Interview Transcript

Question 1: Walk me through your evening routine

“I get home from uni, I get a coffee usually, bum around for a bit. Play my guitar, talk to my flat mate when she gets home. Bum around some more then cook dinner ha-ha”

“I only cook once or twice a week, I live at home and mum cooks most nights. When I do cook I just throw something together from what’s in the fridge usually.”

“I cook most nights because my boyfriend…can’t. It’s easy though because we plan meals a week before hand, just from recipes and then we always know what were making.”

“I normally cook as soon as I get home from uni [2pm] and then I just go on my computer and pick up study a little later.”

“Come home from work, have a shower, chat to Annabel, discuss dinner if I haven’t already bought it or Annabel didn’t already decide. Once that’s sorted we cook, eat. I play games while she studies. I might watch some tv and then bed…or bed like activities.”

“I normally hang out in bed, shower to clear my mind so I can start working. When Sam arrives home we eat, or I have to start cooking. Watch tv and working till I go to sleep. Dinner can happen anywhere between 6-10pm and bed normally at 12-1pm”




Question 2: What things do you prioritise during your day?

“Uni work and classes come before anything else. On the days I work doing a good job at work is important. After that I’ll do little things for me, if I still have the time, but their kind of…optional”
“Yeah I agree, uni comes first and paying bills, I pay all the bills so it stressful trying to keep on top of them.”

“Getting out of bed ha-ha and then eating, eating is important. Comforting my cats is important as well.”

“I have to have a shower in the morning or I just can’t function. Eating well in the morning is a priority for me. I can only focus on two things at once. I always eat badly or not at all during hand-ins.”

“Trying to find a new job, I don’t like my current one. I’ve finished study now so trying to find time to do some design and working when I have work. Trying to make time for friends and Annabel. Probably food is important. Definitely make sure I get enough water. Maybe get some exercise in if I have time”

“Uni is number one, staying on top things is number one priority, and staying organised. Im constantly trying to get a job for after uni. My job as an RA is important and keeping in touch with friends over Facebook.”




Question 3: How much time do you prioritise for cooking meals each day?

“Normally an hour at night, half an hour in the morning”

“Yeah I agree, about an hour whatever’s quick and easy really”

“Probably an hour for the full experience, you know prep and stuff. Any more than that’s taking too long. I make time usually but during hand in week sometimes I just forget to eat.”

“Yeah about an hour I guess. I’d like to keep it to about 15 minutes to be honest ha-ha”

“I don’t prioritise any time for cooking. If I have time at the end of the day I might make something and if I don’t or I can’t be fucked then I’ll just get the cheapest, nastiest takeout or get Annabel to cook.”

“As little as possible, the only way I cook lunch is if I really need something for lunch so I can get back to uni. Other than that it’s the tussock. Dinner is the most important meal to me, the other ones I just forget about.”





Question 4: What’s your favourite meal to cook while studying?

“Just pasta, it’s quick, simple and filling”

“I don’t know, whatever’s quick and simple really, anything”

“Rahman, from scratch, I love making it. It’s really good for you to.”

“I just eat heaps of pasta. Really easy and tasty. Bread, rice and pasta are all really easy but so boring on their own, they have to go with something.”

“Pesto pasta. You literally just boil the water…you can leave, comeback, put in the pasta, leave, comeback, add pesto. Done. You can save it for lunch the next day, simple. And it can be as easy as you want or as fancy as you want. You can like, add feta, bacon, basil leaves... if you have more time or feeling fancy.”

Tortellini pasta (fancy pasta). Just buy the pasta and pasta sauce and you’re done. It fills you up for a good amount of time. it’s kind of middle ground cause its not to cheap but not too expensive”





Question 5: What was the last meal you cooked?

“I had a curry, mum made it”
“Steak and dinner rolls, relatively quick and super filling”

“Pasta… [Why] because it’s easy ha-ha, I was feeling lazy”

“Pancakes with bacon. [why]… we didn’t have any other food in the fridge, and the bacon was left over from another meal”

Pesto pasta with bacon. Didn’t have anything else in the fridge except pasta, and that ment I only had to buy 2 things, which I got sam to get on his way home.”





Question 6: How many people do you usually cook for?

“When I cook it’s usually for the family, so four”

“Just me and my boyfriend, it’s just me and him in the flat”

“Just myself… [Why] it’s just the way the flat works, where all on different schedules so it’s hard to set a meal time”
“I don’t really cook, mum does”

“Two, me and Annabel, although with portion sizes about 3 or 4 ha-ha. Like if something serves 2 then I have to get a bigger one because I eat a lot.”

“Yeah same here, just two of us”





Question 7: How long do you usually spend cooking a meal?

“Depends on what im cooking, maybe an hour”

“Yeah I agree, I just have to remember to defrost the meat early”

“An hours good, you know from prep till eating”

“Yeah about an hour, or you know 15 minutes if I can help it”

“As minimal amount of time as possible, unless im feeling nice and I decide to do a roast or something, but that only happens once a month. Not very long basically, I leave it whenever I can, like boiling water or somethings in the oven”

“Im gunna say about half an hour because I usually boil water or fry something in the pan. Or both”





Question 8: are there nights you don’t cook at all?

