Our favourite student meals

Descriptive transcript

Hey everyone! Welcome back to another UTS Student Hacks podcast with Kelly and Rachel.

It’s week five already, and it feels like I’m behind on eight weeks’ worth of content. Sometimes I am so focused on studying and getting things done for uni, that I forget to do other important things—things such as preparing and eating food.

One thing Rachel and I have noticed is that some of us really do forget about breakfast and its importance. That’s why we’ll be talking about how we do breakfast, and how we incorporate healthy foods during a busy day.

Warning: you might get really hungry during this episode, so grab a snack and settle in.

If there is any meal of the day I cannot pass, that would be breakfast. For those coffee drinkers out there, breakfast to me would be the equivalent to your coffee. It helps me function like a normal human being, making coherent sentences and being able to try to understand the content of the lecture.

What about you, Rachel?

I personally have only started to eat breakfast recently. Not that I have anything against it—I just find myself with little to no time in the morning, and so I prioritise other things over making breakfast. I realised though, that I end up not having much energy and so I can’t really focus on tasks till later in the afternoon for lunch. This has changed tremendously after I started introducing breakfast to my daily routine. I realised that I didn’t need to have something really fancy like one of those buffets in the Harry Potter movies. It can be anything. What would be your go-to, Kelly?

Wouldn’t we all love a breakfast buffet just like those at Hogwarts? Sadly, my go-to breakfast can be described as basic at best—and that is cereal. Regardless of whether you are a cereal-milk or milk-cereal person, having cereal for breakfast is so easy to make. Other than cereal, I could have some toast with strawberry jam or peanut butter. If I have extra time, I might cut up some fruit or cook some eggs.

That sounds really nice! I also eat something light for breakfast. My go-to’s are either scrambled eggs on toast or a peanut butter and jelly toast.

For the moments when I do not have time for lunch, I tend to bring a snack with me such as fruits, chips or biscuits. I tend to prepare this the day before or in the morning.

I’m actually a really forgetful person, so instead of forgetting to pack up some food containers with me, I usually put a handful of muesli and granola bars in my bag. This way, I don’t have to worry about them getting spoiled, and I also have taken the habit of snacking on them when I get hungry. They help me last till lunch or dinner!

Now let’s go back to the talk about it being week five (not to stress you out or anything). It’s expected that we will spend more time being focused on uni-related tasks. Even as a big foodie myself, I usually avoid cooking or even thinking about making food because of all the money I need to spend on the ingredients, all the time I need to cook, and most importantly all the effort I have to put in for cleaning up afterwards.

That’s why we are focusing on what we all like: budget-friendly, relatively easy, yummy dishes.

So we are going to be making a Greek yoghurt breakfast bowl and the very basic avocado toast. You can alternate between these dishes or even have them both in the morning if you are feeling extra hungry.

We have chosen these two dishes as they are highly customisable and do not really require any culinary skills. The recipes for these two dishes will be linked in the resources section below.

We are now joined by Adrienne from the Organic Food Co-op to provide insight into organic and sustainable food.

Adrienne: My name is Adrienne and I’m the CEO of the Broadway Food Co-op at UTS. We provide sustainably sourced organic food to UTS staff and students and the Ultimo community.

So what is the Organic Food Co-op?

Adrienne: It was started by the Environment Officer of the Students Association about a dozen years ago, as a cart at first and then in a quiet space that no one else was interested in using. It was to provide healthy, sustainable food for staff and students at a price that they could afford. At the time, before it became trendy to provide organic food, it was quite an expensive option, and it was something different for students other than fast food and the sorts of foods that are available in the Ultimo area. That’s still what we’re providing today. Although everything now is organic, we try to source in Australia as much as possible to lower our carbon footprint.

