When living as a student, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut with your cooking.

If you are super busy with deadlines and trying to stick to a tight budget, you can often fall into the trap of living off instant noodles, beans-on-toast and takeaways – we’ve all been there.

However, what many students don’t know is that spicing up your meals doesn’t have to cost a fortune. The Student Housing Company have given us seven tips for making student cooking more exciting, whilst sticking to your budget.

1. Make your own pizzas

Pizza is a staple food for students and a regular choice for eating out, but making your own can be fun and much more cost effective. Many supermarkets stock pre-made pizza bases for under £2 and you can be as inventive as you like when it comes to toppings. Good alternatives for the base sauce include pesto, barbeque sauce and curry paste.

2. Handmade Beans-on-Toast

Beans-on-toast is a go-to option for students wanting a quick meal; by pre-making your own beans you can easily make it much more interesting. If you buy a couple of tins of haricot beans – the type of bean used in baked beans – and make your own tomato sauce, adding some chillies or chilli powder for a bit of spice, you then have your own healthier and tastier version of the dish.

3. Salmon Pastry Tartlets

Pastry tarts are really simple to make and can be done at little cost. If you aren’t feeling brave enough to have a go at making your own pastry from scratch, pre-made pastry can be bought from the supermarkets from as little as a pound. To make some basic tartlets, cut the pastry into little circles and pop them into a cupcake baking tray, then mix together some tinned salmon and soft cheese, fill the pastry with the salmon and cheese mixture then cook in the oven for roughly 15-20 minutes.

4. Mix up your vegetables

When you are cooking a meal with vegetables, try switching your standard greens for roasted Mediterranean vegetables. It’s just as easy to chop up some peppers, onions, aubergine and courgettes, drizzle with oil and pop into the oven as it is to boil peas! Mediterranean roasted vegetables work really well with many things but in particular, go well with cous cous and lamb.

5. Spice up your rice

Rice is another classic student food, whether it is accompanying a curry, chilli con carne or the remainder of food left in your cupboards. Although it is cheap to stock up on, if overused, it can become quite bland; by seasoning your rice whilst cooking you can add tons of additional flavour and create different dishes. Some spices which work well with rice include: curry powder, turmeric, paprika, cumin and saffron.

6. Twice baked jacket potatoes

Jacket potatoes are ideal for lunchtime snacks or as an accompaniment with a meal; twice baked jacket potatoes are a great way of jazzing up what is normally a quite basic dish. To cook a twice baked jacket potato, bake the potato then, once cooked, take out the fluffy inside and mix with fillings of your choice, then pop it back into the oven to bake again. Favourite fillings include cheese and bacon, soft cheese and chives and chicken and mushrooms.

7. Switching the ingredients for your pasta bake

A classic pasta bake is a cheap and easy-to-make meal for students. By simply mixing up the ingredients you use in your bake, you can easily make it more exciting. Switch the sauce you use from tomato to pesto or cheese, swap your pasta from penne to gnocchi or even change the meat from beef to lamb or chicken.

Many students think that eating well whilst at university will be expensive and slip into bad eating habits however, shopping around for good deals and making slight changes to your meals – like the above – doesn’t necessarily have to cost you a lot. Changing little things in basic meals can make a huge difference.

About the author: Sophie Mellor

Sophie Mellor is a digital content writer at The Student Housing Company. Since 2011 The Student Housing Company has been forging firm relationships with universities throughout the UK and providing premier, modern accommodation for their students throughout their university careers.