#tumeric rice

[fattributes]

Caribbean-Style Vegetable Stew

[mothtowers]

testing out the new rice cooker

[nourishcolourbites]

Chicken Curry ✨

Made with curry powder, vegetables and served with rice.

Love 🤍

IG: NourishColourBites

[morethansalad]

Pazham Pori / Indian Plantain Fritters (Vegan)

The aroma of these sweet plantain fritters frying in homes is often associated with hospitality and festivities, making Pazham Pori more than just a tasty treat—it’s a cultural tradition that brings people together.

[the-messhall]

Swahili Biryani — 😙

[nourishcolourwellness]

[mylunchisatvdinner]

Spicier than I was expecting it to be.

[wolfman-al]

I recently learned that I can spice up rice pretty awesome with tumeric.

[lynleaf]

tips for regressors with periods!

keep your socks on, little one!

our feet are our temperature regulators! if your feet are warm, your body will be much warmer <3 being warm relaxes our muscles and promotes blood flow to lessen any pain!

try to sleep in a better position!

clutch a stuffie to your chest and sleep in the fetal position to reduce pressure on your back! or you can try to loaf like a kitty cat with a pillow under your chest and stomach!

drink warm beverages!

warm water is always a go-to, but there are yummier options too!

you can try ginger/chamomile/raspberry leaf tea (add honey to sweeten) if you like, or some warm angel milk <3 you can add a little bit of tumeric to your angel milk with a dash of cinnamon and the tiniest bit of black pepper to activate it (no, you can't taste the pepper! trust me!)

oh, and this is the perfect time to drink some hot chocolate as well! (try out dark chocolate if it isn't too bitter for you!)

please eat your fruits and veggies!

carrots, oranges, apples, mangoes, broccoli, spinach, sweet potatoes, beans, peas, and lentils are some good options to incorporate into your diet! try making a yummy smoothie or adding a new veggie to your dinners <3

use a heating pad (be careful)!

you can use an electric one if you have one, but here are some more afforadable options:

- use a hot water bottle or thermos

- make a small pouch out of fabric and make sure the ends are fully glued/sewn shut! fill it with uncooked rice and secure the last opening. warm it up in the microwave for about a minute and boom! a reusuable heating pad <3

- dampen a washcloth and put it in a plastic bag. warm it in the microwave for thirty seconds and use it on top of a blanket or your shirt if it's thick enough!

- (last resort option) my laptop gets really hot when i play the sims because i have sooo many mods hehe, but i just make sure there's a barrier between my skin and the laptop and it works as a heating pad! plus, i get to play my games comfortably

overnight pads and period diapers!

i know many people dislike overnight pads because of how bulky they are, but they are a good alternative if you don't have access to or dislike diapers! they are mostly mess free and you don't have to get up often in the middle of the night! they are also really comforting if you like a little bit of padding when regressed.

period diapers are always a good option! they can be worn under flowy skirts and dresses and aren't as noticeable as other types of diapers! they are really comfy too!

warm baths!

bring in your favorite toys, your bubbliest soaps, and your favorite tunes! just make sure your bathwater isn't too hot, okay? i recommend adding a little bit of coconut oil into the water to make your skin super soft!

if you are experiencing dry skin or have eczema, try an oat bath! you can use a food processor to ground up oats so they dissolve in the water, or you can pack some oats into a clean sock/tights, tie off the end, and let it soak in the water!

[wabisabikitchen]

Coconut Ginger Rice and Lentils

From I Dream of Dinner cookbook page 209

So good and cozy !

[jjcinnajj]

🎀♡ cinna skincare routine ♡🎀

this is the ONLY routine that helped my hormonal acne, oily skin & hyperpigmentation on a budget. i love to make my masks at home bc products make me breakout and i dont wanna spend 1000$ i dont trust shit (yes girl dont be surprised to break out after using kawaii hello kitty strawberry facemasks lmfao)

EVERYDAY :

- double cleanse : any cleansing balm or oil + your everyday facewash

- toner : rice water (apply on cotton pads)

- serums : Vitamin C & Niacinamide serums are MUST HAVES. i put both morning + night

- sunscreen : SPF 50 or 70 non-oily sunscreen

- moisturizer : any light moisturizer

2-3 x A WEEK :

- regular face mask : oats & honey (apparently rice mask is amazing too i need to try it)

- hyperpigmentation face mask : tumeric powder & honey changed my mf life (yes it stains yellow, simply clean the yellow stains with a cleansing oil or balm after)

only this, here's the before after in only 2 months so far

💋

x Cannelle

[usagi-milktea]

Did not know tumeric water or milk was a thing

(I might get sick :'))

[lotusinjadewell]

Bánh xèo (sizzling pancakes), a Vietnamese dish made from rice flour, tumeric, coconut cream and other ingredients.

