Nosh For Students by Joy May

Another great cookbook for students with a vegetarian cookbook also available. This cookbook is designed specifically for students when the authors son left for university without knowing how to cook any meals. This book has a key, similar to the last cookbook I reviewed (The Ultimate Student Cookbook), although there are more specific keys such as length of preparation and cooking times separately along with the cost of the meal per person to the penny.

The book has similar categories to the Ultimate, although there are a wider variety:

The basics – with essentials such as budgeting and planning meals for the week

Fast Food

Broke but hungry

One-pot dishes

Something mum might cook

Vegetarian

Something for the weekend

Friends around

Make your own takeaways

Comfort food

Date-Night

Cakes and Cookies

Desserts

These recipes all have photos besides them so you can compare your creations to how they’re supposed to look! There is also a “V” printed next to recipes if they can be made vegetarian (outside of the vegetarian category) such as by using vegetarian meats or changing ingredients. The meals are well organised, making it easy to find exactly what you are looking for, from a quick meal which is cheap with little washing up, to a more expensive meal which takes a bit longer but will impress. There are also snack foods like salad dips and nachos as well, meaning that you’ll never have to phone mum again to ask how to cook!

Recommended for:

Anyone who needs help with cooking.

This is designed for students who are on a tight budget (and notoriously lazy!) but is also suitable for anyone who has trouble with cooking healthy meals for cheap and wants some helpful ideas

Age recommendation:

Any age!

It’s a cookbook, children can either cook recipes with their parents or choose dinner, teens can cook and adults can use it for cheap and tasty ideas!

Comment what books you would like me to review next 🙂
Theowlemporium

The Begining

Well here we go, my first blog. I’m oddly nervous about something where I’m completely anonymous. Maybe that’s because I’m about to tell people what I’ve never told anyone before.

This blog will be about my depression, and just to start out I haven’t been medically diagnosed and I’m not on any medication, but I feel like I need to give it a name – the feeling that makes me want to kill myself – I have to name it and shame it. Depression seems to fit best of all.

I’ve started this blog after years of suffering in silence, trying to get by every day. But around 4 months ago, I broke down and told my boyfriend everything. (For the sake of privacy I’ll call him ‘A’, and Grace isn’t my real name 🙂 )

For a few months after I told him we just dealt with it together, but eventually, after my form tutor noticed something was wrong, A persuaded me to tell him. It was a huge step for me because I didn’t feel like people would accept me if they knew, and it gave me the strength to tell my best friend too.

For a little while this worked out great, I had a support net and I felt a lot better. But then my form tutor asked me “So are you better now?” and me, not wanting to seem weak, said yes. But I lied, I’m not feeling better, and I can’t keep using my boyfriend as a therapist. We’re only young, me being 18 and him being 17, and he can’t deal with it. The panic he gets when I don’t reply to texts after I’ve said that somethings wrong, he’s cried a few times and he’s even had to tell his parents because he didn’t know how to cope.

I know a lot of you (if anyone is reading this) will wonder where my parents are in all of this. Well, they’re in the background, not knowing that anything is wrong. I’ve never had a close relationship with my parents, I just feel that if I told them they would laugh at me like they normally do, and I don’t want to bother them with my problems.

I started writing this today after my feelings almost ended my relationship. I was so close to breaking up with him, because I feel so guilty every day. But he wants me to go and speak to someone, a doctor or therapist, but I thought I could try this and see if the internet could help me. I hope that whoever is reading this isn’t going through what I’m going through, but if you are or if your situation is worse, I hope this little blog can help just a little bit and show you that you’re never alone.

So that’s my first blog post, can’t wait to hear your reactions.

Gracethedisgrace, signing off