But a lot of the time, what we’re providing is information. People want to know what does it mean by organic—is it just a trendy word or is there some sort of value behind that word? How does it coincide with sustainability? What can they do at home? And sometimes just, how do I create a meal from this food source if you’ve never made couscous before? Sometimes just a little assistance, a recipe or even just trying it out. That way you haven’t purchased $10 worth of couscous with no idea how to provide it—you’ve made it once, it was awful, and it’s stuck in the back of your cupboard for the next four years until you graduate and throw it out. So a lot of the time it’s information rather than food that we’re providing, and we’re more than happy to do that.

What is the importance of purchasing organic, sustainable food in your opinion?

Adrienne: Organics is one of the steps to sustainability. Sustainability is: we’re not using up more resources than the planet can provide. After all, there is no Planet B that we can just move to once we’re finished here. The Broadway Food Co-op provides information as well as the organically grown food in order to be a part of the UTS sustainability practices that are taught in almost every lesson.

For students that are listening to this podcast, how can they get involved in the Broadway Food Co-op?

Adrienne: Well, we’re always looking for volunteers. At the moment, it’s just myself and one other person. You could do your projects through us—we’ve had business students doing their end projects with us based on pricing, based on marketing. We’ve had design students doing their projects with us based on logos and marketing campaigns, so we’re certainly there for you. Anyway at all! If you have ideas, we have market days, we join in the open days of course, we have stalls where we’re promoting sustainability and organic foods, we always need help with those, so anything you can think of, we’re more than happy to take on board.

Any final words that you’d like to give us?

Adrienne: Only that we’re here as a suggestion, that’s all. We certainly wouldn’t want anyone to give up fast foods altogether—every member of the Broadway Food Co-op has always been a big fan of Uni Brothers chips, just like anyone else is—but this is an alternative, that’s all. Come in and see us and try out something new and different just once. You never know, you may like it. We’re just there as part of the diverse mix, if you will. We have dry foods, we have drinks, we have snack foods, and we have lots and lots of information. And we have a lot of tea too—organics have always been big on tea. So come down and have a cup of tea, if nothing else.

Now we’ll be talking to Tyler Key, who is a UTS Associate Lecturer and Personal Trainer, about the importance of regular eating patterns and eating in moderation.

Tyler: Hi, my name’s Tyler and I’m an Associate Lecturer at UTS in the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation. I’m also a personal trainer. So I was a student at UTS and while I was a student I coached people at the gym, mainly working on different exercises and stuff like that, but nutrition plays a big part of that as well.

What is the bare minimum to sustain a healthy diet as a uni student?

Tyler: The bare minimum… It’s very individualised. So depending on each person and how active you are, you’re going to need a different amount of food. It works best—everyone’s individualised, so everyone has their bare minimum that they need to get. If you had to put a frame around it, it would be at least trying to get two good meals a day. But it’s really what works for you.

As a personal trainer, what are the biggest problem areas you have identified in uni students?

Tyler: Uni students are usually pretty busy—they’re usually studying as well as working. So just the lack of time to plan and prepare and figure out what it is they need to eat or how much exercise they need to get in can be really tricky. And on the flip side, because you are studying as well as working, money—trying to find cheap, easy meals to make at the same time.

So we did go over in this episode how some students skip food because they can’t be bothered making their own food or buying ingredients that are healthy as well as cheap. What would be your top advice concerning this?

Tyler: The first step is to figure out what it is you like, and what you actually like eating. People are different—they’re going to like different sorts of things. The best way to think about it is to explore and figure out what is cheap at your supermarket, and depending on what kind of meal you’re looking for. Chicken breast is always super cheap and quick, super easy to prepare. Frozen vegetables—they are prepared and they’re going to give you the nutrients you need for your body to work well so you can study better. Stuff like Greek yoghurt is great. If you’re plant-based, any of your legumes or beans—always make sure you’re including those. It’s really about trying to understand what it is that you like eating and what is quick and easy to prepare, then planning that and getting it done.

And just going off that lack of time, I personally struggle with the mornings—that’s when I need to rush, catch my train, get dressed, get everything sorted. Do you have anything about the importance of breakfast and why we need to prioritise it?

