Eating a healthy lunch in college can be tough, especially on a limited budget. If your parents are rich and throw you thousands of dollars a month obviously you won’t have a problem with eating healthy because you can buy the best food.
But most college don’t have the luxury. They scavenge and save their next meal, sometimes wondering if they can even eat the next one. that day Such is the life of a poor college student.
As a senior in college I experienced being very poor, sometimes making as little as 100 dollars a month after my bills were paid. I was always able to eat healthy though. Here are simple ways for the broke college student to eat and heal. The idea is to spend as little as possible, but save as much as you can on your healthy eating choices.
Before you buy anything, buy a supply of multivitamins. This is so necessary to keep your body works at a somewhat decent level. A multivitamin doesn’t solve all your nutritional concerns, but they aren’t too expensive, about $13 dollars for a large bottle of Centrum which I think is the best you can get. If you take one in the morning, when you wake up, you will feel a big difference in your body, even if your eating habits are not the same.
Let’s return to the topic of making healthy choices for the broke college student. When in college we want to cook meals that fill us up, are healthy, and we have leftovers. Cooking something for yourself and having enough left over for another meal or two is really crucial to meal planning. My main rule of thumb when going to the grocery store is to buy generic brands! It will save you money and I guarantee this if you compare generic brands to the bigger brands, they will be very similar, if not identical in substance. . Also, learn to eat small portions and drink a lot of water dibi. With more leftovers and less consumption, your food will last longer, and you may even be able to shed a few pounds in the process.
Pasta is one of my favorite meals to cook. A box of pasta costs about a dollar and will feed you for at least three days, if not more. I recommend eating a lot of carbohydrates in pasta, and if you eat a lot of pasta, it’s important to exercise so that you can use the carbohydrates that are found in the noodles. I also recommend that you buy generic brands of whole wheat pasta. Whole wheat pasta contains starch carbohydrates (the good kind) and in my opinion tastes better than the standard egg noodle type. pasta sauce is cheap, two dollars or so for one of the larger jars, and at least it will last for you. two hanging boxes depending on how sparingly you use them.
Frozen vegetables are a meal in themselves. You can buy frozen mixed veggies, or specific types like broccoli, corn, etc. At Wal-Mart, large bags of frozen veggies cost about $0.87 without tax. Why buy frozen veggies instead of fresh? The main reason is that it is cheap. The second reason is that frozen veggies will last a whole lot longer than fresh ones. Frozen and fresh veggies contain the same levels of nutrients, so don’t think you’re missing out on buying a head of fresh kale. All the same, except fresh, it rots faster than frozen. I like to get a variety of frozen veggies, pick a clove or two of garlic, and an onion from the fresh veggie section. Also buy some oil, but use it sparingly when cooking because it is expensive and quite healthy. When it’s time for lunch, heat about a gram of olive oil in a small pan, cut a piece of onion. and say, adding in a gram of garlic with a little frozen of your vegetables. Saute them until the vegetables start to brown a little, adding salt and pepper as they cook. Spoon the vegetables onto the plate to enjoy. You can add different seasonings like soy sauce or teriyaki sauce to give you a different flavor variety.
There are many meal ideas or variations of things that you can make that are healthy and make the most money. Don’t buy soft drinks, drink plenty of water. Try not to buy a lot of perishable food items; buy frozen, canned, or dry food. Long grain brown rice is a great and healthy food item to have around, with all kinds of canned beans, canned beans, and stuff like that of nature Experiment with cooking, try something new; it’s fun and will give you some cooking knowledge and you’ll find new ways to make the same things. When you do grocery-shopping as a college student, think healthy, think longevity, think savings!
