Here are five foodie tips to get you through the colder months as a Liverpool student

Let’s face it, we’re swamped with uni deadlines again, and winter is right around the corner. The dark nights are pulling in, your housemates are finally getting sick of pesto pasta, and all we want to do is rot in bed with a blanket on and watch a cosy film.

With zero energy at this time of year, the best thing seems to be to grab a quick meal and get back to rotting. Don’t get me wrong – give yourself at least one day a week to do this, we are students after all. But eating pot noodles every lunchtime is not going to help us either.

We’ve also all been caught out with a spur of the moment night out we did not have planned, and all of a sudden we don’t have time to cook that mince that needs using up by today’s date…

Here’s a few solutions to save your pennies, limit food waste, make you feel a little less like rotting forever – and still have time to get ready for your night out.

1. Plan your meals at the start of each week

If you can, spend half an hour on a Sunday writing out a rough menu for the week before you go shopping. Once you’ve got the meals you know you are going to eat, it makes it a lot easier to know what to buy. And you can save yourself walking around Aldi, Lidl or Asda aimlessly, while trying to figure out on the spot if you need another onion or jar of pesto (although, let’s be honest, a jar of pesto will never go to waste).

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2. Keep some cupboard essentials in

Whilst making a menu for most days of the week is super helpful, it can be really hard to plan every single meal for every single day. Working out what to have for lunch every day has become the bane of my life, especially in between lectures, napping and working out when to finally wash your hair – this tends to take up a fair amount of my time, I won’t lie to you. I find what helps is buying a few versatile bits that will keep for a fair few days. This way, I know there will be something in the cupboard or fridge for that day when I’m hungry but “I don’t know what I fancy”.

3. Try and keep a balanced diet as best you can

We all need a Krunchy’s or Gourmet Grill after a night out sometimes, but try and make sure the next day you get some veggies in. It’s super easy to get into the cycle of eating a not so balanced diet, feeling rubbish and then craving to eat more – because we feel rubbish. I won’t pretend I have an in-depth knowledge of nutrition, but as long as we make sure we’ve got a decent balance of all the food groups, I feel we’re definitely on the right track. I find stir fry is a really good way to get lots of veg in – an 85p stir fry mix from the supermarket and you’re away!

4. Have some emergency pre-night out freezer meals

If you know there are some potential nights out on the cards in your week, try and plan meals which can be easily frozen and defrosted – this one will save you cooking a whole meal and trying to choose your outfit at the same time. It will also help limit your food waste, as well as making sure you’ve got something decent to eat on your hangover. For example, block out an hour of a day to batch cook a bolognese and freeze it into a few portions. This is super easy to defrost on a day you know you won’t have time to cook. For a bit of variety, you could then turn this into a chilli, or even a burrito for some ‘same but different’ meals throughout the week. My favourite veggie dish to freeze is a sweet potato and spinach curry: cheap, easy and great to defrost when needed!

5. Romanticise your cooking!

Cooking in a uni kitchen is less than ideal when it comes to aesthetics, but try and romanticise it as best you can – put your headphones on and try and channel your sometimes ‘clean girl’ vibes while making your food. Listen to a podcast, get into your pyjamas and get chopping. You can even branch out, try making the infamous viral vodka pasta, or buddy up with your flatmates and friends to cook a family-style meal for the night.

Trust me, the pesto pasta withdrawals will hit you after a few days, but you’re strong enough to fight through the winter and cook up a storm in your accommodation kitchen. See that rotten pumpkin on the side from Halloween weekend? Pumpkin soup. Sorted.