Being a student is already hard enough, you are broke and constantly chasing deadlines, so who has the time or the money to think about a healthy balanced diet at the same time? With everything going on in your life as a student – lectures, assignments, tests, projects and the like, we tend to neglect our diet, but it impacts our performance in the classroom greatly. I am going to give you a few tips and tricks on how to eat heathy without breaking the back and saving time too. Being a student doesn’t mean you can’t eat good too.
So, I don’t think I have to tell you this, but it is always cheaper to cook yourself than it is to buy already cooked food. Yes, it takes time to go out and buy your own stuff and cook it too but with a little careful planning you will be very happy with the savings you make and the results of all your efforts. Your will enjoying easy fine dining while your friends struggle with burn food and pots every day. You can save up to Fifty Percent on your food bill and that isn’t a little money, you just need to shop smart and you will have a few extra dollars in your pocket at the end of the month. Set aside some time, one day, to shop around find the stores with the best deals near you so always know where to go to find whatever you need at the best price and you will only ever need to do this just once, I would advise you to get a friend to tag along to make it a little fun, plus You should share the savings. Another pro-tip, invest in food safe small plastic bags, you will find out why you need them shortly.
Now that you have secured all your groceries the next thing you need to do is cook, and this is something you want to do is cook as much as you can at once. You want to prepare as much of your future meals as possible ahead of time, so you don’t have to spend too much time when you making the meals at the end. You will usually want to make your proteins, vegetables, and soups ahead of time so all you have to do on the day is prepare your starch, warm everything up and serve. You can easily find recipes for great soups and sauces that keep well online. I would advise you to cook your proteins plain, with just salt, and then add you spice it up when you do your final preps before you eat. Vegetables are also very each and should just be blanched in boiling water (you drop the fresh veggies in boiling water for literally one minute), and then remove them. You need to let everything cool the you pack each item as an individual portion, so one serving of chicken in a bag, one serving of veggies in a bag, one serving of soup in a bag – I don’t think I need to say this but make sure everything is cooled down before you pack it. Then finally, store them in your freezer.
Now, I know cooking seems like a daunting task but let me give you a few tips.
- Be patient and present – you can rush the cooking process you have to be patient when you cook. You don’t want to start undercooking your food, unless you enjoy having the occasional case of food poisoning, which is a real possibility when dealing with undercooked food. In addition to this you need to be there when you are cooking, I would highly recommend that if you are cooking that is the only thing you are doing, it isn’t usually the best time to multitask, it is very easy to mess up if you get distracted for too long.
- Prep your ingredients before you start cooking – before you start cooking You want to make sure you have everything you need read to go into the pot or pan. You don’t want to be cutting up vegetables while you are frying something else unless you are trying to make charcoal, because nine times out of ten you will burn something. Plus, it also helps you with cleaning as everything is organized before time.
As long as you follow these two tips you will get better at what you do.
So now time has come to finally put everything together and make your delicious meal all you have to do is warm up everything you made before and choose a starch to go along with it. Now here pasta, sadza and rice really come int their own. The first two are really hard to mess up and fairly quick but rice can take about fifteen mins for a portion for one. Another free tip for you here, buy par boiled it is perfect every time all the time as long as you cook it right. Just follow the instructions on the package and cook it till you hear a “Rice Crispies” crackling sound when you open the pot, almost like you are frying the cooked rice in oil, then you are ready to serve. I guarantee you will never find yourself in the kitchen for more than twenty minutes on any normal day.
So, with this I think you are ready to change the way you eat at university, and stop going home to scare your parents with all the weight you have lost because you haven’t been eating properly. I promise you will have more energy and you will always impress any visitors you have, all with minimal effort. Now, yes, I know you going to argue and say there is a lot of upfront work, but look you going to be doing that on a day where you have the time to do that. Instead of watching that series you could be doing something a little therapeutic. The ball is in your court now and since you have the keys to success why not just go right ahead and try this out.