On a long day spent studying at the university, you might not always have enough time to cook or be in a mood to do so afterwards. In this case you can always rely on the cafeteria of your university, the so called “Mensa”. Offering different dishes every day (including vegetarian and vegan meals) for little money, it can be considered as a really good alternative to self-made meals. What helps a lot is the “Mensa”-card you receive as a student and on which you can upload money to use in the canteen. As a student you always pay less than employees and people from outside, which makes eating in the canteen very affordable. What is even better is to cook for yourself – so you can save a lot more money. Go buy groceries in one of the many discount-supermarkets we have in Germany. According to the prices of food their offers are quite similar – from Lidl and Aldi up to Real, Combi and Netto, you can get the ingredients for your meal very easily.
There exists this stubborn cliché that German students just eat fast food, instant meals like Ravioli out of a can and noodles with tomato sauce. Fact is: Times have changed. Of course, German students eat Döner, pizza and Co. from time to time but they also got more interested into cooking for themselves, healthy and conscious eating. Even if it is hard to manage student life, self-cooked meals and more important money-saving cooking, it doesn’t mean that it is impossible. Every student should have at least basics like potatoes, rice, noodles or even couscous and bulgur at home. Because of the big packages and their long durability, you can use these products often and arrange and serve them in various and delicious ways. If you add some vegetables (quite affordable: zucchini, broccoli, “Kohlrabi”, carrots, tomatoes, pepper, onions, beans etc.) and some herbs and spices, you can easily create very tasty meals. Those of you, who wants to add some meat or fish can for instance just add some minced meat, chicken, salmon filet, trout filet or shrimps. To save some time you can just cook bigger portions (keyword: meal prep) to avoid cooking the days after your cooking-session or to have a mealto take to university the next day.
A tip for all those whose fruits and vegetables tend to rot in such a short time: Do not fully resist to buy fresh vegetables and fruits (contain lots of vitamins and important nutrients) but reduce the amount and add some frozen food you can use several times and whenever you want to.
