You have quite literally left the mother ship. Comforting home cooked meals are a thing only your dreams are made of and you are going to have to learn to cook. I know, shock horror!
Let’s face it, you could go through Uni life only eating beans on toast and pizza but you really shouldn’t.
Here are the habits we think you should be picking up…
Snacks – Skipping meals or feeling genuinely ‘hangry’ can cause us to grab convenience food, largely unhealthy convenience food at that.
Keep stocked up on healthy snacks such as granola bars, carrot sticks, nuts, seeds and fruit to keep those hunger pangs at bay. This will prevent you from grabbing something bad for you with zero nutritional value.
Protein – Keeps you fuller for longer and also keeps your body and muscles healthy. The top resources for protein are broccoli, spinach, kale, cauliflower, mushrooms, parsley, cucumber, green peppers, cabbage, tomatoes, beef, chicken, eggs, almonds, oats and Greek yoghurt.
Portion Control – I don’t think that there is many of us that truly know how to portion up our plates. Using our hand size usually gives us a good representation.
We should be serving (in one meal,) a palm size amount of protein, a big handful of vegetables and an entire fist size of whole grains.
Water – Step away from those fizzy drinks and treat yourself to a funky water bottle. Keep it topped up and in your bag at all times.
Toast – Toast will probably part of your staple uni diet so why not get creative? Toast isn’t just made for butter.
There is a whole host of delicious and healthy toppings you could try to make something so simple into quite a substantial meal.
Tomatoes and pesto, peanut butter and banana or eggs and asparagus for instance.
Fresh vs Frozen – You make think buying fresh is a waste. We’ve all had to deal with a smelly out of date cauliflower at the back of our fridge, haven’t we?
Buy frozen fruit and veg. It’s low cost, quick to cook and actually holds almost all of its nutritional value.
Batch cooking – Nothing to do all day? Get your freezer stocked up and prepare these three base sauces that will be sure to save you loads of time.
Wholegrains – Stock up your cupboards with whole grains, i.e brown pasta, quinoa, brown rice and buckwheat. Try and add these to your meals to keep you fuller for longer.
