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When you’re in college, or are just a young adult on your own, chances are you aren’t taking the time to cook and make some decent food. It’s hard to get in the habit of doing so when you’re the only person you are cooking for. Instead we revert to fast food, frozen dinners, and anything that can be made in a hurry. Most of the time this food is really lacking in nutritional content and often times are just outright unhealthy to eat. Here are some things that you can make which will allow you to eat healthy without spending much time or money.

Ramen noodles are very quick and economical meals, but they don’t provide much useful nourishment. Cook them with vegetables and meat to make them healthier and much better tasting in the process. You can throw just about any meat and vegetables in, and it’ll still taste pretty decent. I recommend mixing it with some chicken and green onions…but that’s just a personal preference.

Stir fry meals are usually pretty inexpensive to make and taste very good. All you have to do is throw a combination of meat and vegetables into a frying pan, and let them cook up real nice. You can get a cheap stir-fry sauce in your grocery store, and can throw in just about anything with it!

Macaroni and cheese is severely limiting, I suggest finding another cheap pasta as a base and then adding everything you want to make it taste good. You can throw in all sorts of veggies , such as artichokes, tomatoes, green peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, corn, and more to add plenty of good taste to your noodles. You can throw in some chicken or shrimp to make the meal even tastier. You can make a great pasta for just about the same price as mac-and-cheese, and it’s a lot healthier to do too.

Eat a decent breakfast, this will help you avoid unwanted trips to the pop and candy machines at work. All you really need is a bowl of cereal and milk to start your day, and you’ll have more energy and be less tempted to snack. If you do have to snack, don’t go surrender to the vending machine gods, rather keep some fruit at work so you can have a healthy snack if need be.

I’m not going to tell you to not eat fast food ever, because let’s be honest…that’s just not very realistic. I would however like to challenge you to look at the nutritional information before ordering anything, after you see how many calories you’re really eating, you’ll think again before consuming a 1500 calorie meal at McDonalds.

These are just a few of the ideas I was able to come up with that’ll allow you to eat healthy and not spend a lot of time or money doing it. If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments below!