image credit: ifood.tv

Last week there was a question on “Family Feud,” “What increases in the US every year?” As a college girl concerned with student savings, I immediately thought, “food prices.” They do go up every year, month by month, and not only in the United States, but all over the world. To fight the battle “empty stomach” vs “your skinny wallet,” you should learn simple home-cooking recipe in order to save some money on groceries.

And I am not going to give you any recipes, as everyone is different and our food preferences may have nothing in common. I love to have farina for breakfast, and I know many people hate it, especially if it’s made with water instead of milk. As for me, I can make it with water, and I enjoy it. It’s filling, it’s healthy and it tastes even better if you drop some fresh fruit into the bowl once the cereal is ready to be served.

What I am going to do, though, is to give you five reasons why cooking at home is a useful skill for anybody, no matter if you are a woman or a man, if you are rich and can afford eating at new restaurants every day or poor feeding at McDonalds seven days a week.

Reason 1. When you cook, you know what you are eating. With homemade food, you don’t have to worry about food allergies. You know exactly what you drop in that pot, and the most pleasant thing is: you can make things that you like. If you are a fan of beets, put them into everything you eat, and you will enjoy everything you eat. Yes, it’s as simple as that.

For that reason, I believe that one day when I become rich and famous (hopefully, for my writing), I will get a cook to make great food for me at home. I don’t care if the cook will spoil me with fancy dishes or simply serve me spaghetti and meatballs or grilled cheese sandwiches, food that I can get in any diner, as long as there will always be fresh ingredients and the dishes of my choice.

Reason 2. It does save money. If restaurants would not use same ingredients for many dishes, they would have long gone out of business. It’s cheaper to buy one lobster and make a dinner for two than to order your meal from a nearby diner, even if they offer a student discount for their lunch or dinner. A five-pound bag of potatoes costs you $3-4 on average, same as a side of French fries made from frozen. However, you can cook at least two meals from the five-pound bag (if you eat a lot), and French fries are only good for the minute they are served until they cool off.

Reason 3. Cooking encourages you to socialize. I hate to cook for myself. I seldom make meals for one person. I prefer to get some friends over or to share my food with my roommate. Therefore, when there is nobody to split my dinner with, I order take out and eat fattening and unhealthy pizza, paninis and what not. Therefore, organize other people to eat with you. If you have roommates, cook together. It helps to generate original ideas and to become closer with them. If you live alone, talk to other students from your college about taking turns and getting together to cook and eat. You can even use these evenings to study for the common classes you have and to gather useful information from your peers.

Reason 4. There are no germs but your own ones when you cook at home. We had a class discussion on food once, and someone mentioned seeing a cook checking the temperature of the soup by means of dipping his finger into it. Most of my classmates were disgusted by it, but the teacher objected that everyone uses hands when cooking (meaning at home). As far as I’m concerned, I would like to know where he put his finger before he dipped it into the soup, and in home cooking you know exactly how clean your hands were and how long that chicken stayed out of the refrigerator. I don’t remember any time when I got food poisoning eating at home. Do you?

image credit: myrecipes.com

Reason 5. Learning how to cook prepares you for having your own family. And this is not only for women. I remember oily and juicy “potato chips” my grandfather used to make for me and my little cousin when we were kids. My grandfather died in 2004, and in addition to my childhood memories and all the warm feelings I have for him, there is also the mouth-watering taste of “potato chips” that reminds me how well he could cook. One day you would be that mom or dad, grandpa or grandma, who cooks the most authentic… you name it!

So when the question comes up again on “Family Feud,” I’d like someone to answer, “What increases every year in the United States is the amount of people cooking at home,” and hopefully, the obesity amongst adults and children in this country will, on the contrary, decrease.

Ekaterina Lalo

Visit my blog at http://nycvalues.blogspot.com. And check out www.campusclipper.com for amazing deals and coupons for students.

image credit: listverse.com

College years are the most exciting, as this is the time you usually socialize with a lot of different people, make new friends and establish important connections. Sometimes social part of the experience even prevails over the academic one. With the variety of student discounts in New York City, there are plenty of places to go and spend an evening. However, remember, if you stay out late, you miss an important part of your day: your morning.

“What’s so special about a morning?” you may wonder. Well, here are several things that you miss if you don’t get enough sleep and crawl out of the bed with your eyes half closed:

1. Breakfast. I have blogged about how important it is to have a breakfast every morning, and if you’d like to see that post, you can go to http://campusclipper.com/blog/?p=1278. The point is: your first meal of the day should charge you with the energy you need for your classes and extracurricular activities. If you wake up late, you are rushing to school or job (whatever comes first), and you often swallow a coffee with a donut (so fattening and tasty). As a result, your stomach is empty, your energy is low, you are still sleepy and uneager to leave the house.

