Monthly Archives: May 2014

by Jenna Ostash

Hi There!

Whether you’re new to suite-style living, or have been here for years, I’m sure most of you struggle with the ever-present dilemma, should I get off my butt and cook a meal, or should I go grab some quick food from somewhere? If you’re anything like me, when academics and other commitments start to pile up, the first thing to go is my eating habits. When I’m stressed I start to feel like I don’t have time to cook an entire meal and opt for a quick (unhealthy) bite from the Village, which can be hard on both the budget and the waistline.

Here are a few tips that I’ve learned through experience (and through being raised by a thrifty mom!) on saving money and time by cooking smartly, it can’t hurt that the food is way healthier too!

1. Use Your Freezer!

The freezer is an often under-utilized tool for keeping food on hand and saving money at the grocery store. It’s not just good for Ben & Jerry’s, but you can store most foods in it for a long time, including meats, veggies, as well as fully cooked meals.  If you live in a studio like I do, consider purchasing a “mini-freezer”. They cost around $200-$300 but they can save you a lot of time and money in the long run!

 

2. Buy In Bulk!

Speaking of using your freezer, when you buy large quantities of (freezable) things, you can save a ton of money. Forget about those items that come in individual packets (single-portion chicken breasts anyone?) and do it yourself. Buy a lot and use freezer-safe baggies to make individual portions. I like to buy the massive packs of ground-beef ($12 for 2kg from Save-On) and weigh them into 1/3lb portions and freeze them flat.

 

3. Plan Ahead!

On the weekends or when you have some more free time, it’s a good idea to plan your meals for the week. This means figuring out what you’re going to eat each day and buying all the ingredients you might need. It’s also a good idea to try to make any “large-batch” items like quinoa salad etc. on the weekend then you can eat the left-overs all week. Plan to eat these leftovers especially on the days you know you’re going to be very busy. If you know that you have a meal planned for each day, it makes you much less likely to pop out to McDonald’s for a Big Mac.

 

4. Make Big Batches!

One of my favourite tips for cooking at home more is to make big batches of some staple meals and freezing them in individual portions. Some of my favourites include pasta sauce cooked with lots of veggies and spices , homemade chili, pulled pork (you can even freeze buns!), and homemade chicken soup. On those days when you have no motivation to cook, it’s nice to be able to pull out and thaw some yummy homemade pasta sauce and boil some noodles or have a bowl of delicious homemade soup. Another low-prep big-batch option is to invest in a slow cooker. You can just throw the ingredients in, turn it on, leave for the day, and come back to a delicious meal – I like to do my pulled pork in there.

If you’re interested in any of the recipes I’ve mentioned here, feel free to email me at jenna.d.ostash@gmail.com and I’d be happy to send them your way!

Happy studying and happy cooking!

 

 

 

 

 

by Jan Bartolome

I have been playing the guitar for 7 years now and I am still continuing to learn new things. There is a pretty large hump that all beginner guitar players go through before they can really start playing well. In my case, this hump took a year to get over. After that year however, I could learn songs within a few hours and have it memorized that very same day. Not only did I learn guitar, I also learned how to sing while playing.

 So how did I learn to play? One word. YouTube.

 There are so many beginner guides available on the Internet. YouTube has videos that you can follow and you can see how the other person is doing it. You can also learn at your own pace and you have the power to pause and replay videos. Of course, YouTube wasn’t my only teacher. I had a number of friends who were very into playing the guitar who taught me a few tips and tricks.

 I started out learning chords and getting used to the weird position my left hand would get into. After mastering the positions of four chords (G, Em, C, and D) I started to learn how to strum. I started out with single strums for each chord and then progressed into two strums and then a steady four beat strum per chord. This was where YouTube came in handy because I would watch videos on different strumming patterns and how to do them.

 From there, it was just a matter of dedicating a few hours every week to learning a song and I eventually got over the hump. Now, nothing relaxes me quite like playing the guitar and singing while lying on the grass or on the beach in the sun.

