Quick Lunch and Dinner Ideas for Freshers Week
Calling all uni students! Lots of you are heading to university this Freshers Week, and some of you might even be cooking away from home for the first time ever. With a trusty bank of easy-peasy, delicious recipes you can lean on, it’s far easier than you might think to juggle eating well with a packed diary.
Picking up the takeaway menu can be tempting when there’s a lot going on, and yet putting something healthy and satisfying on the table isn’t hard work. No matter how busy you are socialising, studying or exploring a new city, there’s always time to make any of these simple lunch and dinner ideas.
Plus, as well as a quick cooking time, we’ve made sure all of these dishes have a short, budget-friendly ingredients list.
For even more quick-prep and quick-cook meals that’ll fit around your crowded uni schedule (from Freshers Week to graduation), pick up a copy of Pinch of Nom: Express before lectures kick off.
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1. Breakfast Wrap
Just between us, if you’re on the lookout for a ‘hangover cure’ lunch, we’ve seen this epic Breakfast Wrap recipe work miracles. It’s fully-loaded with a juicy sausage patty, bacon, cheese and a crispy, fluffy-in-the-middle hash brown, all for less than 350 calories.
To make things lighter, you’ll prepare the hash browns from scratch, but don’t worry – they’re a doddle to make! It takes less than 10 minutes to boil, grate and mould your potatoes into shape, before you pan-fry them until they turn that unmistakably golden hash brown colour.
We find the hardest part is choosing whether to squeeze in red or brown sauce…
2. Peanut Ramen
If you’re always drawn to satay chicken when you pick up a takeaway menu, this heartwarming Peanut Ramen will be right up your street. We’ve kept things super simple, so that you can have this light and satisfying broth ready in just 20 minutes.
Noodle soup is the ultimate comfort food, and that’s exactly what you’ll get here – with an irresistibly nutty twist! If you’re really ravenous, add some fried tofu pieces or another nest of noodles to bulk out your portions a bit.
The first rule of ramen is ‘soup first, noodles later’; make sure you slurp up as much of the broth as possible, before you twirl the noodles around your fork (or chopsticks). It’s better for the soul that way!
Turn to pages 62-63 in your copy of Pinch of Nom: Express for the full recipe.
3. Cheesy Baked Bean Bakes
Our Cheesy Baked Bean Bakes give bakery-bought alternatives a run for their money. Not only are they cheap as chips to make, they’re also absolutely delicious and ready in just 10 minutes.
They’re just the ticket if you’re in a rush to get out of the door in the morning, because they also travel really well as a grab-and-go brekkie. Our recipe makes 6 bakes in total, and you can always refrigerate or freeze them, ready to heat up in a flash.
You can stash away your leftovers or share them with your new housemates – trust us, they’ll be impressed!
4. Veggie Quesadillas
We’ve got two words for you: Veggie Quesadillas. We found the knack to folding these neat triangles on TikTok (you can follow Pinch of Nom on TikTok by tapping here), and it inspired us to get creative with a colourful, vegetarian-friendly filling.
We’re talking fresh salsa, creamy guacamole, melted cheese and crunchy veggies squeezed inside, all for just 302 calories each.
Crisp them up quickly in a frying pan, or your air fryer – whatever works best for you. The full recipe is on pages 60-63 of our paperback book, Pinch of Nom: Budget.
5. Air Fryer Fluffy Jacket Potatoes with Spicy Tuna
When you put spuds in the air fryer, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be rewarded with a fluffy-in-the-middle centre and a gloriously crispy jacket. With our Air Fryer Fluffy Jacket Potatoes with Spicy Tuna recipe, you get just that!
We’ve got a feeling you’ll never want to pop them in the oven again, since you’ll save around 20-30 minutes by air-frying them instead. If you’ve not got an air fryer in your communal kitchen, it’s well worth asking your new uni friends if they fancy clubbing in for one together – it’ll be a gamechanger.
Use them as a side dish, or top them with your favourite filling. We’ve gone for spicy tuna, with crunchy red peppers, onions and a fiery hit of sriracha.
