Thursday, September 6, 2012

College Survival!


It’s the time of year when our young students are heading away to college - sometimes quite far away or starting college living at home but not on the family timeplan so at times they need to fend for themselves. 

The trap many young people fall into is getting into really bad habits from day one, eating convenience and fast food as their main diet.  This is very costly and can lead to very tired and run down students…  so the trick is to set them up with the knowledge from the beginning or that first trip home when they realize all is not as easy as it seems!!

Survival Tips

  • Get them set up with some basic ingredients you may have some extras of these at home so to through your food cupboards and set up a starter food box..
  • Olive oil, Spray oil, soy sauce, spices, salt, pepper, sugar, tins of tomatoes, beans, tuna, sweetcorn, coconut milk, curry paste, pasta, rice, noodles, cous cous.
  • Go through each of these ingredients with them and explain their uses..  for example if they were really stuck and had No other ingredients they could still make a full meal..
          eg. Pasta, tomatoes, tuna, sweetcorn or beans, sweetcorn, chilli, rice
  • Student Accommodation can be sparsely kitted out so check out your pots, pans and knives, colander, chopping boards & food storage boxes  - many of us have the extra pot, pan and lots of plastic food boxes that we rarely use.. put these to good use by sending them off with your college student..   ( A colander is essential to students for pasta, rice, decanting tuna, beans etc.) 
  • Take them shopping – many students haven’t a clue about the actual cost of food,  up to now many haven’t had the time or the interest.  Challenge them with 10 euro and see how many meals they can get the ingredients for… Then take the time to go through the aisles and chiller cabinets, for example when looking at chicken, show them how to compare the prices of whole chickens versus, chicken thighs or chicken breasts.   Teach them to look out for specials and be aware of purchasing too much fresh food unless they are prepared to batch cook, soups, curries and freeze them. 
  • If you have family favorite family recipes why not put them together in a notebook or folder for your son/daughter – these are the foods they have grown up with and love and now going away from home they will have the opportunity to “have a go themselves”.
  • Get in and get cooking with them before they head off, up to now many students have done very little cooking and have not to fend for themselves, many still think they can live off college food or convenience a few months of this type of food and you can have a tired, run down broke student who is craving home cooked food on their trips home..   
  • Soup is a great way to use up leftovers and use up everything in the veggie drawer of the fridge… soup will keep in the fridge for 4 days and it prevents lots of food getting binned and money being frittered away!
  • Eggs - scrambled eggs, poached eggs, an omlette ( so many varieties) baked potatoes with different toppings, pasta w tuna, pasta w butter, parmesan cheese, frozen peas & bacon, how to roast a chicken (great specials on whole chickens)   Bolognese sauce, chilli con carne, shepherds pie, chicken curry, veggie curry  and of course stir fries..  

          If it has to be a crash course so be it …. You can make up a lot of these and freeze for later..!!



Up on the web…see previous blogs!

Some great easy low cost recipes…
Meatballs, stir fries, egg fried rice, oven baked sticky chicken….  

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