TVSCB - Chicken in Black Bean // Recipe

I recently introduced a new feature on my blog: The Virtual Student Cook Book, or TVSCB for short. The aim is to share the recipes I've picked up through my first year-and-a-bit of university, that are quick and easy as well as actually being nice. Today it's a chicken in black bean sauce stir-fry, which is my ultimate favourite.

Ingredients:

Chicken - I buy bags of frozen, ready-cooked chicken as it means you don't need to defrost it, and as it's already cooked there's no chance of food poisoning! It's also pretty cheap and can be picked up in the likes of Asda and Tesco, as well as Aldi.

Black Bean Sauce - You can buy this in jars or sachets: one sachet is enough for one person and you can grab them for 29p each in Home Bargains.

Vegetables - It's up to you what veg you put in; I like to have peppers, onions and courgettes, all of which can be found in Aldi or at fruit & veg shops for really cheap. You could add mushrooms, carrots or celery too.

Dried Noodles - These are also available in Home Bargains for around 60p, which gets you 4 'nests' - one nest is enough for one person, and once you've opened the packet they last forever: they're essentially the same as pasta! (you can get them in all the supermarkets too)

Let's get cooking...

I take a frying pan or wok and put some oil in, and some herbs/seasoning if I fancy a bit of extra flavour, although this isn't necessary. The chicken goes in first, as being frozen it needs a bit longer to cook.

While that's cooking, I chop my vegetables and boil the kettle ready for the noodles, which only take a few minutes to cook.

When the chicken has been sizzling for a while I add the vegetables, stirring them to make sure nothing gets stuck to the pan.

After a while I put the noodles on to cook, and once they're done I add them to the wok/frying pan so that they can 'stir fry'. I add the sauce too so it can heat through - and voila.

And you're done...

It's literally as easy as it - and it tastes amazing, although it looks pretty gross which is why I haven't included a photo. Naughty blogger. Don't shoot me. You might want to open the kitchen door or the windows when you're cooking to avoid the smoke alarm going off, and don't put the heat on too high as this can lead to burning the food while simultaneously leaving it uncooked. Hope you enjoy!

My First Year At University / The Round Up

I've seen a few people making videos along this line, and thought it would be a great idea for me to get my thoughts down about my experience during my first year of uni. I've tried to split this into sections but if you have any other questions feel free to drop me an email! And if anyone knows how I can enable comments on my posts I'd be super grateful???!!! Thanks xxxxxxxx

First things first, the basics. I study Journalism and Creative Writing BA (Hons) - joint honours. What this means is that my degree is a bachelor of the arts, and the joint honours bit means that I study two different subjects combined into one course. I go to the University of Chester in the North West of England.

ACCOMMODATION. Where I class as 'home' (as in, where I've lived for my whole life before uni and where my parents still live etc) is only a half an hour drive away from my university. That being said, I don't drive and it's over an hour on the train, so I applied for halls. I always knew that I wanted to live away from home to gain some independence and life experiences, so I had my heart set on these fancy "apartments" on the university campus. However, due to living so close to the uni originally, they turned me down. SAD FACE. This is definitely something to bear in mind when you are choosing your university/deciding where to live. So anyway, I only found this out the day before going on holiday for 2 weeks so I had literally a few hours to find somewhere to call home for the next year. I ended up in an 18-bedroom student house which is a 25 minute walk from campus (pain in the bum), with one kitchen and one living room. We all have en-suites. The house itself and everyone living there, all students, were fine but for me it was too far to walk every day (I'm lazy), and I felt very isolated living so far from campus, and living in such a massive house. For second year I am moving into a smaller house much closer to the university.

FRESHERS WEEK. I am not a massive going-out person so I was worried about how freshers week would pan out for me; however, it ended up being really fun and I had an absolute ball. In Chester where I go to uni there are only two clubs, so the night life isn't huge anyway - that being said it can be a really good night out, and our first night was a foam party. There was also a UV party during the week, as well as a DJ set from The Libertines. I found all the events to be well organised & well attended, and tickets were easy enough to get hold of. There was also the Freshers Fair, which is basically loads of organisations like the local dentist or local shops, getting together and giving you freebies. I literally only went because you got a free slice of Dominos. It wasn't great, and the queue was huge.

WORKLOAD. Most first years will tell you that the work load isn't massive, although it obviously depends from course to course. I was lucky in that I had no exams, so mine was all coursework which was individually assessed throughout the year. I found that I always had plenty of time to do the work, as long as I didn't forget about it, and none of it was so difficult that it made me want to quit. The tutors/lecturers were all really nice, and if there was a genuine reason for anyone needing a deadline they were normally happy to help. I sent many an email to my tutors throughout the year asking for help or advice with certain pieces of work and they would always get back to me telling me what I needed to do.

SPORTS/SOCIETIES. I didn't actually join a society and stick to it - I attempted to join the women's rugby team after meeting loads of the girls on a night out during freshers week, but I pulled a muscle in my neck during the first training session so that put me off for life. By then I thought it was probably too late to join another one, and with living so far away I thought it would have been a bit much; but I do regret this decision because my friends who have joined societies have really enjoyed it, and the social night on a Wednesday (which is always fancy dress) is so much fun. I've gegged in on a few.

FINANCE. I could rant about student finance for hours but I'm going to leave that for a separate post. However, I will state now that I receive the lowest amount of loan possible for a student living away from home. I have tried my best to budget this, but I did end up having to dip into my savings. Shops like Aldi are actually amazing for budgeting, because everything is super cheap and you can find pretty much everything you need. Everyone is different when it comes to what they spend money on, and if I'm honest most of mine probably went on taxis. Writing down what you spend seems to help, and while I wouldn't have wanted a part-time job this year, I'm on the look-out for one for my second year.

I hope this post has been useful to some of you, but like I said if there's any other bits and bobs you want to know please drop me an email!

Want to know my fave high street make up? 'course you do

A brand new blog

As a journalism student, the cliché thing to do is start a blog; however I'm not only a journalism student, as I actually major in Creative Writing. I know there are thousands of bloggers around nowadays, but having somewhere to share my thoughts and my day to day life, even if nobody reads it, appeals to me,

My blog isn't going to have a set 'theme', and by that I mean I'll be posting pretty much everything: beauty, fashion, skincare, lifestyle, food, events, creative writing etc etc etc THE LIST GOES ON.

But first a little bit about me; my name is Katy Gilroy and I'm about to turn 19. I'm also about to start my second year at the University of Chester in the North West of England. It rains a lot. I have no idea what I want to do beyond university, but writing is literally the only thing I'm anywhere near good at, so it will most likely involve that - which is a good thing because I love writing. I write a lot of poems, some of which have been published in various places, some of which I will never show to anyone. Blah blah. I am extraordinarily lazy. I suffer from both eczema and acne, so any skin-related posts (there will probably be many), will be aimed at that.

I am going to try and post every day, with the exception of when I'm on holiday etc and can't think of enough posts to schedule beforehand. Also please excuse the bizarre URL, literally everything I could think of was taken.

So there you have it, another little raindrop in the ocean of blogging, hoping to make a wave. (Was that too cheesy?)