Making the transition from the bustling buffet of ESU’s cafeteria (quality notwithstanding, that is) to sudden entire dependency on feeding oneself is harder than I thought, despite having a love for cooking and crafting masterpieces when I would go home.

It was hard to start from complete scratch, as it is for anyone who relocates. To show up in a new flat with a half eaten Clif bar from the plane ride and no idea where the grocery stores are.

And then you realize it’s a Sunday, so you’ll be eating that Clif bar reaaally slowly for the rest of the day because no grocery store is open anyways.

The first month of my Austrian experience was enraptured with scrambling to not drown in the weight of Austrian bureaucracy and also learn as much as possible in the daily three hour German intensive courses.

Meals? Food?

Uhm. Let’s see if we can recapture the majority of the meals I ate during the first month of living in Graz:

Breakfast:

–Oatmeal with chia seeds (can’t even tell you how excited I was to secure those puppies).

–an orange. Delicious.

Lunch:

–Oatmeal. Most likely without chia seeds. You know. For variety.

Dinner:

–Chia seeds.

–the peel of the breakfast orange. Not as delicious, but nevertheless quite fibrous.

Snacks:

–Sadness. Maybe some bread nipped from the little boy’s lunch pail on his way back home from the bus stop if lucky.

When the dust settled and the bank accounts started featuring meal stipends from scholarships, I was finally able to devise plans for physiological (and psychological) well-being. Through trial and error and refining some of my home-favorite recipes, I have found quite a selection of magical meals that are healthy, cheap, and easy.

I would like to go ahead and share a creation with you every now and then, marketing them all as quite easy, healthy, and cheap meals to prepare and share.

Disclaimer: all of the following recipes are vegetarian. They are by nature loaded with all of your essential micro/macronutrients (and yes. That includes protein) but if you want to add some bacon or fish or something, I won’t be butt-hurt.

• Twice-Baked Sweet Pot

Effort level out of 10: 4

Estimated time for prep: 1 hour 15

In order to fulfill the character count on this post, I had to condense some words.

This recipe is perfect for laundry days, when you’re planning on going out for a pre-meal run, or when you’re heavily engrossed in watching as many Game of Thrones episodes as possible.

You can pop that sweet potato sucker in the oven for a good hour and continue on with your business.

Mandatory Ingredients: Single serving.

• 1 sweet potato (large in diameter)

Savory Fixings Route (my recommendations, but you could use anything edible or anything you find in your fridge. Those aren’t always the same things):

• Hummus
• Chives
• Kale/Spinach/dark leafy greens
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Cheese (recommendations: gorgonzola for a bolder flavor, parmesan for a gentle pat on the back)

Sweet Fixings Route:

• Cinnamon
• Honey/Agave Nectar/Maple Syrup
• Plain greek yogurt

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F
2. Scrub sweet potato over cold running water until the surface doesn’t feel gritty.
3. Pierce sweet potato with a fork 3-4 times.
4. Wrap the sweet potato in some foil and pop in the oven. Bake for 45min-1hour, or until you can easily pierce the sweet potato with a fork and it feels soft.

• Savory Route: sautéed mushrooms and onions together in a pan with coconut oil (or olive oil). If you want to add any other veggies, or want to substitute mushrooms and onions, go ahead and sauté them all in this pan for a couple of minutes until nice and golden brown and cooked. Add dark leafy greens at the end and let them only cook for about 5 minutes to maintain a sturdier texture.

1. Remove the potato from the oven. Slice off the top of the potato (as thinly as possible so as not to waste too much of the potato) and scoop out the inside of the potato with a spoon into a bowl.
2. Brush the potato skin lightly with coconut or olive oil and stick back in the oven to get all nice and crispy.
3. Mix the sweet potato insides with a dollop of hummus, the pan seared veggies, chives, sea salt (not too much here).
4. Remove the potato skin from the oven and fill it up with the mix that you’ve prepared, sprinkling cheese on the top. Place back in the oven to let the cheese melt.

• Sweet Route: Do everything the same, except mix the potato insides with cinnamon, greek yogurt, and honey or agave nectar, rebaking only long enough to let the sugar portion crystallize.

Drink/Dessert Recommendation:

• Wine: Merlot.
  • The dry/subtle fruit flavors of Merlot base this dish well, especially the sautéed veggies or the cinnamon flavor.

• 70-85% dark chocolate
  • Mingles well with either the dark leafy greens of the savory route, or the subtle cinnamon of the sweet route without washing out all the flavor of your delicious meal and overwhelming your senses.