khichdi:

1 cup rice

1 cup yellow moong dal

Salt

Haldi

Green Chillies (optional!)

Ghee

Some Jeera

I soak the rice and moong dal for a few minutes. I heat up some ghee in the pressure cooker itself and then add some jeera and the green chillies. I then add the rice and moong dal with adequate amount of water , salt and haldi (I add a little more water for my khichdi than I would for just plain rice) and pressure cook the whole thing after giving it all one stir. Thats it... quickie khichdi done :). Filling, tasty when piping hot and smells divine when its cooked :). I think some people add vegetables to their khichdi but somehow I dont like veggies in mine and so I tend to avoid. I eat this with papad and pickle or if I have enough sour curd / buttermilk lying around then I'll make myself some kadhi and achieve comfort food heaven :p.

Coriander Chutney

This one's even simpler :). Just get a couple of bunches of corander leaves. Cut the stalk off. Put the leaves in the mixer with some salt, some water and some chopped green chillies. Give it a spin in the mixer and voila, homemade green chuntey is ready :). Sometimes I add some mint leaves at the time of grinding because I love the hint of mint in my chutney.

Choley

I tend to use fresh chick peas as far as possible (for some reason, I dislike canned chickpeas!!). I soak the chickpeas overnight and then pressure cook the same in the morning (I add a small cotton cloth filled with tea leaves to the chole while cooking coz my mom asked me to do so :p. Till date I haven;t bothered to find out why!). I grind 1 big tomato, 1 huge onion, some cloves, a very small piece of cinamon, some ginger and garlic and a couple of green chilles to a paste. I then heat a small amt of ghee and fry some tej patta (bay leaves) and some more chopped onion in the ghee. Once this is done, I add some more chopped tomato (depending on whether I want the chole to be wet or dry, I alternate between chopped and pureed tomatoes). Once the tomato is cooked, I add the ground masala and let that cook for a few minutes as well. I then add some salt, a pinch of sugar and some red chilli powder followed by the cooed chole. I add water depending on the consistency I desire. Lastly, I add some store-bought chole masala. Finally I garnish the chole with some chopped coriander and freshly chopped onion. FInito :).

Hope this is helpful :))

-w@w

This thread is fantastic. Yay for all us university students.

There's a lot of stuff you guys have listed that I don't know how to cook: can anyone share recipes for the dishes listed on the thread? Khichdi, coriander chutney, chole, mattar, etc.? I'd be much obliged.

Also: what you do guys suggest I keep around as far as an Indian pantry for cooking quick dishes?

←

[Milagai]

another super simple one:

sundal

2 cans chick peas or BEP, drained

1 onion, coarsely chopped (optional)

1/2 cup grated coconut.

salt

optional: 1/2 cup unripe mango, diced.

if not available, use ripe (though ripe not traditional).

chopped hara dhaniya for garnish.

a splash of lemon juide.

tarka: oil, hing, EITHER dried red chillies OR green chillies + ginger grated;

mustard seeds; haldi (optional); curry leaves

keep all ingredients ready (important)

heat oil; add hing, mustard seeds, when they pop

add chillies, curry leaves, haldi.

stir quickly, add onion if using, and stir fry until

just stop being raw: still crunchy.

dump in chickpeas / BEP.

stir to mix.

turn off heat.

add the coconut, mango if using, salt, lemon juice, hara dhaniya.

stir to mix.

eat at room temp, or any old temp.

if you have the cans in your pantry, and curry leaves

and grated coconut in the freezer, this dish literally

takes 5 mintues to throw together.

it's perfect when you're hungry and in a hurry.....

staples in the pantry:

canned chana, BEP, tomatoes,

in the freezer: curry leaves, grated coconut.

milagai

[deliad]

Edited September 28, 2004 by deliad (log)