Viva Student Food

An article in Saturday's Guardian about the trials of student cooking began:

Anyone you meet who's been to university can remember a horror dish to which they were regularly submitted by a well-meaning flatmate. It usually involved a combination of tuna, sweetcorn, condensed mushroom soup and crisps.

Replace sweetcorn with celery, and that was me! In fact, this dish (aka Tuna Celery Pasta Bake) was a comfort food staple in our household until pasta got the boot a few months ago.

At first I was ashamed. But then I was angry.

Surely we all need dishes like Tuna Celery Pasta Bake if we have mouths to feed on a budget or in a hurry? You get your protein, you get your carbohydrate, you get your veg -- at low cost, low risk and low mess.

I have options -- I can cook, I can afford 'proper' food -- but sometimes I *want* something that wouldn't win a Jamie Oliver award.

So I immediately declared Student Food Week. On Sunday I made curried baked beans with onions & mushrooms for breakfast. Lovely. We had them for lunch as well, with cheese on.

Last night I made Quorn shepherd's pie (main ingredient: Worcestershire sauce). Fantastic.

While that was in I baked a potato for my lunch today, thinking as I did so of Mr B, who as a student taught me the joy that Encona and lemon juice bring to tuna mayonnaise, so I made some of that as well.

And we had Fishy Eggy Ricy Thing for dinner tonight. I have been making this about once a fortnight for the last ten years. It's cheap, it's easy, it's good for you and it's bloody lovely.

So piss off food snobs.

Though we've got someone coming for dinner on Thursday. Miles is planning swordfish. I might have to go out for some SosMix.

joella