A week of dinners on twelve bucks

There comes a time in everyone's college career when the demands of homework preclude one from engaging in such luxuries such as, say, leaving the house. Being that food is required to live, and money is tight for the average student, it is easy to find oneself in a position where fiscal responsibility allows for only the most basic of dishes in a diet. Whoever it was that invented Ramen has been laughing all the way to the bank thanks to this very principle.

However, one can only subsist on extruded rehydrated noodles and flavored salt for so many consecutive meals in a row before the stomach rebels, crying out for more variety. To that end, I offer one of my favorite four ingredient meals: Tater tot casserole.

I am convinced this particular meal was designed with the single man in mind. It's innovative combination of the staple bachelor ingredients of meat and potatoes allows for a maximum of both in every bite. It is large enough to feed an average appetite for almost a week. Not to mention, it can be prepared by anyone who ever graduated first grade with a remote concept of what it means to stack things.

You will need:

2 Lbs ground beef
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 Cup grated cheddar (or more if you feel like extra cheese)
2lbs of frozen tater tots
A 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan
Grease (the edible kind)

The preparation for this dish is so simple, I can give instructions monosyllabically as follows:

Grease pan. Spread meat in pan. Spread soup on meat. Spread cheese on soup. Spread tots on cheese.

Then stick it in a 350 degree oven with foil over it for an hour. Take it out, let it cool, and dig in. If you are cooking for one, you can make it last a week easily. Plus, you don't even have to dirty a plate, frisbee, or whatever it is you eat from; you can just dig straight into the pan you cooked it in.

Isn't single life grand?