As a college student, it’s hard to have the motivation to cook a good home meal. With classes and bills we have to pay, it makes sense to eat out every night, right? Wrong.
Look, I get it, it’s tough to make time in between your busy schedule to cook a meal, but trust me, once you get in that habit of cooking your own meals, not only will you see a significate increase of your motivation, you save money as well.
Instead of going out to McDonalds, make pasta at home.
I had the chance to sit down with Patrick Hersey, the coordinator of the culinary program at Fanshawe College, and he tells us some tips for college students that want to start cooking at home.
“Remember that the kitchen is not a scary place, you know, sometimes it’s a little bit intimidating, you know, but cooking can actually be a lot of fun. And obviously, having the right tools and equipment is going to determine what that experience is going to be like not to mention the outcome. So I think you have to be realistic, and you just have to cook within your means, you know, so if you’re very limited in space, if you only have a microwave or a hot plate, try to try to find recipes that can be prepared using those tools”
Patrick’s biggest advice for those that want to start cooking for themselves is to always stock up. Have extra of everything.
“I think stocking up on staples, and just kind of being more strategic about it. So for example, you know, you might look at a recipe, you think, oh, I want to make this, but I don’t have this ingredient, or I don’t have that ingredients. So start building your pantry items. And you know, maybe each week buy something different. So buy a little bag of basil, or buy a couple of cans of tomato paste, if you’d like to make tomato sauce or something. And by including those things, sort of on a regular basis, then it’ll ensure that you’ll have the ingredients that you would need to to make whatever you want. Because that’s often a limiting factor as well, not having the ingredients or having to go out and spend a ton of money every time.”
You can even get fancy with your food. Say you are making Roman, throw in an egg, some good spices and bam, you got yourself a five star home cooked meal. There are countless of tutorials on YouTube to make a mean meal, or cook books you can read.
I’ve always said, if you can read, you can cook.
Just keep an open mind when cooking at home. Make it special, make it you.
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