Tis' the season

I haven't been posting much recently. Been so so busy with working (yes, I got a job), preparing everyone's Christmas presents and UCAS. UCAS is probably one of the most stressful things I have ever done, and I just want it all to be over with.
Since I got a job, I have been slowly earning money so I can afford to actually eat properly again. I must say, I have been getting better at cooking even though the £3 meal deal from Boots is always appealing.
One meal which I did cook for me and my flatmate was a spaghetti Carbonara. It was really easy to make. Because I am a student and no where near to the standard of Nigella Lawson (hero,btw), I did use a few cheat tips which made this meal really simple to cook and not going to lie, it tasted not too bad.
Basically, all you need is spaghetti pasta which you can get for around a £1 at any good supermarket (the value stuff, obviously), pancetta bacon which you can buy in packets for reasonably cheap, and a carbonara sauce which I got in the reduced section of Sainsbury's for £1.30. I also bought some chicken to throw in there because I was going all out.
And well the method is as follows- boil a pan of water with some added salt, then add in the pasta for around 10-12 minutes. As the pasta is cooking away, pan fry the pancetta and chicken until cooked. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it out and add in the sauce and the meat and give it a good wee mix.

LITERALLY THAT EASY. Not going to lie, I may of burnt the first batch of pasta and it all stuck to the pan, but second time round I got there in the end and did not receive any criticism from my grumpy as hell flatmate. Maybe one day I will learn to cook my own sauce, but for now I am sticking to the ready made stuff.
Mum also called me recently and asked if I wanted to help make the Christmas Day dinner. God help us all.

Still Poor

I haven't been posting anything recently due to the fact that what I have been eating isn't even worthy of a photo. The whole living off £2.70 a day is really awful and I'm sure other students can relate to me on this.

My diet recently has been one meal a day...:'(. Yesterday I pushed the boat out though and decided to have 2 bananas and a pasta salad from Sainsburys.

I think I know what the problem is. How expensive everything is in Aberdeen.

I mean healthy food isn't cheap as it is, but when you're paying £7 for two pieces of meat is actually sickening. I would rather eat my own arm that pay that. Well actually I can't even afford to pay that so maybe eating my arm is an option.

I did start a new job recently though so m y income will slowly but surely become more sustainable again, and I will be able to eat proper meals.

I was on my last £2 for last week and I decided to go crazy and buy a sausage supper from the takeaway below my flat. Safe to say the picture makes it look better than it was. I will not be eating one of them any time soon. 

Boke.

Student life has hit me hard

Okay so I have been living off £2.70 a day and I have to do so until the beginning of next month. Student life has hit me hard, and yet I am constantly hungry!? Typical. 

I had a rake around my cupboards and tried to throw some ingredients together to cure my hunger. All I seemed to have was some frozen chicken and dry pasta. Great. But I then realised I could easy get some pasta sauce and throw it all together!

So I went to my trusty Sainsburys and had a look. I bought some pasta bake sauce, which only cost £1!! 

I followed the ingredients on the jar and all I had to do was put dry pasta into a tray and add the sauce. Cook that for 25 minutes then add the chicken and some cheese on top for a further 25 minutes. So simple right!? Well no. I cooked this all to the exact time and by this point I was so hungry I resulted to eating collecters edition chocolates from Harry Potter world. 

So I took the bake out the oven and it looked so so tasty.

Until I actually tried it. Turns out about half of the pasta was still uncooked and the sauce tasted awful. 

WHERE DID I GO WRONG!? 

But because I was so hungry, I ate half of it. I think half of my teeth are also cracked from the pasta. Safe to say I won't be attempting to cook that any time soon...

Gemma-0 Student life-1 

Mexican mexico mexican

I was feeling very Mexican the other day, and had a MASSIVE craving for something spicy, so I decided to head to Sainsbury's to find something that would satisfy my appetite. Walking aimlessly down the isles I came across an Old El Paso Fajita kit. So I just went for it.
I bought the kit, and all I needed to buy extra was some chicken, peppers and an onion. I had some salsa and guacamole in the cupboard at home so didn't need to worry about that. The total price came to £6.54 which was very good, as this kit fed up to 5 people.
I was home visiting at the time so took it upon myself to agree to cook for my family that night (risky move).

The method was so simple, first I had to cut the chicken into strips, along with the peppers and onions. Then I simply heated up a wok type pan and added some oil and put the chicken in until it was browned off. I got a bit confused at first as I had no idea how brown it was meant to be. 

After that, I added the peppers and the spice which was included in the fajita kit. That was then cooked for around 10-15 minutes more, just to ensure the chicken was properly cooked and I wouldn't give my family food poisoning. I then switched the hob off, and put the tortillas (which were also included in the kit), in the microwave for 30 seconds until warm.

And voila, that is basically all you have to do to make fajitas. It was literally so simple and all prepared and ready in under half an hour.
And I can comment that all my family enjoyed their dinner that night. Even though if they felt like they needed to say that. Mother was constantly keeping her hawk eyes on me so I wouldn't make a mess of her cooker.
So there, for under a tenner you can make fajitas for yourself and your family. (Only problem, you feel obliged to do the dishes afterwards)

 

This is going to be a disaster.

Okay so the whole point of this blog is to excite you all with my grand cooking skills, well that is the plan anyway.
I thought I would try something outside the box, and didn't want to do the usual girly blog such as make up or fashion.
Being a student in the heart of Aberdeen, everywhere is expensive. So the aim of this blog is to show you that it is possible to create great tasting meals on a budget.
This will hopefully gain me more knowledge and food, and not only that but vital skills which could be very important for the future.

I will be cooking meals with a brief tutorial on how I did it, and also pictures of the end products. Even if they turn out good or bad, they will still be on here!