Inspiration for eating healthy at uni

Hey guys,

Since starting uni, one of the things I've struggled with is eating healthy. I have found myself deprioritising it, partly because I stuggle to find interesting healthy recipes.

I am at a stage now where I would like to focus more on my eating habits. I am even transitioning to a vegan lifestyle.

I was wondering if you had any recommendations for interesting health vegan meals. I'm seriously in need of some inspo. I would also love to hear if any of you have been through a similar journey.

Thanks so much!
Fitnesswellness

How fantastic! Good on you!

Start by chopping up an onion and starting it frying in some oil with black pepper. Chop up half a pepper and half a courgette and put those into the pan too. Once those are nicely browned, put a can of beans into the pan with them. I prefer kidney beans in a chilli sauce but ordinary baked beans work well too. Let it simmer for a little while, then put in half a jar of tomato sauce. Let all of that simmer for a while, and then - here's the kicker - put in a few knife-fuls of crunchy peanut butter and mix thoroughly. At about the same time you put the peanut butter in, put a couple of slices of bread in your toaster. When the toast pops, put half the veg/bean/tomato/peanut concoction on your toast and half in a tupperware for tomorrow's breakfast.

Enjoy the best beans on toast you'll ever eat.

Oh wow this is such amazing advise! Thanks so much for being so detailed. There definitely feels like there's loads that can be done with veggies and beans. I'm a huge fan of lentils, especially when they're cooked with the right spice combo! You're right, spices are everything. Thanks so much for tips for cooking on a budget as well.

Are there any other YouTube/ other social media accounts that you recommend checking out for vegan recipes? ☺️☺️

How fantastic! Good on you!

Start by chopping up an onion and starting it frying in some oil with black pepper. Chop up half a bell pepper and half a courgette and put those into the pan too. Once those are nicely browned, put a can of beans into the pan with them. I prefer kidney beans in a chilli sauce but ordinary baked beans work well too. Let it simmer for a little while, then put in half a jar of tomato sauce. Let all of that simmer for a while, and then - here's the kicker - put in a few knife-fuls of crunchy peanut butter and mix thoroughly. At about the same time you put the peanut butter in, put a couple of slices of bread in your toaster. When the toast pops, put half the veg/bean/tomato/peanut concoction on your toast and half in a tupperware for tomorrow's breakfast.

Enjoy the best beans on toast you'll ever eat.

Hey that's great! Good on you for trying to be healthy while at uni, I know it can be hard!

I always find that Instagram has some great inspiration! You can check out hashtag or find accounts that fit your niche. Here are some that I follow which I think you might like!

@thefoodmedic Not vegan, but she has a great nutritional focus to her meals. It's a good way to cut through some of the nonsense when it comes to healthy food. You should check out her podcast too... If you are into that kind of thing.

@alchemy_ldn They base their food and drink around superfoods, like matcha, which leads to some creative and colourful things. From what I can see, all their content is vegan so I'm sure you'd get some great inspiration! You should check out their recent post with those pink donuts... They look amazing!

@healthy_ish Covers food and lifestyle. It's a magazine or online brand that talks about some of the things you mentioned in the OP. It's a good place to start for ideas. Although, I think they are American, so perhaps you can't get all of their product recommendations.

Anyway, best of luck and let me know how it goes for you!

Oh wow this is such amazing advise! Thanks so much for being so detailed. There definitely feels like there's loads that can be done with veggies and beans. I'm a huge fan of lentils, especially when they're cooked with the right spice combo! You're right, spices are everything. Thanks so much for tips for cooking on a budget as well.

Are there any other YouTube/ other social media accounts that you recommend checking out for vegan recipes? ☺️☺️

Ok - some more youtube channels ---- Sweet Simple Vegan is a channel from a couple that cook together. They've just done a video on how to use up leftover rice too which is always a problem I have! They're all quite simple and quick too.
Madeline Olivia has some good videos such as her Go-to cheap and easy ones which are all simple things like oatmeal, stirfry, macaroni cheese (but using cashew nuts and plant milk instead of lots of cream) and mexican rice.
Rachel Ama has done some good "under a pound" recipes too - these cover nice basics like stews and chillis.

I quite like "Minimalist Baker" which is a website, as they do simple recipes with ingredients you'll already have instead of really long complicated versions. You can always add in extra veggies or sauces to change it up a bit, but they provide a good base recipe.