2. Exercise. Here you will probably say that no one does exercise in the morning anymore. Sure, for the same reason people don’t eat breakfast every day. Exercising in the morning is a good start. Just as having breakfast, it boosts your energy and prepares your body for the day. You don’t have to run or go to the gym in the morning unless you want to. What’s good to do is to find a routine that you enjoy and don’t mind repeating every morning. The exercise you choose doesn’t have to take a lot of your time; you can spend just 10-15 minutes on it, and you will see the difference yourself. I love doing some stretches. It helps me to wake up and keep my body fit.

3. Stress-free ride to school or job. When you wake up late, you have to hurry up to get to your destination on time. As it usually happens, there are service changes or train traffic on your way. Worried that you won’t make it to your first class, you are biting your lips regretting that you didn’t wake up just 10 minutes earlier. If you did, you would have had extra time for your commute, and it could have been less stressful. If you are late for your job, it’s even worse. If you are often untimely, you may be eventually fired, so it is crucial that you learn to organize yourself. College prepares you for a career, so treat your classes just as seriously as you would your work.

4. Material you could review for your class. As far as I’m concerned, I remember things I reviewed in the morning longer than extracts I read in the evening. Therefore, I love to review for my exams before I go to school. It stays fresh in my memory for the whole day, and I usually get excellent grades. Try doing that, maybe it works for you,  too.

5. Professional appearance. Walking to college from the bus stop, I often see students who are dressed in sweat pants or pajamas, and it looks like they just got out of the bed. Even though your college mates don’t always care what your appearance is like, you never know whom you will meet during the day. Maybe, there will be an unexpected meeting with prospectivee employers or an interview for an internship. If you don’t look presentable, you will not be chosen. Being professional is not necessarily wearing a suit; you can wear a nice shirt in neutral colors with suitable pants or a skirt. When you meet new people, they don’t know who you are. All they see is your pajamas at the moment. In many cases, first impression is also the last one, so spend some time in the morning thinking about what you are going to wear.

6. Make-up. This is not as important as the clothes you wear, but if you have dark circles under your eyes, you can try masking them a little bit. It will give you a fresher look. Moreover, when I look beautiful, I tend to accomlish more throughout the day, so I prefer to put light make-up every morning, even if I have to do it standing up in a bus (it takes practice, but it’s doable).

7. Planning of the day. I like to lay in bed for about 5-10 minutes before getting up and think what I am going to do. This includes what I will wear, what I should bring with me, what I will do after school etc. Taking the time to do that helps me avoid forgetting things I need and missing appointments. In addition, my mind clears from the dreams I had and prepares for the new day.

image credit: winsomeaunt.blogspot.com

8.  Energy that you would have had if you slept enough. This doesn’t need any comment. If you sleep 4-5 hours a night (as a rule, not as an exception), you will drag your feet through the day, and all you can think about is your soft and comfortable bed. Do you think, you can learn a lot being in a mood like that?

Therefore, when you are planning to spend an evening with your friends, consider what time you have to get up next morning and how late you can stay out. There are always weekends when you don’t have to be at school, so spend your weekday evenings studying and leave the fun time for Fridays and Saturdays, which will be completely free considering all th homework that was done during the week.

Ekaterina Lalo

Visit my blog at http://nycvalues.blogspot.com. And check out www.campusclipper.com for amazing deals and coupons for students.

view from the street

Proudly calling itself  “All American Vegetarian,” “Kate’s Joint” located at 58 Avenue B (on the corner with East 4 street) is truly a place where a vegetarian and even a vegan can enjoy the food he or she is eating. Skillfully created dishes imitate favorite American food and are called accordingly, “Philly Not-Steak,” “Meatless Loaf Hero” and TLT (Tofu, Lettuce and Tomato). And the good thing is that these vegetarian variants taste just as good as the regular food we are all used to.

Walking into the restaurant, a diner enters a spacious room that resembles a veranda of a large summer house. There are huge open windows that bring sunlight to the rows of tables and green plants, some of which are as tall as a human of a medium height. Only the brick walls remind the clients that they are actually in a closed space. The welcoming atmosphere encourages the diner to sit down by one of these enourmous windows to the world, relax and enjoy the food or a drink, depending on what one is looking for there.

The idea for “Kate’s Joint,” which opened in 1996, was to cater delicious and affordable ($8-13 for a dish, on average)comfort food to vegetarian customers. It is amusing that the owner of the place, Kate, who created the menu, is not vegetarian herself, even though she admits that she tried several times and never succeded in giving up meat, while her restaurant serves meatless food to both vegetarian and non-vegetarian clientele.  As far as I, not normally a vegan eater, am concerned, when I tried several plates at the joint, which were appetizing, filling and didn’t make my stomach feel at risk of explosion, I seriously thought that I could go vegan for more than just until Easter.

Indeed, with Kate’s homebaked bread, choice of dairy or non-dairy cheeses, mashed potatoes made with soy milk, non-steak, un-sausage and fakin’bacon, one doesn’t lose much giving up meat.