The full recipe is on pages 138-139 of our Air Fryer cookbook, along with lots of other speedy and delicious air fryer recipes to get you started.
6. Singapore-Style Noodles
There’s really no excuse not to cook at home when you can have a tasty dinner like our Singapore-Style Noodles ready in 10 minutes. It’s been on repeat in our kitchen since we first shared it on our website years and years ago, and we still can’t get over how much it tastes like the real deal.
With lots of colourful veggies chopped in, stirred together with chicken chunks and a handful of prawns, there’s no doubt these noodles are super filling too. Our top tip? Make sure you’ve got the peppers, mushrooms, pak choi and spring onions chopped and prepped; it’ll save you faffing while you’re cooking.
Now’s your cue to whip out the prawn crackers!
7. Spiced Halloumi Burgers
If you or any of your housemates are vegetarian, dinner’s covered with these Spiced Halloumi Burgers on the menu. We’ve piled ours high with halloumi, crispy salad and a zesty yoghurt dressing, so you won’t miss the meat for a single second.
The key to this recipe is in our sweet yet spicy marinade. The longer you leave your halloumi patties to marinate and soak up the flavours, the more of a punch they’ll have when you come to tuck in (we’d recommend half an hour, minimum!).
When you’re happy, toss them in a frying pan for a couple of minutes until golden and aromatic. Just be sure to keep an eye on things, as the honey in the coating can catch in the pan.
8. Green Veg Pasta
When it’s late in the day and you’ve not got much time or energy to rustle something up, our Green Veg Pasta is the way to go. The sauce alone gets you well on your way to 5-a-day, with a silky-smooth blend of peas, leek, broccoli, spinach and reduced-fat cream cheese.
It also freezes and reheats like a dream, so you can cook a big batch earlier in the week and enjoy it again and again without a fuss.
This one’s a vegetarian recipe, but there’s nothing to stop you adding some chicken, bacon or other protein, if you fancy it.
Open up Express and flick to page 40 for the full recipe.
9. Spicy Chicken Nuggets
When you’re hungry for something that scratches the itch for a takeaway, make a batch of Spicy Chicken Nuggets. They’re ready in 15 minutes with a few simple staple ingredients, herbs and spices.
We’ve served them with a mesmerising feta cheese, chilli, yoghurt and coriander dip that cools the spicy, crunchy coating down nicely. Don’t worry if you make a few too many – they’ll keep in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to taste them again.
Turn them into a feast with a side of fluffy rice, noodles or chips, with or without a drizzle of lower-calorie Sweet Chilli Sauce.
10. Salt and Pepper Chips
We’ve got just the thing to pair with nuggets, or other fakeaway-style treats: Salt and Pepper Chips. Our recipe tastes just like you’ve ordered from the local chippy, for a fraction of the usual calories.
Toss the evenly-cut chips together with our super simple homemade sea salt and fiery chilli spice mix, and sit back and relax while your oven (or air fryer) does the rest for you.
You can make them even faster with the help of our all-new, convenient Flava It! recipe mixes. Our Flava It! Salt & Pepper Seasoning Mix adds moreish magic to chips (or chicken thighs, burgers, tofu and more) with a simple sprinkle.
You’ll find it in our Fakeaway Favourites collection on Amazon; it’s priced at £4.00 for a box with 3 other recipe mixes, including Chip Shop Curry Sauce, Crispy Southern Chicken and Burger & Kebab.
Let us know if you’ll be cooking up a PON storm through Freshers Week and beyond!
We’d love to see the healthy creations you’re making, whether they’re just for you or to enjoy with the new friends that you’re living with. Don’t forget to tag us in your TikTok videos, or on your Instagram stories, to make sure we don’t miss seeing them.
Plus, if you’ve got any questions at all about cooking, feel free to drop them in our Facebook group. There’s nearly 1 million friendly people in there who are happy to help you, even if we can’t reply straight away.
You can also have a look through (and share your photos on) our Gallery. You’ll want to sign up to a free website account to upload and share your photos (it’s really easy – we’ve got a step-by-step guide you can follow here).
If you’re new to cooking for yourself, you’ll find helpful tips in these blogs: