Posted 14 hours ago
Sun 24 May, 2026 10:05 AM
Exam season has a way of breaking your eating habits. You’re in the library for ten hours, the kitchen feels like a forty-minute round trip, and somehow you’ve had three Tesco meal deals and a Red Bull by Tuesday. That works for about 48 hours, but after that, your brain falls off a cliff.
You don’t need to cook well during exams; you just need to eat consistently. This is a plan for cheap, fast, mostly unimpressive food that keeps you upright while still having a varied diet. Just enough structure so that you’re not making panic decisions at 9 pm in the Co-Op on Kingsway.
What to shop for in exam season
In this time the focus is to buy foods that can are versatile and spending £20-£35 per week on groceries.
- Eggs (all meals)
- Rotisserie Chicken (wraps, salad, pasta, rice bowls, soup)
- Tinned fish (sandwiches, pasta, salad)
- Cheese (sandwiches, bagels, salads, wraps, pasta)
- Greek yoghurt tub (breakfast, dip, sauce, dessert)
- Pasta (hot, cold, baked, or soup)
- Rice/Noodles (stir-fry, curry, bowl, fried)
- Tortilla Wraps (base)
- Bread/Bagels (base)
- Oats (porridge, overnight oats)
- Potatos (jacket, mash, fried, in curry, in soup)
- Onions (in almost every several meal)
- Garlic (in almost every several meal)
- Frozen Mixed Vegetables (stir-fry, fried rice, soup, pasta)
- Tomatoes (salad, pasta)
- Bagged Salad (sides, wraps, base for any bowl)
But if you had to pick six items to build a meal from, you should go with: eggs, pasta, cheese, tortilla wraps, rotisserie chicken, and mixed frozen vegetables. The focus point would be the rotisserie chicken which alone could last three to four meals (just make sure to buy it on the same day you will start eating it).
Examples for meals
Breakfasts
Mix oats, Greek yoghurt, a splash of milk, a spoonful of peanut butter and a handful of frozen berries in a jar before bed. Leave in the fridge. Eat in the morning. Takes 90 seconds the night before and zero seconds the next day.
Three eggs, splash of milk, butter in the pan, low heat, stir constantly until just set. Bread in the toaster. Salt, pepper, done.
A big spoon of Greek yoghurt, peanut butter, sliced banana, drizzle of honey, handful of nuts. Add or substract what you'd like.
Toasted bagel, cream cheese, whatever else you have. Smoked salmon if you're feeling expensive, jam if you're not.
Lunches
Tortilla, hummus/dip, shredded rotisserie chicken, bagged salad, sauce. Roll, foil-wrap, throw it in your bag.
Dinner
Boil rice in a pan. Throw in shredded rotisserie chicken, a handful of frozen peas, a squeeze of lemon, salt in a bowl. Add the rice and stir.
Egg noodles in boiling water for four minutes. Drain. Same pan: oil, frozen veg, soy sauce, an egg cracked in and scrambled through. Add the noodles back. Done. Add chicken if you've got it.
Make holes into a potato all over. Microwave for 8–10 minutes, turning halfway. Split, butter, grated cheese, and any other toppings you want.
Pasta, drained, back in the pan. Stir in pesto and black pepper.
Sample Week
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
| Mon | Overnight oats | Chicken wrap | Chicken and rice |
| Tues | Eggs on toast | Pasta salad (with chicken) | Stir-fried noodles |
| Wed | Yoghurt bowl | Dips and tortilla | Chicken and rice |
| Thurs | Bagel | Sardine wrap | Jacket potato |
| Fri | Overnight oats | Salad wrap | Pesto pasta |
| Sat | Eggs on toast | Tesco meal deal | Order in |
| Sun | Yoghurt bowl | Leftovers | Bagel |
Last thoughts
When getting snacks, focus on those that give long-term energy rather than sugar and crash. So instead of sugar and caffeine, go for nuts, dark chocolate, fruit, yoghurt, a boiled egg, hummus and vegetables, peanut butter on apple slices.