Recipes to master would be your basic bean chilli or soya mince bolognaise (sainsbury's own soya mince is really good and cheap but it soaks up flavour so well!) as you can use this for loads of stuff - like stuffed aubegines, lasagne, burritos etc... Tofu scramble is nice and simple, but make sure you cook it for a good while with lots of flavour (e.g. nutritional yeast - worth investing in a tub as it lasts ages - marmite, mustard, salt and pepper, paprika, tumeric and whatever else you feel like - OH and rosemary!). This can be a breakfast or lunch and its really simple - use silken tofu for a mushy one or firm for one that holds it shape and has a bit more bite. Add in some mushroom and onion for extra yumminess. If you're in the UK, sainsburys does the Vivera range which has fake meat strips that make super easy stir frys or can be (very very very) easily eaten on their own with veggies and rice / potato, or Holland and Barret do VeggieDeli fake meats which I love. These will still have no cholesterol (cholesterol is produced in the liver so only animal products contain it) and lower fat / calories than normal meat and I can't tell you for the life of me if it actually tastes "meaty" but it is great in a curry!

Curry is very easily adaptable too - switch up your spice mixes and the vegetables you add to keep it interesting. For stews and currys, if you are wanting to thicken it up a bit, try soya yoghurt (plain) or light coconut milk or even (this works very well for stews) take a few cups out of the pan, blitz it with a hand blender (or any type of blender you have) then return it to the pot. This really adds to the texture. Making a big batch of soup on a sunday is also a good idea as you can take it in a thermos with some bread or crackers for lunch and then add spoonfuls into whatever sauces you make as it adds so much flavour! You could even make a big batch then freeze it so that you can keep adding it to recipes throughout the month.

Your freezer will be your best friend seriously - you can make your own ready meals by just taking a portion out of whatever you make and storing it in a plastic pot (this helps with portion control too as you only have one portions worth).

Another good meal is to just chuck all your old vegetables (tomato, carrot, courgette, aubegine, pepper all work well) into a baking pan then mix your favourite vinegar with some spices or herbs and crushed garlic (balsamic vinegar, garlic, ginger, basil and oregano work well - even a tiny bit of maple syrup) and drizzle it over the top then toss it and bake at 180 degrees celcius in ten minute increments until the juices are coming out and the tomatoes are all soft. Then you can just dry fry a bit of onion (or use a little bit of oil) in a pan, add any more spices (I love paprika) and chuck it all in with some bean/lentils/tofu etc. The roasting really helps to bring out all the flavours and you could also use this technique to make a soup by adding in some vegetable stock and then blending it (or just having it lumpy - but make sure to let it simmer for a good hour if you aren't blending so it has time to infuse).

A simple lunch - chop up 4 ish mushrooms, mix a clove of crushed garlic with a teaspoon of soya cream cheese (sainsbury's sells a really good one), salt and pepper and a dash of soya milk then heat in the microwave for around 20 - 30 seconds. Then add in the mushroom and cook it in the microwave again until they have gone tender. Serve on toast or with left over pasta/rice - it's really good

I also like cooking some slices of aubegine in soy sauce and sometimes sweet chilli sauce in the microwave then adding a chutney of some sort (brushetta is nice) and some fake meat, tofu, soy cheese or beans if you have them spare and serve in a sandwich or in a salad (with some potato).

That leads me onto my final point - make sure you are staying full! Dietitians always recommend getting 50% of your calories from carbohydrate, so adding enough potato or rice to your meal will help you feel full after the meal so that you don't end up snacking - sadly there is now a lot of very tasty vegan junk food XD Also, maybe try ending meals with a hot drink like peppermint tea, normal tea or hot sugar free squash (I make this with water from the kettle and then 2 tbsp of sugar free summer fruits squash). It's really comforting in winter and it helps you feel like the meal has finished. Alternatively, get some sugar free polos and have a mint at the end of the meal - this is helpful if you tend to end a meal and still want to snack. Although tbh, whenever I have lentils or beans I always end up feeling pretty full XD.

