University is the perfect time to learn to cook as it’s a skill you will use long after you graduate. Unless you are on a catered plan at uni, you will have to do some form of cooking unless you plan to have a takeaway every day. It may be daunting if you’ve never cooked before but trust me, you’ll learn, you’ll make a lot of mistakes as well but that’s all part of the process.
Why you should learn to cook
As easy as it might be to stick something frozen in the oven or warm a ready meal up in the microwave, nothing beats a home cooked meal. A lot of the time the thought of cooking properly for yourself may seem like a lot of effort and time-consuming but it doesn’t have to be. Yes, there are some amazing meals that you can work on for a good few hours but being a university student, you won’t have time to slave over dinner every afternoon. One of my top tips for this is to make a big batch of time-consuming meals and then portion them up and freeze them to be quickly heated up later in the week. I love to do this on a weekend when I find myself having more time and cooking gives me a break from university work and I get a yummy meal at the end of it. There are also some much quicker meals that you can make that are easy to do of an evening for example; Fajitas, pasta dishes and marinated chicken. The marinated chicken does need some preparation so leave it in the marinade in the fridge while you go out or get stuff done in the house and come back and cook it whenever you’re ready.
But what if I’ve never cooked before?
Everyone has to start somewhere! Look for recipes that don’t look too out your comfort zone to begin with. A lot of websites will help you with that by rating the recipes on difficulty, if you are just starting out go for something marked easy and then work your way up as you become more skilled. One of the best things about getting more confident is that you can change up the recipes to suit your tastes and add new flavours. It is important not to be disheartened if things go wrong, that’s just part of the process, I have defiantly had a few kitchen fails myself.
Finding your favourite recipes
This is the fun part. I love looking for new recipes to try, you might first want to think about your favourite dish. Whatever it is type it into google and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of recipes showing you how to make it. You can also look on Pinterest I have a board especially for recipes I want to trying at some point. You can always ask friends for recommendations; that way you know they have been tried and tested. You could even cook this together; I love when my housemates and I have meals together at uni as it means we all get to sit down and enjoy a home cooked meal together. I will also be recommending my favourite recipes in later blog posts so look out for that!
The most important thing about cooking is to enjoy yourself. You’re learning a new skill that will come in handy for the rest of your life. So, give it a go and learn from your mistakes.
Eden Emily Blogs 