Recent Eats: Plus, recipes and cooking tips!

If you follow me on snapchat- or really any form of social media for that matter- you know I love to constantly post pictures of food. I know some people aren't a fan of that sort of thing, but I honestly enjoy seeing what other people are eating. Having a little bit of #foodenvy always motivates me to cook something delicious and beautiful or try out a new restaurant.

But there's one other, slightly more embarrassing, reason why I tend to take a lot of photos of my food- because my mom and I basically have full-on text conversations that consist of sending each other pictures of what we're eating. If you think I'm kidding, here's proof:

I kid you not.

See? And that brings me to exactly why I'm writing this post: all of my most recent photos on my phone are of food. So, I thought it would be both easy and helpful to share some of my best recipes of the past few weeks, as well as a couple of extra cooking tips, as I come into my second academic term of fending for myself.

Before I share my recent eats, let's start out with a few things I've learned that make cooking (particularly as a poor/starving student) a whole lot easier.

1.) Buy a cookbook from a charity shop: I know that literally every recipe you could ever need is online and free of charge nowadays. But how many times have you gotten water, flour, or any number of other unpleasant substances on your phone while you're scrambling to read the next step in a recipe? Phones + kitchens = a recipe (haha, get it?) for disaster. But buying a brand new cookbook can be expensive. That's where charity shops come in. A lot of the time, these cookbooks are not only gently used, but they're good quality and come from well-known chefs (think, Jamie Oliver). And you can usually pick them up for around £1-3.

Building up my collection of early 2000s British celebrity chef cookbooks.

2.) Cook with others: Cooking for one is notoriously difficult. Trust me, I've tried. Making a normal sized batch of anything will usually leave you with days worth of leftovers. And eating the same thing every day can become pretty boring. Your solution? Cook with someone else! You'll end up saving money in the long run, wasting less, and you'll probably learn a thing or two from one another.

3.) Be creative with your leftovers: As I said, cooking for just yourself can leave you with a lot of leftovers. But those leftovers won't seem so monotonous if you repurpose them. For example, this Sunday I roasted a whole chicken (you'll see this later in the post) and used what was left- which was a lot- to whip up a chicken salad to use in sandwiches. I just shredded up the leftover chicken and mixed it with about two tablespoons of mayo, one chopped up apple, one stalk of celery, and some white wine vinegar. And the best part is, I already had all of those ingredients in the flat!

Alright, now that I've essentially told you how to live your life (isn't that what lifestyle bloggers are supposed to do?), I'll entertain you with some photos and link you to some fab recipes.

Breakfast: 

This is actually a pretty typical breakfast for me: overnight oats with honey and banana. I don't use a recipe for this and usually wing it. Just fill a small to medium sized mason jar halfway up with rolled oats, then add about 3 tablespoons of yogurt, plus a splash of milk. Mix it all together with as much honey as you like (I like a lot), and a pinch of cinnamon. Leave it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, just plop your oats into a bowl and top with sliced bananas. Easiest. Breakfast. Ever.  

Lunch/Brunch: 

Who says you need to go out for an instagram-worthy brunch? This colorful egg dish is full of healthy vegetables and is taken to the next level with some added sundried tomatoes and a sprinkling of parmesan (as per my own improvisation). Get the recipe here.

Dinner:

I feel like I've been fully indoctrinated into the quintessential British lifestyle upon the completion of cooking my first ever Sunday roast dinner (using a whole chicken!). But not one to keep strictly to tradition, I opted for a lemony chicken recipe that had a bit of an Italian twist with the addition of rosemary and garlic. The roasted potatoes, carrots, parsnips and brussel sprouts couldn't have been easier as I just threw them on a tray with olive oil, salt and pepper, and popped them in the oven for 40 minutes. Get the recipe for the lemon roast chicken here.  

Dessert: 

As dessert is my forte when it comes to cooking a meal, I couldn't help but share two different recipes. The first is a ricotta cake with caramelized peaches and man was it good. It was so simple to make as well (no crazy baking techniques here), and resulted in one of the richest cakes I've ever had. Get the recipe here. 

The final recipe I'll be sharing today was the dessert that accompanied Sunday's roast dinner- old fashioned apple crisp. Much less fussy to make than an apple pie, this dessert was the perfect comfort food. I think this particular recipe goes a little bit heavy on the orange, so I'd probably omit the orange peel next time. Get the recipe here.   

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post as much as I love drooling over photos of food. Speaking of which, I'm kind of hungry now... And there's definitely some leftover apple crisp in the kitchen...