Eating Healthy with No Free Time

Get some crock pot cookbooks or check websites for recipes. Generally speaking, they are pretty easy to assemble, and they cook during the day while you are off in class. Given a 3-4qt crockpot (typical is 6-7qt) you can make plenty for a meal plus leftovers, and a larger one yields even more. You can do soups, pulled pork, chicken, roasts, etc. Tons of options, most including veggies and protein so they are balanced.

Invest in a slow cooker, you can chuck dishes together and just leave it to do it's thing

OP here: thanks so much for all the recs and recipes already! Do you guys have any slow cooker/crockpot cookbook recs? "Throw in pot; cook 6-8 hours; put extra in fridge" is a pretty good strategy for me.

Just about any stew recipe ingredients can be shoved in the slow cooker and come out OK. A meta-recipe would be:
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
cheap cut of meat (2-3 chicken thighs on bone, 400g stewing steak, even leftover sausages)
3-4 roughly-chopped root veg like carrots and potatoes
1 vegetable stock cube
tablespoon of dried rosemary or thyme
about 600ml water

Shove in crockpot on low, turn on, leave 5-6 hours, come back to stew. Serve with fresh bread.

It's important to take some time for yourself user, don't burnout

A note on limited freezer or fridge space: it can suck, but onions and garlic last for at least 2 weeks in the cupboard, even in the most overheated of halls. Potatoes almost as long.
Carrots last for months in the fridge if they're kept cold and dry.
Tinned tomatoes + chickpeas and/or kidney beans can be the basis of chilli or curry.
There are vacuum-packed sausages like bockwurst that don't need refrigeration - sliced up, they can be the meat for a pasta sauce, or sausage sandwiches.

My student diet:
Breakfast
>oats, pb, whey, fruit
>no lunch
>dinner
>baked sweet potatoes
>stir fried veggies
>some sort of meat, but I'm usually lazy and just have another scoop or two of whey protein

/cock/ was the worst fucking thing to happen to this board
we're beyond capacity on manchildren already you need to go back NOW

>a uni student with a small kitchen and basically no free time

Fucking BULLSHIT!

A student has all the free time in the world. Quit posing, bitch.

Here's what you need to do....

Cook LARGE scale, and FREEZE that shit, you little youngling bitch.
Gumbo's
Jambalaya's
Chicken curry
Roast beef
Chilli
Ragu bolognese
Lasagna
Roast pork

Think BIG you immature little BITCH. Cook large, freeze, and eat as needed.

Good food is not hard figure out, and if you can't figure that out now, you deserve to starve or eat the shit food you're currently eating.

you're a retard with some mental problems

even if you may be right it may have come better from someone else

he also got quints

Just get a meal plan honestly. Especially if it's a private school the food will be alright and it worked wonders in terms of helping me maintain a schedule.

you didn't have to be a cringelord about it, but you're not wrong

uni students have a very easy life, and too much free time.

these are retardedly expensive

At the private grad school I'm currently attending a "deluxe" meal plan plus dorming (I get my own room) is 11k combined. It's a health profession and I'd much rather study or do shit during my free time rather than be cooking and cleaning. Especially when exams are coming.
Also basically unlimited coffee

OP back again! Thanks for more recipes and tips, anons! I went out and got a bigger crockpot today (4 quarts instead of the 1.5 I was using). My fridge is kind of small, but I can do some creative tupperwear stacking in the freezer I'm sure. I appreciate the tips on onions and garlic; I wasn't sure how long those last (I just know you shouldn't eat potatoes after they start sprouting).

I've got some fish fillets and random veggies in the freezer now. I might try throwing them in the crockpot and see what happens. Any recs for seasoning (this is my downfall; I understand salt, pepper, and garlic powder and that's it). I don't currently have any fresh seasonings, but my powdered stuff shelf is decent and I have bullion cubes.

Here's some more clarification for the anons making assumptions: I'm in my 30s, live off campus, have to take the bus everywhere, and am a teaching student. So on top of the full course load, I'm literally paying to do a full time job as part of getting my degree. I really don't have the time to cook for two or three hours a day. Before I went back to uni, I did have the time to cook and I managed alright; now I don't and my health is going down the shitter as a result. Turns out this is a problem for all teachers who don't have kids/a spouse to take care of them. I've been gathering resources for low time/energy but semi-decent cooking where ever I can, but google keeps sending me to hipster foodie blogs. Figured I'd ask more practical folks like yourselves and, for the most part, you guys have been very helpful. Thank you!

Buy a multicooker (such as InstantPot)

Cook: beans, lentils, potatoes, pasta, rice, corn, vegetables, peas, pseudograins etc.

It's all done in under 10 minutes in a multicooker. Also doubles as a rice cooker and steamer, and you can program it to start cooking so that it will be done when you come home (if you so wish)

You can also cook potatoes in the microwave in 10 minutes. You can put them in a plastic bag and eat them straight out of that if you are extra lazy

You can and should eat fruits, nuts, seeds raw every day. Also raw vegetables

Emergency cases, get some canned food

You can also eat plain oats every single day instead of cooking any grains at all

You can try to limit yourself to 2 large meals a day, with the rest of your intake being things that don't need to be prepared such as fruits, bread, nuts, seeds

Blanched vegetables for fiber.
Hard boiled eggs for protein.

this

Also just fyi you can cook ripe plantains in a toaster oven. Just wrap it in aluminum foil and stick it in youve got a sweet healthy side.