Credit to nai.nguyenn (Instagram).

[serpentface]

hello i would love to hear about culturally specific dishes in the blightseed setting. what do the animals taste like hows their fat content... herbs and seasonings and the trades involved perhaps..... hows the salt economy? love your setting and if you have a list of ingredients i will invent meals in my head and be well satisfied... i just love food and cooking in world building it is so important to me :-)

OK this is crazy because I had literally just cooked a Lore Friendly Meal the night before I got this ask.

Since this is a super broad question gonna default to Imperial Wardin since that's what I'm writing in right now and has the most developed food economy. (Sorry.)

This region currently dominates the eastern Inner Seas tradeway so has a very broad access to imported foods and spices, and many of its staples are not originally native to the region. Its regional cuisine is quite diverse and varied, largely owing to its status in the tradeway and a long history of immigration to the region (as well as a wide variety of native regional variations in diet).

For simplicity's sake I'm mostly going to stick to staples that are grown in-region (whether native or not) or commonly imported. Also mostly sticking to domesticated plant life, or very common and easily acquired wild plants. (Also not all these plants/herbs/spices would be 1:1 with real-world equivalents, or would be of unique variants that don't exist irl, but if they're basically the same thing I use the IRL word)

Staple base foods: maize, barley, wheat, and rice (closer to O. glaberrima than O. sativa), red yam (a yam regarded as very delicious), white yam (a hardier but poorer tasting yam, often associated with poverty), cassava, chickpeas, other legumes.

Staple vegetables (regionally varies): Cabbage, lettuce, okra, onions, garlic, chili peppers, celery, peas, kolis (a drought tolerant, cactus-like plant. Young stems are tender and edible), camiche (a tree that produces edible seedpods and young leaves).

Staple fruits: Dates, figs, pomegranates, olives, melons, apples, bitter cherries, kolis fruit, nara (a type of citrus, comparable in flavor and sourness to lime).

Widely used spices/herbs/flavorings: cumin, saffron (VERY expensive but natively grown), coriander, culantro, thyme, fennel, sage, tumeric, cardamom, ginger, firebug (an insect that is dried and crushed, provides a reddish hue and slight acidic flavor), anuje (a tree sap which is the region's most popular sweetener).

Livestock: cattle, horses (the small 3 hooved kind), hogs, ducks, geese, one domesticated species of gazelle, some camelops (rare in this region, imported), one type of small domesticated lacetor, several types of fowl.

Other meat (common wild game, or livestock raised in smaller or more localized capacities): crocodiles, gazelles, aurochs, salutachin (a meat dog breed), doves, nechoi, lacetor, hippegalga, anara (a large semi-aquatic rodent), hespiornis, unkata (a large flightless bird), ibis, pheasants, rabbits and hares, caviar ants.

(Of the fantasy game, most nechoi have a strong, lean gamey meat, but an-nechoi is fattier and milder. Lacetor is generally mild and tough (with a few very fatty cuts) and benefits from slow cooking and heavy spices. Hippegalga is lean and mildly gamey and has a nutty quality. Anara tastes like wild rabbit, but slightly fattier. Unkata kind of just tastes like turkey.)

Alcohol: Wine is very important and is consumed (mostly watered down) on a daily basis. Date wine is most common and least expensive by far; only small parts of the region are ideal for viniculture and grape wine is somewhat uncommon. Other fruit wines are common (bitter cherry and kolis fruit being most popular). A very strong liquor is produced from anuje sap, with sweeter and lower ABV versions available as a kind of dessert wine. Grain-based beers and liquors are widely available, but not as prized as fruit/anuje drinks. Mead is somewhat rare and is mostly seen as inferior to anuje.

Salt economy: this region is a dominant player in the salt trade, having a large area of salt flats and marshes in its south. Salt is widely accessible throughout the region via internal trade routes.

