also we should set up a recipe book type thing with cheap, easy, healthy meals that would be neat
Edit: also have a toaster
Beans and grains are going to be your friends. Invest in a variety of condiments and spices that you like. Frozen veggies lose little if any nutrition, and you’ll save time on prep.
You can make pasta in the rice cooker if you overfill the pot, keep the top open, and add the pasta when the water boils. If you're down with sauce you can use that, but I enjoy my own psychopath pasta: olive oil and chili flakes, with a bit of fresh basil if you can get it.
Oatmeal is good as shit, very tasty, and pairs well with lots of stuff. With a bit of cinnamon? Oof. We love to see it. A bowl of oatmeal in the morning with some spoons of peanut butter will stick to your ribs till lunch for sure.
Obligatory mention of beans and rice. I love to chop up some bell peppers to throw on the rice to add some crunch and color.
Go with caution on this, and it's not vegan friendly unless you're willing to shell out for the fancy kind, but I've found that protein powder for protein shakes is a nice way to supplement a meal. See if you can get it on sale.
I get the bulk vegan chocolate protein shake powder and make what I call Oh-Nos (overnight-oats) by adding oatmeal and the powder to vanilla soy yogurt and soy milk with some raisins and letting it sit in a jar overnight. Makes the raisins awesome. It really thickens up if you don't add enough soy milk or water though.
I've tried mixing non-vegan protein powder with oatmeal, and I pretty much shat my guts out for an entire day. Might have gotten the proportions wrong.
That sounds really good for a quick breakfast with ton nutrition. I'll definitely try it.
Pro tip: You can actually cook things in a microwave comparable to an oven, the trick is to use a low power setting for a longer period of time. Most people don't do this of course because the convenience of a microwave is it's speed, but if you want quality, turn the power lower and the time up! It will help prevent the "some parts really hot some parts still ice cold" problem.
Red beans with rice (I like to add peppers and onions to it with like a tomato sauce)
You can use a clothes iron if you have one to grill stuff lol. I've made grilled cheese with it in a hotel before. But you can probably do small pieces of meat or whatever. Just use like a parchment paper in between the iron and the meat or grilled sandwich
Get an avocado, halve it, cut cubes and scoop 'em into that rice & beans mix, too. Use the other half the next day. Shoyu soy sauce.
For oatmeal mix-ins, add chocolate chips or raisins and brown sugar or molasses, or cubed banana. I used to mix it up by adding vegan butter, some soy creamer, and a pinch of salt instead of sweet stuff. It'd last me 'til lunch, easy.
Making Spanish rice in a rice cooker is really easy and super awesome. Tons of recipes online.
Also check out the sidebar for some threads with recipes. Not all of them are that accessible but they’re along the lines you’re talking about!
Cheap, healthy and only using an electric kettle and a microwave is basically how I cooked most of the time in college.
My go to meals:
Oats. A perfect breakfast. Put oat flakes into the bowl. Cover them with boiling water. Wait for like five minutes and it's ready. You can add raisins and what not.
Boiled rice or buckwheat with beans or lentils. I usually bought canned beans but you can cook beans and especially lentils in the microwave too.
Pasta with beans. Boil water in the kettle, put pasta into the glass bowl, cover with boiling water, put into the microwave.
Baked(?) potatoes. Wash a bunch of potatoes, preferably on the smaller side. Don't bother pealing. Poke holes in them with a knife. Dab them with a bit of oil (or don't if you are really into the health thing, I dunno), add spices, put into the microwave for like 15 minutes. Serve with beans.
I don't have much help, but I'm reminded of Roger Ebert's particular psychopathy:
(He famously cooked all his meals in a rice cooker.)
Moros con Cristianos (Cuban Beans and Rice). It's really easy, affordable and nutritious, and one batch for a single person can last for days.
You can steam the rice until it's barely soft, and boil the beans (with onion and just a pinch of oil) on the rice cooker, then gently stir fry minced onion, garlic and bell pepper, and any amount of spices you want. Add drained beans, gently stir with the sofrito, then add the rice, mix, and then add some of the bean stock and leave it be until it's no longer soupy. You can add mushrooms for some umami.
Save the bean stock for soup.
Does your rice cooker have a steamer basket you can put above the rice? If so, you can put some cabbage up there to steam up while the rice cooks. If you eat meat, you can also put things like pre-cooked sausages up there. I was pretty partial to putting andouille sausage up there and I made Jambalaya in the rice cooker pot with sliced okra. While steaming the andouille flavors would drip down into the Jambalaya, adding even more flavor to the rice. Also, no further dishes to clean. One pot meal.
Edit: Oh I totally forgot, you can steam onions up there too, but you may want to soak the sliced onion in a bowl of cold water for five-ten minutes beforehand to take some of the bitterness out as they won't cook sufficiently to sweeten.
Rice Cooker Chinese-style Fried Rice (I lived on this during grad school):
http://hangryfork.com/recipes/rice-cooker-chinese-fried-rice-recipe/
Since you don't have a hot plate, just cook the eggs in the microwave in a bowl -- make sure you scramble the yolk or they will explode while heating.
I'd suggest steamed veggies, poached eggs (done in the microwave), rice and beans. You could also do chili in the rice cooker probably. You might also be able to make shredded chicken in the rice cooker as well. You don't have a toaster oven or a hot plate?
Oh shoot I also have a toaster, but I'm not allowed a hot plate
Is it a toaster or a toaster oven? Because I worked at a place that only had a toaster oven for years and I figured out how to make all sorts of shit in one. Roasted asparagus, brussel sprouts, sausage and peppers, meatballs, potatoes, most stuff cooks well with just a little olive oil, salt, and lemon juice.
Dang, you're probably just stuck with toast then. although a toast with olive oil and salt and pepper is one of my favorite snacks. Is this a place where you could bring something in? What I mean is, you can usually find old toaster ovens on Craigslist for like, 20 bucks.
Nah, I drizzle olive oil on top, then put black pepper and salt on top so it sticks to the toast. Should be good bread like sourdough or a baguette, and fresh cracked pepper, (which is just as cheap as regular pepper if you buy it in bulk)
I got a toaster over for free when I was helping clean out somebody's garage.
You can bake bread, make cakes/brownies/casseroles, even managed to roast a whole duck once.
If you can find one cheapish and in decent shape, you will have an amazing tool for small kitchen cookin.
Congee (jook) in the rice cooker! Delicious rice porridge from east Asia, just requires rice, ginger, and a savory protein (I usually do chicken and/or mushrooms) plus you can dress it up with a little sesame oil and some scallions on top, there's really a lot of options to suit your tastes. One of my favorite meals when I'm sick and also often when I'm not
A previous mod started this: https://hexbear.net/post/2414 A day I've got some time I'll crawl thru some of the posts in the comm and add to it
