Intellicig and I have the answer to your problem, as part of their #gogreen campaign we’ve teamed up to give a lucky entrant the chance to win one of these wicked little herb gardens.

So what are you waiting for? ENTER BELOW!

Win an amazing indoor herb allotment! !!

The post Competition – INDOOR HERB ALLOTMENT! #GOGREEN! appeared first on The Healthy Hangover - Student Food Blog. Student recipes and guides.

Student Food Shopping Tips

Budget & plan accordingly

Before undertaking your weekly food shop sit down and figure out your budget and what you’re going to be eating for the rest  of the week. Research recipes that use the same ingredients to cut down on food waste, it’s not the most romantic of eating but it will stand to save you a lot of money. 

The meal planner template above can be downloaded here, print it off and stick it to your fridge! It’s a great idea to pick recipes that can be made in bulk and frozen for busy midweek evenings. 

Performing an on line groceries shop is also the perfect way to organise your shop, it’s convenient and if you combine your shop with a house-mate you can cut the delivery charge by half. Also be sure to have a quick look for any discount codes you could use before you place your order online, a couple of place you should look are My Voucher Codes and Money Saving Expert

Frozen food is your friend 

Don’t shy away from the frozen aisle, frozen meat (such as chicken breast) and frozen vegetables are often dramatically cheaper when frozen. Currently you can get a kilo of frozen chicken breasts from Asda for under £4, a lot cheaper than it’s fresh counterpart. 

No brand, no problem

Are you a brand snob? Do you find yourself buying branded versions of store cupboard basics? If you’re spending over 30p for a tin of chopped tomatoes you’re definitely getting mugged off. It might not seem like a lot of money but over time these little costs can add up. 

As a rule of thumb, for store cupboard basics it doesn’t really matter about the brand. Always go for the supermarket own brand over their pricier product relatives.

Sharing is caring

As a student it’s likely you’ll be in a house share, use this to your advantage. Purchase food that’s on offer in bulk and split it between your house mates. This means you’ll be able to take advantage of the savings but not have a surplus of food and an empty wallet. 

It’s also a good idea to take this further and take turns cooking meals for each other, cooking together can be a great experience and it’ll save you a ton of money to boot. It’s a win-win situation, just remember to do the washing up when you’re not cooking!

Clear up the clearance section

If you live near to a supermarket this is a great little tip to make the most of reduced price food. It involves figuring out the best time to visit wherein the clearance section will have the most items in. 

Traditionally this is always around half an hour before they shut, it might seem a  bit awkward to skulk around waiting for staff to reduce items, but it’s well worth doing so. If items are reduced drastically and are freezable be sure to swoop them up for future meals.

Asda, Aldi & Lidl

These are going to be the biggest weapons in your frugal food shopping arsenal, 99% of the time they will be cheaper than other shops. Even if it’s a 30 minute walk away it’ll be worth it (or bribe a friend that drives with the promise of a free dinner)

Local Markets / Green Grocers – Tip from Louise over at Poppy and the bees

Your local greengrocer/market is your friend! In season fresh produce is way cheaper than super market packaged stuff and can often be frozen if you find a huge bargain.
Also: Shop at the end of the day when they’re packing up and you’ll get even more for your money!

 Buy In Bulk / No waste, No Worries – Tip from Josh at Student Eats

Buy in bulk! Get cupboard staples that’ll last for a while (e.g pasta, tins) in big quantities f you can as it’ll be a lot cheaper. Split this with a housemate and you’re on to even more savings!

Also, don’t chuck off food away! Search online for recipes, e.g. stale bread can be made into bread and butter pudding and overripe bananas into all sorts (cakes, pancakes, etc).

So there you have it folks, my tips on saving money whilst student food shopping – be sure to comment any tips you have below!

The post How to save money on your student food shop appeared first on The Healthy Hangover - Student Food Blog. Student recipes and guides.

Luckily my house mate works in a wine bar in Brighton so I can pick up good bottles of wine for cheap (Thank you staff discount…)  

Do you have any tips for drinking well on the cheap? 

The post How to pair food with wine – Infographic appeared first on The Healthy Hangover - Student Food Blog. Student recipes and guides.

1) Preventative measures 

• Make sure you get at least 5/6 hours sleep, worst case scenario 4.  DO NOT go to work without any sleep, in this situation to just admit that you screwed up and call in sick. 
• Eat when you get home & drink a lot of water to follow it up (This means you can skip breakfast, you might be nauseous in the morning)
• Brush your teeth as soon as you get home as well, trust me – It’ll make it a lot easier to get rid of the smell of alcohol if it hasn’t festered. 
• Make sure your work uniform is washed and smells fresh, this will help disguise your hangover from your coworkers & boss (Just because you feel like shit, doesn’t mean you have to look like shit)

2) Appearance 

• This is phenomenally important, since if you play it cool your outward appearance is the only thing that will give you away as soon as you walk in. 
• As soon as you wake up, hazily haul your ass into the shower – this will help in waking you up and if you shampoo and use shower gel you’ll wash away the smell of any alcohol that may have been spilt on you (It’ll also help keep up the ruse that you’re a functioning human being) 
• Brush your teeth again, this is incredibly important – since no one that’s at a cafe/restaurant wants to be served by someone that smells like a brewery, it’s a dead giveaway and if someone complains you might even lose your job.
• If you wear your hair in a particular way, make sure you put the effort in and do so. You don’t want to arouse any suspicion after all. 