Fishing: The region has a huge fishing industry along its coasts and the diet in the coastal cities is enriched with seafood. Pretty much any edible sea life is eaten. (Dozens of fish species, octopus, squid, clams, urchins, oysters, scallops, crabs, lobster, shrimp, etc etc). The tiny, schooling larval form of yotici are also sometimes eaten.

There's also a 'whaling' industry for leviathans, which have very rich, blubbery meat high in iron (I guess I'd describe it as a fattier, stronger, bloodier version of alligator meat), and uhrwal, which have very tough, gamey meat and are considered an acquired taste, used specifically for delicacy dishes.

Misc lore:

Arthropods are not widely eaten in the region and have stigma as peasant or famine food. Some local exceptions are made for locusts, and the eggs of caviar ants (there is a very small industry of ant farming in Ephennos, brought by White Sea qilik immigrants).

Dogs have been used for meat in this region for hundreds of years (largely in the form of the salutachin, a breed specifically developed for meat), but the practice declined under the 3rd Burri empire (in which context it was seen as an 'unclean' food). Cultural trauma from feral dogs eating the dead (and in turn being eaten by starving civilians) during a siege-induced famine has made it specifically taboo in Godsmouth. Dog is now widely considered a famine/poverty food in most of the region, though corn-fed salutachin is still a delicacy in the city-state of Wardin.

Animals that eat human flesh are taboo to consume in most parts of the region (whether this extends to all/most predators or just obligate scavengers varies).

Eggs of skimmer gulls and ibis are considered delicacies.

The basic diet varies across the region, but a huge proportion of the established cuisine revolves around cumin, onions, and peppers for flavoring.

The majority of the diet for an average person is built on savory grain porridge and mashed legumes.

Dairy products are important to the everyday diet in the eastern 'dairy belt' of the region, but are of lesser significance elsewhere. Horsemilk and cow's milk are both common.

Maize is usually consumed after nixtamalization for greater nutritional content.

Most people (especially in the cities) do not eat meat on a regular basis, as even for self-sustaining farmers and herders, the value of livestock for milk, textiles, labor, sacrifice, and trade means that frequent slaughter is often unsustainable. Most get their everyday protein needs met with legumes, and those in coastal cities have broad access to seafood.

Animal sacrifice is vitally important to the practice of the Imperial Wardi faith, but the meat of sacrifices is not eaten (outside of a few specific rites and festivals) and is instead burned.

Khaitmeat is rarely eaten outside of desperation (or opportunistic slaughter of old/injured animals) due to their great value and a developed taboo around its consumption in some parts of the region.

Hunting is a pastime for the urban upper class and typically forbidden within the territories of the city-states without an expensive 'license' (unless one one's own lands, which also generally requires having big money). Poaching for meat in the outskirts of cities is common among the urban poor.

Hunting is a key part of the diet throughout the rural parts of the region, many rural commoners eat meat more frequently than their urban counterparts on this merit.

Some established dishes (either vaguely conceptualized, or have come up specifically in writing):

Pounded white yam and nothing else (a famine food).

Pounded white yam with whitefish and pepper soup, a hearty common meal in Godsmouth.

Savory cornmeal cakes (cornmeal cooked in vegetable broth, lard or olive oil, peppers, onions, cumin, salt, cheese, wrapped in a corn husk and cooled to be eaten on the go).

Shitty cornmeal cakes (a famine food) (cornmeal with weevils in it, you can't really get the weevils out and it's protein so might as well, salted and cooked in water).

Grain festival beef/horse stew (tough bone-in cuts slowcooked with peppers, onion, garlic, and any other available vegetables. Usually heavily spiced. The resulting broth is used to cook the grain (usually hominy, rice, or barley), the meat and vegetables are served on top, sometimes with cream or cheese).

Hominy porridge with milk and sprinkled cheese.

Wheat porridge with dried dates and anuje.

Reed duck boiled in date wine, flavored with peppers, coriander, cumin, and saffron (VERY fancy).

Pickled kolis stem bulbs.

Fermented kolis stem bulbs and cabbage.

