What to Cook During Exam week (not a philosophy post)

It's tough finding time to cook when you have exams to write, friends to hangout with, 15 page essays to write. And add to all that figuring out what to cook! It's like juggling chainsaws. Mess up and, zip, your hand is gone. When I was in university, and especially during exam week, I had to figure out cheap, healthy?, and filling meals. The three meals below can be made by a ten-year old who can follow instructions. What you need are some basic spices, and some pots and pan.

The first is the simplest one. Noodles. Or Ramen as is called here in Canada. When grocery shopping make sure to NOT buy Mr. Noodles. It's the worst noodle out there.

My friend and I found this out the hard way. We stayed on campus during our first Christmas break (reason being it was too expensive to fly to our family) and since we were on a tight budget we bought a box of Mr. Noodles. And for the next 20 or so days that's all we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner. By the end of it, my throat was felt like it had layers of wax. Disgusting. So don't do that first of all. Second, buy better noodles if you are planning on doing it. Suggestions are: Korean noodles (Nonghim Shin Ramyun, Chapagetti, Samyeng Ramen); Thai noodles (Mama noodles, especially, shrimp flavor); Indian noodles (Top Ramen, Maggi, Wai Wai). You'll find them in any major grocery stores. To make them you need a pan and some water. Boil water, add the noodle and spices that come with it. Wait for 5-7 minutes and your noodles are ready. If don't have a stove, then you just need boiling water. Do the same thing, but wait a little longer for the noodles to cook.

The second is rice. Rice goes with almost anything. It's cheap. You can buy eight kilos for $10 or so. Cooking rice can be daunting especially if you've never cooked rice or had rice before.

What you first need is a pot. Put how much ever rice you want to eat into the pot, but I'd suggest starting with 1/2 cups (just use your drinking cup to measure). Fill the pot up with water until it is an inch and bit above the rice. This is the perfect amount of water. It makes sure that the rice is cooked but not overly sticky or soggy, or too dry. Then turn up the stove to medium heat and it should take 20-25 minutes to cook, if you have a lid on it.

The third is chicken. Chicken is a great deal! Lots of protein, cheap, and very versatile to cook with. The easiest recipe is stir-fry without the veggies (if you have veggies even better).

So buy yourself a pound or so of boneless chicken breast, some garlic and ginger. You'll need a frying pan for this, if you don't have one use a pot. Cut up the breast into slices just slightly bigger than MacDonald fries. Season it with salt and pepper. Cut up a few cloves of garlic. Peel half an inch of ginger and chop it up. Heat up the pan (medium-high flame), then add the oil. Add the garlic and ginger into the pan. Cook until they begin to brown (if you have chilli flakes add it now), then add the chicken slices. Stir it around for four minutes. (If you have veggies add 'em now). Then add a spoon-full of your soya sauce. Stir some more. Turn down flame to medium for six-to-ten minutes and boom you're done.

Three cheap and easy meals to help you through your exam week.