For many students, coming to university will be the first time they have ever had to handle all their meals by themselves.
The stress of not only preparing meals but also shopping for them can be overwhelming for many newly independent students.
To help ease the stress a little, take a look at these staple items that you should always have in your cupboard and that together can form the basis of countless different meals.
Pasta and Rice
Surprising no-one, you can never go wrong with having a bag of your preferred pasta (which should be shells btw) and rice in your cupboard.
You can get a bag of each for 40p at Aldi and absolutely anything can work with absolutely anything from a simple jarred sauce to a ten-ingredient extravaganza.
Stir-in sauce and Pesto
The staple food of student kitchens for decades, pesto’s and simple stir-sauces take little to no effort to use and cost less than a pound.
As such it’s no surprise that many students eat pesto pasta several times a week.
Chickpeas
A super cheap source of protein that can bulk up most meals. Thow them into curries, salads or pastas for extra bulk or as a substitute for expensive meats. Costing less than 50p for a can you won’t find anything half as filling for that low of a price.
Tuna
Similar to chickpeas, tuna is a cheap and versatile source of protein that can sit in your cupboard for months at a time until you need them. Tuna can work in a pasta, a salad, a sandwich or even a good old baked potato. Like many of these ingredients, tunas power lies in its versatility, longevity and price.
Potatoes
Old reliable, the potato can be the most versatile vegetable there is that costs next to nothing. Able to bulk out a meal or be transformed into countless sides with minimal work, these spuds can get you out of a pinch time and time again.
With these core staples in your cupboards, cooking and meal planning should hopefully become a little bit less intimidating and a little less time consuming. If not, Dominos delivers till late.
Features Editor and Head of Podcasting.
Fourth-year Journalism and Politics student.
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