Gannegal soup (made with bull penis, hominy, garlic, onion, cabbage, and chickpeas in a spicy broth, supposed to support fertility)

Raw hippegalga meat, thinly sliced with onion and hot pepper, all marinated and cured with nara and eaten cold atop barley or rice (also supposed to support fertility)

Anaebi soup (made with reed duck, lily bulbs, rice, and okra, supposed to support a healthy pregnancy)

Cow tripe and cabbage soup

Finely chopped meat/fish/shellfish or vegetables with onions, wrapped in dough and fried or baked.

Peledyo (A strong, heavily fermented fish sauce favored in the coastal cities (this is pretty much a garum ripoff), which is mixed with wine, vinegar, honey, etc to form the base of other sauces)

Very spicy shellfish soup with a peledyo, wine, and pepper broth.

Caviar ant eggs marinated with nara, vinegar, chopped onions and cabbage, mixed with rice.

A sweetened bean porridge made with cream and anuje.

Hummus-esque spread made with chickpeas, garlic, onion, peppers, and olive oil, usually eaten with bread.

Whole spitroasted horse

A type of root vegetable sausage (intestine casing stuffed with mashed cassava or yam, onions, garlic & cumin seeds which have been cooked down in lard, sometimes with minced meat/offal. Boiled all together.)

Blood sausage (usually horse or cattle)

A kind of donut fried in oil and then soaked in anuje and fruit syrup.

Roasted peppers and onions sauteed in heavy cream, usually served atop grain or a grain porridge.

Toasted locusts, locusts fried with rice or barley, pounded white yam stuffed with fried locust and onions (opportunistic meals during locust plagues)

Fried sprats with pepper and onion sauce

Crab stock soup with onions, peppers, crab meat or whole softshell crabs, and crab roe (sometimes with cream)

Squid ink soups (variety of seafood or seafood-stock soups, blackened by squid ink)

A simple 'trail mix' made with dried camiche seeds and hominy

Dessert bread glazed with fruit syrup or anuje, covered in dried dates

Raw minced lacetor with peledyo, garlic powder, cardamom, coriander. Used to top grains or to be eaten with pounded yam.

Thinly sliced uhrwal flank simmered with date wine and vinegar.

Fatty cuts of an-nechoi belly, usually slow cooked and eaten in soups.

Minced kolis stalk, onion, and pepper, salted and marinated with nara or vinegar

Roasted figs with cheese

Also here's the lore friendly meal I cooked, the grain festival beef stew. Here served in only the lore friendliest of dollar store paper bowls

This specific dish is eaten as a part of yearly grain festivals celebrating the end of the harvest. In most contexts it's an agricultural community event with each family contributing whatever vegetables and spices are on hand, and each donating some of their harvested grain. It's cooked in a huge pot and usually serves dozens of people.

The exact vegetable/herb/spice components would vary wildly within the region, timing, and by the success of the various harvests, but will generally be farmed (rather than foraged) due to the nature of the festival as an agricultural celebration and thanks-giving. Cumin, peppers, and onions are considered the absolute bare minimum necessity. The grain will usually be maize, barley or rice, and may be mashed into a savory porridge instead of eaten whole.

This will usually be one of few times a year where meat is eaten in abundance in the agricultural context. The meat is almost always beef or horse, usually tougher bone-in cuts are chosen for this specific dish. These animals will have been slaughtered specifically for this festival, with the best cut of meat from each being burnt in an offering of gratitude to Ganmache and Anaemache (ox-face and river-face of God, both of which are associated with agriculture and harvests), at the base of what will become the cooking fire.

The meat and vegetables are cooked on low heat in water until the meat is soft and tender and a broth is formed (which should be very strong and spicy, as it will be used to flavor the grain). Some of the broth is drained and used to cook the grain, which is then served with the meat, vegetables, and a few spoonfuls of broth on top. In the eastern dairy belt, milk/cream may be added to the broth, and/or it may be topped with crumbled cheese or sour cream. This is next to heresy in the west.

---

For my easily accessible grocery store equivalent, I used a beef shank, 2 onions, 2 jalepeños, one habanero, a bunch of garlic, okra, and cabbage. Seasoned with cumin seeds and tumeric (very lore friendly) and a sazon packet because I had it (most of the spices involved are at least passably lore friendly). Also jasmine rice (not lore friendly but it's what I had).

I first toasted cumin seeds in olive oil, then added the vegetables and stirred until they were cooked down. The meat and vegetables/spices were cooked in water on low heat for ~5 hours and seasoned to taste. Some of the broth was then removed to cook the rice. Meat + vegetables are spooned on top of the rice, along with some broth.