3) Attitude

As anyone with a hangover knows, you’ll be quite sensitive and ready to snap

• You’re guaranteed to get a customer that makes your life living hell. If someone really pushes your buttons, take deep breaths and walk away – if they have a complaint regarding food or service direct them towards your manager.
• The advice above goes for crossing wires with your manager & boss – Don’t take anything to heart that they say if they find out you’re hungover, everyone has been there.

4) Organisation

 Hangovers / sleep deprivation will gravely affect your cognitive abilities & short term memory, unfortunately working as a waiter requires you to have both of these, here’s some tips if you’re not feeling all there: 

• Write every order down, being a waiter in its basest form is simply relaying information between the customer & the chef. By writing everything in shorthand you’ll be sure to not forget anything that people say. Be sure to get everything, including tiny alterations that if missed could lead to complaints.
• Read back difficult orders, this is absolutely essential as it will prevent you from getting in trouble if there is something wrong with their order – this should be your number one priority before leaving a table!

5) Coworkers 

• DO NOT tell your coworkers that you went out, there is the possibility that they will relay the information to your manager/ boss! This will look particularly bad if you’re denied going out.
• If there’s a difficult customer you don’t want to serve, strategically pass it off to your co worker, by simply picking another table and taking your time. 

 6) Ask to leave early

• If you’re feeling really horrendous, make up an excuse and get out of there – sure it looks bad but it’s not as bad as messing up a large amount of orders or vomiting in the workplace. 

The post How to survive a hangover at work – Waiter edition appeared first on The Healthy Hangover - Student Food Blog. Student recipes and guides.

The only option you have, is to grit your teeth and get on with it. But between me and you, there’s a lot of ways you can make it slightly less worse.  

So here’s my personal list of tips on how to survive a hangover: 

1) Preventative measures 

• Drink slightly less 
• Be sure to coat your stomach with something carb heavy, like this pizza 
• Make sure you have nothing to do the day after! Or at least until in the afternoon of the next day… This may also mean figuring out a creative excuse to get off work.
• Furthermore, you need to EAT on your night out as well – I’ve always found that eating when you get in during the early hours will make your feel dramatically better. 
• Make sure you cram at least 7 hours of sleep in before you have to wake up

2) Follow your usual hygiene routine(s)!

• I know being hungover is a great excuse to just hang out in your dirty pajamas and binge watch Netflix – BUT you can for sure do this without wallowing in your own filth. As soon as you wake up haul your drunk ass into the shower and scrub up! Same goes for cleaning your teeth when you get in, you will feel infinitely better when you wake up. 

3) Stopping nausea / vomiting

• The ugliest part of a hangover, nothing says “I had a bit too much to drink” like a projectile spray of kebab & red wine. 
• The best thing to do when nauseous, unfortunately, is to puke your guts up. This is pretty easy to do, if anything it’s much harder to hold it down. If you even attempt to do this you’ll have a very unpleasant time.
• Once the nausea / vomiting begins to subside, eat something very neutral & light (toast and crackers are great examples of this) and sip on diluted fruit juice to restore some of the sugars you painted the wall with.

4) Engage in physical activity (briefly)

• Just a short burst of cardio can get your blood pumping and release endorphins that’ll have you feeling better in no time.
• A brief list of non stressful activities you could undertake :

1. A quick walk to the supermarket
2. A light jog / bike ride  followed by a sit down in the park 
3. A swim (cold water, surprisingly can shock you into feeling better!) 
4. Sexual intercouse. 

5) Avoid heavy carbs the day after, stick to protein & vegetables

• Going in to heavy on your hangover will stop you dead, it’s advisable to have something light - like this, eggs have been scientifically proven to positively affect your hangover, so get chomping!

6) Drink lots & lots of water. 

• This is literally your number 1 priority, one of the reasons you’ll feel bad during a hangover is due to alcohols diuretic effect, you shouldn’t just be drinking water when you get in from your debaucherous night out – you should also drink on your waking & throughout the day. 

7) Take drugs (The over  the counter kind silly)

• If you’re feeling sluggish, have a cup of coffee for a caffeine kick back to s ober reality.
• If you have a headache, it’s advisable to take paracetamol or ibuprofen, since a headache is one thing you can sort out fairly easily. 

8) Think positively

• There’s nothing worse than a bout of depression or anxiety when hungover, always try to keep in the best frame of mind and surround yourself with good people!
• Remember to tell yourself that it won’t be much longer until you feel like your normal self again, be sure to put a smile on it. 

9) Hair of the dog (Get drunk again) 

• This is one for the brave, but something I’m sure we’ve all indulged in .
• Knock back something easy like a ginger beer and get back on the wagon, of course this will only delay the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal commonly displayed as a hangover, as temporary measures go it’s a pretty good one. 

10) Sleep it off

• There’s no shame in admitting defeat, if you’re feeling that truly rotten and have no reason to leave the  house, crawl back into bed and get napping.

The post 10 tips on how to survive a hangover appeared first on The Healthy Hangover - Student Food Blog. Student recipes and guides.