My Cooking Rules
I’m going to be honest here; I’m a food critic at heart, but let me into the kitchen, and we’ll hope I don’t give someone food poisoning. But really, cooking isn’t as difficult as I first thought, and I can say I have 3 years of experience under my belt. I’ve learned a lot during my years in uni and I want to share with you my cooking rules:
Rule 1: I must not have takeaway every day.
I have to admit the plan was to live off takeaways and ready-made meals for the year. Unfortunately, I started to realise very early on that I would probably lose a lot of money if I did this, and let’s not forget what I’m doing to my poor body.
Meal-planning so that you have a few different recipes with similar ingredients means that you won’t be eating the same thing every day and you can cut back on your spending.
Rule 2: I will leave the fancy meals to Jamie Oliver.
I think everyone gets a moment where they suddenly they think they’ll be an amazing chef, so tonight you’ll go full-on gourmet and make crab-stuffed lobster tail. Well, I found out I can’t make crab-stuffed lobster tail or anything aside from pasta really.
Being a uni student, or a person, in general, we just don’t ever feel like we have the time. So, sticking to mac and cheese for lunch and fish and chips for dinner isn’t too bad. It’s a lot easier to clean up as well!
Rule 3: I will learn how to use my oven.
I was always rubbish at catering in secondary school, and there were a lot of moments like, “I don’t know how to boil pasta”. Well, I learned very quickly never to put cold water into a really hot pan – that was so scary!
Make sure you know the basics of how to work your oven and stove as you will be getting acquainted with it a lot. Unless you’re fortunate to have roommates/family that will do the cooking for you, then count yourself blessed.
Rule 4: I will clean-up after I finish.
If you’ve ever seen those TV shows where they show you a monstrosity of a kitchen and how amazing it looks afterwards, you’ll know how important this one is. Always remember to clean-up! Make it a habit to wash dishes after you’ve finished using them and wipe down those counter tops. At least then if you haven’t got any revision done, you can say you didn’t wake up to a messy kitchen.