As if college tuition isn’t expensive enough, many schools require first-year students to buy a meal plan. But after freshman year, what happens to those that opt out of the “swipe all you can eat” lifestyle? After all, meal plans can add $8,000 to $24,000 to your overall tuition.
But what happens when you can’t afford to spend $100 on groceries? Or when you don’t have the time or resources to cook yourself a gourmet meal?
We have your solution, use a microwave! For those of you that don’t want to spend your evenings cooking for hours and those that are sick of eating ramen noodles three times a day, here are some inexpensive microwaveable meals that you can easily make in less than 20 minutes.
Scrambled egg casserole: $3.95 4 slices of bacon $2.33 3 eggs: 62 cents 1 cup shredded cheese: $1.00
It’s never a good idea to go to class on an empty stomach. But who wants to wake up early to cook? If you’re on a time crunch and have limited resources, this scrambled egg casserole is perfect.
In a microwaveable container crack three eggs and add half a cup of cheese. Grab some of those free salt and pepper packets from any dining area in your school and add it to your dish. The next step might surprise you but don’t worry, it is totally safe.
Partially cook 4 strips of bacon in the microwave. For this recipe, I cooked them for three minutes but the time may vary depending on the type of microwave. Make sure the bacon is at least partially cooked so that when you place it in there again with the eggs, it’s safe to eat.
Once the bacon has cooled off, cut it up into small pieces and throw it into your egg mixture. Scramble it up with a fork and pop everything in the microwave one last time. For my small container the cooking time was only 3 minutes. If you have a bigger container the cooking time will probably be longer.
Breakfast potatoes: $3.51 1 potato: 20 cents ? an onion: 50 cents ? of a stick of butter: 62 cents 1 cup shredded cheese: $1.00 Canned beans: $1.19
This recipe is inexpensive, fast to make and delicious. You can eat it for breakfast or any other time of the day and can definitely save the leftovers.
Start off with washing and cutting a potato into small pieces. Throw that into your microwavable container and add some salt and pepper. Take half a stick of butter and cut it up into smaller squares. Once you add that just chop up half an onion and throw it in with the rest of your ingredients.
Shake up your mixture really well and put it in the microwave for about 6 minutes. Make sure to check on it occasionally because you don’t want everything to dry up. Once the potatoes are cooked, add some cheese to the top, and voilà, you just made your very own breakfast potatoes in under 10 minutes.
Believe it or not, it’s possible to make a tasty chicken quesadilla for under $5 in less than 10 minutes.
First, take those free salt and pepper packets and season your defrosted chicken. Make sure you get boneless, thin chicken breast strips so that it’s easier to cook. Put the chicken into the fridge and let it sit while you prepare the rest of your meal.
You can’t really get away from buying a whole pack of tortillas but you can make so many meals with them. Only using two from the pack breaks down to around 50 cents. I got my pack for $1.89 at my local grocery store.
Add half a cup of cheese to the bottom tortilla and add a few spoonfuls of your canned black beans. Put that in the fridge and pull out your chicken.
Now here is where you need to pay close attention to your food. Yes, you can in fact cook chicken in the microwave but you have to be really careful to make sure it’s thoroughly cooked. Start out with 3 minutes and then flip it over. Cook it for another 2 or 3 minutes, then cut the middle to make sure it’s no longer pink. My small strips only took 5 minutes, but again, the cooking time will vary for every microwave.
Once that’s cooled off, cut it up and put it on top of your beans that are on the tortilla. Add another half a cup of cheese and cover the top with your second tortilla. Start out putting your quesadilla into the microwave for just 2 minutes. The tortillas will get really small and hard if you overcook them and your chicken is already cooked so one or two minutes should do the trick.
Chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and veggies: $3.47 3 frozen chicken strips: $1.87 ? stick of butter: 62 cents 1 cup frozen vegetables: 78 cents 1 potato: 20 cents
Start off with defrosting and seasoning your chicken strips with salt and pepper. Let that sit in the fridge.
Take your potato and pop it in the microwave. You should have the “potato” option on your microwave but if you don’t, heat it up for three-and-a-half minutes. Once that’s done, let it cook and then take the skin off. Using a fork, start mashing up your potato and add about half a stick of butter, or less, to add some flavor.
I was able to purchase a large bag of frozen mixed vegetables for only $2.79. Using one cup for this meal only costs $0.78. After you pop it in the microwave for about 2 minutes, place it next to your potatoes and start heating the chicken.
It took me 5 minutes to cook my chicken strips in the microwave, but again, be careful to make sure it’s thoroughly cooked. A good tip is to poke some holes in the raw chicken before putting it in the microwave.
Once that’s done, place the chicken with the rest of your meal and get ready to eat! If some of your other food got a little cold you can simply reheat it for another minute or two.
The prices for everything may vary, but I was able to get all 10 ingredients for under $25. So next time you reach for ramen noodles, reconsider. You can make some great, economically friendly meals with just one hour of grocery shopping and 20 minutes of cooking.