Have Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, a delicious plate of Mexican-style crispy flour tortilla filled with fried organic eggs, beans, cheese, a side of salsa and hash browns. If you are a vegan, you can have tofu scrambled as a substitute for eggs (a good option for those who are not vegan but want to try soemthing different as well).

While the breakfast menu is only available until 4pm, lunch can be served at any time. The most brilliant appetizer is a plate of Buffalo Un-Chicken Wings. As tofu is a product that takes in any flavor, like a sponge, it is absolutely savory with spicy buffalo sauce. The snack tastes exactly like those boneless chicken wings with some sauce served in many restaurants around the city, only the sauce here is jucier and the “meat” is tenderer and not over-filling. Along with traditional carrots and celery sticks and a side of a non-dairy ranch dressing, they are a great way to start a meal.

As for the main course, the all-time favorite is an Un-Turkey Club with un-turkey (made of deli-sliced texturized soy protein), “fakin” (crispy and salty non-bacon, the restaurant’s secret homemade recipe), lettuce, tomato and dairy or non-dairy mayo served with either potatoes or a salad.  Bread lovers will definitely appreciate the fresh baked base for the sandwich spiced up by the unusual taste of the mayonnaise which is spread generously over the bread. If you try the un-turkey by itself, it doesn’t taste great, but in the combination with lettuce, tomato and mayo, the sandwich is the dish that will quickly disappear in your mouth with not even crumbs left on the plate.

one of the joint's specials

Adding up to the regular menu, there are day-to-day specials you should always ask about. A nurtitious meal with luscious portobello mushrooms, spinach, artichokes and mashed potatoes is a great dinner plate, but it’s not on the menu and is not available every day, so don’t you miss it.

With the culinary inventions that satisfy not only vegetarians, “Kate’s Joint” proves two myths wrong. First, yes, vegetarian food can be flavorful. And secondly, no matter how delicious it is, it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Moreover, if you go to college, here is a student discount for you: come any time before 8pm on Mon-Fri, bring the coupon attached in the end of the post and receive a 20% discount with your ID, so if there had ever been a myth that there are no student savings on vegetarian food, it is now proved wrong as well.

Ekaterina Lalo

Visit my blog at http://nycvalues.blogspot.com. And check out www.campusclipper.com for amazing deals and coupons for students.

We all know that sugar isn’t great for you, but recently there has been a lot of media on the evils of sugar. I’m not going to say having a little sugar in your coffee or tea will kill you, but if you read the nutrition labels of your food and drinks, you’ll find an astonishing amount of sugar. According to dietary guidelines, the allowable amount of sugar per day is around 32 grams.

It’s rough out there, and you need your energy to handle to hustle of the city, but if you’re downing a Redbull, look at the label and you’ll see that the little can holds two thirds of your day’s sugar intake: 20 whopping grams. So, what’s the big deal, you ask? Take a little tour of your body and what sugar does to it:

Weakens Your Immune System: We know vitamin C keeps you healthy and helps your immune system fight off viruses and bacteria. Now, imagine sugar as the villain of this story, fighting for a place and pushing vitamin C down the staircase of your immune system. Sugar makes you sluggish as it weakens your body’s ability to maintain itself.

Diseases Associated with Sugar: Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, sugar can also aggravate asthma, and even mental illness. Sugar, for obvious reasons, can show increases in mood swings and changes in personality. Imagine, your happiness hindered by something that makes your taste buds swim. Would you rather have a brownie, Mountain Dew, or a good day? It’s a vicious cycle, because when you’re feeling low, sweets are your first craving (for most people), and they make your body suffer in turn. Sugar has also shown to increase the amount of yeast in your body, as the yeast feeds off the sugar and multiplies, leading to issues like liver disease, among many others.

What to do!: There’s no way you’re going to cut sugar out of your diet (because it’s physically impossible) and you can’t toss the sweets completely, just take it easy and be aware of how much you’re consuming. If you’re conscious of your sugar intake, I can guarantee that you’ll be better at limiting it. First off, don’t waste the taste on drinks. Stick to water, sugar free drinks, and avoid juices pumped with extra sugar. Read your labels, ladies and gentleman! Save your sugar for when you can actually taste it. Also, there are simple sugars that are okay to consume, like in fruits, vegetables, and honey. Try to stick to these when you’re looking for a treat, and maybe use honey or a sugar free sweetener in your coffee or tea. Just remember, you’ll feel better if you consume less sugar, and you won’t have those angry sugar crashes that make all day feel like nap time.

Don’t skip desert when you go out to dinner, or avoid your local bakery because you’re terrified of diabetes, just learn to limit your sugar intake to a reasonable amount. Try counting how much sugar you think you’ve consumed, based on labels, for a day or two. The first day count up what you would normally eat, and the second day eat based on how much you should be consuming and see how you feel on both days. What have you got to lose?

Written by Ashley Teal, Campus Clipper Blogger

See my blog Still Life With Teal

or follow me on Twitter @amteal

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