September 2008, I packed my life into lots of boxes and headed for the capital of Scotland to begin my life as a university student. I'm being honest when I say that I felt nothing but excitement, I'm not a nervous person. I did lots of cooking for the family when I lived at home, but it's a totally different thing when you're cooking every meal for 1 person and the portions are naturally a lot smaller, so I figured some student cookbooks would be a good investment before I left. The Nosh 4 Students cookbook caught my attention straightaway because it was colourful. The RRP on the back of the book is £6.99 but Amazon sells it brand new for £5.19. There are currently 28 used and new from as little as £2.00 by private sellers. As the saying goes, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and as Amazon allow you to have a sneaky peak through a few pages, it give you the chance to decide if this book is for you or not.

The book is extremely colourful from the outset and contains a lot of pictures so you know what your final product should look like. The contents are as follows; introduction and general information, basics, soups, sausages, meats, fun foods, chicken, vegetarian, fish, salads and cakes and desserts. The contents page is then followed by a "limited utensils" list which tells you exactly what you need to measure, prepare and cook everything in the book - how well organised is this? Following this, there is a list of Golden Rules, such as getting help from housemates, making sure your cooking and storage areas are clean and so on. There is also a section on good buying ideas, hints for saving money, making extra and freezing it and so on. The book also includes alternatives if you don't have all of the necessary utensils and food hygiene, which is brilliant for reference for anyone, especially students! There is also a list of recommended cooking times for potatoes, rice, pasta and all vegetables as guidelines in case you haven't cooked them before. Then the recipes begin! Here are a few quick dishes to whet your appetite......

Quick Shepherd's pie
Mexican beef
Hawaiian risotto
Lemon chicken
Spicy prawns
Squidgy chocolate pudding
Nicole's nutty brownies

Each meal is rated by a starred system as to how difficult or time consuming it is; naturally, the more stars something has, the more difficult or time consuming it is. It ranges from 1 star to 5 star for when you're feeling really confident. To be honest I think even the 5 star ones are fairly easy, but I had done a lot of cooking before I left home anyway. I really like the way that it is split into sections, so if you wanted a recipe with sausages all the recipes are together, the same with chicken, soups, or if you're looking to make a quick dessert after tea then you can skip straight to the section you want. The book also has an index which is also really easy to use. Although some of the recipes contain meat, they often come with advised vegetarian alternatives which are great if you fancy a change, whether vegetarian or not. As I mentioned earlier, every single dish comes with high quality, colour photos so that you get an idea of what it should look like when you're finished, because let's face it, it doesn't always turn out how we want it to!

All in all this book was a great investment and it kept me and my flatmates amused for much of the year....when we could be bothered to cook anyway, if not there was always salads and lighter options that were quicker, just keep an eye out for those wee stars at the top! Personally I'd recommend it for families as well. There are a lot less people who do home cooking and cannot resist the temptation of takeaways or ready meals, but everything in this book is so simply set out that I would recommend it to anyone. I have been back home for almost 2 months now and have cooked various things from this book for my entire family and they love it; even just basic things like the mini pizzas with homemade wedges and a fancy salad. Quick and easy after a long day at the office and happy customers all round!