Results: It's preddy good. Might be a little better with roasted or sauteed rather than heavily cooked down vegetables, but the latter is how it would be eaten. I also had a sore throat at the time and ended up just drinking the rest of the broth. It felt amazing. 6.5/10.

[adviceformefromme]

Hi! Thank you for the health advice! I would love to quit or significantly reduce carbs, I also feel like it's heavy on my body, but so many meals revolve around grains (sourdough bread mostly) and I guess there's a craving aspect to it too... Could you give advice on what you're eating instead?? I have lots of eggs, fish, occasional meat, plenty of fruit, just enough veg haha but i find it hard to imagine going without carbs (or grains more specifically cos I have no prob with vege carbs). Especially in winter 😋 Thank you for any help 🙏🙏

I feel like society has normalised feeling heavy and lethargic after meals, but its amazing you have noticed this and want to change!

You may want to cut carbs gradually (no starches - breads, grains, rice, pasta, potatoes).

I would recommend looking into GI index to see what foods are high glucose, following Hormone Balancing recipes, juices etc (usually very low carb and support women's health). Listening to podcasts on microbiome, or even a tiktok search.

Introducing pre/ probiotics: I make sauerkraut (which is basically cabbage / onions in water and salt left to ferment for a few days - lots of variations on this), also just made my first batch of Kefir (I stay away from store bought Kefir as its pasturised and all the good stuff has been killed off during this process). I mention these as a healthy gut is going to support you as you remove carbs and introduce more wholesome foods.

Breakfasts:

Omlette (spinach / onion / parsley )

Scrambled eggs w/ coconut oil

Buckwheat porridge w/ blueberries (buckwheat is a seed not a grain so low glucose index)

Avocado salad (seeds, olives, rocket, tomatoes, cucumber) +tahini

Snacks:

Nuts, olives, blueberries, blackberries, watermelon

Main meals:

Veg + Protein (Broccli, kale, butternut squash, courgette, carrots, asparagus, cabagge, peppers). I do different variations of veg to mix things up, sometimes i do Chinese style stir fry, I try to add garlic and ginger as much as possible into the veg. Protein is usually grass fed steak, whole fish - seabream, sea bass, mackerel, cod fillet, wild salmon fillet, or turkey breast fillet. I make chimichurri sauce to add some extra flavour to the fish.

Protein + lentil / chicpeas dish. I have a stew a few days a week to break up the veggies because they do get boring after a while.

Bone broth. I boil the bones, and have as a little side dish with veggies but this isn't really filling enough for a main meal.

I make beetroot juice, and also watermelon juice, tumeric + ginger shots throughout the week. I try to throw in flaxseed and chia seeds where possible.

I cut coffee/ decaf all that and now only drinking fresh mint tea, slice of lemon + hot water, fresh juices (within the hour of making), and water ensuring 2l per day.

Number one thing that had to go was oats. So if you are having a morning crash I suggest cutting the carbs first thing. I know there are suggestions (glucose goddess) that fat with carbs or when you eat them (having carbs after veg can help) but personally i think its best to cut them.

I hope this helps! Its a full lifestyle change that has honestly helped so much! It's a commitments, but investing in feeling good and your health will make you feel so good and wholesome! xoxoxo

*I used the free 1 month trial of MyFitnessPal app to track my calories/ meals to ensure I was getting enough food - for some this might be extreme but super helpful to see what’s going on.

[boyjoan]

love your breakfast posting. i’m about to live somewhere where i will cook for myself for the first time ever ! do you have any advice about learning to cook and plan meals for a uni student with executive function issues (aka not great on the efficient time management front) i love food & cooking but dont yet know how to improv meals with what i have

no ask has ever . Made. Me . Happier. omg . Hi. Yes. My area of expertise!! my area of interest!! OK . This might be quite long so. Read More. Mwah!

