Hello!

This week, we thought we’d talk about one of our most favourite topics: food! Thinking about cooking for yourself can seem a bit scary when you’re used to homemade food that you don’t have to pay for. However, once you find your feet, surprisingly, cooking can actually be quite enjoyable and a good way to get away from work.

Stereotypically, you’ll hear that students only ever eat beans on toast, pasta, or cereal. Yes, every student has been a culprit of this, however, if you learn how to budget your money and what to buy to get the most out of each meal, you will find no problem in eating well.

Budgeting is so important; it’s so easy to waste money on ready meals and takeaways, whereas you can make a pot of soup that will last for four meals for less than half the price! Yes, you’ll find that sometimes you miss the more exciting meals, such as roast dinners, but eating at uni doesn’t have to be a tedious chore. You’ll soon find where the best places are to buy food. Lancaster University run a free bus to Sainsbury’s to and from campus, which means you have easy access to a big supermarket for a good food shop. Also, the best place to go for cheap and good food is Lancaster’s markets. Every Wednesday and Saturday, you can have your choice of fresh fruit and veg, as well as eggs, meat and fish, for really cheap. Of course, there is always the option of online supermarket delivery which can be delivered right outside your accommodation on campus.

Here are some of our favourite things that we often eat at uni, that both save us money, and fill us up!

Soup (invest in a hand blender and you can turn pretty much anything into soup. Make a big batch and it will last for ages).

Stir-fry (All you need is a pack of noodles, your choice of fresh veg and a tasty sauce, and take hardly any time).

For house meal, fajitas (these are easy to make in bulk, are quick, and feel like a real treat).

Bolognaise/ chilli (make a big batch and freeze portions individually so you have a stack of pre-made meals in your freezer that just need reheating. Just make pasta/rice/a jacket potato and you’ll have a filling meal in no time).

Of course, after some trial and error, you will find recipes that work for you and mean that you really look forward to teatime after spending the day in lectures.

However, it can’t be denied that after a night out, nothing will sort you out better than a huge portion of cheesy chips, or a burger from Sultans (our much loved, post-night out takeaway on campus). As long as you budget in the week, and in general have a balanced diet, you won’t feel so bad taking a kebab home to bed with you after a night out.

In terms of brainfood, this may sound a little unorthodox, but we have both been told by a number of sources that bananas make you more intelligent…We genuinely both eat bananas before every exam we have and they are good during essay writing. They are cheap and filling and whether they do actually make a difference or not is debatable but, our lecturers say they make you clever and sometimes any type of little boost helps!

Despite the weird banana topic, eating in general at uni is nothing to be scared of. You soon get used to how much to spend / where to spend it / how to cook etc and it can become a enjoyable part of your day so don’t feel it to be a daunting aspect of uni life – it really is not that bad!

Becky and Katie x