You don’t always have time (or money) to cook properly while studying in college. Students are constantly trying to do everything they can to succeed: working part-time jobs, excelling in academics, developing new social connections (and, of course, other important staff). It is not surprising that sometimes students do not have enough energy or time to prepare a proper meal. Here is where all the hacks and smart prep tips come in handy! We followed the popular ongoing discussion on Reddit to gather the best advice for you.
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Key Takeaways:
- Buying ingredients in bulk can save both time and money. This allows students to cook versatile meals and reduce frequent trips to the store. This approach encourages cooking larger portions that can be used for multiple meals throughout the week.
- Planning meals and creating a weekly schedule helps streamline grocery shopping and meal preparation. Meal prep makes your routine more manageable and efficient over time.
- Having pre-prepared snacks on hand is essential for busy days. Ready-to-eat snacks like granola bars and fresh fruit can prevent unhealthy binge eating and ensure you have nutritious options available throughout the day.
Popular Fast Meals Among Students
Before going to the breathtaking tips, let’s observe some creative solutions provided by your fellow students on Reddit. Below, you will find several opinions from real users, advising their favorite simple everyday meals!
“rice. literally rice with anything on the side. I would pre prepare things like shrimp, tofu, any proteins or vegetables so I would heat that up and eat w a fresh bowl of rice. get a cheap small rice cooker and you can literally make anything in there too.”
“Meal prepping is awesome and will save you A LOT of money. My roommates and I eat a lot of chicken, ground meats, etc. A rice cooker, air fryer and microwave are essentials for us, air fryer especially.”
“i’m pretty basic when it comes to cooking, so i’ll usually buy stuff to make pasta, some ground beef/turkey to make burgers and taco meat, things to make pizza, etc. you can also get inspo from tiktok.”
Shop in Bulk
According to Redditors, buying in bulk is a must if you want to save time and money. Not only may you save money, but you can also increase your culinary options. If you buy a whole chicken instead of just bits, you can cook it all at once and have leftovers for several different meals all week long. Because of this, you won’t have to waste time making numerous excursions to ALDI.
Create a Weekly Plan
Before you go grocery shopping, plan out your meals for the week and estimate how much food you will need. Next, develop a schedule of all your meals and determine how long it will take to make each one. You don’t need to dive into it all along: feel free to ease into meal prepping by preparing a few weekly meals. It will become second nature, and much faster the more you practice!
Below there is helpful advice from one of the Redditors.
“i go to the grocery store once a week or so, i usually plan at least 3 meals i’ll eat during the week and make enough to have leftovers. in terms of what to buy, what did your parents make for you to eat as a kid? figure out how to make those recipes. i use tiktok for a lot of recipes, but you could also try pinterest or instagram.”
Make Snacks in Advance
There will still be many days when it is difficult to find the time to prepare a healthy dinner, regardless of whether you work or not. That’s why having snacks on hand is crucial! Prepare snacks in advance and have them on hand for those times when hunger strikes unexpectedly (like a predator).
If you have snacks throughout the day, you won’t be as tempted to binge-eat when dinner time comes around (which is typically late) and everyone else is ravenous. If you can fit some snacks into your bag, bring them along. Some examples include granola bars made with peanut butter and oats, which are inexpensive and nutritious, and fresh fruit slices.
Enjoy Leftovers!
After you’ve prepared your meals for the week, all you have to do is savor them. Although it may appear to be a lot of work at first, it becomes much easier to maintain once you establish a routine. You will likely begin to anticipate it!
When craving a change of pace, try repurposing some of your leftovers into something fresh. How about that broccoli you had a few days ago? Throw it in the stir-fry with the rice noodles and chicken breast. Once you apply this same level of inventiveness to any dish, the options are unlimited, plus it’s easy and cheap to make. After all, there has to be some fun in a student’s life, right?
“Lunch: For lunches use the leftover rice from dinners – make clearance vegetable stirfry, rice and beans, or egg fried rice if eggs are cheap in your country/region. Breakfast: You can have leftovers, coffee with a scoop of meal replacement powder, freezer waffles (not Eggos, go for off-brand and bulk), or skip that noise entirely because who actually has time for all that.”
The Bottom Line
It is challenging to maintain a healthy diet during your college days. However, it is at least possible to avoid eating junk food every day and skipping meals on a regular basis. All you need is some advanced planning, a few simple hacks, and your trusty students’ savvy. Explore the hacks we gathered from Redditors and follow the tread to join the ongoing discussion!
If, for some reason, you were inspired by our article and are now ready to explore the food topic further, feel free to read our article about what medieval food was like.
Follow us on Reddit for more insights and updates.
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