OK YAY first of all congratulations on entering this new stage in your life!! This is gonna be soo awesome and cool and maybe sometimes hard but you are gonna grow and become stronger and cooler and more yourself and I am so excited for you!!! Here are my general tips, interspersed with resources and recipes!!! Improv comes with time, and knowing a few basics, and having a reliable store cupboard - we will cover all of this <3

1. A reliable store cupboard is One Billion times better than meal prep. Some people will tell you to meal prep. These people do not care about your happiness. I, however, care about your happiness. Meal prep results in soggy food you don't really want to eat. There are some exceptions for breakfast and lunch (we'll touch on these) but my recommendation is to cook dinner fresh. If you've had a bad enough day that you cannot fathom cooking, wet sad food will Not be the answer. Promise. So how do we cook dinner fresh, regularly, especially when our brains perhaps do not love to time manage or perform complex tasks?

My beautiful girlfriend the store cupboard. Staples that can sit on your shelf for weeks, months, years, waiting for you. If I were to build a store cupboard tomorrow here is what I would buy (adjust for preferences, allergies, and dietary requirements for all my advice ofc.)

- Rice. I like basmati or wholegrain, but the most important thing is to pick what you like and cook it according to the instructions. If you feel nervous or you get rice wrong often, I would recommend keeping 2 microwave packets of rice in the cupboard. They're long life, they come in great flavours, and can be the bulk of a meal with basically 0 effort. We want easy and fast! Microwave packets are Definitely more expensive, if you plan to eat rice more than once a week I would encourage you to become confident cooking it in a pan, or getting a little rice cooker (!) or a microwave rice steamer (we used one for years and they're pretty damn good) but have a microwave packet in back-up anyway. It doesn't get any better! Tilda lemongrass, coconut and lime is my fave.

- Pasta. Boil it on the hob. Basic uni 101. This is one of the exceptions to my hatred of meal prep, ONLY in the sense that if you cook it right, add a good sauce and such, it can be a good portable lunch if you're planning to be out all day and don't/can't grab something on the go! (See my fave pasta recipes below!)

- Seasoning. My beautiful girlfriend Seasoning. Salt and Pepper. And then it depends on the type of food you enjoy eating, but here's what I'd get!

A basic curry Powder / Smoked sweet paprika / Garam Masala (a brilliant mix of the good stuff!) / Mixed Herbs (sometimes called Herbs de Provence) /Chinese Five Spice. If you're just starting out, I think you can do really well with these, they're primarily mixed of Other Things, and a majority of recipes will ask for a combination of what's included in them (i.e. if a recipe asks for ground cumin, ground coriander, and tumeric, then garam masala will cover your bases!) (the herbs de Provence is oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary etc. brilliant in Mediterranean cooking)

- Stuff In Jars. I Love Jars and could talk forever - explore the jar aisle in your supermarket and find things that call to you! I personally really recommend ginger paste and garlic paste. Yes, fresh garlic and ginger are powerful and excellent, but the jar stuff is SO convenient and does an amazing job. But look for PASTE (not the chopped stuff stored in oil, the paste is better. Trust me.) if you do plan to buy fresh garlic, store in in a pot in your kitchen, but for fresh ginger : freeze it and grate it into stuff. Easier and makes your ginger last forever. More on freezing in a bit! But jar stuff is great for so many things. Check how long they like to be used after they've been opened as it does vary! I like to have :

Pesto / Sun-dried Tomato paste / Miso paste / Harissa paste. Pick maybe two jars that you like the sound of and start with those. Add them to pasta, add them to rice, put them in toasted sandwiches. They're quick and easy flavour and wildly reliable.

Misc. condiments and staples

- butter makes everything taste good. Cook with it for rich flavour and calorie dense food that'll keep you full and satiated all day. My top recommendations that get better with butter are eggs, quick cook cuts of meat in a pan on the hob (thinly sliced steak is a good one - I wouldn't recommend light meats like chicken or pork, as they tend to need longer to cook and it's more dangerous to undercook them, which leaves them at risk of drying out too.)

- Vinegar is actually brilliant and I like to own many vinegars but I wouldn't bother at first unless you cook a look of something that requires it i.e. Japanese and Chinese dishes love rice wine vinegar, and Mediterranean salads are brilliant with balsamic. A good expansion pack, but buying too Much for your store cupboard is as bad as buying too little - you'll be overwhelmed trying to manage it and uni accommodation rarely has the space! However, cooking is always Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. So have an acid to hand, but consider bottled lemon juice. It's more versatile and can go in most stuff. In the same way you'd taste for seasoning with salt, consider if a dish needs to be a little more rounded (you'll get a feeling for this) and chuck a dash of lemon in. If you go easy it's unlikely to make things worse and will almost always help. Alongside your standard salt I would encourage you to own soy sauce, especially if you plan to eat rice!

