food we lived on in college

[backtoblue]

Me and my roommate lived on fried bologna sandwiches (sometimes, when we had bread), flavored pop ice, and beer that was left after a "get together" in the dorms.

What did you guys survive on in college?

[KamaAina]

1. Ramen noodles

a relatively new phenomenon back then.

Tip: Do not attempt to cook a hot dog in a toaster oven. All the fat will just ooze out of it as a gelatinous yellow mass.

[backtoblue]

2. disgusting!

reminds me of the time we fried crackers and cheese in a skillet - disaster.

[bluesbassman]

5. When I was really flush with money, I'd add a can of Veg-All and an egg.

That was high livin' right there. Oh yeah, and a 12 pack of Brown Derby beer for $2.99. PARTY!

[backtoblue]

10. add a can of tomato paste or sauce

you can add a can of that to anything and make it edible!

when me and the gals did have enough money to buy groceries (but not enough for beer), we'd offer to cook for the guys in exchange for it. it's amazing what starving college guys will trade for a supper of hamburger helper and pinto beans! lol

[OriginalGeek]

28. For us it was Lone Star

$4.99 for a case.


We didn't care what it tasted like - we spent most all the rest of our money on weed.


And we could get frozen pizza for 89 cents a piece.

And I once had a roommate that would occasionally buy a can of Frito Lay bean dip and painstakingly spread a dab on tortilla chips until he ran out and add a few shreds of cheese and bake till the cheese melted. Probably took him an hour to make and we ate them in under 3 minutes. But damn it was goooooooooood!

[sharp_stick]

3. For about 3 weeks

when one of us, 3 roommates, lost a job we pretty much lived on ketchup soup with whatever vegetables we could scrounge up.

Add onto that as much buffet food as we could sneak into... We were all undergraduates doing research projects in a medical school at the time so whenever the docs or administrators would have a meeting with catered food we'd swoop in and snatch up as much as we could without being noticed or at least bothersome. The docs tended to look the other way.

When Mike or whoever got a new job and paid we went out and bought steaks, it was the first real meal we'd had in a month.

on edit: During normal times we'd really pile down the Hamburger Helper and Kraft Mac and Cheese (Kraft Dinner in Canada).

Other than the time mentioned above we were however rarely unable to at least buy cheap beer.

[backtoblue]

8. "when one of us lost a job"

that's hilarious! sounds exactly like us. i think i had worked upwards of 15 different jobs during my college years. there were always those weeks when you had no money, couldn'tborrow from mom, and had to fend for yourselves. Good Times!

[HereSince1628]

4. Mrs Dash's Ketchup Spaghetti & Karl Marx Ketchup Soup

Like it sounds...boil the pasta, apply tomato ketchup, sprinkle on Mrs Dash's Original.


Karl Marx ketchup soup--

4 pcs of ketchup liberated from a lower class capitalist restaurant stupid enough to leave them in reach.
1/2 c water
1/2 c whole milk
salt and pepper to taste

Microwave water and milk.
Stir in ketchup pc's
s&p to taste.

[sharp_stick]

6. Karl Marx

ketchup soup, I'm going to start calling it that too if you don't mind.

[Bertha Venation]

18. Yum

*rubs tummy* thanks!

[The empressof all]

7. I ate a great deal of Risi Bisi

Rice and Peas cooked with a little meat and cheese if it was affordable. I don't know why my little group of friends got a little obsessed with this dish but it was always cooking at someones apartment. I always liked it with tomatoes and onions....

It's a simple easy dish and didn't require fancy ingredients or a great deal of attention or time. And it was always easy to adapt the recipe to what was around and cheap that week

http://www.food.com/recipe/risi-e-bisi-225151

[Rambis]

9. Rice with salt and pepper

Funny the beer fridge was always full though

[backtoblue]

11. condiments and seasonings

can make the best out of

old crackers
bread
any canned food
2 day leftover pizza (just add a can of tomato sauce and reheat) lol

But, you are correct my friend - we were never without beer

[NightWatcher]

12. for a few months I lived off of day old hoagie rolls and condiments

the sub shop next to the video store where I worked was nice enough to give me two rolls a day for .$50

we also used to eat these horrible frozen mexican meals called Patio Dinners

as our shitty jobs got better so to did the food

[backtoblue]

13. when we first moved in

we didn't have any pots or pans, so we decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches with the iron. it actually worked, but unfortunately the iron was sentenced to never touch our clothing again. lol

[csziggy]

58. The trick is to butter tin foil and wrap the cheese sandwich in that

Before putting the iron on it. Make sure the seam is on the side, not across the middle of the sandwich.

I cooked a lot of food with the iron, an electric frying pan, a popcorn popper, and a toaster oven. That was before microwaves were affordable. One year when I had to work over Thanksgiving weekend, my holiday dinner was a Rock Cornish Game hen with a roll torn up and stuffed inside, a can of green beans and a can of mushroom soup split between the green beans and the little hen - all cooked with the appliances listed above.

