I was wondering what fellow college students do for their nutrition with the “amazing” cafeterias provided to us. Any tips you’ve learned, creative ideas thought of to take advantage of the buffet (at least at my school) that’s provided while maintaining a relatively clean diet?
Whenever they had grilled chicken breast, i would bring in my back pack with big ziplock bags and take about 15 of them. I ate a lot off of the salad bar, they always had good cottage cheese. For breakfast I always got an egg white omlette. Depending on the school’s dining facilities it can be really easy to eat clean, or almost impossible.
Run a search for the “School Days” articles by Steven Berardi.
Here’s what I used to do.
I’d load up on the spring greens salad mix (the exotic looking stuff, not iceburg lettuce), tons of mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes, etc. no croutons/creamy dressing/etc, and then splashed some balsamic vinegar on the whole deal. Had two bowls of that with each meal.
At breakfast, I’d swipe some toast/bagel with peanut butter and/or a piece of fruit. There was an omlette station all the time open, so if I was really hard pressed and all they had was deep-fried exlax, I’d cook myself up an omlette using a shit ton of egg whites and a few eggs.
For ~4500/yr on meal plan, i had no scruples either, about stealing food: hard boiled eggs from the salad bar, tupperware containers full of salad fixings, etcetera. In all honesty, if you eat clean and eat good, it’s probably cheaper to be on meal plan than off.
tupperwear, zizplock bags,a nd empty water bottles…use these to load up on grilled chicken, eggs, skim milk, salad, fruit, peanut butter, etc, hell i’ve even been known to walk out of the cafeteria w/entire loafs of 100% whole wheat bread.you can literally shop for the week for the price of one meal at the cafeteria.
[quote]atmosphere wrote:
Run a search for the “School Days” articles by Steven Berardi.[/quote]
I’ve read the article before, appreciate the suggestion though.
[quote]mauser wrote:
Here’s what I used to do.
I’d load up on the spring greens salad mix (the exotic looking stuff, not iceburg lettuce), tons of mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes, etc. no croutons/creamy dressing/etc, and then splashed some balsamic vinegar on the whole deal. Had two bowls of that with each meal.
At breakfast, I’d swipe some toast/bagel with peanut butter and/or a piece of fruit. There was an omlette station all the time open, so if I was really hard pressed and all they had was deep-fried exlax, I’d cook myself up an omlette using a shit ton of egg whites and a few eggs.
For ~4500/yr on meal plan, i had no scruples either, about stealing food: hard boiled eggs from the salad bar, tupperware containers full of salad fixings, etcetera. In all honesty, if you eat clean and eat good, it’s probably cheaper to be on meal plan than off.[/quote]
Damn, 4500 a year meal plan? That’s insane, my school is around 2500, however it costs about 43,000 a year so maybe it evened off there.
[quote]njworkoutguy wrote:
tupperwear, zizplock bags,a nd empty water bottles…use these to load up on grilled chicken, eggs, skim milk, salad, fruit, peanut butter, etc, hell i’ve even been known to walk out of the cafeteria w/entire loafs of 100% whole wheat bread.you can literally shop for the week for the price of one meal at the cafeteria.[/quote]
haha I love the entire loaf of whole wheat thing. Last year I would steal a few bagels at a time with peanut butter. I’m trying to better organize my meals with P+C and P+F this year though so that’s where my biggest concern is coming from. Especially with the first three weeks of school spent during football camp. And I’ll probably just buy my own natural peanut butter this year since the cafeteria’s isn’t natural.
Thanks for the ideas guys, any more keep ‘em comin’
With enough tupperware and a refrigerator in your dorm, you can really do well.
If you have a dollar store in your area, they generally have shit-tons of tupperware for sale - usually four for a dollar.
If you don’t have a refrigerator in your dorm:
If you live in a big enough area that you are on craigslist, then you can usually find a small refrigerator in the “free” section at least once a month.
See food diet, if you’re bulking.
My brother and his roomates would all pitch in like 25 bucks or so a week and they’d go to BJ’s or Costco for the week and buy milk, eggs, and other snacks/food and he said that worked out great. I dont think any of them were bulking, though.