Extra Person

I agree with a previous post regarding college age liking quantity not quality. Pasta pasta pasta!

I use beans a lot in my cooking. They are super cheap, decently healthy, and filling.

My family started loving this simple dish:
pound of cooked ground chicken, turkey or beef (whatever is cheapest)
can of corn or black beans, whichever I have on hand
clove of garlic
1/2 onion
dried basil and oregano to taste
Throw it all together and eat! It's my go-to dinner when short on time.

Good luck with the new baby!

How wonderful of your cousin to be able to help out!

I kind of like the challenge of trying to make healthy, inexpensive meals that my kids will eat. We also eat a lot of vegetarian meals, which is a cost savings. Vegweb.com has a lot of easy meals with not-complicated incredients. I've recently started making an occasional trip to Aldi to pick up things like cereal and canned veggies - so much cheaper!

What sort of foods do you like? Here are some a few ideas - just let me know if you'd like more detailed recipes (or you can look online for recipes.)

Chana Masala and rice (we have a very easy version, basically chick peas, onions, potatoes or sweet potatoes, coconut milk, curry, ketchup)

Dahl with rice (lentils with curry) Also make chick-pea fritters with chick-pea flour that I got from an Indian market. Yummy, and only 3 ingredients: flour, water, onion.

Mexican-style lentils served with tortillas

Refried bean tacos with corn tortillas, avocado, etc. We have this at least once a week. You can also serve grilled meat or fajita mix if you want.

Vegetarian/bean chili

Veg chili leftovers: fill a 9 x 13 pan with taco chips. Spoon leftover chili over the chips. Add a can of corn if desired. Sprinkle with cheese (chedder, mexican mix) bake at 350 until cheese melts - 15 min. or so. Serve like nachos with extra chips, sour cream, etc.

Fried rice. The secret is to scramble the eggs on the side and add at the end. Use lots of veggies and some fried tofu or diced chicken and don't use too much oil, and this is healthy and pretty fast to make.

Enchiladas or mexican casserole. Lots of variation, but start with those cheap 5/$1 corn tortillas and some beans and on-sale light cream cheese.

Crustless broccoli quiche.(note - most online recipes use way more cheese than you need.)

"breakfast for dinner"

Pasta bake with veggies and some sort of protein - meat or meat substitute and/or cheese.

I don't know your family's regular eating habits, so I'm throwing this out there....Also consider that college age students may be more focused on quantity than quality.

Spaghetti and meatballs (or without the meatballs), tacos with ground beef or chicken (don't need much meat for these), any kind of soup or chili. Cooking a roasted chicken is good because then you can shred the leftover meat and use it in soup, tacos or whatever else. Cooking a turkey is good too because you can get several meals out of that. You can always slap together a casserole with leftover meat as well. My kids wouldn't eat them, so good luck with it.

You can totally get away with less meat if you have more side dishes like rice or pasta or a big salad.

Sandwiches can work for a meal as well and if you use french bread instead of a regular loaf of bread, that fills you up faster.

Hot dogs work too. You can usually get beef franks buy 1 get 1 free at Jewel (this week it's oscar mayer). I'm not a big hot dog fan myself, so I just have the big salad when I make this for the kids.

It's a new way of thinking, cooking massive quantities for those kids who keep eating. I am sure you'll get some great ideas from here!

M.

Anything pasta usually makes a lot for pretty cheap. Here's my favorite quick and easy recipe:

1 egg
1 small container Ricotta cheese
2 Cups grated mozzarella cheese
2 Tblspoons Italian Seasoning mix (or to taste)
1 jar your favorite red sauce (I use Prego traditional)
1/2 C parmesan cheese
1 box pasta (such as masticiolli, penne, bow ties) cooked al dente

lightly scramble egg in large bowl. Add ricotta, 1 C of mozz and italian seasoning. Mix well. Stir in cooked pasta. Spread pasta mixture into a 9x12 baking pan. Top with red sauce. Sprinkle remaining cup of mozz and parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 375 for 30 - 40 mins.

I usually split that recipe into 2 portions, cook one and freeze one for another time. Just cover it with aluminum foil and freeze then thaw before cooking or cook for 20 min longer if cooking from frozen.

When I was in college, I used to make ahead a huge pot of rice and vegetables (just rice with a bunch of frozen veggies stirred in) and then use that as a meal or side dish with whatever meat I could afford (usually tuna). Dried beans are also cheap, healthy and go far.

check out http://frugalrecipes.com/

You can always add inexpensive sides to the meals to make them more robust. I like rice or pasta sides, a salad, soup, applesauce or even adding bread and butter can help fill up your college helper!