College recipes for students in Chicagoland

I was hoping that our younger LTHers had some good ones to share.

I'll start with an incredibly simple one: all items were bought at Tai Nam Market.

Eastern Carbonara

Ingredients:
one 12oz. package of uncooked udon, Nanka Seimen Futonaga brand ($1.15)
two packages of Vietnamese instant porridge, any flavor - I used fish ($0.55) and chicken ($0.39), both Vifon brand

Directions:
Cook the udon according to the package. When it comes time to drain and rinse the noodles, keep at least three cups of the water in which the udon boiled. Place the noodles into an extra-large mixing bowl - the bigger the better - and set aside. Dump the contents of the porridges into two separate bowls. Pour one and a half cups of the boiled water into one porridge bowl and the rest into the other one, then cover both bowls for three minutes. When the time has passed, dump both porridges into the bowl with the udon and mix well. Chill in a refrigerator until ready to serve.

College Student Chili

1. Open a can of Hormel Chili.
2. Heat can on hotplate.
3. Using a kitchen towel to avoid burning hands, eat over sink.

Toaster Hashbrowns

Place Ore-Ida or Mrs. T's toaster hashbrowns in toaster in poorly-ventilated dorm room. Hold lever down until they catch fire; wait for alarm to sound, evacuate building, eat Cheese-Its brought outside by neighbor.

Chicken Pot Pies

Microwave one Banquet individual chicken pot pie according to instructions. Eat crust, discard frozen interior. Borrow money from Resident Assistant to order pizza.

Sweet Chickpea Wellington

One container Tribe Hummus of the Forty Spices ($1.99), one small package King's Hawaiian Rolls ($.79). Smash hummus onto rolls.* Consume.

*if acetylene torch is available from, say, a scavenger hunt or visual arts welding project, use to toast rolls lightly.

College date with boyfriend cooking

1.) Ask girlfriend for home cooked meal

2.) Boil water for spaghetti

3.) Open jar of Ragu and heat.

4.) Wait for girlfriend to swoon after all that effort.

(girlfriend found herself a new boyfriend)

What are our kitchen implement limitations? Does your college student have a fridge? A burner to cook on? A toaster oven? I remember a cookbook somewhere that relied solely on one of those electric hot water boiler kettles (the kind that looked like a coffee can)

Hi,

Toaster grilled cheese sandwich: open a pita bread to insert cheese, then put into toaster to crisp as well as melt cheese. Try to make sure your pita has no holes for the cheese to drip out.

Alternatively, toast bread and melt cheese in microwave, then smear cheese on toasted bread.

I have heard of people making grilled cheese with a laundry iron. They buttered the outside of the bread sandwiched with cheese, wrapped it in foil. They would apply iron to the foil packet to toast the bread and melt cheese. I have never tried this method.

Regards,

Fannie Farmer has the answer, from back in the turn-of-the-century day when girls apparently would sneak chafing dishes into their college dorm rooms. The shrimp in the recipe, presumable, are canned.

Shrimp Wiggle
Melt four tablespoons butter, add three tablespoons flour mixed with one-half teaspoon salt and one-eighth teaspoon pepper. Pour on gradually one and one-half cups milk. As soon as sauce thickens, add one cup shrimps, broken in pieces, and one cup canned peas, drained from their liquor and thoroughly rinsed."
---Chafing Dish Possibilities, Fannie Merritt Farmer 1898 [Little, Brown:Boston] 1902 (p. 66)

leek wrote:What are our kitchen implement limitations? Does your college student have a fridge? A burner to cook on? A toaster oven? I remember a cookbook somewhere that relied solely on one of those electric hot water boiler kettles (the kind that looked like a coffee can)

This makes a huge difference. It could be a student in a dorm with a mini-fridge and a coffee maker, or they could be an apartment with a full kitchen. What is the original poster looking for? There can be constraints on time, money, space, tools, and skill depending on the person.

