Food habits

Hello foodies, today is the day I share some of my experiences as the head chef of the kitchen located on the ground floor of my dormitory (by head chef I mean that I prepare my own food). Our kitchen is a functional place for the guys on my floor who relentlessly carry their ingredients and cooking utensils back and forth from their respective rooms to the kitchen. Inside we have the basics including washing basins, stoves with an integrated oven and a counter top. Though some say there should have also been a microwave oven to heat our cold meals, apparently no one had the courage to go and ask to the responsable person about this issue. This is the kuchnia ("kitchen" in Polish).

Food, glorious food

It is one of those things that we have to take care of everyday. After all, they say "you are what you eat", so in order to provide good and wholesome food for my body I somehow opted to go on a plant based diet. Now I know some of you might get skeptical and raise an eyebrow or two questioning how can one survive without eating meat. Well, for me I try to satisfy my bodies needs and for the moment I don't need to buy meat products and cook them, but at the same time I would be more than glad to have a good meat dish so in the end it's all about not exaggerating with the quantities and how often do I consume meat. Apart from this, any form of vegetable, fruits, whole grains, dairy products and legumes are always present in my food shelf ready to be cooked. This is the very first meal I cooked:

You can see a lot of buckwheat ("kasza grczana" in Polish) with some broccoli, red bell peper and curcuma. Though it might sounds a bit contradictory, I also have some Polish sausage in there, I guess at that time I needed to cook meat. The food that I prepared that day lasted for a couple of days and instead of going to the canteen for lunch I brought it with me to the university and enjoyed it even though it was a little bit cold.

For any one staying staying in Poland I recommend you to try this super food: buckwheat. It is a very versatile, inexpensive and packed with many nutrients. The one that I always buy comes with four plastic bags contaning each 100g of buckwheat which you can simply put in a pot with boiling water or open the plastic bag and put the buckwheat directly.

First thing in the morning

The first meal of the day is crucial to get a head start on the day and as they say, "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper", so for breakfast what I like to make is oats. Again here in Poland the supermarkets are well prepared when it comes to providing a wide range of oat flakes, muesli and many more. This simple but highly valuble superfood is easy to prepare: the main idea is to put 1 cup of oats to 3 cups of water and in no more than 10-15 minutes the oats will have a porridge consistancy, which just thinking about it now makes me watery mouth.

At this point there in no limit to your fantasy, you can add whatever you want to it. I like slicing some apples or pears and add them together with some cinnamon, honey and poppy seeds. This could also be an inspiration for another breakfast idea...

Study break

For this one I like to snack on bananas, fresh white yogurt and some honey which it might sound like too sweet but you have to try it firsthand and possibly let me know if you have any twist for this quick break snack, or even about the rest of the recipes that I mentioned. Another option that I like is to bake a cake and put it in the fridge and have a slice whenever I feel hungry for a snack. This is a millet cake that I made:

And this is a slice for you, my faithful readers!

Cheers everyone!

Photo gallery