Student eating

So if you're anything like me, feeding yourself rather than relying on your mum to have something ready for you, is something that uses up a lot of energy.

I remember as a fresher I was starving all the time for the first couple of weeks as I adjusted to my new way of life.  I nailed one meal, egg fried rice and veg; boy nothing had ever tasted so good, and I ate huge portions.

Now I'm not going in from scratch second time round, I kinda remember what meals I made last year. But this year for 3 days of the week I'm out through lunch and dinner, the new challenge is making healthy pack-meals.

And although last year I was eating fairly healthily with a fridge filled with lots of veg, none of my food tasted that good. It was mostly cooked veg in a tomato sauce. This year I'm looking to improve my seasoning abilities. I've just been looking through my copy of "River Cottage Veg everyday" the only cookbook I own, but so many of the meals need fancy (and expensive when added up) herbs or spices that if I purchased I'd probably not use again.

So I thought I'd compile a list of cheap seasoning items that help add spice to student cooking!

Firstly, herb du provence - several herbs already mixed up for you to create this yummy flavour. Perfect for seasoning tomato sauces or any kinda sauce really.

Salt and Pepper - pretty standard, but I didn't bother with these first year: note to self, they do make a difference if you want to up your pazazz.

Mayonnaise - bit of a random one, but throw in a tad of this to a salad and it can make it twice as good. Plus be healthy by making egg or tuna mayo pitta bread/sandwiches or a coleslaw. For todays lunch I mixed the two up and had a coleslaw and egg mayo pitta bread! YUM!

Pesto - the student saviour! (only if you like pesto though of course!) Pesto can make almost the worse meal taste good. It goes with a hell of a lot of vegetables, pasta and rice. I always make sure I have some of this in stock, my favourite is tomato.

That's all I've got so far, but I'll add to this as I go forth on my venture!