The lazy student’s guide to making food easy
If you’re living at college or moved out of home, cooking can be a chore at the end of a long day. Feeling too busy to cook your own meals or just simply too lazy to do it? Don’t fret, this lazy student’s guide to making your meals easy is here to save your ass.
One-pot meals
Most of us enjoy the process of cooking a meal, but not so much the preparation of ingredients prior or the horrible amount of plates and pans to wash up after. Just throw everything into one pot to avoid the stack up of dishes later.
Whether it's fried rice or pasta, one pot meals can save you the trouble of doing too many dishes. Have a look online for recipes to get more creative with casseroles, stews or pilafs if you feel like shaking things up from the usual.
Microwave EVERYTHING
Microwave does wonders to heat up food or even cook meals. Defrosting and steaming (with a bowl of water underneath your plate of food) works just as well, as frozen fish or chicken will easily soften and that way you don't have to wait hours before your meat defrosts.
Popcorn, potatoes and cheese can also turn out perfectly after a spin in the microwave. And when it comes to dessert, mug cakes couldn’t be easier. Just make sure the dish you use is microwave-safe!
Hard boil multiple eggs
This is a super easy one. Just hard boil your eggs on Sunday, remove the shell and store them in an air tight container and pop them into the refrigerator. A protein-rich breakfast is settled for the next three days, at least.
Avoid food waste
If you are not a big fan of eating leftovers, prep your ingredients with the right amount a couple nights before to make things easier when you begin cooking.
It’s easy to fumble around your kitchen and make a mess when you’re trying to measure the right proportions of ingredients. But your culinary journey as a student need not be messy nor wasteful.
Note: Don’t forget to label when you packed your items, just in case you forget and cook up expired food.
Cook with a rice cooker
There’s so much you can cook in a rice cooker other than rice. Steamed cakes, porridge (Asian style), Mung Bean Soup and Barley. Get creative, there’s probably a lot more you can do with these amazing machines!
Homemade thin-crust pizzas
Pizza cravings past midnight is no joke, especially over public holidays where there is nowhere open apart from 24 hour fast food. You will only need wraps, pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese and a meat of your choice. Spread pasta sauce over your wrap, do whatever you want with cheese and meat and pop them into the oven for a quick bake. So easy!
Freeze your bread
Large loaves of bread that you can’t finish should be put straight into the freezer when you purchase them. Drop them into your toaster with the defrost setting to avoid burning your toast.
Split and freeze meat
Grocery stores often only have packets of 500g of meat, making it difficult to avoid wastage if you’re just cooking for one. Solution: Split meat into individual packs of 100g or the amount required for each meal and freeze.
Benefits: You get to measure the right proportion of food you want to cook and can prevent bacteria growth when defrosting too much and placing the remaining amount back in the freezer again.
Share your groceries with friends
Those special offers for large quantities of meat and snacks when grocery stores clear stock can seem attractive, but you definitely cannot finish that amount on your own.
If you share half of the groceries with your friends, you can avoid overspending or food waste, killing two birds with one stone for fresh food too.
Cynthia Voon
Cynthia is currently a final year Communications and media student at The University of Western Australia, juggling a second major in Management.