Food Literacy Students
A Simple, Nutritious, and Inexpensive College Meal
As a college student, you might feel like you don’t have time to cook a nutritious meal or have money to buy healthy ingredients. Most don’t know you can make healthy and nutritious meals quickly at a more reasonable cost. This simple, fast, nutritious, and inexpensive meal incorporates many food groups. You could even have some grains and fruit on the side if you want to incorporate all the food groups.
This recipe really doesn’t take much time at all, especially if you measure everything out and cut the vegetables and brats up first, so all you have to do is add the ingredients as you need them.
The most difficult part about making this recipe might be making the alfredo sauce but if you follow the right amounts of flour and butter to use it should be great. Just make sure to taste test it so you can adjust it if needed! Our sauce tasted a little off at first, but we added a bit more milk and it was delicious so just keep trying! Overall, this is a great recipe because it has relatively few ingredients, takes little time to make and has only a few, easy steps to put it all together.
This meal will only cost you $12.43 breaking down into about $3.11 to $2.07 per serving. Here is the cost breakdown:
| Ingredient | Amount | Unit Ingredient Cost | Cost of Ingredient Amount Used in Recipe |
| Butter (might find ingredient at SNAC pantry) | 5 Tbsp (2.5 oz) | $3/16 oz | $0.47 |
| Flour | 1 Tbsp (0.5 oz) | $0.42/16 oz | $0.01 |
| Heavy Cream (changed to milk in recipe) | 2 cups (16 oz) | $3/ 16 oz | $3.00 |
| Parmesan Powder | 1/4 cup (4 oz) | $15/16 oz | $3.75 |
| Garlic Salt | 2 tsp. (1/3 oz) | $1.57/16 oz | $0.32 |
| Onion Powder | 2 tsp. (1/3 oz) | $4.57/16 oz | $0.09 |
| Zucchini (might find at SNAC Pantry) | 2 Medium zucchinis (13.8 oz) | $0.80/16 oz | $0.69 |
| Yellow Squash (Might find at SNAC Pantry) | 2 medium yellow squash (16 oz) | $0.60/16 oz | $0.60 |
| Bratwurst (raw) (Might find at SNAC Pantry) | 4 Bratwurst | $3.50/ package | $3.50 |
| Italian Seasoning | To taste! | – | – |
| Total Recipe Cost | $12.43 | ||
| Cost per serving (4-6 servings) | $2.07-$3.11 |
Additional Tips to Save Money
- When looking for healthy meals and snacks to make, try to find produce ingredients that are in season, they are usually the cheaper fruits and vegetables, making healthy food more affordable.
- Try looking at different stores. Some stores may be getting more of one fruit or vegetable, so the cost is less.
Brats and Squash with Alfredo Sauce
Description
This recipe is a quick, easy, healthy and delicious meal great for college students on a budget. This is a great recipe because it has relatively few ingredients, takes little time to make and has only a few, easy steps to put it all together.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Melt 1 Tbsp of butter in a frying pan. While it is melting, chop zucchini and squash into medium dices (½ inch cubes) or 1/4-inch-thick slices. Make sure to cut squash as uniformly as possible to ensure even cooking. When butter is melted, put chopped squash mixture into the pan and fry on medium-high heat for about 3-5 minutes.
- While squash is cooking, on a clean cutting board, cut bratwurst in half the long way, horizontal. Then cut into little pieces vertical, (about 1/2 inch thick) so they become moon shaped. Once finished, add the brat pieces to the squash mixture and brown the pieces while still cooking the squash. Can add a little salt for flavor here. Cook until the meat is browned, and the squash pieces reach desired consistency.
- While this is cooking, begin the alfredo sauce. In another small frying pan, make a thin roux by combining the remaining 4 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp flour. Next, add the heavy whipping cream and parmesan and heat up to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat down to low and stir until a thicker alfredo-like consistency. Add in all the seasonings.
- Plate your squash and brats and then add alfredo sauce on top. I also like to serve with a side of berries.
Notes
- It is important to realize that when dealing with meats and produce, keep them separate as much as possible during preparation to prevent cross-contamination with potential harmful pathogens from bacteria. Cut the vegetables first, then use a different cutting board and knife for meat or wash them before going on to the meat.
- In this recipe we used milk instead of the heavy cream because it’s a cheaper option but if you can, the sauce is better with the heavy cream.
- We ended up using a smaller, more hot dog-like brat in the pictures but we recommend buying the larger brats because the flavor is so much better with them.