“Not really, as a family someone usually cooks. If it’s just one of those days then just some takeout. This only happens 1 a week…maybe”

“To poor not to, can’t go out or anything. If we don’t cook we just get some real cheap takeaways”
“Well sometimes the parents cook, sometimes I can’t be fucked ha-ha. Maybe two or three times a week we don’t cook, we just get takeaways usually.”

“Yes, we get takeaway on the cant be fucked nights. I alternate nights with Annabel so I only cook half the time. Though to be honest even when it’s my night I usually can’t be fucked so I just buy food or get Annabel to do it.”

“I probably cook about half the nights of the week, although when its hand-ins it’s usually a whole week of takeaway”






Question 9: How often do you go food shopping?

“About once a week usually, try to get enough for a week at a time.”

“Once every week, we try to get as much as possible so we just need top ups every now and then”
“Yeah once a week, just on the weekends”

“I don’t at all, mum does it”

“once a week, at least. Normally once a week lasts about 9 days with all the takeaways but we need top ups in-between”

“We will buy food for about a week at a time but it’s the treats we go back for, like coffee, chocolate and stuff to get me through the night.”






Question 10: what kinds of places do you shop at?

“Yeah mostly new world for the quick things, just because it’s close. I try to get as much as possible from paknsave because it’s cheaper, also the weekend markets”

“New world for the things really need, we get meat from Preston’s [butcher] and veges and stuff from the markets”

“From the food markets and new world”

“Im not sure, I know we get organic delivered to us weekly”

“Uh countdown or new world for groceries. For takeout – the basin noodle house, maccas for mcflurries, sweet mothers kitchen, any fish & chip place, anything Mexican and the grand, if we want a nice meal”

“yeah the same, I mostly use countdown, or I go to the tussock and the basin noodle house”






Question 11: How much do you usually spend on food every week?

“$300 [for four]

“$60-80 usually [for two people]

“To much ha-ha, nah just under 50 normally [just for herself]”

“Nothing because I don’t pay for it”

“About $50 for each of us but honestly with all the takeout it probably makes up about $70”

“Im gunna say 80 cause yeah 50 for groceries but I buy coffee and shit from the tussock”





Question 12: Do you think you can afford a healthy diet?

“Well we normally eat pretty healthy, sometimes a buy specific health foods just me but if I wanted to make some for everyone, I don’t think could pay for it.

“At the moment yes, in my last flat no. the rent was higher and it was too easy to get a $5 pizza than to make a meal”

“I could afford it, but it takes so long [explain…] well like the prep time, it just takes so much longer than stuff out of a packet or whatever.”

“Yeah because you can actually get shit real cheap at the farmers markets and stuff like that. Its way cheaper than the supermarket. So I could if I could be fucked cooking it. When I get takeout I get stuff with veges and salad in it, a home cooked meal has so much more carbs in it.”

“Yes I could, I just don’t have the knowledge or time to make a good meal as appose to doing something quick.”





Question 13: What was the last healthy meal you had?

“Uh a slow cooked casserole thing, mum cooked it”

“ohh a stir fry, little bit of meat, mostly veges. Real good”

“My favourite, Rahman noodles ha-ha, I think that’s healthy”

“Just pasta.”

“Probably wraps, it’s balanced, yeah probably wraps. What’s the level of health? I mean it has less carbs because the wraps are thin.”





Question 14: What do you usually eat between meals?

“Peanut butter on salary is my go to ha-ha, is that weird?”

“Whatever’s easy and cheapest normally, a lot of muslibars”

“Bananas, lots of bananas. There so cheap and there like, already packaged, in their skin”
“Yeah I agree, bananas all the way”

“Normally get the half scoop of chips for $2, unless im feeling really hungry. I stick to meal times but I don’t eat breakfast. Dinner fills me up though because I eat a huge dinner. Uh bumper bars, toast, eggs on toast.”

“Does coffee count as a snack? Uhm brunch bars, muffin and a scone maybe. But that’s like a snack and meal for me”






Question 15: before leaving home how often did you cook a meal?

“Once or twice a week usually, just to help out”

“Yeah once a week normally”

“Never, maybe for myself if I was home alone, nothing good though, real basic things. Im really paranoid about cooking for other people, it has to be more universal and you can’t fuck up…”

“I didn’t cook for my family, might have made a few things for myself but not really no”

“Twice a week, parents rules. If I wanted lunch on the weekends I’d have to make it myself. So maybe four times a week with lunch on the weekends.”

“Mum had a thing when if she couldn’t be bothered it was get your own night so we’d come down and make toast and shit. That only happened once a week though. Maybe on the weekends but mum feed us really well. I would help mum cook and stuff but they aren’t my own meals.”





Question 16: Are you confident in your cooking abilities?

“Yeah I love cooking. My mum teaches me and we cook together so it’s good, I enjoy cooking.”

“Yeah I think so, I only do the things I know though or basic recipes. Im not very adventures with my cooking”

“Yes, well it depends on what im making, I can do most things if it’s simpleish”

“Im not very versatile or efficient, I can only do a few things”

“I can cook pretty much anything I want, if you want a quiche I can make a quiche, if you want a roast I can make a roast. I was brought up cooking. It’s the just CBFs that stop me”

“The things I know – I know. But it’s not very vast, I don’t know a lot. Im good at stir fry, im better at baking. [What do you bake] cakes! Muffins! From boxes, I find it fun, more than cooking. Baking equals science.