Whether you’re about to begin college or you’re on your final year, college is stressful. It involves a lot of independence and responsibilities like cleaning, laundry, and the oft forgotten -- cooking. The easy way out of cooking is ordering a pizza, or eating at your favorite restaurant, but college is not only stressful, its expensive. So, some at-home meal preparation will eventually be necessary. Here are some foods for each meal of the day for the college kids for whom cooking may not be their forte.
Breakfast
Breakfast is probably the easiest meal of the day! You can buy the obvious cereal and milk, toast, or an apple and you’re good to go, but here are some different options:
- Any kind of yogurt and fruit, your custom parfait!
- Oatmeal: just add water (and my preference, strawberries)!
- Smoothie: yogurt, frozen fruit (makes a thicker smoothie), juice, and ice; simple enough and can be your very own recipe!
- Flavored cream cheese. Adds some flavor to your morning or typical plain bagel routine.
Lunch
Lunch can be made simple with a grilled cheese, sandwich, or a salad, but there are so many options to eat good food or improve your meal without being a chef!
Hummus can be put on a wrap, on a sandwich, or eaten with pita and it comes in many varieties.
Avocado can be put on almost anything and make it full of nutrients that avocado provide, and they’re delicious!
Deli meat is great because it is pre-made. Pre-cut chicken or beef strips are great. These two meat varieties are awesome for sandwiches, wraps, salads, and great meals like tacos!
Pre-made dishes are sold in many grocery stores: pre-made potato salad, soups, macaroni salad, and fruit salad. These make great sides for a lunch, dinner, or snacks during the day!
Dinner
Frozen pizza and frozen full dinners are popular among college student, but they can get repetitive and unhealthy. Make dinner easier and more delicious with these foods:
Frozen cooked and breaded chicken breast tenderloins are great for so many meals: chicken sandwich, chicken breast dinner, or a chicken salad! They can be cooked using a microwave or oven.
Rotisserie chicken. is avaialble in lot of grocery stores -- no cooking necessary for a great meal!
Frozen vegetables can be a great side for rotisserie or chicken breast dinners and even thrown in rice to make a stir-fry. Just put them in the microwave!
Dessert
Everyone loves ice cream and cookies, but this is one of my no-cook favorites!
Strawberry shortcake is usually available as small pre-made shortcakes in a package of about six to eight. Cut up some strawberries and top it off with whip cream for an awesome dessert!
