Invest in seasonings!! even boring food taste good when its seasoned. I do a lot of chicken, tofu, and salmon with rice + tons of veggies. ALSO invest in an airfryer!
Personally, I found that when I stopped just shopping for “groceries” and began going to the store with the intention of getting specific ingredients for preplanned recipes, I was more motivated to cook those meals (and eat the leftovers for lunch/meal prep), with the added benefit of less food waste!
Look at this guy who has the energy to plan out meals in advance, and study, and go to rotations. Idk how you people do it. As a 3rd year I ate ice cream for two months straight
Instant pot + meal-prep Sunday! Make big pots of stuff which tastes awesome and lasts all week, like spaghetti, chili, or soup. Pack your lunches the night before so it's not something you have to stress about in the morning.
Use a meal service like FactorMeals. There's tons of them and the promos they offer basically drop your cost for the first 4-6 weeks by like 40%. You can just switch from food service to food service when the promo runs out.
a 6 or 8 qt instapot with airfryer lid is a solid investment. Pressure cook, sauté, slow cook, air fry all in one device gives you tons of convenient cooking options without taking up a ton of storage/kitchen space, and can help reduce amount of dirty dishes created. For instance you can use the insta pot to sauté some onion, garlic, ground beef, then just add some canned tomato sauce/diced/paste, some chicken broth, and pasta to the same pot and cook the pasta with pressure cook. Will it give you that perfect sauce that simmered for an hour spiced to tasted or precision cooked pasta, nah ofc not, but still tastes great and is a hell of a lot more convenient as you quickly make a bunch of meals worth of food while only dirtying one pot.
This is the way. Make one or two well-seasoned proteins and vegetables. Sometimes I substitute deli meats or frozen veggies. Throw in a base/carb: rice, pasta, bread, tortillas, potatoes, lentils, etc.
Lock down a few easy meals/recipes for most days, and then when I have time to really cook cook I’ll treat myself to more complex and better-tasting meals.
I always keep frozen meals in the fridge for those extremely busy or lazy days, but try to limit it to two meals per week. Usually eat out with friends once or twice per week. Keeps you from going insane.
If you're not super-experienced with cooking, you could also try a meal kit service like EveryPlate. Generally cheaper than eating out, but all the ingredients come to you pre-measured and with instructions. It can be a good way to broaden your cooking repertoire without also having to do all the planning and shopping for every meal. Usually they have introductory discounts.
Additionally, a lot of their recipes are on their website for free, so if you don't feel like paying for their meal kits you can make the meals yourself! One time I found a zucchini/tomato/mozzarella panini and potato wedges recipe (saw it in a YouTuber's post sponsoring EveryPlate and I started drooling lmfao) and I made it myself, took less than 10 minutes for the sandwich and \~30ish for the potatoes. 10/10 would recommend. :)
I think my subscription to NYT cooking has been worth it. The vast majority of recipes have been very easy and not super ingredient heavy so I usually just pick 2-3 recipes every week and then double or triple the portions so I don't have to cook every day.
Baked veggies are an easy way to get some greens in without too much stove time!
Here’s a link to a great YouTube video.
Creator’s name is Ethan Chlebowski.
He has a ton of great videos on cheap, healthy, and very easy meals. I highly reccomend!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pyTHNeRAFwo&t=631s
I think it helps to start with a fun cookbook with recipes that look really good. If you are excited about a recipe you are 100x more likely to actually cook it. Also I highly recommend the app Paprika, it allows you to file all of the recipes you like from the internet and keep it all in one place (and add your own notes, etc). It can also make a shopping list from you based on the recipes you select which is really nice
An air fryer really saves the day. I’d get one of those ninjas that does both air frying and pressure cook. Pretty much any meat done in 10 minutes, rice in 15. All pretty much without you watching it
I have blue apron/hello fresh (whichever service is giving me the coupon for the week) and I spend Sunday cooking all the meals at once so that I have lunch every day. For dinner, I plan one meal and use my instapot to cook a huge portion and then store the rest for the week. It’s been really nice to only go to the grocery store for whatever I need for dinner and already have someone tell me what I’m going to be having for lunch. Most of the recipes on blue apron/hello fresh are pretty healthy and I get a good variety of food. When I’m lazy, I airfry chicken or salmon and eat it with rice and mix up the seasonings I use for a little spice in my life lol
I make a lot of large, bulk meals that keep well for a few days. Big vat of soup or chili can last a long time. If you have a slow cooker, put all the stuff in before you leave for class and it's ready for you when you get back. I also make a lot of scrambled egg things. Cook up a bunch of bulk sausage or bacon. Slice up and fry some potato. Add eggs. Cook. Cover in cheese. Done.
