Cooking – not as scary as it seems!

When I first came to uni, I had high hopes for my cooking. I was ready to wow all my flatmates with my Gordon Ramsay esq meals and eat like a queen 3 meals a day. I hadn’t quite factored in my budget, laziness and complete lack of cooking prowess. Now you might actually be a star chef, or you might never have touched an oven in your life, but cooking for yourself is not as scary as it seems and I’ve listed some tips to help you out.

1. Planning meals
   • You don’t need to plan every meal, but I recommend planning a couple days in advance and definitely plan before you go shopping. The amount of times I have been to Aldi and, had to then return hours later because I had forgotten things is awful! Even a rough plan like ‘ I need cereal and some sort of lunch and tea for tomorrow’ will help you out.
2. Bulk buy
   • For your first big shop, or when you’re packing, I recommend bringing some bulk dry essentials. These might differ depending on your tastes, but I bought things like porridge oats, pasta, cans of curry and soup.
3. Ready meals
   • Don’t be afraid of ready meals !! They are delicious and exactly what you need after a long day when you can’t be bothered to cook. You can also get canned things like chilli con carne and chicken curry that you could add to some rice, which makes it a bit easier then starting from scratch. I always add a bit of veg to a ready meal and seems to do the trick.
4. Greens, grains and protein
   • My mums favourite saying when it comes to food is ‘greens, grains and protein!’ I’m not sure where she got it from, but it works and often saves me when I can’t think of what to eat. If I’m ever stuck for what to make, I will look around and scout for something that fits. Eg. peas (greens), rice (grains) and chicken (protein).
5. Easy meal ideas
   • If you are still stuck here are 5 simple meal ideas that will get you eating in no time.
   • Risotto
   • Pasta with your own sauce ( add some veg, chopped tomatoes and protein of your choice!)
   • Cous cous
   • Stir fry
   • Chicken, veg and rice