Mindful Ink     Life, Living and Productivity

There’s only one big trick to getting into the habit of cooking some of your meals as opposed to letting the guy with a dirty apron getting paid $5.15 an hour be in charge of the stuff that keeps you alive.  Just one.

Have a well stocked pantry.

That’s it.

Well, that’s mostly it.  I also include in that your refrigerator and freezer.

If you stock up on basics that don’t go bad quickly you’ll always have stuff on hand and then grocery trips become “maintenance” trips as opposed to massive expenditures of cash.  The trick here is figuring out what to buy and how much of it.  If you cook an awful lot a place like Sam’s or Costco can be a pretty good deal, but if you don’t cook much than most of what you may buy there (plus the cost of membership) will go bad before you use it (with the exception of canned goods, pasta, etc.)

This site here can help you a lot in figuring out what those basics are.  So let me get to some other important bits.

• Spices - A well stocked spice cabinet can be the difference between a great and so-so meal, but unfortunately not many spices are all that cheap.  The good news is spices last a pretty long time before going bad.  So buy a couple of basics whenever you go shopping to cushion the price and eventually you’ll have all the spices you need no matter what you decide to cook.  For instance, one of my favorite recipes (Tandoori Chicken) is very simple to make with just a few ingredients, but it requires a LOT of spices.  But if you have those spices you can turn a chicken breast and some yogurt into an excellent meal!
• Meat - Meat’s pretty tricky.  I’m a pretty heavy carnivore, so it’s a staple of my diet.  The trick here is to avoid things like steaks and try to stick to chicken breasts, boneless pork chops, ground beef and ground turkey.  You can also get deli meats at good prices at most megamarts, but you have to eat it fast as they go bad quick!  When it comes to the meat you buy… well, economically your best bet is those giant bags of chicken breasts.  For ground beef or turkey, your best bet is to buy in bulk and then seperate it into one pound servings, put it into a freezer bag, date it and toss it in the freezer.
• Produce - Fresh produce is best, and usually pretty cheap.  Oranges and apples both last a long time, too!  And I always have a bag of mini-carrots around (cheap snack, low calories, good for you!)  As for other fruits and veggies - it just depends on how you eat with them but in general if you can get them frozen, it’s s cheap way to do so.  Using them won’t taste as good as fresh but you can make a great smoothie or some excellent stir-fry with frozen produce.
• Pastas & Beans - Now, pasta isn’t the healthiest thing in the world - but it is cheap and filling, and can really extend a good sauce or some meat.  I always have some handy - you can make an incredible pasta dish with just a bit of olive oil, some grated cheese, and some spices.  Beans are also great to have around - I don’t like eating beans by themselves, but I keep chickpea (garbanzo) beans and black beans around and frequently toss them into other recipes.  Couscous is also a nice thing to have around - it’s not very pricey, very fast to make, and you can add just a few ingredients to get many different tastes.  All of these offer a lot of bang for their buck and can be purchased in bulk.

It’s ironic that Martin over at the University Blog is talking about the future of books as that’s something I’m interested in discussing today as well.

I’m the chair of our colleges student advisory board, and one of the big things we get to talk about with the College of Arts and Sciences is how we deal with the high cost of text books (here’s an article from a newspaper in my state) between nepotism and departments making shady deals and some professors not giving it the slightest big of attention - students are being gouged by high book prices.

And, aside from forbidding these sorts of “department agreements,” most of the fix for this issue is going to rest on the compliance of the faculty which as anyone knows who spent much time in the university environment - getting the faculty to do anything different is a herculean task.

My suggestions will be as follow, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter:

• As a first step, faculty must be concious of their book lists - their availability and price, and then see if better alternatives are available. As this could safe their students, collectively, thousands of dollars - it is a worthwhile thing to do.
• Once compiled, faculty needs to send out the book list (clearly marked between essential and optional books) to students as soon as possible. Either email using class rosters or use online class services available at the institution. This allows students time to shop around online for the best price.
• The faculty needs to share the book list with all local college textbook resellers. This helps the ability to find the books as well as will help encourage price competitino.
• Oversight must be in check to be certain vanity text books, and shady departmental deals are not allowed spuriously. “Just because you helped edit that new German text book doesn’t mean that it either the best or the most economic option for students.”
• Publishing book lists for the next semester as early as possible, allowing for the most possible buy-back when students sell their textbooks. (Book stores base their prices on what they know will be in use the next semester.)
• Digital versions of books needs to be investigated as an alternative.

Our university decided to start a book archive, but it is of obviously limited use. So what am I forgetting? Does your college or university do anything to help students with text book costs? Do you have the miracle cure? Let’s hear about it in the comments!!

Even though we’ve been on hiatus, there’s still a lot of good stuff roaming about this site that’s worth a good once over as the semester begins.

So here are some of my favorite posts regarding “getting started.” Once I catch up with my commrades blogs, I’ll attempt to put together a larger resource.

• The Full System: Note Taking, Scheduling, and Studying
  
• The 5 Unusual Things That Will Make Your College Life Easier
• Backpack to Go
• The Virtue of Stopping
• Wow…. Back to School Strikes Back (Last semester’s version of this post)
• Meta-Notes: Notes About Your Notes = Success on Exams and Papers
• The Study Sheet

So, as you venture off into the new semester (or if yours has started already) good luck and good studying!

Cal’s post about his irrational anger towards the new Firefox Campus Edition at StudyHacks got me thinking. We mentioned Campus Edition ourselves briefly (I don’t believe it deserves further attention than that, really.) But I really don’t feel Cal’s anger is really irrational, from a productivity perspective this small little package is just pathetic. I differ on his take on Zotero (I find it to be an excellent extension) but StumbleUpon and FoxyTunes? Really? I mean, they are both good - but neither particularly good for a productive student.

FoxyTunes is handy, but… it’s hardly all that necessary. Who doesn’t have an iPod? And StumbleUpon is second to Facebook and YouTube as giant distractions, making it easier to use it probably isn’t the best help for students.

But, still… the browser has, in many ways, become a sort of desktop for many of us. There’s no reason it should just be a browser when you can utilize it for so much more. It can be a productivity boon.

So, let’s investigate just how.

Let’s break down what students use a browser for qua students.

1. Research
2. Communication
3. Data Storage and Retrieval

And we have a fourth category, let’s simply call it “Things you should have.”

Also, it should be known, we’re going to be keeping a KISS attitude here. Nothing complicated or requiring much in the way of setup.

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