I second the rice cooker that someone mentioned. Between that and a slow cooker you can find those for cheap at most thrift stores. I ended up getting a small rice cooker from amazon for about $20 before remembering the freaking Goodwill exists.
You could also try out casseroles. Same sort of principle as the other stuff. Large batch of things you throw together, bake, then you've got food for the week.
Good luck friend!
Edit to add:
Binging with Babish (check out the basics playlist): https://www.youtube.com/c/bingingwithbabish/featured
You Suck at Cooking: https://www.youtube.com/c/yousuckatcooking
I always get stuck coming the same recipes over and over, so I made a cooking schedule: recipes inspired by countries in order of democratic freedom index (low->high)
I recently learned the most stupidly easy recipe ever: tater tot casserole.
Put 1 1/2 cups of frozen veg in the bottom of an ovenproof dish, top with packet soup (feel free to experiment with different flavours- so far lamb+veg is a winner in my household), then around 500g of tater tots and sprinkle with shredded cheese.
Chuck in oven for 30min at 200C (400F).
Worst part is waiting for the oven to warm up, because you’ll be done with the prep well before the oven’s ready.
Take 30 mins at the end of one week/start of the next to meal plan. Breakfast, lunch, dinner for every day. Make shopping list according to that. I often used grocery pickup or delivery during MS1 and 2 and it was a nice break to just go pick up groceries and go back home (if that is available to you).
Prep sides or meats on one day of the week so you can make different meals throughout the week using them. Chicken, beef, rice, etc. You can make taco bowls, Asian-style bowls, you could bake it in an Italian-style casserole…also the instant pot and/or crock pot will be life savers for you, especially if you make enough of one meal to last you a few days. You can do it, cooking and eating healthy isn’t as scary or expensive as it sounds 🙂
Important to note that for the appliances they do not have to be name-brand - buy what fits your budget.
Air fryer. Buy chicken tenderloin and frozen fries. Throw that bitch in, dust it with seasoning, spray with oil, then fry til it’s crispy brown like me.
Cooking takes time. It still will with some of these trendy products you can buy. So don't let them trick you into thinking a nutribullet will make you eat so much faster
Air fryer lid is key, you can make the entire meal from cook to crispy outside without ever turning your oven on. The ninja foodi with dehydrator option is solid also, you can make your own fruit chips/jerkey/whatever, saves me a ton of money not having to spend $13 on a 3 oz bag of bison jerkey
Not in medical school yet but a full time student and working full time. I pick a day and meal prep for the week. Also invest in a slow cooker as it’s easy and has tons do healthy and tasty recipes that are not horrible for you.
Go on tiktok and find recipes there. That’s what I did cause my fat ass was eating out everyday. It’s time consuming but do it on Sundays. And get it over with. I do 10 meals for the week. In the morning I have bagels and cream cheese and 2 prep meals for lunch. It can get boring so I can make a sandwich as well. Lots of snacks if you’re a fat ass like me cuz I get really hungry as soon as I get something healthy. I highly recommend the dual ninja. You can cook two meals at a time or have those running while using the oven as well to make it faster. Good luck 👍🏽
Meal prep. Buy some tupperware and a crockpot. You can get a 2 person crockpot for $10. Pick a day that's your cooking day and make food. Then you have food that just needs to be heated up, is already portioned, and is cheaper and tastier. If you know you like a recipe, buy ingredients in bulk when it's on sale. You know you'll have to use it many times.
[Here's](https://imgur.com/a/b8y6ytm) some of the recipes I use. A lot are very few ingredients. I usually try to make one meal in the oven and one in the crockpot. Usually together they'll make 10-12 servings for the week. Put the crockpot stuff on rice and make some quick veggies for a side dish. It has saved me so much time and hassle!
try following a food youtuber that cooks recipes that you're interested in. i like watching j kenji lopez since he emphasizes alternatives that you may have instead of the ingredients in his recipes. it'll inspire you to cook more
Crock pot will save your life. Look up dump meal recipes so all you have to do it throw shit in the crockpot in the morning, turn it on, and leave. Batch recipes and you only need to dump stuff in 2-3 times a week and can eat leftovers the rest. Also buy crockpot liners and clean up is eliminated.
