There’s only so many times you can heat up a Cup of Noodles and still be satisfied with your cheap and easy culinary choice. I know students do not have a lot of time to focus on their diet whilst juggling so many other things so I am here to help out by listing cheap and easy recipes for the busy life of a high school student.

1. Top Ramen

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This is the epitome of cheap and easy cooking. A 12 pack of Top Ramen only costs $2.39. The ramen by itself can make a satisfactory meal. All you have to do is boil some water, add the noodles, stir for 3 minutes, and add the flavor packet. However, you can spice up these noodles with as much flavor as you want. You can add a few slices of pork or chicken to your ramen by swishing the meat in some hot broth in a pan until fully cooked. To make the ramen a bit healthier, you can add stir fried vegetables or just cut up some green onions. The possibilities are really endless. The time preparation for these meals would be at least 3 minutes and at most 10 minutes!

2. Quesadillas/Omelets/Hashbrowns Using a Waffle Iron

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If you have a waffle iron at home, you already have access to at least 3 different meals! You can make quesadillas, omelets, and even hashbrowns all with one cooking tool. For the quesadillas, all you will need is some shredded mozzarella cheese (or any other shredded cheese of your choosing), two tortillas, and the vegetables of your choosing! Spray your waffle iron with cooking spray to prevent messiness, lay down one tortilla, sprinkle some cheese on the tortilla, add your cut up your vegetables (I personally use red bell peppers), add the other tortilla on top and press down on the waffle iron. While there’s not usually much of a mess, I still put down a paper towel under my waffle iron in case any of the cheese drips down. Press down on the waffle iron for about 2-3 minutes and voila! The quesadilla is done. The same process goes for the omelets and the hashbrowns. For the omelets, just crack two eggs in a small bowl, stir up the eggs, add in your choice of seasoning like salt and pepper, and add the mixture to your waffle iron. For the hashbrowns, simply grate one medium red potato, put that in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of melted butter, add 2 tablespoons of egg whites, and add your seasoning. Pour all of that to the waffle iron and you’re done! Each of these should only take about 3-5 minutes to make.

3. Crockpot Tacos

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Crockpots are an amazing cooking tool for students. All you have to do is add all your ingredients to the crockpot and let it cook for hours. I know the time it takes to cook seems like it would require a lot of patience, but if you put everything into the crockpot say in the morning, then by the time you get home from school, you will have an amazing hot meal ready to go! A super easy meal to make is a three ingredient taco. All you will need are four boneless chicken breasts, one packet of taco seasoning, and a can of tomatoes. You can also just cut up some fresh tomatoes for a healthier option but that will cost more. Simply add these ingredients to the crockpot and cook it on low for about 6-8 hours. Once everything is fully cooked, shred the meat and put your creation in a taco shell or tortilla. You will have enough food left over to feed yourself for days! All these ingredients together should be at most $5.00.

4. Eggs!

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Eggs are a goldmine of culinary opportunity for students. A carton of twelve eggs only costs $3.24. You can boil eggs to make hard eggs, you can scramble them, you can make an omelet, you can cook them sunny side up or over easy, and etc. That’s already 5 different meals that only use one ingredient. Personally, I love making hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, and egg salad sandwiches. To hard boil eggs, simply get a pot and pour in a few cups of water, at least enough water to fully submerge the eggs. Then add in as many eggs in as you want. Be sure to check that none of the eggs float. If any do float, throw them out because they have gone bad. Put the pot with your eggs submerged inside on your stove and set it to the highest setting. Once the water is at a boil, remove the pot and place a cover on top of it and leave the eggs to cook for twenty minutes. Pour out the water carefully and deshell your eggs and you are done. With these hard boiled eggs you can create egg salad sandwiches! Take two of your de shelled hard boiled eggs, place them in a bowl, and crush them with a fork. Add in four teaspoons of mayonnaise and salt and pepper. Then stir the mixture together. You can also add in other things for more flavor such as olives. Take two slices of bread and spread the egg mixture evenly on both slices. Cut the sandwich up to your liking and you are done. Lastly, scrambled eggs are the easiest and fastest dish to make with eggs. Simply heat a pan on medium heat and while it is heating up, crack two eggs in a bowl, add your desired amount of salt and pepper, and mix it all together. Then add a bit of butter to the pan and spread it around to prevent sticking and pour the egg mixture in the pan. Use a spatula to move the eggs around until they start to solidify. I personally like my scrambled eggs to be pretty fluffy so I only move the eggs around for about a minute. After that, I put the eggs on top of some toast and that’s it.

5. Grilled cheese and Tomato Soup

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This meal is perfect for lunch or dinner and only costs about $5.48! All you need to prepare this dish is a loaf of bread, sliced cheese of your choosing, and a can of creamy tomato soup. To make the grilled cheese, heat up a pan on low to medium heat, butter up four slices of bread and lay them down in the pan, add a slice of cheese on two of the slices, and add the other two bread slices on top. Let each side cook until the cheese looks melted enough to your liking and both sides are golden brown. As for the soup, simply follow the instructions on the can and you are done! The preparation time for this meal is only about 5 minutes at most.

6. Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs

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Just because these meals are cheap and easy, doesn’t mean that we can’t have variety. This meal will take a bit longer than the previous recipes (except of course the crockpot tacos), but the explosion of flavor will be worth it! This japanese dish will take about 30 minutes to make and you will need 14 oz of ground chicken, 5 oz of medium to firm tofu, 2 bell peppers, one egg, salt, pepper, one green onion, teriyaki sauce, and one teaspoon of grated ginger. First, you should wrap up your tofu block and let it drain for 15 minutes. While that’s happening, remove the bell pepper seeds and wash them, mince the peppers up, cut up the green onion finely, and grate your ginger to have one teaspoon. Get out a big bowl and put in the chicken, the peppers, the green onion, and break up the tofu into smaller pieces. Then add one egg, mix it all up, and add your seasoning. After that, get out a tablespoon and scoop out your meatballs. You should make about 20 meatballs. Next, heat up a nonstick pan on medium heat and add your meatballs. Once the meatballs are nice and brown on one side, flip them over and put a lid on the pan and let them cook for 3 minutes. Then simply add your sauce to the pan and make sure all your meatballs are coated nicely and you are done! This meal is absolutely delicious and can provide leftovers for a couple of days.

7. BLT Sandwiches

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Sandwiches are some of the easiest meals to make! I find myself craving a BLT the most so all you will need to make this meal is ½ pound of bacon, a loaf of bread, iceberg lettuce, 1 tomato, and a jar of mayonnaise. The prep time for this sandwich is about 15 minutes. First, lay out as many pieces of bacon as desired onto a pan on high heat. Once the bacon is fully cooked, put the slices on some paper towels to drain. Toast two slices of bread and lather on some mayonnaise to each side. Then add a few slices of lettuce and 2 slices of tomato, add your bacon on top, and that’s all! With all your leftover ingredients, you should be able to make 4 sandwiches in total!
As a junior in high school myself, I can understand how hard it is to find the time to make meals for yourself. According to Linda Carroll from the article “Does your child have enough time to eat well at school?” on Today.com, “When children had a school lunch period of less than 20 minutes, they consumed less of their entrees, vegetables and milk, and they were less likely to choose a fruit to go with their meal, Harvard researchers reported in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics”. We don’t have a ton of time to eat lunch and after school many of us have sports and other extracurricular activities so it’s much easier to just buy cheap food that someone else made. However, with these cheap and easy recipes, I hope I have helped my fellow students out with their diet. Let me know if you plan on trying any of these recipes and how they turned out. Thank you for reading!