Ham and cheese on bread. Add a slice of red pepper and some butter if you want to indulge.

Pasta with a tin of crushed tomatoes and basil, sprinkle with local cheese, and indulge with some olives.

If local water is good (safe, tastes good) then refill water bottles with it and save 1,50 euro per bottle.

To take the ‘boring’ out of mashed potatoes, sprinkle some Maggi Potato Bake flavouring into your mash potatoes, one satchet should last about 4 meals.

Something I invented…quick and easy hostel meal with cheap ingredients:

If your hostel provides a kitchen, then go to the supermarket, buy a box of spaghetti, a jar of pasta sauce, a small jar of olive oil (butter will also do, but olive oil doesn’t need refrigeration), and a bag of shredded Swiss cheese.* After you’ve boiled and strained the spaghetti, put it back in the pot and grease it slightly with olive oil (with the stove on low). Then put a helping of spaghetti into a bowl, and as you’re putting the spaghetti into the bowl, add an ample quantity of shredded swiss cheese in there, and mix it around. Then top it with pasta sauce also warmed in a pot or pan. The Swiss cheese will melt from the hot spaghetti and from the hot sauce. Very yummy.

*Keep in mind the word for "Swiss cheese" varies from one language to the next. In French, for example, it’s called Emmental.

Vitamin-fortified fruit juice. A traveller’s best friend.

Seek out the specialties of whatever country you are in. You can look them up on the internet or in your guidebook; some guidebooks even have recipes. The ingredients are not hard to find.
Seafood such as mussels on the coast, bruschetta in Italy, cassoulet in southwest France, paella in Spain. These types of &quoteasant food" recipes use a little bit of everything but are not all that expensive, though with something like cassoulet it is helpful if you will be at the hostel a few days.

Always: Fresh fruit, vegies, fresh herbs, cheese and bread at the open market. Foie gras in France, mozzarella fresca in Italy—these can make a meal.

If you’re feeling broke, make lunch your main meal of the day.

When in doubt:
Doner kabobs!

Rice!
rice is perfect for travel. small, lightweight portions cook into large portions, transports easily, keeps well, its cheap as hell, easy to cook, it can be found everywhere, it goes with a lot of foods.

I like it with a can of tuna (in water, not oil) and some soy sauce. Its also easy to make fried rice, and you can make it with almost any type of leftovers.

quote:

When in doubt:
Doner kabobs!

hell yes…and when not in doubt, doner kebabs. I still plan on returning to some of my favorite doner dealers on my next trip back….fuck, I may go to salzberg just for the doner.

if your hostel has a kitchen area, go ahead and buy fresh produce! here’s my friends’ and my fav super cheap and easy recipe:

heat up some oil in a saucepan, and throw in chopped onions and garlic, then tomatoes, eggplant, red/green peppers, zuchini, salt and oregano. stir in a carton of concentrated tomato puree and let it simmer while you cook some noodles! mix together and there you go

it cost us hardly over 1 euro per person and took us less than an hour to cook.

nutella and bread, it got me throguht europe, cheap and tastes great! well at least to me, lol.