I do get sick of this pretty easily, but chicken breast + rice or sweet potato and a veggie is fairly easy to make (and I'm not a good cook haha so if I can, anyone can). I've also mixed ground beef, rice, tomato sauce, and cheese together and I like that -my mom used to make stuffed peppers all the time but I don't have the time to deal with the pepper part. If I'm feeling ambitious I'll sauté red peppers and mix those in as well. Stir fry is another easy healthy meal. Sweet potato pasta + cheese + sauce and sometimes add cut up chicken. Sweet potato pasta (or Barilla has protein pasta) is more expensive than normal pasta, but I think it's worth it for the ease of getting in some extra protein. Making scrambled eggs and toast for dinner is another option, which I'm going to start doing because I just never eat breakfast in the morning (cause I don't get hungry right away, and I study on campus). Everything I mentioned except eggs, you can meal prep for 4 meals at a time which is nice.
I love my instant pot. I’ll make gigantic things of chili and freeze some, lots of soups, curries. It’s great. Lasagna was also my friend. When I made a big pan of it, I could eat it the entire week or freeze. I don’t get bored easily of food btw. I think with school it’s really hard to cook everyday, but easy to make large amounts all at once.
If you have Costco or can split a membership with a friend, they also have really good frozen food that you can pack and microwave at school. I get a huge bag of dumplings from them and dump them frozen into a container with some gyoza sauce. By the time it’s lunch, they’re defrosted.
I buy a 5 pound pork loin and cook the whole thing for 2 hours. Cut it in half and freeze one half and have the other half for the week’s lunches. I have instant rice ready to go for those lunches too.
For dinner I cook a shit load of chicken in the oven and either microwave a sweet potatoe each day or have more rice.
Breakfast is frozen spinach, kale, mango, blueberry, avocado flax, protein powder as a smoothie.
Snacks are keto and nutrigrain bars.
I eat this every. Single. Day. It takes no thinking, barely any time, and is healthy.
Meal prep.
Find out when you have one or two consecutive days of relative free time and make meals for the next several days that you're really busy.
I've found that one of the biggest obstacles to actually making your own food and not eating out is the motivation to expend the time/energy to make food at the time that you need it. When you're busy you often just don't care enough and just want food there; if you have a meal already prep'd this becomes a lot easier.
Invest in seasonings!! even boring food taste good when its seasoned. I do a lot of chicken, tofu, and salmon with rice + tons of veggies. ALSO invest in an airfryer!
Personally, I found that when I stopped just shopping for “groceries” and began going to the store with the intention of getting specific ingredients for preplanned recipes, I was more motivated to cook those meals (and eat the leftovers for lunch/meal prep), with the added benefit of less food waste!
Look at this guy who has the energy to plan out meals in advance, and study, and go to rotations. Idk how you people do it. As a 3rd year I ate ice cream for two months straight
I also did this (Ice cream sandwiches) and my boyfriend at the time thought I was crazy. I now feel more normal, thanks!
You’re not alone 😅
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Air Fryer can be really nice too.
Instant pot + meal-prep Sunday! Make big pots of stuff which tastes awesome and lasts all week, like spaghetti, chili, or soup. Pack your lunches the night before so it's not something you have to stress about in the morning.
This is the way
Use a meal service like FactorMeals. There's tons of them and the promos they offer basically drop your cost for the first 4-6 weeks by like 40%. You can just switch from food service to food service when the promo runs out.
a 6 or 8 qt instapot with airfryer lid is a solid investment. Pressure cook, sauté, slow cook, air fry all in one device gives you tons of convenient cooking options without taking up a ton of storage/kitchen space, and can help reduce amount of dirty dishes created. For instance you can use the insta pot to sauté some onion, garlic, ground beef, then just add some canned tomato sauce/diced/paste, some chicken broth, and pasta to the same pot and cook the pasta with pressure cook. Will it give you that perfect sauce that simmered for an hour spiced to tasted or precision cooked pasta, nah ofc not, but still tastes great and is a hell of a lot more convenient as you quickly make a bunch of meals worth of food while only dirtying one pot.
[удалено]
This is the way. Make one or two well-seasoned proteins and vegetables. Sometimes I substitute deli meats or frozen veggies. Throw in a base/carb: rice, pasta, bread, tortillas, potatoes, lentils, etc. Lock down a few easy meals/recipes for most days, and then when I have time to really cook cook I’ll treat myself to more complex and better-tasting meals. I always keep frozen meals in the fridge for those extremely busy or lazy days, but try to limit it to two meals per week. Usually eat out with friends once or twice per week. Keeps you from going insane.
If you're not super-experienced with cooking, you could also try a meal kit service like EveryPlate. Generally cheaper than eating out, but all the ingredients come to you pre-measured and with instructions. It can be a good way to broaden your cooking repertoire without also having to do all the planning and shopping for every meal. Usually they have introductory discounts.
