Late nights with nothing to eat: a situation nearly all college students can relate to. With eggs now costing as much as a Big Mac combo, it’s easy to feel discouraged when looking for cost-effective nourishment beyond ramen and chips.
Our society normalizes fast and cheap meals and the convenience of our options only fuels the habit. Why spend 20 minutes cooking a home meal when you can easily order DoorDash or drive through to get your favorite comfort food.
So, how can we, as college students, effectively find nutritious, filling meals that are also affordable?
Many will point to meal plans or subscription boxes, such as HelloFresh or Factor, that offer ready-made or cook-yourself meals. While these options sound good, the discounts are hidden behind tricky monthly contracts and the terms of service loopholes.
Other answers can be found online. A quick search for “healthy food recipes” pulls up dozens of results, but how many are actually affordable? Not every student has access to a Costco membership — or even a car to get to Walmart.
Instead, students can look for independent cooks and free recipes. For instance, many independent YouTube videos and home recipe sites for small kitchens exist.
Tina Choi, a Korean content creator and recipe developer, writes in her bio that she taught herself to cook during her college years in the U.S., making do with what was available.
“To satiate my cravings, I had to start cooking. I would call my halmoni, my grandmother, to ask for recipes,” Choi said.
Choi, known online as Doobydobap, puts her own spin on traditional Korean recipes that are fun and simple to prepare.
We need only search the nooks and crannies of the internet to find people like Choi who understand where our financial and personal limits are as students.
Another helpful resource for students is BudgetBytes.com, a site designed with affordability in mind. With an entire category for meals under $10, BudgetBytes has everything down to the penny when it comes to helping you craft a meal that is not only flavorful, and also affordable. Each recipe posted on their site lists the price of ingredients, calories per meal and prep time.
The website considers the time and effort when looking for functional feeds.
With these resources in mind, hopefully more students can see that eating well doesn’t have to break the bank.
To top it off, here are two simple, appetizing meals that take less than 20 minutes to prepare. The items are also readily available with a walk to your local grocery store.
