Since moving out there is a topic I think is very important to cover. Food. Because I lived at home with my parents for the last 19 years of my life, I have never had to be self-dependent for food. The most I ever did to prepare my own meals was to either find a snack in the cupboard or left-overs in the fridge. I know that most students going off to college of university resort to the meal plan their school offers. Even with a 15% discount, I think that eating at the cafeteria everyday for each meal would cost way more than buying your own food from the grocery store and cooking yourself. Even though I think this way, it doesn't really help the fact that I've basically never cooked a meal in my life. I mean, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but at home I would much prefer to bake something unhealthy than cook a balanced meal. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that I'm a noob in the kitchen.
This post should give other kitchen virgins hope, in that they can
actually make edible meals and don't have to waste money on cafeteria food.
My first meal actually turned out really well. It was a simple soup with asian noodles and tons and tons of vegetables. It consisted of carrots, broccoli, bean sprouts, mushrooms, bell peppers, etc. It took a long time to make as I was constantly checking my recipe to make sure I was doing things right. This, I think, is how all people start off in the kitchen and we will eventually not even need to measure out a cup of bean sprouts :) Well I may not measure bean sprouts, but I do definitely measure out a cup of water when the recipe calls for a cup of water.
My second meal was a broccoli and cauliflower bake. It also has chicken and mushroom soup and I topped it off with goat cheddar cheese. This one also took a bit of time to make, cooking the chicken first and steaming the vegetables. I love this meal though and would make it all the time!
Third, and least healthy of the bunch, is this wiener pasta pot. Basically made of what you can see ~ pasta and hot dogs, tomato soup and mushrooms. Although it is obviously the least healthy, it is, by far, the easiest to make.
As you can see, I don't cook every day. I try to make a good amount of left-overs so I can take it for lunch and not get tempted to by things from the cafeteria :)
Another thing that is important to talk about for school residence dwellers, is sharing food with suite-mates or room-mates. Since I
decided to try and be as healthy as I can living away from home, I try to eat lots of greens and cook things that are relatively healthy. I especially try and stay away from those unhealthy snacks most of us find ourselves eating when we get bored or after a long day of classes. Only problem
is, my suite-mates are super unhealthy and it is very hard to eat greens all
day when everyone around you is eating a nice, juicy hotdog. Basically, STAY STRONG. I've told my suite-mates that I don't really want to share my food, even though they are all sharing their food with each other. Laying out those ground rules at the beginning is important because then I can't just eat the chips and drink the pop in their cupboard.
Another reason I'm keeping away from the more unhealthy snacks is that I literally have no money. I am poor. I am living off a student loan and they shorted me on the amount. So I have to find ways to save cash. One way is to buy vegetables at the store rather than those gummy fruit snacks we all wish to believe are just as healthy :)
More on food to come ~ hopefully I'll be making lots more healthy meals to share :)
peace
No comments:
Post a Comment