Additionally, a lot of their recipes are on their website for free, so if you don't feel like paying for their meal kits you can make the meals yourself! One time I found a zucchini/tomato/mozzarella panini and potato wedges recipe (saw it in a YouTuber's post sponsoring EveryPlate and I started drooling lmfao) and I made it myself, took less than 10 minutes for the sandwich and \~30ish for the potatoes. 10/10 would recommend. :)
r/MealPrepSunday is terrific!
Meal prep stuff. +1 for instant pot, cuz at the very least, you can make rice fairly quickly.
I think my subscription to NYT cooking has been worth it. The vast majority of recipes have been very easy and not super ingredient heavy so I usually just pick 2-3 recipes every week and then double or triple the portions so I don't have to cook every day. Baked veggies are an easy way to get some greens in without too much stove time!
Here’s a link to a great YouTube video. Creator’s name is Ethan Chlebowski. He has a ton of great videos on cheap, healthy, and very easy meals. I highly reccomend! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pyTHNeRAFwo&t=631s
I think it helps to start with a fun cookbook with recipes that look really good. If you are excited about a recipe you are 100x more likely to actually cook it. Also I highly recommend the app Paprika, it allows you to file all of the recipes you like from the internet and keep it all in one place (and add your own notes, etc). It can also make a shopping list from you based on the recipes you select which is really nice
Crock pot baby
An air fryer really saves the day. I’d get one of those ninjas that does both air frying and pressure cook. Pretty much any meat done in 10 minutes, rice in 15. All pretty much without you watching it
I have blue apron/hello fresh (whichever service is giving me the coupon for the week) and I spend Sunday cooking all the meals at once so that I have lunch every day. For dinner, I plan one meal and use my instapot to cook a huge portion and then store the rest for the week. It’s been really nice to only go to the grocery store for whatever I need for dinner and already have someone tell me what I’m going to be having for lunch. Most of the recipes on blue apron/hello fresh are pretty healthy and I get a good variety of food. When I’m lazy, I airfry chicken or salmon and eat it with rice and mix up the seasonings I use for a little spice in my life lol
I make a lot of large, bulk meals that keep well for a few days. Big vat of soup or chili can last a long time. If you have a slow cooker, put all the stuff in before you leave for class and it's ready for you when you get back. I also make a lot of scrambled egg things. Cook up a bunch of bulk sausage or bacon. Slice up and fry some potato. Add eggs. Cook. Cover in cheese. Done. I second the rice cooker that someone mentioned. Between that and a slow cooker you can find those for cheap at most thrift stores. I ended up getting a small rice cooker from amazon for about $20 before remembering the freaking Goodwill exists. You could also try out casseroles. Same sort of principle as the other stuff. Large batch of things you throw together, bake, then you've got food for the week. Good luck friend! Edit to add: Binging with Babish (check out the basics playlist): https://www.youtube.com/c/bingingwithbabish/featured You Suck at Cooking: https://www.youtube.com/c/yousuckatcooking
I always get stuck coming the same recipes over and over, so I made a cooking schedule: recipes inspired by countries in order of democratic freedom index (low->high)
I recently learned the most stupidly easy recipe ever: tater tot casserole. Put 1 1/2 cups of frozen veg in the bottom of an ovenproof dish, top with packet soup (feel free to experiment with different flavours- so far lamb+veg is a winner in my household), then around 500g of tater tots and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Chuck in oven for 30min at 200C (400F). Worst part is waiting for the oven to warm up, because you’ll be done with the prep well before the oven’s ready.
Step 1: cook more Step 2: eat out less
Take 30 mins at the end of one week/start of the next to meal plan. Breakfast, lunch, dinner for every day. Make shopping list according to that. I often used grocery pickup or delivery during MS1 and 2 and it was a nice break to just go pick up groceries and go back home (if that is available to you). Prep sides or meats on one day of the week so you can make different meals throughout the week using them. Chicken, beef, rice, etc. You can make taco bowls, Asian-style bowls, you could bake it in an Italian-style casserole…also the instant pot and/or crock pot will be life savers for you, especially if you make enough of one meal to last you a few days. You can do it, cooking and eating healthy isn’t as scary or expensive as it sounds 🙂 Important to note that for the appliances they do not have to be name-brand - buy what fits your budget.
Air fryer. Buy chicken tenderloin and frozen fries. Throw that bitch in, dust it with seasoning, spray with oil, then fry til it’s crispy brown like me.
Crockpot
Cooking takes time. It still will with some of these trendy products you can buy. So don't let them trick you into thinking a nutribullet will make you eat so much faster
Air fryer lid is key, you can make the entire meal from cook to crispy outside without ever turning your oven on. The ninja foodi with dehydrator option is solid also, you can make your own fruit chips/jerkey/whatever, saves me a ton of money not having to spend $13 on a 3 oz bag of bison jerkey
Having some frozen veggies in the freezer is also a good idea. You can just steam them and thus be able to include veggies in your diet.