 Here is a video that you can use if you’ve never picked up a guitar before!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg-BRpn38L8

 I use this website to look for chords for different songs

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com

 Heads up for those who are interested… I will be running a program named “Jamming with Jan” this summer in Marine Drive Building 4 every month. I can teach you how to play guitar or the ukulele or we could just jam out if you already know how to play.

 Jan Bartolome

by Samantha Larsen

If you’re like me then you are delighted by the idea of having the liberty to read anything you want this summer – gone are the days of assigned readings about the post-communism Baltic region, soil sciences or anatomy – unless these are the topics you choose to explore this summer… to each their own.

 Personally, I like to create a summer reading list for myself every year so that I can have the great pleasure of checking things off of a checklist (admit it, you love checklists too!)

I am going to share with you part of my summer reading list, in the hope that it inspires you to create your own, or maybe even take a few of my recommendations.

The Fault in Our Stars:

 

 

This is an incredible, tear jerking, and emotionally packed novel. Unlike most typical disease stories, this story follows Hazel and Augustus, two teenagers, and explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

“Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.”

For those of you who do not feel like picking up this novel, lucky for you it is premiering on the big screen on June 6^th! Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort portray Hazel and Augustus respectively.

This is my #1 recommendation for everyone to read this summer.

A Long Way Gone:

 

 

This novel follows Beah through his daunting life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. This narrative is captivating and unlike any other of it’s kind that I have read.

“In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-six, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope.”

Importantly, this piece gives a voice to violence, and gives a reader a new perspective on war. I read this book in 24 hours, it is truly enthralling.

A House in the Sky:

 

 

This is the memoire of Amanda Lindhout, a Calgarian, who only imagined a life of travel and adventure. She backpacked through incredible countries such as Laos, Bangladesh and India, but when she arrived in Somalia, she was abducted by masked men on the side of a road. She was held hostage for 460 days and this novel is the story of her horrors and her search for compassion.

“The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world’s most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity—an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace.”

This much like the other books I have recommended is captivating beyond belief. You will not want to put this book down until you reach the final pages.

I hope you have gained some inspiration from this list, and realize that reading can be enjoyable after a tiring year of school. Grab a book, grab some sunscreen and head down to wreck beach and enjoy everything that Vancouver has to offer during the summer.

 

By: Skyler (Maple House Residence Advisor)

 So you remember that time when you couldn’t decide what to do with this new person you are seeing? They are perceived to be bad for you – emotionally unstable, take days to text back, doesn’t really show how they feel about you, a wild card, someone you are absolutely unsure of. And as you contemplate your next course of action, you somehow always find yourself praying for someone who consistently puts you first, is never unavailable and will do everything you ask of them. But when a person like that shows up in your life, you almost always take them for granted, and your fantasies of the bad guy will re-emerge.

 Why are humans like that? Why do we always go for what is bad for us? It’s like a drug that throws all rationality out of the window. We find ourselves going back to the bad guys over and over again. But are we programmed to be like this? Or are their underlying societal forces?

 Turns out, it is in our nature that we like unpredictability. “A recent psychiatric study, which monitored subjects’ brains via MRI scans, found that when presented with rewards in an unpredictable pattern, people’s pleasure centers lit up far more than when the pattern was predictable. The greater joy was in the surprise. To come back to our issue, most people seek a stable, loving, desirable and supportive partner, but the uncontested reality of infidelity among married partners and the enduring attraction to “bad boys” bears out the study’s findings. Call it a conscious desire for “variety” or a subconscious jones for “unpredictability,” there is now a possible reason why human beings have a hard time resisting pleasure that is erratic — even when it goes against our self-interest or belief system. We’re just wired that way.”

 There we go. It’s in our nature to play with fire and go for what we are unsure of. That being said, we can’t expect to fall back on these findings as an excuse for poor life decisions because we’re supposed to “use our conscious knowledge to override our unhealthy or undesirable impulses.”

 What are your views on this, ’cause I wanna hear them.

Email me – skyler@ieatshampoo.com