College Cooking (Tips, Recipes, Cookbooks, Anything!)

I am looking for some healthy, cheap recipes that can either be thrown in a crock pot or are very fast to prepare.  Anyone have any ideas?

Most days, I have swim practice from either 4-6 pm or 5:30-7:30 pm, so needless to say, I am starving when I get home from either! I usually work until around 3:30 or so, but I also have time to cook on the weekends.

Basically, I have made chili and this big chicken/rice bake, which are both now using up almost all of the freezer space and plastic containers I have right now.

I can also make... boca burgers. Spaghetti. Most pasta dishes. Quesedillas. That's about as far as I have gotten. :-)

Those big batches are the one drawback to crockpot cooking, if you don't have the freezer space.  Can you get a smaller pot? 

We've had some other discussions of dorm cooking and eating well at college.  Give me a little time and I'll do a forum search to see what we can come up with.

Here are the results of a search for

College Cooking

Lean roast with cabbage cooks really well in a crock pot. Just leave it on low heat all day, and when you get home it will be ready to eat.

one of my favorite cookbooks is preventions "Low-fat, low-cost cookbook" i dont know if it is still in print, but it has alot of ideas for almost any kind of meal, snack, soup, dessert, muffin you could want. It has a great chili recipe in it.

8oz extra lean ground beef

8oz turkey sausage

1/2 an onion diced

1-280z can diced tomatoes

1/4c diced green chilies

3c cooked pinto beans (like 1 1/2-2 14oz cans)

1t oregano

1/2t cumin

2-3T chili powder

1/2t pepper

 break up meat and put all the ingredients into a dutch oven, cook on low4-6 hours, high 2-3

 393 kcal, 8.1g fat, 2g sat fat, 13.5g fiber

you can add all the veggies you like (ive added zucchinni and bell peppers)

You could microwave a big baking potato and have it with cottage cheese or salsa.  That only takes about 5 - 7 minutes.  It's a nice change once in a while.

I've been doing bean salads almost every week.  I use different kinds of beans for variety.  This week it was white kidney (cannelini) beans.  I add chunky celery, minced sweet onion, shredded carrots, halved cherry tomatoes, and anything else I think would taste good.  My dressing this week was Maple Grove Sweet Vidalia Onion.  I did add a splash of wine vinegar for some extra zip.  One can of beans made 3 meals and a small side dish.  It's always better the next day, and you don't have to cook it at all. 

A few weeks ago I made a cold asian noodle salad with buckwheat noodles, water chestnuts, snow peas, sliced carrots and onions.  I dressed it with a sweet ginger/soy sauce/rice vinegar/honey dressing and sprinkled on sesame seeds.  It was wonderful, and again, no cooking except for boiling the noodles.  That batch made two big meals.

I'm a big fan of Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals", personally.  I don't have any of the cookbooks, but you can find countless recipes online (here's where you can start:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/re_collection s/text/0,1977,FOOD_11656_12135,0 0.html

I hope it helps!

Before I retired, I worked long hours and I know how it feels to come home tired and hungry.  I used to fix this chicken, have it for my supper with a microwaved potato or some bread, and then I'd pick all the meat off the bones and save it for hot chicken sandwiches.

Sticky Chicken

The night before - rub a whole chicken (with or without skin) with any spice mixture.  I like Old Bay, but something like Emeril's would work.  Or mix your own salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, etc.  Rub on lots of seasoning!  Put a bunch of parsley, a few cloves of crushed garlic, and a quartered onion inside the chicken.  Put the whole thing into a plastic bag and refrigerate it overnight.

In the morning, put it into the crockpot by itself.  No need to add anything!  Cook on low all day, 8 to 12 hours.  When you come home it will be juicy and falling off the bone.  There will be lots of juices in the pot. 

It's fabulous left over!