Grad Student Gourmet: Real Cooking on a Budget

Instant no more!

Yes, it’s possible to survive life as a penniless, overworked grad student without resorting to a life of Ramen Noodles and EasyMac. The instant stuff may seem cheap and easy, but it isn’t satisfying and the nutritional value is negligible. Hardly the way to fuel your brain. But in my first year as a grad student I’ve learned how to cook meals that are cheap, healthy, delicious, and fast.

First of all, you’ll need to figure out where you can buy your cooking ingredients cheaply.

Investigate ethnic markets. Some items will be significantly cheaper there. At C-Mart, for instance, fish sauce, soy sauce, miso, udon and rice noodles were also much cheaper than their Shaw’s or Stop-and-Shop counterparts. An added plus here is that if you can figure out how to make authentic pad thai or tandoori chicken or beef noodle pho yourself, you’ll start to spend a lot less on takeout.

For the Boston-based grad student, doing your produce shopping at Haymarket is also a godsend. Haymarket is held by the Haymarket T stop (on the Orange and Green Lines) all day on Fridays and Saturdays, every week of the year. I go every week, and I might score 9 kiwis for a dollar, a whole pineapple for a dollar, grapes for a dollar per pound, 3 pounds of potatoes for a dollar, 3 acorn squash for a dollar, and 8 apples for two dollars. I’m up to my neck in healthy, varied produce. And I have the opportunity to try so many new foods. I’d never had a fresh fig before I started going to Haymarket, or a chestnut, or yucca. Gourmet cheese, huge rounds of pita, bagels, baguettes and delicious soft Armenian bread are also available for very cheap at Haymarket.

I also recommend trying out Market Basket if you live in the Cambridge/Somerville/Union Square area. Market Basket may be crowded, but it’s way cheaper than any other grocery store. I find their regular prices are comparable with the sale prices of most other stores, and their sale prices are just unbelievable.

And of course there’s Trader Joe’s, if you can find your way to one. Whole Foods-style products at very affordable prices-- and like Whole Foods, they also offer free samples. Always a plus.

Finding inexpensive things to make can still be tricky, especially if you’re also short on time, but fear not. If I can do it, so can you.

• Make your dinner ahead. Reheat it when you get home. It'll still taste good, I promise. And it's a much better option than stocking up on Stouffer's: it won't leave you hungry like so many frozen meals, it won't be chock-full of sodium, and it won't cost you 4 or 5 bucks a pop.
• Use your freezer. Freeze anything you can't use or eat before it goes bad, rather than throwing it away. Don't worry about competing with your roommates for freezer real estate; I have four of them, and I manage. Besides, did you know freezers actually work more efficiently if they're filled to the brim with food?
• Cook on the weekends, in large batches. You'll be able to feed yourself all week.
• Rotate between different types of leftovers so you don’t get bored. (And don’t fear the leftovers-- some things taste better when the flavors have melded a day or two in the fridge, like this Autumn Sausage Casserole.)
• Invest in a slow cooker. This is probably the single best cooking tool a grad student can have. Prep the ingredients and leave them cooking on low while you’re at work or in class, and follow your nose back home to find your dinner warm and waiting for you.

Here are my top 3 tried-and-true sources for cheap and/or make-ahead recipes.:

• Cheap Healthy Good - This site is an incredible resource. Recipes as well as informative and insightful articles on how to make food that is cheap, healthy, and good. All recipes include approximate price per serving. Most come out to less than a dollar. Compare that to the $7 you might pay for a sandwich at a cafe. The chicken with shallot-apricot sauce comes highly recommended. As does the chocolate souffle (did you know you could make souffle for $0.46 per serving?!). Hell, even the DIY Microwave Popcorn.
• $5 Dinner Mom - A collection of recipes that cost $5 or less, total, to make. I wouldn’t swear by all of these, but there are some gems in here.
• A Year of Slow Cooking - One woman’s quest to prepare food in her slow cooker-- from enchiladas to creme brulee-- every day for a full year. It’s not quite Julie and Julia, but this is probably the single best slow-cooker resource out there.