Charlotte – Nichole

Is there anything better than being a student and able to make your own food?

No!!

But, it can be a little daunting, plus energising to think about cooking after a long day, or late evening on the lash, but don’t worry, here’s a couple of easy peasy recipes to whack out when you’re not too fussed for slogging in the kitchen.

P.s – if you’re a lazy lass like me, but not at uni, these are super useful too!
Pesto Spinach Pasta 

You’ll need: 
Pasta
Olive Oil
Spinach
Pine Nuts
Green Pesto
Cheese
Tomatoes

1. Boil some water in a pan.
2. Once boiling, add your pasta and cook for 10mins
3. Once cooked, drain and add back into pan.
4. Add a teaspoon of Pesto, handful of spinach and a teaspoon of olive oil.
5. Mix well on a low heat.
6. Once combined, serve with pine nuts, tomato and cheese

Topped Hot Dogs 
Delish and super easy. I like to top our hot dogs with anything I have floating around, but a personal favourite is chorizo and bacon topped hot dogs. Here’s how:

You’ll need: 
American style hot dogs, tinned, in brine
Spanish Chorizo
Onion
Bacon Lardons
Hot Dog Rolls

1. Dice your onion and chorizo into small chunks
2. Put a frying pan onto the hob and pour a small helping of olive oil.
3. Fry you chorizo, onion and bacon lardons in the pan. 
4. Season with salt and pepper. 
5. Lower the heat and pre-heat your hot dogs in another saucepan 
6. Once cooked, serve your hot dogs in the buns and garnish with chorizo, onion and bacon. 
7. Add your choose sauce – ketchup is a must!!

Chorizo Gnocchi 
If you’ve never had Gnocchi, you need to give it a go. Weird looking and feel but my oh my it’s delish and speedy to cook. Once again, this is a dish you can add pretty much anything into and will work out just fine. I like to grab whatever I have left veg wise and bung it in with a meat like chorizo or bacon.

Here’s my go-to Gnocchi recipe.

You’ll need: 
Packet of Gnocchi
Pepper (Any colour)
Onion
Leek
Mushroom
Tomatoes
Chorizo
Garlic (I choose the squeazy tube)
Tomato Pasta Sauce

1. Dice your veg into small chunks. 
2. Dice your chorizo into small slices. 
3. In a frying pan, heat up a table spoon of oil and add your garlic. 
4. Chuck in your Chorizo and allow to brown. 
5. In a small saucepan, boil water. 
6. Once your chorizo is brown, pop in and fry your veg. 
7. Add your Gnocchi into boiling water. 
8. Reduce the heat on your veg and chorizo. Add in your desired pasta sauce. 
9. Once your ghnocchi has risen to the surface of the water, drain and add into pasta sauce mix. 
10. Combine well and serve! 

Loaded Nachos 
I frickin love Mexican. Anything with salsa and guacamole and lots of flavour and I’m on it! But sometimes, just sometimes I really can’t be asked to make fajitas, despite being bloody simple and really rather quick.
But when I’m lazy, which is most of the time, and wanting something with plenty of flavour that I can just stick in the oven, this is the meal!

Loaded nachos with mountains of cheese, salsa, meat of some sort and all the topping you can think of! Here’s my little recipe for you to try.

You’ll need: 

Salted tortilla chips
Cheese
Salsa
Cooked meat – Chicken (fav), Mince, Bacon (also fav & usually occupancies chicken)
Guacamole
Sour Cream & Chive
Red Pepper

1. Grab some of your salted chips and load into a dish. 
2. Smoother on salsa and cheese. 
3. Top with your chosen meat. 
4. Repeat. 
5. Once finished, top with extra cheese.
6. Put in the oven for 10mins or until the cheese is golden.
7. Garnish with sour cream and Guacamole.

These are just a few of the easy recipes you can use at home or away at University. Cooking can be a chore, but it doesn’t have to be difficult.

food lifestyle uni life