How To Eat Healthily During Exams – Dinner

I always cook a big batch of dinner, so it provides me with lunch for the next day – leftovers are the best, am I right? It’s a good idea to fill up on carbohydrates after a long day and your are probably very mentally tired if you’re anything like me!

All these ideas as so easy to cook, even if you’re a student or just a busy person. Most of them require under half an hour and they are so much better for you that getting a takeaway!

Brown rice or sweet potato with stir fry
Stir fry doesn’t have to be unhealthy if you know what you’re putting in it!
I always use various vegetables, ginger, garlic, salt, pepper and love the fragrant taste of coconut oil!
Here’s a fried rice idea that’s super fresh and doesn’t leave you heavy or bloated.

Pasta with tomato basil sauce
It’s super easy to make your own pasta sauce so I really don’t even see the need to buy it!
All you need is passata, and onion, garlic, basil, salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil. From there, you can really add anything, I love adding kale or spinach to bulk it up! I also use wholewheat pasta as its got more fibre. Here’s a recipe for one of my favourite sauces – pasta alla norma.

Simple stew with wholewheat couscous
This is a 15 minute dinner that you can put in anything you want! I’ve got 3 super easy recipes: 15 minute vegan stew, with aubergines and mushrooms, and a chickpea stew (which has a bit more bulk to it thanks to the beans), and even a mixture of both! These all taste great cold, especially the chickpea stew. You can easily bring it with some homemade crusty baguette slices and smush it on with some feta.

Gyoza
This may be a weekend project, but you can make lots and freeze them so they will be ready for dinner in a matter of 15 minutes! Perfect with a simple side salad.

Chicken with Couscous
Another meaty idea is to make some roasted chicken with some chargrilled or roasted vegetables. It’s super easy as all you need to do is put it in the oven. It’s actually so much easier than it seems! It also last a long time, so you can freeze some to use another day and have it the next day for lunch with some couscous, or in a salad.

Check out the rest of the series: breakfast, lunch and snacks!

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Pasta Alla Norma

One of my favourite pasta dishes of all time. perfectly melt in the mouth aubergines with delicious but simple marinara sauce. You’ll either love it or hate it to be honest, just because it has aubergines in it. To me, aubergines are delicious and one of my favourite vegetables, but to others not so much…

If you are an aubergine hater, you can always sub in courgettes or another vegetable of your choice (or just make it as a marinara sauce)!

This is in no way authentic, but in my opinion it’s equally delicous. I first tried it in a local restaurant in Palermo, Sicily, where it blew my mind with delicousness. However, they fried the aubergine there, and so it was a bit too oily for my liking, so I decided to just cook the aubergine in a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

You can also save this sauce and use it for shakshuka, a delicious tomato sauce with an egg poached in it.

Pasta Alla Norma vegan, dairy free, gluten free
Serves 4

1 aubergine, peeled and sliced
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 clove garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Mixed herbs and dried thyme
optional: dash of sake or white wine

Cook the aubergine in olive oil until salt and make sure to season liberally with salt.
Add garlic near the end of cooking time and sauté until fragrant.

Add tomatoes and optional sake or white wine and herbs.

Simmer until reduced until liking.

If it’s reduced too much, you can always add pasta cooking water.

When serving, I recommend having it with pecorino, or if not, parmesan.

Homemade Gnocchi

The weather has changed – and not for the better.
What happened? GLOBAL WARMING, I BLAME YOU!
Why must this happen? It was 30 degrees last week and now it feels about -100000 degrees. And why does my school insist on putting the air conditioning on like its the bloody arctic? I. Just. Don’t. Get. It.

I’ve been making homemade gnocchi for a while now and it’s actually way easier than you probably think! I wanted to make pasta for ages but we don’t have a pasta maker and all that jazz, so we just had to settle for these little dumplings of joy instead 😛

Am I the only one who feels like an old Italian grandmother doing this?

Homemade Gnocchi dairy free

3 big potatoes
1 medium egg yolk
200g flour, plus extra for clouding the surface
Salt and pepper

Cut up the potatoes into small chunks then boil in salted water until soft (about 15 minutes).

Wait for it to cool then mash it until completely smooth.
Season with a fair amount of salt and pepper.
Add egg yolk and combine.

Add the flour gradually and once it combines, take it out onto floured parchment paper.

Knead until smooths and rolls into about 1cm logs and cut into 1 inch pieces.
To get the gnocchi ‘shape’ push ball of gnocchi onto a fork and roll off it, you will see the lines, which will trap the sauce better.

Boil water and add a few gnocchi at a time (don’t overcrowd the pan)!
You’ll know when it’s done, because they will float to the top.

Serve immediately with truffle butter and Parmesan for a naughty treat or with some rustic tomato sauce.