Guess I forgot to clarify, but I'm assuming that the student has a kitchen stove in his/her apartment or access to one - cooking tools go without saying.

Oh, and thumbs down to the Captain Obvious cliches (not including Kennyz) so far...

If I remember correctly, when I was in college, 15 years ago, most of my "homemade" dinners were very basic and very cheap and not necessarily healthy. Although I can be wrong, it seems like vegetables were a bit cheaper than they are today (in relative terms). I ate a lot of pasta, rice, eggs, potatoes, ramen, mac/cheese, and cheap fish/meats like canned tuna, hamburger and hot dogs.

I would eat a lot of buttered pasta or rice with a couple of fried eggs on top. I did some cheap potato soup - cooking potatoes and onions, adding 1/2 water and 1/2 milk and smashing 1/4 of the potatoes to thicken it up. Other soups worked well too but vegetables were sometimes in short supply in our apartment. Of course, ramen with whatever cheap greens I could find to "fancy" it up - spinach was often used (sometimes chard) and occasionally adding a boiled egg. If I had access to ground beef, it would go into a cheap chili (beef, lots of beans, crushed tomatoes, chili seasoning) and I would add pasta (thus chili mac) to "stretch" the meal for friends/roommates. Or that same beef could go into a homemade spaghetti sauce (crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, "Italian" seasonings) over pasta. One of my favorite meals was just beans over bread. These were typically dried Great Northern beans (sometimes flavored with a piece of ham or some bacon) cooked in water until soft and creamy (about 3-4 hours), then ladled over buttered bread. I would sometimes do a beans and rice dish.

The dishes were never all that fancy but usually quick to prepare. Looking back, it seemed like pretty boring fare but many of the things I listed, I still eat today albeit in another version (I can now afford a few more ingredients) and still enjoy. My culinary skill wasn't the best then but basic boiling, frying, braising was all that was required. It did me well and didn't break the bank.

Although these aren't recipes, I hope that it gives you a few other thoughts. After being out of college for 15 years and acquiring the little food knowledge I think I possess, I probably would be able to expand my meal portfolio a little more. I would probably approach it as a challenge and try to make a meal for under $2-3 per serving (college-aged serving, which is much larger than a mere mortal's serving), since that's what you can get a fast-food equivalent for. I remember when we used to get excited about $1 whoppers and 2 for $2 sandwiches at McDonalds.

Suburbian wrote:Oh, and thumbs down to the Captain Obvious cliches (not including Kennyz) so far...

Gee you make me feel I wasted my time replying.

Is this inquiry something you or a family member intend to use or is this just an exercise to see if we will answer your question?

Regards,

I went to a rather odd college where I was placed in an apartment/dorm with thirteen others. We had the choice of going on the school meal plan or taking care of ourselves. The college ran a monthly co-op where we could get fairly cheap veggies, grains, burger, etc.--nothing too fancy. As I remember it, stir fries were a big thing--if nothing more, they provided a good base upon which one could improvise.

Suburbian wrote:Guess I forgot to clarify, but I'm assuming that the student has a kitchen stove in his/her apartment or access to one - cooking tools go without saying.

Oh, and thumbs down to the Captain Obvious cliches (not including Kennyz) so far...

Please, more of this singling out of Kenny for his guileless earnestness. And wiggleshrimp.

Santander wrote:

Suburbian wrote:Guess I forgot to clarify, but I'm assuming that the student has a kitchen stove in his/her apartment or access to one - cooking tools go without saying.

Oh, and thumbs down to the Captain Obvious cliches (not including Kennyz) so far...

Please, more of this singling out of Kenny for his guileless earnestness. And wiggleshrimp.

I agree. Suburbian should be immediately promoted to Moderator.

Cathy2 wrote:

Suburbian wrote:Oh, and thumbs down to the Captain Obvious cliches (not including Kennyz) so far...