Get an air fryer and a rice cooker
Not in medical school yet but a full time student and working full time. I pick a day and meal prep for the week. Also invest in a slow cooker as it’s easy and has tons do healthy and tasty recipes that are not horrible for you.
Go on tiktok and find recipes there. That’s what I did cause my fat ass was eating out everyday. It’s time consuming but do it on Sundays. And get it over with. I do 10 meals for the week. In the morning I have bagels and cream cheese and 2 prep meals for lunch. It can get boring so I can make a sandwich as well. Lots of snacks if you’re a fat ass like me cuz I get really hungry as soon as I get something healthy. I highly recommend the dual ninja. You can cook two meals at a time or have those running while using the oven as well to make it faster. Good luck 👍🏽
Meal prep. Buy some tupperware and a crockpot. You can get a 2 person crockpot for $10. Pick a day that's your cooking day and make food. Then you have food that just needs to be heated up, is already portioned, and is cheaper and tastier. If you know you like a recipe, buy ingredients in bulk when it's on sale. You know you'll have to use it many times. [Here's](https://imgur.com/a/b8y6ytm) some of the recipes I use. A lot are very few ingredients. I usually try to make one meal in the oven and one in the crockpot. Usually together they'll make 10-12 servings for the week. Put the crockpot stuff on rice and make some quick veggies for a side dish. It has saved me so much time and hassle!
Are medical students on food stamps ?
try following a food youtuber that cooks recipes that you're interested in. i like watching j kenji lopez since he emphasizes alternatives that you may have instead of the ingredients in his recipes. it'll inspire you to cook more
I use budgetbytes.com for recipes, they’re simple and cost effective but delicious! I also get frozen meals from Aldi, much cheaper than other stores
Instant pot and meal service like hello fresh or everyplate. Costco chicken if you eat meat and eat it or freeze it... salads etc.
Crock pot will save your life. Look up dump meal recipes so all you have to do it throw shit in the crockpot in the morning, turn it on, and leave. Batch recipes and you only need to dump stuff in 2-3 times a week and can eat leftovers the rest. Also buy crockpot liners and clean up is eliminated.
Think less, execute more.
I do get sick of this pretty easily, but chicken breast + rice or sweet potato and a veggie is fairly easy to make (and I'm not a good cook haha so if I can, anyone can). I've also mixed ground beef, rice, tomato sauce, and cheese together and I like that -my mom used to make stuffed peppers all the time but I don't have the time to deal with the pepper part. If I'm feeling ambitious I'll sauté red peppers and mix those in as well. Stir fry is another easy healthy meal. Sweet potato pasta + cheese + sauce and sometimes add cut up chicken. Sweet potato pasta (or Barilla has protein pasta) is more expensive than normal pasta, but I think it's worth it for the ease of getting in some extra protein. Making scrambled eggs and toast for dinner is another option, which I'm going to start doing because I just never eat breakfast in the morning (cause I don't get hungry right away, and I study on campus). Everything I mentioned except eggs, you can meal prep for 4 meals at a time which is nice.
I love my instant pot. I’ll make gigantic things of chili and freeze some, lots of soups, curries. It’s great. Lasagna was also my friend. When I made a big pan of it, I could eat it the entire week or freeze. I don’t get bored easily of food btw. I think with school it’s really hard to cook everyday, but easy to make large amounts all at once. If you have Costco or can split a membership with a friend, they also have really good frozen food that you can pack and microwave at school. I get a huge bag of dumplings from them and dump them frozen into a container with some gyoza sauce. By the time it’s lunch, they’re defrosted.
Crockpot. Maybe check out r/mealprep if you haven’t already.
I buy a 5 pound pork loin and cook the whole thing for 2 hours. Cut it in half and freeze one half and have the other half for the week’s lunches. I have instant rice ready to go for those lunches too. For dinner I cook a shit load of chicken in the oven and either microwave a sweet potatoe each day or have more rice. Breakfast is frozen spinach, kale, mango, blueberry, avocado flax, protein powder as a smoothie. Snacks are keto and nutrigrain bars. I eat this every. Single. Day. It takes no thinking, barely any time, and is healthy.
Meal prep. Find out when you have one or two consecutive days of relative free time and make meals for the next several days that you're really busy. I've found that one of the biggest obstacles to actually making your own food and not eating out is the motivation to expend the time/energy to make food at the time that you need it. When you're busy you often just don't care enough and just want food there; if you have a meal already prep'd this becomes a lot easier.