Oh! And frozen fruit / vegetables will make it really easy to eat your five a day without worrying about them going off. Frozen spinach is good as it can be added into stews and just adds a bit of texture every now and again without changing the flavour much. It comes in little cubes too so you can just chuck in a few cubes. I always keep frozen raspberries in stock and just microwave a handful in the morning to have on my porridge or toast (a much nicer and low sugar alternative to jam - seriously though, defrosted raspberry mush and yogurt on toast is awesome!). You can also just have a few to snack on in summer (frozen grapes work well here too). Maybe even keep a bag of frozen mixed vegetables so that you can always add some to every meal/sauce with minimal effort. Adding veggies really helps bulk out recipes too so that the more expensive ingredients last longer.

Anyway... that's all I can think of right now! Again, ask me anything and I'll do my best to answer I kind of love cooking...

Hey, I found this company called Studifuel. It's a healthy lifestyle subscription box for students full of vegan snacks, recipes, herbal teas and comes with a monthly supply of vitamins. You should check it out!

Hey guys,

Since starting uni, one of the things I've struggled with is eating healthy. I have found myself deprioritising it, partly because I stuggle to find interesting healthy recipes.

I am at a stage now where I would like to focus more on my eating habits. I am even transitioning to a vegan lifestyle.

I was wondering if you had any recommendations for interesting health vegan meals. I'm seriously in need of some inspo. I would also love to hear if any of you have been through a similar journey.

Thanks so much!
Fitnesswellness

You seem to be equating veganism with a 'healthy lifestyle'. This is not the case, and it's actually much more difficult to get a healthy, balanced died if you're a vegan. Fad diets like veganism should always be avoided wherever possible. If you're in doubt about this, open you mouth and have a look in the mirror at your teeth. You will notice that we do not have broad, flat molars and that's it, but we have incisors and canine teeth. That should tell you something...

It's probably not what you want to hear, but I'm afraid the science speaks for itself. To get a healthy, vegan diet includes a huge amount of planning and expense and even then usually some form of supplementation of things like B12 is still required. Unless you have some sorts of ethical objections which have driven you to veganism, I strongly encourage you to do some research from reliable sources (i.e. not TSR and not blogs and other fitness/wellness sites, but sites like patient.info, NHS, Cochrane Reviews etc) before committing to such a drastic and troublesome way of eating.

You will be able to eat far more healthily more easily and cheaper by ditching it and including a variety of foods, from each food group, to create a healthy, varied, energy-appropriate diet that's both nutritious AND tasty.

For many, veganism isn't a "fad" but rather an educated decision based on the ethical and environmental benefits. As long as you do some research beforehand, it is actually very easy to get all the nutrients needed and it doesn't need to be expensive - it is the highly specialised foods that get expensive, but beans, pulses, lentils, fortified plant milk etc can be cheap and healthy. B12 is a very common deficiency in both vegans and non-vegans alike - supplements can be helpful for many people, but it is still possible to live supplement free as a vegan by including fortified foods or yeast extract/marmite.
It is also a slightly flawed argument to point to our teeth and claim eating meat is natural as there is very little natural about the way the meat and dairy industry operates today.

I'm not trying to criticise you or any of your personal decisions, but it is unfair to ignore the many benefits of a animal product free lifestyle. I understand you may have had negative experiences with some people that go vegan for the wrong reasons, but please give the other people trying to make a positive impact through it a chance!

I'm sorry, but this is just not correct.


I agree with you regarding personal choice, but I disagree that there are any 'benefits' about an animal product-free lifestyle.

You seem to be equating veganism with a 'healthy lifestyle'. This is not the case, and it's actually much more difficult to get a healthy, balanced died if you're a vegan. Fad diets like veganism should always be avoided wherever possible. If you're in doubt about this, open you mouth and have a look in the mirror at your teeth. You will notice that we do not have broad, flat molars and that's it, but we have incisors and canine teeth. That should tell you something...

It's probably not what you want to hear, but I'm afraid the science speaks for itself. To get a healthy, vegan diet includes a huge amount of planning and expense and even then usually some form of supplementation of things like B12 is still required. Unless you have some sorts of ethical objections which have driven you to veganism, I strongly encourage you to do some research from reliable sources (i.e. not TSR and not blogs and other fitness/wellness sites, but sites like patient.info, NHS, Cochrane Reviews etc) before committing to such a drastic and troublesome way of eating.

You will be able to eat far more healthily more easily and cheaper by ditching it and including a variety of foods, from each food group, to create a healthy, varied, energy-appropriate diet that's both nutritious AND tasty.