Gee you make me feel I wasted my time replying.

Is this inquiry something you or a family member intend to use or is this just an exercise to see if we will answer your question?

Regards,

Before I even replied, I thought I may be wasting my time. The OP refers to "our younger LTHers," - however that's qualified.

Mussel and Langoustine soup in a coffee machine. (really want to try this)

(and I feel compelled to add that I no longer qualify as "younger.")

I spent many a late college night stumbling home and turning everything into fried rice. Take a saucepan / small flat-bottom wok / pot, and pan scramble an egg and remove. Fry any aromatics handy (garlic, onion, frozen veg, whatever) and remove. Fry some sort of meat and then add everything back in. Add in leftover rice, either made in a rice cooker the day before or even leftover takeout rice. After it cooks for a bit, toss in the sauce of your choice and heat for a little longer. Voila, the most amazing thing ever for drunk roomies.

The aromatics are good because they don't go bad for a while. You can keep onion and garlic around for quite some time, and a bag of mixed frozen veg can be taken home when you graduate.

For meat, I kept several cans of Spam and Vienna Sausages. Don't judge, I'm Filipino. haha. In fact in college, I met several folks from Guam that brought back Spicy Spam, which is so totally awesome, but the cooking fumes are as potent as mace. Of course you can also use leftover grocery rotisserie, fried chicken, or steak from when your parents come to visit and take you to dinner.

Now the secret to this whole process is the sauce. You could use soy sauce, but that's pretty boring. Instead get to an Asian grocery and pick up Filipino banana ketchup for an island-y fried rice, or (even better) pick up Indonesian Chili Garlic Sauce (Maggi SOS Cili) for a spicy fried rice.

Variant 2: Fry up all the fix'ens above, but instead of rice and sauce, mix it into Maggi 2-Min Masala Noodles. It's a brick of ramen with a packet of salty powder, but instead of soup it makes a stir fried noodle that tastes vaguely Indian.

Last tip, if you don't have access to a stove, see if housing will let you use an induction hob (like the Max Burton 6000). They're fairly cheap, quick to heat a pan - as long as it's made of magnetic steel, and have zero chance of starting a fire.

mike

Suburbian's already learned, you don't want to get on Kennyz's bad side, just like you don't want to get on the bad side of a flame thrower.

I spent a heck of a long time in college (13 years!) and frankly, in the years before I moved into an apartment with a normal kitchen, I don't recall trying much Rube Goldberg dorm cooking. Cafeteria access was part of the room & board fees, and although back then college dorm cafeteria food was largely unmemorable, the U did try at least once a month to offer something special like ribeyes or barbecue or Hawaiian-style roast pork or something like that to keep us interested. From what I read of what comforts colleges offer students these days, those special events in my memories seem positively primitive. What I do remember that we longed for and begged for was for the parents to send a little extra cash for a treat like ordering a pizza on a weekend, and yes, Domino's pizza was considered a treat.

I can't help thinking that someone who can afford to go to college in Chicago (or whose parents can afford to sent them to college in Chicago) isn't going to be exactly pining for monthly pizza dough. Hard to imagine a DePaul or Loyola or UIC or UC student who has housing who doesn't also have pretty decent food provided as well. And someone who's living off campus ... well, back to what I said, if you and/or your parents can afford an apartment in downtown Chicago - seriously, are you cooking on a hot plate?

That said, all I can suggest from personal experience is that if you do have to watch your food budget pennies, you will want to stock up on (a) peanut butter, (b) crackers, and (c) ramen. And you will want to get a different electric tea kettle (Walgreens, less than $20?) for your ramen boiling needs than the one you use for your hot water coffee/tea/hot chocolate needs. Oh, and popcorn is cheap and filling and microwaveable.

So, I've done 4 years of undergrad and 5.5 of postgrad now...

