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Change generation

5 recipes to master on your first time away from home

One to impress, one to kill the pasta craving, the quickest stir fry, top curry and the all-day breakfast.

This article is part of our Change Generation project, supported by KBC. To read more click here.

IF YOU’RE LIVING away from home for the first time, it might come as quite a shock how much you need to do day-to-day to just keep yourself clean and fed.

Often the easiest (and least healthy, and most expensive) option beckons – particularly when it comes to food. Why, you say, would you spend 20 minutes cooking a curry when you could pick one up at the local takeaway around the corner?

Because, cooking for yourself isn’t as daunting as it may seem. You don’t need loads of fancy ingredients and kitchenware. Just commit these five easy recipes to memory and you’ll never have to crack open a recipe book again (or to open one in the first place…).

1. When breakfast can be dinner…

Charles Haynes Charles Haynes

The ultimate easy to make recipe is an omelette. At it’s very core, heat a pan, crack two eggs into a mug, stir, pour into your hot frying pan, cook for approximately five minutes. Done.

You can jazz it up depending on what you have lying around adding tomatoes, onions, peas, ham, potatoes or whatever takes your fancy. It can be a light snack or a filling main meal. Here’s an easy recipe.

2. Go (coco)nuts for curry

Coconut Curry Chicken - The Woks of Life Judy Judy

A coconut curry is such a quick and tasty dish to whip up. You can make it vegetarian by adding more vegetables like cauliflower, carrots and potatoes, or try this chicken version – which you can whip up in one pot in about 25 minutes or so.

3. Stir fry in a flash

YouTube YouTube

A stir fry is another really versatile dish that can be on your plate in less than a half an hour. Whether you make it completely vegetarian, use chicken, beef or even shrimp, have rice or noodles, there are so many variations.

4. Everybody loves spaghetti (don’t they?)

Easy spaghetti Bolognese BBC Food BBC Food

Spaghetti bolognese is one of those dishes that is really versatile, can be cooked in around 30 minutes, and the bolognese can be used as the base for other dishes such as lasagna.

If you’re vegetarian you can easily swap the meat with a meat replacement or loads of vegetables. Here’s a really easy recipe to get you started.

5. For when you want to impress

Really easy roast chicken Barney Desmazery Barney Desmazery

Don’t get alarmed, a roast chicken dinner is not that hard, promise. Plus, once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s a very impressive dish to whip up – if you were trying to impress anyone that is. Like your ma.

This recipe is so simple even a kid could make it (with a little help from a grown up).  It even has instructions for kids in there, too. So you’ve no excuse not to master it.

What’s your easy go-to recipe? Let us know in the comments below.

Flying the nest: What to pack and how to settle in>

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