Cooking for College-The main ingredients

Lorna Lawless

We have all heard the saying “Ab’s are made in the kitchen” yes this may be true, however, nobody seemed to tell us how being healthy in college can turn out to be an expensive habit, if you are not prepared. Lifestyle Editor Lorna gives us her tips.

Here are the money and time-saving tips you might not have been told before.

Cook in Bulk

Your mother probably said this before she sent you up to the big smoke but honestly, if you get a chance to cook during your hectic week in college then you might as well do so in bulk.  The best trick is to use the staples.

Steps to follow are..

  1. Pick a meat
  2. Pick three vegetables
  3. Pick one seasoning
  4. Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil to fry it all off
  5. Then add some carbohydrate like pasta or rice to make sure its filling and wholesome.

It’s that simple. If you want the leanest example from these steps you would choose turkey, sweet potato, peppers and onions with some cumin seasoning, then fry it all off and pair it with some basmati rice. Keep trying different variations of the ingredients until you find your favourite and then cook enough for more than one day. Once you do, you will no longer waste time wondering what to cook and won’t spend money on stuff you don’t need in Lidl.

Pack your lunch

How many €5.50 lunch deals have you already spent your precious money on this year and we’re only just back? This might be falling on deaf ears but, if you think about it, you are wasting money on basic salads and sambos which could have been made for a quarter of the price if you got up ten minutes earlier in the morning or even the night before.

Things you need for a cheap tasty salad:

  1. A Lime
  2. Lettuce
  3. Peppers
  4. Meat
  5. Sweetcorn

Chop the peppers, meat and lettuce and throw it into a lunchbox, add some sweetcorn and then cut half the lime and squeeze it over it. It gives it such a zesty and fresh taste without adding the high calories dressings. This salad will keep well and it is so tasty. You can make five days of salads for the same price as one. You can’t really go wrong.

Lorna Lawless

Image Credit: Gillian Hogan