Tyler: The main reason that breakfast is important is coming back to being consistent. A lot of people, not just students, skip breakfast—they might have a small snack or something at lunch because they’re really busy or studying, and it gets to after work or at the end of the day and they’re starving, and they end up devouring a whole packet of chips and a whole block of chocolate and end up feeling not great. So the reason breakfast is important is more so for consistency. If you’re consistent with your meals on a daily basis, your energy levels are going to be good throughout the day, and you’ll be able to have the energy you need to do the work or study or whatever it is you need to do. That consistency allows you on a day-to-day basis to be set up for your day—it’s like having your morning routine.

For something quick and easy, what do you think is a go-to snack or food that we should go to?

Tyler: For snacks, think about how you can add more of the good stuff. Everyone’s like, “We need to avoid chocolate, avoid crisps and stuff like that.” Rather than thinking about taking stuff away, how can you just increase the amount of vegetables and fruit that you’re having? Green beans, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, carrots are my favourites. You can combo those with dips to make it more exciting, and then any of your standard fruits—berries, apples, oranges, citrus fruits—are all fantastic, quick and easy, on the go. One thing that is important to keep your energy levels up and to stay feeling satisfied is protein as well, so that’s where the Chobani yoghurts are fantastic—quick and easy, hits a lot of the nutritional areas that you would need to get.

Is there some food that is specifically effective for studying and helping us focus during classes?

Tyler: I think a lot of the time people come to the mindset that this specific food is going to help you think better, but there’s no specific food that’s going to do that. It’s more about having balanced nutrition throughout your day and in your life. In terms of studying and getting the energy you need, again, my favourite would be the baked pea crisps—they’re super yummy, easy to snack on. Dark chocolate, instead of your really sugar-loaded milk chocolate, dark chocolate is awesome and hits that sugar fix that you need. Nuts are good, but in moderation—if you’ve ever looked at the serving size of nuts compared to what you grab, they’re super energy dense, and you don’t need that many.

If you could give any student just three tips on how to maintain a healthy diet and stay motivated throughout the day, what would those three tips be?

Tyler: You can literally sum up good nutrition in one sentence: eat mostly plants and fruit, have protein with each meal, and eat in moderation. One of the big things that I see students do is they say some foods are good or bad. Foods don’t actually have any morals—we’re just saying that they’re good or bad. When you say, “Oh, chocolate’s bad for me,” but chocolate’s great, right? You enjoy chocolate. So if you say chocolate’s bad and you eat it, you feel bad. So re-thinking how you’re thinking about your food—where it’s not if it’s good or bad, it’s just, “I have to eat some foods in moderation, and that’s okay.”

Actually paying attention to when you’re eating—a lot of students, because you’re trying to do a million things at once and you’re snacking while you’re working on something. My top tip for that is, rather than snacking while you’re studying, just take five minutes, take a break, go eat a snack, pay attention to what you’re eating. The reason for that is when you’re eating while you’re doing something, your brain isn’t paying attention to the digestion of your food, and so you’ll end up finishing a whole bag of chips and you’ll be like, “Oh, I’m still hungry,” whereas if you just took a five-minute break, ate some chips, enjoyed them, paid attention to it, you’d probably be pretty good—you wouldn’t need the whole bag. So yeah, eat mindfully, pay attention to your food while you eat it.

And probably last thing, you’re going to make mistakes with food at uni, whatever it is. So rather than thinking you have to get this right every single day, just focus on getting a little bit better every day and just being self-compassionate about however your day went and just be like, “Tomorrow’s a new day, we’ll get back on it.”

Thanks for sticking to the end of this podcast about breakfast. A quick summary: have an eating routine to ensure you have enough energy to last you throughout the whole day. Foods do not have morals, so they are not inherently good or bad—just be sure to have them in moderation. And finally, diversify your diet, which may include trying out organic and sustainable foods.

Talk to you all in our next podcast. Until then, stay fed.