Food post!

[zinnith]

This post brought to you by instant noodles!

See, I do my best to eat as healthy as my budget allows (damn you, fresh vegetables, why must you cost a fortune?) but now and then, especially by the end of the month when money is tight, I revert to my old student eating habits, i.e. cheap, filling food. It reminds me of the days when I only owned two glasses, two plates, and a coffee mug, and tried my very best to come up with tasty dishes that didn't cost anything because I spent all my money on more important things (books and beer). This one was a favourite! I wouldn't eat it every night like I did back in uni, but today I found that I had all the ingredients home and decided to make it.

Noodle soup for one
1 packet of shrimp-flavoured instant noodles
1/2 dl shrimps
1/2 dl frozen vegetables (I prefer corn, peas and red pepper)
curry powder
pepper powder
sweet chili sauce
salt and pepper

Prepare the noodles, without the flavouring. Heat vegetables, shrimp, spices and shrimp flavouring in a pan with a little butter until slightly soggy. Add the shrimp mix into the noodles. Delicious soup!


Do you have any nostalgia food like that? The first food you cooked for yourself when you moved away from home? Food your parents would be horrified if they'd known you were eating practically every day? Pure comfort food, food that brings out memories!

Comments

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Cheese sauce on toast.

You make a white sauce base (a couple of tbsp flour mixed in to melted butter in a saucepan, gradually adding a cup of milk while you stir and mash out the lumps).

Once you have the white sauce, you add a cup of shredded cheddar, stirring it in as it melts. Pour the whole thing over two slices of toast and cut into squares. Heaven!

You made me smile thinking of this!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful! And it also reminds me of another of my comfort foods - microwaved cheese sandwiches with more cheese than sandwich, tomato ketchup and oregano :)

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, all of that is off limits for me at the moment, maybe forever. At least I still can eat mashed potatoes!

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Mashed potatoes are very yummy :) Did you get any answers from the tests? It mush be so frustrating!

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

I have as yet to undergo endoscopy and colonscopy, which is scheduled for early next month (right after my b-day, which is a little depressing :-)

I was doing much better on a gluten-free diet and I thought I had nailed the problem down, only last week I had a day in which I was not as careful as I'd been before and had a little set-back. No big deal at the time, and I took it to be a reminder to be more careful in the future.

Only I haven't reset yet. :-( And things that I seemed to be able to eat okay in the past are making me queasy and uncomfortable now. My best bet seems to be to eat almost nothing all day long and then a reasonable meat and vegetable kind of meal in the evening. This is impacting on me in so many ways, in how I feel, in time management and financially too. The irony of it is that my on-the-go lifestyle probably set me up for this, but it is my on-the-go lifestyle that is making it hard to change.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

I've worked enough with special dietary needs to know how much it can suck, especially in the transition phase before you've learned exactly what you can eat and when you can eat it. Not to mention how hard it it to adapt when you develop food allergies and sensitivities as an adult! It's a whole lifetime's knowledge about eating that you suddenly have to re-learn.

I so hope that you get some answers soon!

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. At the moment, nothing seems to make much sense. I'm just trying to be careful, not eat too much at one time, and pay attention to what really doesn't seem to work, but there is no clear cut pattern to it anymore. *sigh* Oh well, only a couple of weeks before the workup now.

[anyanka-eg.livejournal.com]

Tell you what's fab, a can of chicken soup with a teaspoon of curry paste stirred in. Yum.

Oh, and I'll dig out a fabulous recipe for a soup made of chicken stock, cabbage, bread and cheese. Really good and hearty.

Now, to possibly help with the cheap eating stuff, try this book if you can get hold of a copy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paupers-Cookbook-Jocasta-Innes/dp/0711222401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277148613&sr=8-1. I've got an ancient copy but there seems to be a new one out. It's got a lot of stuff about planning food for the week and some good recipes for comforting food.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

I find that most canned food can taste surprisingly good if you just add some spices! I have a great recipe for pasta sauce that's all canned ingredients - just a can of tuna, a can of mushrooms, a can of tomatoes, and some salt and pepper and oregano and then you can add fresh or frozen vegetables if you have them.

I'll have to take a look at that book! I had something similar when I moved away from home, it was called 'Matbok för fattig gourmet' or something similar. Little brother will probably go to uni in the autumn and that would be an excellent house-warming gift :)

[anyanka-eg.livejournal.com]

Forgot to reply to this. Bugger.

The book maybe a bit too advanced for the first time cook. He might be a bit baffled by some of the recipes if he's not used to cooking for himself already. Also, quite orientated towards a family so takes a bit of adapting that might be beyond a first time away from home person.

Try this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nosh-Students-Student-Cookbook-previous/dp/0954317939/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277925312&sr=8-5 as it's along the same vein but for students.

Actually, we could write on and get it done on Lulu or some other site. We could ask everyone for their favourite student type recipe, write them up and give them to him.