foodie_student_life

So this is all a bit strange ... on our 4th week of lockdown! To be honest, I actually really enjoyed it to start with, getting time to spend with my family that I wouldn’t have had normally, but I think it’s fair to say we’re all getting a bit fed up with it now!! Not helped by the weather changing from nice sunshine last week to rain or the fact that I’m getting ever closer to exams but the mood has definitely changed. In the first couple of weeks, to make up for some special events we were due to go to but were obviously cancelled, we had a couple evenings all round the table - I cooked a big three course meal, we all dressed up and actually had a good time! Last week, it was dad’s birthday, something to look forward to and celebrate, we tried to make it special for him with our first bbq of the season!! Always a favourite, I made all the trimmings and we had an amazing evening out in the garden! Right now, we don’t have anything to look forward to, but I’m hoping we will do somet...

Simple Coffee-Time Biccies Home lock-down has got my family going slightly stir crazy! I'm loving the extra baking and cooking time, locking myself in the kitchen whenever I can and have found some great recipes online and in the newspaper (BBC Good Food is always a favourite; there's some great pages to follow on insta too for inspiration and recipes and the telegraph food and drink section is getting bigger every day!!) While insanity is starting to hit - we're trying to keep a routine/pattern and coffee time is now a major feature! It's the really needed morning pick-me-up a chance to break from revision, gather for a chat and of course eat biscuits!! Knowing how much my family love biscuits, we go through quite a few so I found this simple recipe online and have been loving making them on a regular basis. As you can see, the measures are a bit odd - I halved the recipe and found it made plenty of perfectly sized coffee time biccies! The Recipe below is f...

Well I've been wanting to make an upside down cake for a while and 'lock-down' has given me the perfect excuse to spend more time in the kitchen! I spotted some rather ripe bananas in the fruit bowl and made the mistake of asking my family what they thought I should make, the answers came back unanimously for a crumble 😒 - banana crumble is a family favourite, I'll share the secret recipe another time - but having made crumble a few days before I fancied trying something different and found this recipe on the BBC Good Food App (a great source for all recipes - sweet, savoury and everything in-between - it's where I get a lot of inspiration for my cooking) Not having quite all the ingredients - of course I adapted or used similar and it tasted so good!!! While mine was still a little sloppy 😕 I've learnt for next time and would defo recommend a long bake covered with foil. We had this fabulous and show-stoppingly impressive looking cake still warm from ...

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. ...

Such a simple recipe but a great crowd pleaser that’s bound to impress! It was my housemates birthday recently and as tradition goes, I wanted to make home a cake but knowing that his go to sweet treats are biscuits I wanted to incorporate a childhood fave! I used a simple cake batter recipe, filled with jam, decorated with chocolate ganache frosting & cut Jamie dodgers and voila... he was so pleased!! Recipe - cake: 8oz Caster sugar 8oz Soft baking butter (cheaper than normal butter and works just as well!) 8oz Self-raising flour 1tsp baking powder 4 medium eggs 1tsp vanilla essence Filling: 1/2 a jar of strawberry or raspberry jam (be sure to take out any large lumps of fruit) Frosting: Approx.150ml double cream 240g white chocolate (I used lidl own brand -only 30p a bar- doesn’t have to be anything fancy) Method: 1) cream the softened butter with the Caster sugar untill well combined 2) add three of the eggs - one at a time - whisking the mixture as quick a...

A very personal post I’ve been feeling down recently, possibly down to exam stress (can’t wait untill they’re over) but potentially due to something I’ve been suffering from for a while but never wanted to admit. Since I looked at myself in the mirror, didn’t want to go to summer ball because I couldn’t fit into the dresses I’d ordered and realised I needed to make a change my weight loss journey has, in macro terms been a success. I’ve lost the weight I wanted to and find myself fitter, healthier and sometimes happier as a result.  Why only sometimes? Because other times I find myself as I am tonight writing this blog: lonely, feeling guilty for enjoying a sweet treat and dreading the consequences that missing a couple of days at the gym will have in making me look. Some days my anorexia (although never formally diagnosed, it’s quite obvious I’m a sufferer) means I eat only one meal a day, if at all. Others I find myself snacking away and feeling miserable and guilty ...