foodie_student_life

  Recovery is never going to be perfect…   Breaking free of         distorted thinking        …it’s harder than you think. Just when everything seems to be going smoothly, some niggling voice seems always to come back and haunt me. I’ve been doing well in recovery since I’ve been discharged from hospital but last week for the first time in a while I had, what can only be described as a ‘ wobble ’. A brief spell in which the thoughts and feelings that once ruled my life returned with vengeance. The thoughts:     ‘you’re not good enough’         ‘you’re not loveable’    and     ‘you’re not worthy’    were prominent in the height of my disorder, and from speaking to others, reading about anorexia and through therapy sessions seem a common factor in the disorder. So, when you think you’re breaking through and they re...

That one ingredient in the cupboard that you can rely on to make into a diverse range of different meals and not get bored of  - for many its pasta, and its true the number of dishes you can make, but for me, even more so - it's tortilla wraps! Such a simple thing - not dissimilar to bread, it provides great carbohydrate nutrition and can be so diverse bringing a range of meals, snacks and sweet treats too!!  One Ingredient - Five Meals: 1) Obviously and probably most popular is  fajitas!!!   These can be diverse in themselves: The classic for me is fried pepper strips, red onion and quorn chicken pieces coated in a pre-made supermarket fajita seasoning spice mix (with added smoked paprika for an extra kick) For my sister it would be apple cider vinegar caramelised onion, nandos piri-piri sauce and creamy fried halloumi - whereas when when we were younger, as a Saturday night treat, it would be crisp spring onion, cucumber and hoisin chicken. ...

 Simple Lemon Drizzle Baking is something I wish I could do more of. As a student it’s difficult to find ways of incorporating it into work and I’m often put off by expensive ingredient and recipes requiring things I’ve never even heard of let alone seen in the aisles of lidl. When I do manage to bake, the produce is either demolished by housemates in minutes or left around until its past its best (dependent on who’s in the house!!!) This simple lemon drizzle provides a perfect resolution: easily accessible ingredients and ability to be sacked up or down, it uses a pretty standard cake batter mix with the addition of lemon juice which can then be smothered in tasty drizzle Ingredients: For the Cake - 4/6/8 oz Caster Sugar 4/6/8 oz Butter (softened) 4/6/8 oz Self Raising Flour (preferably sifted but don’t worry if not) 2/3/4 Medium sized eggs 1 tsp baking powder 1 lemon (juiced) For the Drizzle - 1 lemon (juiced) Approx. 6 tbsp Caster sugar (rough guide - best ...

One of the hardest challenges I faced when I turned veggie and headed to uni was scaling back meals and cooking just for one. Although I'd started making my own meals at home before I moved away the leftovers or remains of my veggies dishes often became sides or meals for family so cooking for one was a challenge - the main issue being portion sizing! The two hardest things to portion are most definitely staples such as pasta and rice, although I often struggled with veg too (not that I complain at that one - I'm one of those strange kids that love greens!). While online advice will suggest a handful or half a cup - this is so subjective and I struggled in measuring it which meant I'd end up with way too much of each of the meals I was preparing. Two outcomes of this: pre-prepared meals ready in the fridge or freezer (not always a bad thing as you have quick and easy meals available) for the next few days and overeating (with massive portions - oops!!) or snacking at ran...

...something I never thought I'd do. I've never been the best at English or spelling (although I do love a good game of Scrabble) but I've found something I love and want to share not only my passion for cooking but experiences and tips as a student. It probably won't be very interesting, and I'll be amazed if anyone actual reads this but whilst I've been sat at home enjoying the last of the summer before uni (in other words with too much time on my hands) I found myself writing a list of things I'd write about if I was ever brave enough to do it and this is the result... I started a separate insta account in Feburary (@veggie_student_life go give it a follow 😉) while bored at uni. Most people have a second account that's private to a select few friends that they spam with funny pictures of birthday posts but I started to share pics of my food! From the start of uni I'd always been taking photos of my food that I'd send to my parents almost e...