Get a crock pot or dutch oven and learn the following words: stew, pot roast, chili, paprikash, gulash, coq a vin, etc. You can turn cheap meats into absolute luxuries with a little bit of time. Greens (collard, mustard, turnip) are often overlooked, yet nutritious and delicious if done correctly. Roasted root veges (potatoes, carrots, parsnips) are delicious with just a bit of olive oil and seasoning.

Like in most things: good, fast, cheap -- pick two. You have more time than you think.

Yeah, I figured the best buy would be a slow cooker or a rice pot--throw just about anything in it, do your term paper and there'll be something halfway edible.
I still have yet to see any actual realistic recipes posted.
I like curried carrots with ginger. You have to peel the carrots first.

bean wrote:I still have yet to see any actual realistic recipes posted.

so why dont you post one?

Katie wrote: I can't help thinking that someone who can afford to go to college in Chicago (or whose parents can afford to sent them to college in Chicago) isn't going to be exactly pining for monthly pizza dough. Hard to imagine a DePaul or Loyola or UIC or UC student who has housing who doesn't also have pretty decent food provided as well. And someone who's living off campus ... well, back to what I said, if you and/or your parents can afford an apartment in downtown Chicago - seriously, are you cooking on a hot plate?

Now, now it doesn't matter of you go to college in Chicago or Missoula, its not a cheap feat for anyone, anywhere these days, and what about drugs and alcohol? those aint cheap either ya know. I'm getting older by the day but I did spend my entire five years in college during this past decade, so I still got some time to grow old and recipes to share. Maybe Suburbian (great name for a college student in Chicago, I keed, I keed) just wants to start learning how to cook? My freshman year in Tampa was when I started experimenting with alot of grilling recipes and such.

My favorite cuisine has always been Mexican and the regular dishes seen on any Mexican fast food menu here in Chicago are easy to make and taste great when done right and always produce leftovers. Stuff like tacos, enchiladas, queso fundido, quesadillas, tostadas etc...I would suggest asking for Robb Walsh's Tex Mex cookbook for xmas, it's Tex-Mex, which is different than Mexican but it has great easy to make recipes and teaches you about the history of Tex-Mex food and you learn there is some great dishes in that cuisine that are great for college kids. I didn't have it back in Madison but wish I did now. Living in Chicago you will have no problem getting Mexican ingredients and its a cheap cuisine when your cooking it at home. I was fortunate to live within walking distance of a 24 hour grocery in Madison, Cap Grocers or something like that. This recipe below was a favorite when it was time to eat breakfast at about 5a after a long night of fun. I usually just walked over to the grocery and got the stuff listed if I hadn't already thunk about doing so when I got the beer the night before.
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Mexican Scrambled Eggs

12 eggs
1 stick Mexican chorizo (can be made without)
1 tsp each salt and pepper
1/3 cup veggie oil
5 corn tortillas, cut into 2x1/2 inch strips
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1 Jalapeno chopped and minced
1 cup shredded monterey jack or other Mexican melting cheese
1 cup chopped seeded tomatoes or little ones cut in half
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
bottle of hot sauce for table use

Start off by cooking down the chorizo in the pan you will use to make the scrambled eggs, remove when done and set aside. Don't clean the skillet.

Whisk eggs, S&P in a large bowl until well blended. Add the green onions and jalapeno and cook until softened. Remove and set aside and add a little of the oil and working in batches add the tortilla strips and cook about 15 to 20 seconds. Remove strips on drain on a paper towel.

Then add the eggs and strips to the skillet and stir the mix until its almost set, maybe 4 or 5 minutes. Add cheese, chorizo, cilantro and tomato's and stir until the cheese melts.