[KamaAina]

14. My college girlfriend told me that students have been a poorly fed class

throughout the ages.

And she was talking about dining hall food!

[Chan790]

16. Imagine being housing staff.

I guess it surprises nobody but none of us think about it. Graduate and take a job as an RD...for $8000, room and board. Then show up and within 2 weeks you're thinking "I graduated so I could get paid crap to live in the dorms with these animals and eating dining hall food?!"

The $8000 being mostly spent on credit cards used to buy the sweetest dorm set-up ever...not that it mattered because you can't date students and you're never going to get a woman to come back to the dorms. The remainder is spent in the bar drowning the regret of signing up to be an RD.

Think the freshman 15 is bad? Try the RD 50.

[geardaddy]

15. Generic Mac N Cheese.

5 for a dollar.

[Bertha Venation]

17. college cafeteria food

One morning I found a bee (a bee!)* in my scrambled eggs. I took my dish back to the rather effeminate fry cook. He said -- meaning that I was a nice person who would not make a scene -- "I'm so glad it happened to you!"

Plus I lived on my frequent runs to Jack in the Crack (as it was known).

* One of the janitors at the school kept bees in a couple of boxes under the rear deck of the student union kitchen.

Edited to add *

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. Pot pies. This was ages ago, when they were only .25 apiece.

Also, mac and cheese. Lots of that.

[Art_from_Ark]

50. Oh, yeah, Swanson/Banquet pot pies @ 25c

Now you've got me hankering for a pot pie. But I won't be able to indulge until the next time I'm back in the States, whenever that will be.

[Iterate]

20. Halloween pumpkins

For a while I lived in a boarding house with some kids from Taiwan. It had a large common kitchen.

When Halloween rolled around they were appalled that Americans could be so wasteful. On November 1st we picked up all of the free/cheap ones we could find that were suitable for cooking.

We fixed it several different ways, but mainly as a soup with chicken stock, vermicelli, onion, and sometimes bok choy, chilies or whatever veg and meat bits seem right. We ate them until spring. I still fix that now on occasion.

[El Supremo]

21. This:

http://www.jimmypribble.com/blog/wp-content/themes/studiobox/timthumb.php?src=

[Chan790]

22. Nothing on that plate except the salad looks edible.

I think I saw that steak doubling as a brick last week.

[militant_lib2553]

23. Hot pockets

those were the days..

[Moondog]

24. Most of the above

(except pumpkins - never thought about them)

AND

when times were good and the craving hit -

Screaming Yellow Zonkers!!!!

[kestrel91316]

25. Ramen noodles. Chun King canned chow mein. Tuna noodle casserole.

Oh, and luch on the run was always Diet Dr. Pepper, Fritos, Skittles, and Ding Dongs all out of whatever shack machine was handy.

[backtoblue]

36. the vending machines were frequented as well

it was always a dr. pepper and cheetos for me

[Denninmi]

26. Well, I did pretty well.

I was forced by the university policy to live in the dorms for the first two years. While it was technically not allowed to cook in the dorms, everybody did it, especially on Sunday evenings as the cafeteria was closed Sunday evenings.

I had a hot pot and a toaster oven, along with a small fridge, and it was only a few blocks walk across the street to an off-campus Kroger. I always managed to make something worth eating. It definitely wasn't ramen noodles.

The meal I remember most was one Sunday when I bought two lamb chops, marinated in herbs and then broiled, and served them alongside some roasted new potatoes and a salad I had made. The floor's resident assistant, was a really nice guy and cool about things, knocked on my door and said "whatever you're not cooking in there smells terrific".

Honestly, you can do a lot with a toaster oven, I also used to bake a lot of brownies and cookies in there, and it did a fine job.

I moved off-campus to an apartment for the last two years, and had friends over quite often to feed them a decent meal, since I love to cook and they all seemed to love to eat real food.

[trof]

27. My generation was pretty big on cheeseburgers and fries. Pizza was a new thing for us.

I was a sophomore when a little hole-in-the-wall place opened down the street from the fraternity house.
Domino's was the name of the place.
That was circa 1960 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Wish the hell I'd bought stock or some franchises back then.
Not that I had the cash for either.


Back then I could eat a 'Large' all by myself, accompanied by the 'NEW' 16 oz. Coke in the tall glass bottle.
I loved it.

[RebelOne]

29. I never went to college, but i did live on a diet of fried bologna sandwiches

in my younger years while married to my ex-husband who could never hold a job.

