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Every time I am back to school after a long break, I feel annoyed twhat to eat per time. And how to handle cooking on a busy schedule. It makes settling in quite annoying
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----Ayomide O.
Happy Resumption! And welcome back to the grind.
It’s funny how you’re thinking Ayo is a cheesy, lazy, or weird person when you’ve also at one point or the other missed home; especially the culinary skills of your mum and her exceptional ability to plan all your meals in a most effective way.
But now you’re in school, asking yourself, at least 3 times a day, “what do I eat now?” It becomes a battle of your current cravings and your purchasing power (money) or the availability of the appliances (like blender, toaster) to make those meals or the foodstuff to cook them.
Then comes the part about being a student and the hustle and bustle that comes with it. That leaves you asking a big question, “should I buy it, cook it, or just forget about it?”
A very good instance: Nearly everyone of us would love to eat fried rice and fried chicken with plantain every other day. But as soon as that craving comes, it becomes a question of: “can I afford it?” “do I have the time to cook it?” Then you conclude that jollof-rice is the way.
Today I’ll be talking about how to plan meals in a student environment.
- Review your schedule
Before you plan what to cook, you should check when you’ll have time to cook and be sure the energy will be there.
Find a few openings in your schedule, block off those times, and make an appointment with yourself to cook. Cooking is not effort-sapping or time-consuming if you plan well for it. - Choose your recipes
There are many factors you may want to consider, for instance, your time, your favourite/ go-to-meals, seasonality of some food stuffs (which would likely affect their prices), also the specific foods you know how to cook well, and lastly, foodstuffs you have in your pantry.
Feel free to vary recipes from a particular food stuff. You can create a list and paste it on your kitchen space. - Plan your grocery shopping inline with those meals.
You want to make Yam porridge? Or egusi soup? Then ensure that you have essential ingredients like palm oil, egusi, crayfish, etc. - Plug and play
Now you have a list of potential dishes, plug them into your schedule and play around them. For instance, you may choose to make stew just once and eat rice with it, or take a part to make your preferred choice of soup or even jollof rice.
Interspace it with minor foods.
Instead of making a rigid timetable, you can make it interesting by having themes for it:
Meatless Monday
Taco Tuesday
Take-out Fake-out
Pasta Night
Pizza Friday
Around the World (global flavours)
Slow Cooker Sunday - Cook, eat repeat!!
Or..
Plan to cook at least twice a week
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