Freshers Food for Thought
It has to be said that one of the only draw backs- and there aren’t many- of flying the nest and moving into halls, is the lack of truly nourishing and flavoursome meals. There’s only so long you can convince yourself that the herb pieces in you chicken super noodles counts as one of your five a day and pasta and pesto gets old after the first ten meals. However, us girls at Her Campus also know that the last thing on your mind is actually using that student cookbook your auntie bought you, besides, food is expensive and the Jager Bombs don’t buy themselves…
Her Campus is here to help and this article has a couple of easy recipes which will not only be fairly nutritious and contain- wait for it- a REAL vegetable, but also won’t break the bank, are pretty fool proof and are great for the post Institute hang.
It’s probably only right to start with the biggest student staple of all- Pasta. Pasta is like the mum you don’t have at Uni. It doesn’t need any special fridge treatment, no one ever has looked for it’s sell by date and in ten minutes it is right in front of you to make you feel oh so much better. There are thousands of shop bought sauces you can pick up for the days when anything more than putting water on the hob seems like too much brain work, but this recipe is also super easy and will honestly taste much better than anything that comes from a jar.
All you’re going to need is…
1 grated Courgette
Broad Beans
Spaghetti
Cream Cheese
Chilli Flakes
Salt and Pepper
½ lemon
Most of these ingredients are staples that are must have fridge and cupboard fillers. Although chilli flakes are something you are less likely to have kicking about, I promise they are so handy to have. They spice up- pun intended- any boring meal, these bad boys are a student necessity.
First things first, boil up the pasta on the hob with a sprinkle of salt and a slosh of oil. Whilst the pasta cooks, fry the grated courgettes and chopped broad beans in a pan for a couple of minutes with ½ teaspoon of chilli flakes- careful here- less is more. Next squeeze the lemon juice and grate the zest of the lemon into the frying pan. Season with some salt and pepper and finally dollop in the cream cheese and mix. All that’s left to do is take the pan off the heat and add the spaghetti and mix it all together- and eat!
So now you have a yummy filling dinner, you need something sweet to take the edge off- so cake is the obvious way forward here. And to make you feel a whole lot better about making a delicious chocolate cake, it’s only right you throw in some of the left over courgette from your main. Yes, vegetables in cake may sound insane and a cardinal cake sin, but it is the best addition to keep the cake moist- worst word ever- and gooey and delicious. The first time you buy all these ingredients it can seem like you could have bought five shop bought cakes for the same price but trust me, this will be so much more satisfying and tasty. Plus once you have the ingredients you can make many, many more tasty treats as you just need a little of everything. Without further ado…
The Creamy Chocolatey Gooey Goodness Courgette Cake
You will need…
350g self-raising flour (1 and 1/2 cups)
50g cocoa powder (1/5 cup)
1 tsp mixed spice
175ml of olive oil
375g golden caster sugar (1 and 3/4 cups)
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 medium grated courgettes
And for the icing…
200g of dark chocolate
100ml double cream
First, heat your oven to 180c or 160c fan or gas 4, depending on how safe your rickety halls oven is. In a big bowl or large or pan or whatever you have, mix the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and 1 tsp salt.
In another bowl, mix the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and grated courgette. Next you have to –wait for it- mix the two together!
All that’s left to do is line a 24cm cake tin (or as close to that as you have) with greaseproof paper or butter then pour in your mixture. Throw it into the oven for about 40-50 mins, or until the knife you have been frantically stabbing the middle with for ten minutes now, comes out clean. You really should cool it in the tin for 10 mins and then turn out onto a wire rack (or anywhere) to cool, but I know it can be hard to not tuck in straight away– just try your best.
As for the icing, your best bet is to bring the cream to the boil in a pan and then pour it over your broken up chocolate in a bowl and stir until it completely melts. Leave it for a little while- try not to eat it all with the spoon- so it can harden a bit and then spread it over the top of the cake. You can also cut your cake in half if it rises lots and put some more icing in the middle, or go crazy and whip up some creamy frosting- the world is your oyster!
So, there you have it, two simple recipes that will not only be extremely yummy first time round, but you can hopefully make again and again and even use them as a basis to experiment and make up your own recipes. I will leave you with some wise words from our old pal Audrey Hepburn, “Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.”