[Tom Ripley]

30. Beer and veal (I had "toting privileges" at the restaurant where I worked)

[mysuzuki2]

31. well there was canned beans, campbels soup heated in a popcorn popper.

and oh yes, "beer" made out of instant oatmeal and minute rice, and bread yesat made in the dorm room wastebasket, covered with an art history textbook (Jansen 1967). It packed a wallop but tasted about like you'd expect.

[WCGreen]

32. Salad bar at the OSU athletic department cafeteria.

$1.50 and I was friends with a down lineman and at least once a week I ate really good,...

[cliffordu]

33. Brown rice and ketchup,

Brown rice and eggs

Brown rice and salsa......

[siligut]

40. Brown rice here too

I loved to cook brown rice in a small pot and just before it finished, I would make a depression in the center, crack an egg into it and put the lid back on so it would steam.

I still buy the huge bags of brown rice from Costco and eat it for about one meal a day myself and cook it for Mr. gut about three times a week, in stir fry, pilaf or with a sauce.

[Fridays Child]

34. Fried bologna is actually pretty tasty.

I haven't had it in probably thirty years but I recall that it tasted like canadian bacon.

[Tom Ripley]

39. With tabasco sauce

It's also been about thirty years since I had it, but I also remember it being pretty tasty.
My dad had a technique to keep it from curling up into a "cup" when cooked. He would cut four slices around the perimeter. When it was done, it looked like a cooked maltese cross.

[Fridays Child]

52. Good tip.

I'm actually tempted to buy some bologna, fry it up with the four perimeter slices, and try it with Tabasco! Why not? Right?

[mrmpa]

35. Unlabeled cans of soup..........

my Mom would buy these @ the Heinz Factory. I could tell by shaking one, if it was cream of mushroom or chicken noodle. Most times it was cream of mushroom.

[dr.strangelove]

37. Rice and Beans

A huge 10 pound bag of rice was cheap. We would buy that and a bag of dry beans. With that as our staple meal once or twice a day, we would get whatever else we could find. At the school, there were always socials with cookies or pizza for some silly group. I attended an irish step dance and cuban dance discussion group once for the cuban chicken and irish sausages they were serving. Something like that once a week was a great treat.

[GoCubsGo]

46. I did that plus pasta and potatoes.

I was a vegetarian during grad school, so I got most of my protein from beans, cheese and eggs. I ate lots of inexpensive veggies, like canned tomatoes, too. I knew how to cook, so I wasn't eating a lot of the weird stuff that is mentioned here and in other threads.

[Swede]

38. Mac&cheese with Heinz ketchup.

I lived on that stuff.

[femmocrat]

41. T.V. dinners: (If you call that "living"!)

[Cali_Democrat]

42. Ribeye steak with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus with garlic butter.

Well...maybe not. But it would have been nice to eat that

[LiberalEsto]

43. Tang, instant coffee, coffee creamer,

Camel cigarettes and the occasional cheese steak from Greasy Tony's.

Early 1970s, Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.

[Kali]

44. besides the drugs and alcohol?

rice and brown gravy, and when I had the $$$, Round Table pizza down the street had 2 for 1 pizzas

occasionally I cooked real food but most of my money went to rent and the subject line

[TrogL]

45. potato pancakes

Sorry, don't have the recipe anymore.

[HopeHoops]

47. Beer.

[Danmel]

48. rice a roni

And those boil in bag turkey with gravy or roast beef with gravy over toast.

[emilyg]

49. Grilled cheese sandwiches.

[kentauros]

51. Whatever my mother bought at the grocery store,

just like all the other years prior.

I lived at home, commuting to college and then university

[rurallib]

53. beer and something else

think it could have been some form of food.

[annonymous]

54. Mac N Cheese with tuna, ramen noodles with frozen vegetables, frozen burritos, and Spagetti-O's

I ended up living on food like that for a while usually when I started the semester because I was broke from paying my tuition at community college. I went to school part time and worked a crappy job full time. I lived in a so called "food desert" and the nearest grocery store was this small independent place next to a dive bar. This made food buying a real adventure. I had limited access to healthy food during a good part of my student days.

[Phentex]

55. Better food than I had most of my life to that point!

the meal plan was required and the food was very good. In addition to hot meals, they always had sandwiches, cereal and a build your own ice cream bar. Unlimited juice and drinks. Brunch on the weekends was fabulous!

[Nikia]

56. The meal plan was required at our college too

Many students complained about the food, but it was actually pretty good. The biggest draw back was that it was the same food all the time. The hot lunches and dinners probably rotated on a 2-3 weeks schedule, although it was not an exact rotation. They had certain foods available most of the time or on certain days of the week. Although it was a variety, after 4 years of that, I was ready for a change.
Over ten years later, I feel like I am eating the same things too although I always have the option of buying different food at the grocery store.

[nolabear]

57. Tuna macaroni shit.

That's exactly what we called it. Kraft mac and cheese and a can of tuna thrown in. Took a ton of pepper but it got the job done.