{"id":522,"date":"2015-11-03T08:39:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T08:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/?p=522"},"modified":"2015-11-03T09:09:32","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T09:09:32","slug":"cash-and-curry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentstudents\/2015\/11\/03\/cash-and-curry\/","title":{"rendered":"Cash and Curry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever I go home for the summer or at half term, and I talk about to people about cooking at university I get the same questions every time. \u2018Is it beans on toast every night?\u2019 or \u2018I bet you hate pot noodles right now?\u2019 Well, to be honest I hated both anyway, but when I explain that I love to cook, can produce pretty good food\u00a0on a\u00a0budget, and show them pictures,\u00a0they seemed shocked.\u00a0It’s a stereotype that students either can\u2019t cook, won’t cook or can’t afford to cook. Hopefully, this\u00a0post will show that it’s very easy to eat well at university, and\u00a0honestly, it\u2019s not as expensive as you might think!<\/p>\n

\"An
Chicken curry served with basmati rice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Pan seared scallops with a mixed pepper and rocket salad with a lemon cream dressing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My personal food budget for 1-2 weeks is around \u00a325-\u00a345. This really isn’t\u00a0much\u00a0when you consider that could be one night out in town, plus you’ll save money by making your own stuff for lunch, and you’ll avoid the queues in\u00a0the\u00a0campus shop (that HAS to be a winner, right?!) You\u00a0could\u00a0always club together with your housemates if you all tend to eat\/cook together. So, what can you get for this enormous sum of your student loan?<\/p>\n

On my shopping list I would have chicken breasts, minced beef\/lamb, salmon fillets, fruit & veg, salad stuff and all my food for lunches, snacking and breakfast.\u00a0I\u00a0buy\u00a0things like rice and pasta in bulk and stay away from brand leaders,\u00a0because\u00a0it saves a\u00a0fortune. I’m serious! Morrison’s\u00a0long grain rice comes in at 40p a kilo\u2026if you usually buy Uncle Ben’s, you’re spending \u00a33.51\u00a0more\u00a0than you need to! Same with pasta \u2013 Morrison’s own is 98p a kilo whereas a kilo of Napolina sets you back \u00a32.24.<\/p>\n

The easiest way to improve your own cooking is through the use of fresh ingredients and herbs and spices, all of which can easily be picked up from the local supermarket. And fresh\u00a0stuff isn’t too expensive\u00a0\u2013\u00a0I\u00a0go to Aldi, which is great for fruit and veg, or there’s a\u00a0market in Canterbury every Wednesday and\u00a0Friday\u00a0in St George’s Street. Supermarkets also drop their prices on certain items towards the end of the day, so it’s worth doing your shopping a bit later.\u00a0A good collection of herbs and spices will help improve a simple dish into a flavour explosion. My ‘go to’ herbs and spices are oregano for tomato based dishes, ground cumin which will add some heat to your meal (goes well especially with sweet potato mash) and chives which have a delicate onion flavour which go great on fried eggs and\u00a0they’re really not\u00a0expensive\u00a0\u2013good old\u00a0Morrison’s do dried mixed herbs for 25p!<\/p>\n

Here’s a really easy, quick and tasty recipe to get you started. I promise it will impress, and won’t bust your budget:<\/p>\n

Chicken Curry (Serves 2):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n