FoR BuSy PeOpLe

Spend time with your kitchen

This is what vegetables look like

HOW MANY students today make the time to eat three healthy meals a day? – to eat something hot on a plate once a day can seem like an achievement. Worried exclamations of “Ohh! You look like you haven’t eaten in weeks!” from concerned mothers regularly greet students all over the country as they arrive home from the land of snacks and curry that is university life.



You don’t have to look far for explanations as to why many of us don’t eat properly: the meagre change they call student loans that we have to survive on; the lack of time, what with the busy schedule of lectures, socialising, working, sleeping… And some of us, let’s be honest, just can’t be bothered to cook – ten minutes in the kitchen seems like too serious a commitment.



Lola Ibironke, a first year accountancy student at Kent University, speaks for many students: “ I would love to eat a nice meal, like the type my mum makes, but most of the time after spending a long day at the library, I just end up buying something on the way home. It’s quick and easy and often tastes just as good.”



Quick and easy often means convenience foods and take-aways. Students everywhere spend large amounts of their (borrowed) funds on greasy delicacies rather than get out the pots and pans. Pot noodles and microwave meals become staple diets for some while others have reserved tables at McDonalds and KFC. These foods tend to be high in fat and salt, and low in vitamins and fibre – the elements you need to make a balanced diet. Fast foods are also expensive – if a Chinese special fried rice, say, costs £3.50, and if you have such meals four or five times a week, this amounts to £280 a term!



If you want to start eating better, and save money, you need to turn some of that cash into fresh fruit and vegetables, and buy in staples such as rice, potatoes and pasta. It’s easy to eat well, and spend less. To get you started, here are a couple of cheap, tasty and nutritional dishes that take about twenty minutes to knock together. More next month!




Curried beans


Ingredients: 1 can of baked beans, 1 medium-sized onion, mushrooms, a green pepper, a carrot, curry powder, 1 tablespoonful of cooking oil, salt and pepper, and any other vegetables you want to throw in.


Chop the onion. Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan, then fry the chopped onion until soft. Add a heaped teaspoonful (or more, to taste) of curry powder and cook for one more minute. Now add the rest of the chopped vegetables, and fry them all together until they begin to soften. Stir in the baked beans and cook for five more minutes. Serve on toast, and it’s even better with grated cheese on top. Serves two.




Lucy’s fish pie


Ingredients: four or five largish potatoes, ¾ pint of milk, butter, one heaped tablespoonful of flour, one tin of tuna (in oil, not brine), one small tin of sweetcorn, salt and pepper, mixed herbs.



Peel the potatoes, and put them on to boil. While they are boiling you can make the rest of the pie. Open the tin of tuna and drain the oil into a saucepan. Heat the oil gently, then add the flour and stir into a paste, cooking for a further one minute over a low heat. Add the milk a little at a time, stirring constantly until it turns into a smooth sauce. Throw in the tuna and sweetcorn and pour the mix into an ovenproof dish, seasoning with salt and pepper and mixed herbs.



Mash the potatoes with a little milk and butter. Spread this on top of the tuna mix with a fork. Cook in the oven at gas mark 6, 170C, for twenty minutes, or until the potato starts to turn golden. Serve with a crunchy green vegetable, or with peas. Serves two.