Guest Post: HANNAH'S STUDENT FOOD

as I am currently busy getting used to uni, I have found some lovely guest bloggers to take over for me until I'm all settled. today's guest blogger is Hannah who blogs over at Heart Of Cake, she's one of the loveliest people and she loves food just as much as I do, I'm really happy to have her on my blog today and she's created a brilliant post.

Hi I'm Hannah from theheartofcake.com  Guest Posting for Magdalena whilst she's moving over to Manchester to start life as a brilliant little student! As she'll be moving to a new country and becoming a student I thought I'd do a student inspired recipe post! So, hope you all enjoy!

As a student, it can be really hard to eat well, on a budget with healthy nutritious food. When I was a student I used to rely on the same food day in day out because it was easier, but it got boring really quickly! So, I thought I would share a few of my favourite budget student eats. This are recipes that I still use all the time, plus they make sure you get plenty of fresh healthy food in your diet!

Breakfast

Muesli & Fruit Greek Yoghurt.

• 3 tablespoons of 0% fat Greek Yoghurt
• 3 tablespoons on muesli (I love Dorset cereals simply nutty)
• a handful of any of your favourite fruit

This is a really simple breakfast. All you need to do it put your yoghurt and muesli into your bowl and let it sit for a minute or two. I like to do this to soften my muesli, but if you like it crunchy, just serve it straight away. Then just add your fruit. Simple! :)

Lunch

Leek & Potato Soup

• 2 medium sized leeks
• 6 medium sized potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 1 vegetable stock cube

This recipe is another really easy and simple, delicious meal. The quantities make quite a bit of soup so it can last over a couple of days, can be shared with friends or frozen. Firstly, dice the leeks and onion and fry in a pan with a little butter, just until they are softened. Chop the potatoes up roughly, if you have some bigger ones and smaller ones it doesn't matter as it gives the soup some texture. Add the potatoes and stock cube. Add enough water to the pan to cover the potatoes and leave on a low boil for 40 minutes. Keep adding water if the soup looks like it's drying out. Make sure to add plenty of salt and pepper, and if you have a hand blender (I think they're a necessity as a student because they're great for making soups, salad dressings and smoothies) whizz up the soup until it gets to a nice thick consistency.

Dinner

Fridge Spaghetti Bolognese

• 1 pack of lean mince (around 350-400g)
• a pack of cherry tomatoes
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic
• a few basil leaves
• 1 stock cube
• 1 large onion
• any vegetables that are in your fridge (peppers, tomatoes, courgette..)
• spaghetti

I love a good spaghetti bolognese, it's a really warming food and perfect when you need a good feed! I'm not a fan of the pre-made sauces as they tend to be full of salt and sugar and can taste really overly sweet. It's so simple to make a sauce from scratch and it's also much healthier and tastier than the jarred stuff. I make this spag bol when I have veg in my fridge that need using up, when they're cooked down in the tomato sauce, you can't tell that there's tons of different veg in there, it just makes a really delicious sauce (it's also really great for getting veg into fussy kids).

To start fry the mince until browned then remove from the pan, I like to take it out so it doesn't all cook away when making the sauce. To the same pan, add the diced onion and fry until softened. add the garlic, cherry tomatoes and other veg and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes, plenty of salt and a little sprinkle of sugar and leave to cook for a good hour. Keep adding water to keep the sauce nice and runny. If you have some in and fancy making the dish a bit more adult, add a splash of red wine.

 Once everything has softened, get the hand blender out again and whizz up the sauce until it gets to a really nice smooth consistency. Add the mince back in to the sauce and leave to heat up again for another 10 minutes. Serve with spaghetti and some fresh garlic bread!

Enjoy! Hannah x

thank you very much for your post Hannah, I hope you all enjoyed this post, make sure to check out Hannah's blog over at Heart Of Cake, you can also find her on twitter here.