For those of us graduating and moving onto post-secondary this year, we are about to experience such a massive shift in our lives. One aspect includes learning self-sufficiency, which often consists of learning how to cook. If you’re like me and have had the priveledge of eating food your parents cook every day, chances are food might be a little foreign. Fear not! Here in this post, you’ll find a couple budget friendly options for any cook to get started with.

Breakfast

…is arguably the easiest meal to cook. It’s also my personal favorite. Here are some ideas that would be quick, easy, and cheap:

• oatmeal (from rolled oats, not instant)
  • sweet or savory, super easy if you’ve got a spare 10 minutes in the morning
  • can add fruits or vegetables from frozen, which is often more budget friendly and nutritious
  • check out r/Oatmeal on Reddit! They have some lovely ideas
• cereal
  • You’ll want to buy bulk options to lower costs here
  • Can add in yogurt and fruit if your budget allows to make it more nutritious
  • Catch: you need milk, which means access to a fridge
• toast
  • Staple breakfast item, and so easy to make
  • Catch: you need a toaster.

Lunch

My least favorite meal to make, lunch often poses a challenge between tasting good and being portable because you’re not likely to have a sit-down situation in the middle of the day.

• Gimbap
  • Sort of like a roll of rice and veggies wrapped in seaweed
  • Easy to meal prep!
• Bean salad
  • Very nutritious, and beans are cheap
  • Wrap in a tortilla for a bean burrito!
• Microwave hotpot
  • Place your hotpot materials in a mason jar at the beginning of the week to meal prep, and pour hot water into them when it’s time to eat!
  • A little on the pricier side, but very very tasty.
• Leftovers
  • This is literally what lunch is for – cleaning up the food from last night.

Dinner

Hopefully you’ll have some time to devote to a hearty, nutritious dinner!

• Edamame salad
  • Frozen edamame is cheap, but so nutritious and very tasty when seasoned the right way
• Congee
  • I grew up with this East Asian staple. If you’ve got a crockpot, pressure cooker, or rice cooker, congee is great because you put it all in the pot, forget about it until the timer rings, and dinner is served.
• Stir Fry/Fried Rice
  • Kimchi fried rice is the easiest thing to make ever – you just need kimchi and rice
  • You can add any kind of vegetable or leftover you like to fried rice and it always tastes amazing
  • easy to pack leftovers for the next day 🙂

That’s all for me today! Best of luck and have fun learning!