It brings little to no enjoyment, but it’s a necessary evil and is sometimes unexpectedly pleasant if I get a cool treat at the end.
Okay, so maybe that’s a bit extreme, but cooking as a college students sucks. Not only are there no grocery stores near campus, but trying to maintain a budget and a million time commitments makes it nearly impossible to become the next Julia Child.
After a few weeks of trying to create good meals back in America, I started to give up. I bought Hot Pockets and resorted to eating out frequently. In the midst of my Jimmy Johns, Fuzzy’s and Dominoes induced stupor I decided to do some research on good meals to make and what groceries don’t go bad instantly. In doing so, I discovered that Hy-Vee provides all kinds of services to customers free of charge or with a small fee through their dietician. I went to the Hy-Vee at 5010 O St. to meet with dietician Karen Kuzma and learn about these services and other tips to eating healthier in college. Here were some of her top tips:
1. Frozen foods are your friend
Frozen fish fillets, chicken and veggies are all things to keep stocked in your freezer. Kuzma said that keeping canned items around—such as tuna and beans also helps you whip something up when you’re in a crunch. As for making a full meal plan every week, Kuzma said this isn’t really a realistic plan. Instead, she said try and plan a few meals a week and to have five to six easy recipes on hand.
2. Prep a few things Sunday
Another thing that can make eating healthy easier during the week is to work a little ahead on Sunday. Baking a few chicken breasts or making Croc-Pot chicken tacos on a Sunday can provide you with multiple meals for the week. Croc-Pot meals along with other easy 30 minute meals can also be found on the Hy-Vee website. Quick cooking inspirations also exist all on Pinterest. There’s no shortage of quick fix meal ideas, but the problem is not planning. Picking just a couple of these meals and doing prep or grocery shopping Sunday will make the week a lot less hectic.
3. Diversify your fruits and veggies
Once you get to a point where you’re cooking more at home, try to make an effort to add more fruits and veggies to everything you eat. Kuzma said the biggest food problem Americans struggle with is not getting a variety of the “good for you” foods. She said a person usually eats the same five fruits and veggies almost exclusively. She suggests making a casserole or flatbread pizza where you can add everything from tomatoes to zucchini and squash.
What I’ve learned in my quest to eat better is that eating well takes planning. It’s fairly easy to stock up on frozen foods that can quickly be cooked but still have nutritional value, it just takes a bit of forethought. If you’re coming from a place where you have no idea what to cook, spend some time on Pinterest or set up a free grocery shopping tour at Hy-Vee to learn about what to stock up on. Simply saying that cooking is hard and ordering Chinese food is not a start. To eat healthy, you have to take initiative and time, but I’m certain it will pay off in the end.
sourced by: The Daily Nebraskan
0 comments:
Post a Comment