eat better, cook cheaper.

Easy college meals for busy students

By Scout Duncan

Illustrations by Logan Phillips

Layout by Elijah Savage

As college students, we don’t often have the time, energy, or money to cook a big fancy dinner every night. We do, however, still need the nutrition of a good meal, and can’t order takeout every night. So, what do we do? We need to find easy, quick, and nutritious meals that don’t cost a lot.

Spice up your ramen

Ramen is one of the staples of a college diet, but it’s not very nutritious and it gets old very fast. As an affordable and easy base for a meal, it’s cool how many ways you can dress it up. Here is a list of easy and nutritious ways to make packaged ramen a great meal:

• Crack an egg on top! It will cook from the heat of the boiling water and add good protein to your ramen.

• Add scallions! This is a fun way to add another flavor dimension to the ramen and it’s a beautiful garnish too.

• Cook the ramen in broth instead of water!

• Add rice! The added carbs will give you more energy throughout the evening! Add meat! Canned chicken, tuna, or even leftover meat from a chipotle bowl is a great and hardy addition to any ramen dish!

• Anything else you’d like! Ramen is a dish that you can get creative with! Make it a nightly adventure!

Healthy and tasty snacks

While a lot of the time we are craving potato chips or a cookie, they ultimately don’t give us the nutrition or energy we need to study or complete the mountains of homework we have. Here is a great list of healthy and tasty snacks you can pack in advance, and keep in a stockpile to pick from in the morning!

• Carrots and ranch

• Sunflower seeds

• Trail mix

• Beef jerky

• Grapes

• Peanut butter

• Bacon the wonders of an air fryer! Why not make some roasted green beans? Trim the ends of the green beans and make sure they are washed. Add any seasonings or dressings you enjoy; some good options are balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, or any spices. Put the green beans into the air fryer basket and cook at 350 F for 10 minutes until tender, but still crunchy. Shake the basket halfway through cooking. Enjoy a quick and delicious serving of vegetables! How about some kebabs? Kebabs are a great way to get creative! Get metal skewers (not wood, it will burn) and add any meat, vegetables, or fruit that you enjoy! Here’s a few combination options for what you could put on your kebab!

Chicken, bell peppers, zucchini, and onion.

Steak, peppers, pineapple, onion

Chicken, bell peppers, cherry tomato, and onion. Get creative!

Make sure if you’re using raw chicken, that it gets to 165 F in the center during cooking, you can check this with a meat thermometer. If it is cooler than this in the middle it could be undercooked and you could get very sick.