Cooking for dummies: How to cook for yourself as a Newcastle student

Cooking at uni can be really difficult. Trying to come up with new recipes, buying cheap ingredients and finding the time to cook are all issues we battle on the daily. More often than not this results in a ridiculous amount of Deliveroo orders each week and you fast becoming on a first name basis with your Domino’s delivery driver. Lots of us love the idea of cooking in theory, but lack the inspiration. Luckily we’ve a few hacks to help with this lack of time, inspiration and funding …

Meal prepping

Meal prepping doesn’t just have to be for tracking your food, it’s actually a really great hack that makes cooking much simpler. Buying in bulk and batch cooking recipes can really cut the cost of food, especially if you don’t mind eating your favourite meal a few times in a week. You can also freeze a few portions so that you don’t have to eat four nights in a row. Some meals you could prepare in advance include chilli, stir fry, curries and even pasta. To save freezer space you could also consider keeping meals in zip lock bags rather than bulky Tupperware.

Where to shop

A great place to shop in Newcastle is Grainger Market which opens from 9am to 17:30pm, with the exception of Sundays. You’ll find the market’s local traders sell a variety of fresh fruits, veg and local meat and often for really cheap prices. An added bonus of visiting Grainger Market is the amazing street food stands you can stop off at on the way, from the greek street food at Acropolis to Chinese dumplings at Dumpling and Bun. Alternatively, choosing to do an online shop can be another good option as it’s easier to see the best deals and you don’t even have to leave the house. Asda is usually pretty cheap but you can also get delivery from Tesco. Uber Eats also have some really good deals on supermarket shopping deliveries!

Cooking with your housemates

A really fun way of motivating yourself to cook can be doing it with other people. You could even go all out and cook a massive brunch together, especially after a heavy night, or alternatively celebrate holidays with a nice home cooked meal. Why not begin with Friendsgiving or a Christmas meal as a house? If these seem slightly beyond your capabilities you could take inspiration from TikTok and put together a board night, see below a themed evening compromised of cheeses, meats, bread and obviously a bottle of wine.

Store cupboard

If you’re trying to reduce the price of your meals then the easiest way is usually to incorporate as many store cupboard ingredients into your dishes as possible; tinned fruit and veg and grains such as rice or pasta are great alternatives to fresh. You can really load up on these essentials as well seeing as they won’t take up the limited fridge and freezer space uni houses and accommodation often struggle with. Frozen veg is also a great swap to save money.

Try new meals

Make cooking interesting rather than a chore by trying new dishes. You can try out recipe boxes like Mindful Chef or Hello Fresh, which take away the stress of coming up with new recipes and buying loads of random ingredients that you’re likely to never use again. Or you can check out new recipes on websites such as BBC Good Food, Mob Kitchen and Jane’s Patisserie (which is an especially great one for bakers).

Too Good To Go

Hopefully the tips above might encourage you to cook more and help you to enjoy it, but if you are still wanting to pick up meals while you’re out then Too Good To Go is a brilliant scheme that’s worth mentioning. The app allows you to pay a small amount for a ‘magic bag’ of food that would otherwise go to waste from cafes and restaurants close to you. It’s a great way to get cheap food from places like Yo! Sushi, Starbucks and Urban Green Cafe, saves you money and massively reduces waste in the process. It’s an ultimate win-win.

Cooking at uni really doesn’t have to be dull and once you find a routine that works for you, can actually be enjoyable. But we won’t blame you if you still resort to your comfort pesto pasta a few times each week.

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