A good neutral oil is a winner, something you can cook with like vegetable or rapeseed would be my recommendation. Olive oil is essentially useless to you at this time unless you're buying a particularly nice one to dress salads and meats with. It has a smoke point that's basically useless for cooking and will probably set the alarms at your uni off before you've cooked anything. Don't ask how I learned that. <3

A few tins are also nice but don't go mad! Two tins of chopped tomatoes, two tins of easy vegetables, I always have sweetcorn because I eat it so much! Peas are good too. I also recommend tinned tuna, it just is very reliable. Some people may tell you to try lentils. These people want to see you fail. Lentil dishes are awesome and if you have experience with them they're great, but they can go funny quickly, take a while to cook, and tend to produce large volumes of leftovers. We are trying to avoid leftovers. My ADHD autism brain doesn't want to eat them, and gets stressed about time, money, and fridge space being wasted! Cook quick, cook once, eat fresh and hot.

So now you have your store cupboard. Yay! What do we do with it? Well we use it as our nutrition base, and add a selection of fresh stuff on top to get great flavour and good energy.

Basic meals from our store cupboard and what I would buy fresh to top them off ;

- Pasta with pesto and STUFF. Pesto pasta is a uni staple, but it's not nutritionally complete and gets boring quick. Think about what you love to eat, and ADD what you need to thrive. I add black olives (they come in a jar and last forever!) sundried tomatoes (either in paste form, in jar form or fresh from the chiller section!) and cooked shredded chicken breast. (Bacon is good too). Cooking a couple chicken breasts on Sunday and storing them airtight in the fridge will last like four days safely, and whilst you can eat it cold as a snack (which I often do) the primary thing is you can shred it and chuck it into dishes to warm through! Pre cooked meats like ham, turkey, etc (even in their wafer thin form!) are great for this. Pasta with peas and ham and a bit of cream cheese is a winner too. Think about getting a portion of veggies and some protein, but don't get too hung up about it. Food that keeps you going and tastes good is good food.

- rice! Listen I don't get along with stir fry. I never have. Maybe you do! But I don't. I prefer to cook rice, add soy sauce, egg, spring onions, pickled ginger (comes in a jar. Bloody love a jar) and carrots (I like to use a peeler to get ribbons because the texture is good but whatever you like.) sometimes I might add like a pre cooked prawn. Seafood is so great for variety as a protein, prawn and feta spaghetti with tomatoes is one of my faves, but it can be expensive. If you feel comfortable buying them frozen and defrosting/cooking them, go ahead, but prioritize your safety if you don't and but them already cooked so all you have to do is stick em in your pasta to warm through.

- a good sandwich is a skill and can be a meal in a pinch. My favourite sandwiches that are meals : avocado, mozzarella, chicken, and sun-dried tomatoes. Tuna, cheese, sweetcorn and a dab of natural yoghurt (I don't eat mayo but mayo would work here!) (I like to make the tuna one and stick it under the grill for like 5 mins. It's so good) sandwiches should not be basic!! Add chutneys, sauces, and extra vegetables! Don't buy things like lettuce or tomato if they're gonna rot in your fridge, buy what tastes great that you LOVE!

A note on freezing : if I freeze something as someone with no time management or foreward planning, I'm probably not gonna eat it. I tend to rely on my staples and stop by for a couple fresh items every few days. Small bread loves, smaller packets of meat, they are more expensive, but remember the most expensive food is the food you don't eat because it has frostburn from sitting in a communal freezer for six months! Ginger and chillis, and easy oven stuff like scampi, chips, are better because I don't need to defrost them. And there's nothing wrong with saying 'tonight I need something easy' and cooking oven chips. It's literally fine. Consider what you could chuck together while they're cooking though! A bite of ham while you wait? Maybe some carrot or cucumber sicks? Add, don't take away.

I think probably I need to shut up now shdjf. Final thoughts : YouTube is a brilliant resource. Babish, Sorted, bon appetite, they all have resources on quick and easy 'pantry' meals, which is generally what I'm guiding you towards! Best of luck my darling, I hope something helpful has cropped up here! Much love !!