Dig in.
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Also a favorite of mine in winter months that I made often in college is sausage, potato's, peppers and onions. I've been eating this since my youth and making it a while now so no recipe but you need everything mentioned in the dishes name with some garlic, olive oil and cheese. I have a step by step pic by pic guide for you instead. Oh and I'll put my version up against the Situations in any kitchen just as fast as I would put myself against him on a shady corner. I like this with garlic bread.

sausage, potato's, peppers and onions

What you need:

Italian sausage (I use mild and hot)
Assortment of sliced bell peppers (the more colors the prettier it looks if you care)
Sliced onions
Small yellow potatoes chopped into squares
garlic
Italian seasonings
can of chicken stock



Pic by Pic

Start out by sauteing the potatoes until cooked thru and then set aside. Cut your sausage links (gotta use scissors) into small pieces like those seen above in the pic and saute that up until they are cooked thru. Add the oil along with the peppers and onions and seasonings followed by the garlic for the last few minutes of cooking. You want to sweat them thru.

Throw it all together in a casserole dish (and bake) or the saute pan and add 1/2 cup chicken stock and cook until that's almost gone and then start to serve.

Top it off with what you like and start chowing.
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I made alot of the aforementioned pastas, stir fries, fried rice's and chilis when cooking in college and I also ate out a ton. Hell, I rarely stopped eating. Another favorite was encased meats and with the Vienna Beef factory in the city you have what I always wished I did while in college. It helps if you got a grill and yes we were grilling in Mad City in the middle of January. Here are some ideas from a previous post, all made with Chicago grocery store products.

Da Beef wrote: On top of heading to Moo & Oink for the beef hot links I also made it to the Vienna Factory outlet at Fullerton and Damen. The Bill Swerski and Big Doggy Wu-Wu are both made with Vienna beef natural casing Polish sausages, available at the deli counter, and hot dogs (5/lb). Im lucky to live so close to the Vienna beef factory and Chicago is lucky they are here-there isnt a better hot dog out there. My fridge is full with their high grade sausage every summer with there being a little extra during the 4th holiday.


Big Doggy Wu-Wu


char bacon cheddar (Merkt's) dog with grilled onions


The Bill Swerski Polish-beer, sausage, onions, onions, onions


Bears, Hawks, Cubs, Bulls-Bulls, Bulls, Bulls, Bulls, Bulls


Best of Chicago Sausage Sandwich-hot Italian sausage from Freddy's in Cicero topped with Pop's hot peppers and served on D'Amatos bread.

To go go along with the Vienna beefs at this years grill out...


TexJeff (McJeff w/avocado sprinkled with chili powder)

Vienna Beef Factory Outlet
2501 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60647-2101
(773) 278-7800

I made all those sausages in Madison on many of weekends. We used to serve them at after parties when the apt. unit we lived in threw them. If you you like Coney's or chili dogs I got this recipe from a friend who saved it from a newspaper article from the Cincy Enquirer years ago. Its from a long gone Coney shop called John Pa's in Toledo, OH. It's easy to make, good in winter and great for college parties, eating etc..and it freezes well so make a bunch and save some.

John Pa's Hot Dog Sauce

1/2 tbsp thyme
1/2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Dash of cayenne (add more to make it hotter)
3 cups water (or chicken or beef stock)
2 pounds hamburger (and a little beef suet if you got it, dont need it)

Brown and stir hamburger meat until its done and mash down like you would for chili or tacos. Ass all other ingredients and simmer for 1 or 2 hours. Serve on a hot dog* on a cheap bun with chopped onions and mustard.

*Best made with the natural casing 10 to a pound dogs available at the Vienna Beef factory.

Sorry no pics...

I'm late to the party, but wtf.

College meals (circa 90's child):

1. 40 oz. Ole' E or Lazer
2. Falafel sandwich (mucho hot sauce), knish (mucho mustard) or chaat (mucho everything)
3. Hookah (double apple mixed with mint - duh)
4. Zapp n' Roger, Wu Tang, Miles Davis (electric only)

Take above ingredients, get high, consume, repeat, graduate, become a corporate asshole, repeat*


*not necessary but oh so fun.

Sous-vide at least according to the anecdote linked to.

Regards,