None of these meals are healthy, dope.

lecremedelacrumb.com/slow-cooker-enchilada-quinoa/

This is my favorite crockpot recipe, but I add 2 chicken breasts and shred them before serving. Delicious way to eat healthy quinoa and super easy to put together.

>I'm in my 30s, live off campus, have to take the bus everywhere

consider going to a local habitat or used-goods bookstore and buying a few 'fast-feast' cookbooks
you won't use all of them but they can send you in the right direction and provide good ideas and references for future meals

stfu you little bitch, he is blessed and you are a fucking nobody.
also he is right, these posts are the worst and the people are just blatant liars, nobody has more tima than uni students, its just fucking posing. i went to uni myself and i wouldnt ever pretend its a tough life
praise kek

they're a uni student with a full-time job though
even if they are posing or have more time than they let on there's no reason to doubt them
you can only help someone through a problem they think exists now
people won't take help they don't think they need
so you hope they understand in time and help them out with what you can now

> but mostly I've been living on fast food and frozen dinners/pot pies
first gross sorry to hear that
>I've got a (very small) crockpot and toaster oven
I can work with this.
Buy potatoes eggs and basic seasoning like garlic powder some salt and pepper. Bake potatoes in the little oven and use the crock pot to make egg dishes. Potatoes are very filling and can be mixed with the eggs to make scramble foods. Your biggest issue is going to be weaning yourself off the salt content of the fast food and getting bored with the flavors of egg/potatoes.

You'll need to get creative with cheap additives like cheese sour cream or oils like butter etc. These fats will replace your habitual salt addiction.

The potatoes are great for breakfast and lunch especially if you bake it put half with eggs and eat the other half for an easy portable lunch. The eggs will give you great amounts of protein and if you remove the yolks your looking at about 11 calories an egg. Yolk is good for you in moderation though.

just my two cents user good luck on budget eating. Look at some quick ramen guides too. Just watch your sodium consumption.

well shit with the forman grill you can get naked chicken breasts frozen when on sale and cook those suckers for dinner situations or stock in the fridge for quick sammys. Make sure to get skinless purdue and tysons skinless chicken breasts can usually be gotten frozen in a bag for anywhere from 5-12 dollars a bag depending on sales.

yep you are right, i didnt read his last post and assumed its a typical "student" thread, also shocked by the lack of appreciation for the quads.

Ill make up for it with a more constructive answer:
Everybody has free time, people just use it differently.I do these things on the weekend or sometimes after work, but i enjoy cooking so thats a different matter, its a relaxing hobby for me not something i have to force myself to do:

>get familiar with condiments/sauces which are stable in the fridge and prepare them in largerer quantities, for an instant satisfying meal.ie:
roast->sichuanpepper+chilies->mortar+pestle->hot oil over it--->let cool, add soysauce,chinkiang vinegar,garlic

With something like this in the fridge, or even just a condiment you like (ie chilibeanpaste for me) your possibilities of throwing a meal together in 5 min are endless
>sear poultry/meat ,add sauce and starch, eat over noodles/vegetables

>prepare a large quantity of basically anything, a large pot of bolognese makes like 20 awesome meals and freezes well
>invite friends over and make something in huge quantities,freeze/refrigerate(dumplings,kimchi,whatever you like)
>order groceries online
>chopped salads as a full meal, cucumber+tomatoe+red onion+radish with a quick vinaigrette takes me less than 5 min

Basically, as much as it sucks, the truth is, you only get to the point where cooking something great becomes effortless,fast and easy if you practice it a lot. Building up a pantry, getting comfortable with ingredients, your knife,techniques,spices etc just takes time, there is no way around it.
If thats time you are not willing to invest,even on the weekends, id recommend just eating as much fresh vegetables as possible, which you can just throw in the pan or make a salad

slow cooker and pressure cookers especially are wonderful set it and forget it meal makers.

If you have one with the right settings available and remember to wash it as instructed [spoiler]some of the nonstick inserts are not machine safe[/spoiler] you can make all kinds of shit in them.

Rice cookers for example are great for making duh rice, pasta, beans (wash them and soak them overnight before cooking), and more. Odder rice cooker dishes include eggs, big ass fluffy pancakes, and steaming veggies or meats.

nice quints but more than anything I like the additional flavor text/color commentary added.

Your post was indicative of intelligence and made good points but then the way in which you challenged your audience I.E. op(fag) and their naivete was p funny m8. You could have said all that without the ad hominem but instead of poking holes in more creative ways you got lazy.

The initial bait was wonderful too
>A student has all the free time in the world

Entry level shitposting see me after class and bring me a recipe for curry or gumbo replacing popular meats with goat and using the challenge ingredient cumin seasoned sauted green pepper.

[spoiler]nerd[/spoiler]

>also shocked by the lack of appreciation for the quads

Get with the times grampa

You are never going to get a tasty and nutritious 10-15 minute meal. It's always going to be ~30 with cleanup/setup.

But you can try, you are in the market for premade sauces and fast cooking meats like chicken breast.

You can easily and quickly build up a wide variety of coconut milk sauces from spices like curry with the addition of preboiled potatoes or rice.

pork sausages pan seared and finished in the oven with roughly chopped onions and pumpkin+spinach are the absolute easiest and go great smashed into rice or on fresh bread.

Maybe this blog post is something you would like:
mymealprepsunday.com/2015/03/09/hello-world/

>dont drink soft drinks.
Drink only water
>i mean on the regular. base of you diet
>even juice
Eat fruits and nuts
>they are ready to eat
Vegetables
>they can be eaten without cooking
Oats, milk.