As a college student, you will find that life is touch and go, especially as the semester progresses.
The name of the game is maximizing your time. Squeezing in the many activities that you need to attend to can be daunting! Just covering the basics can take be overwhelming! Finding time to sleep, which some students treat as optional, and working in fun somewhere in the mix to preserve your sanity can tear you in every direction at once.
Naturally, you will try to find any hack you can to make your life easier. It’s fairly easy to cut corners on food because you are surrounded by an abundance of quick and cheap food, but are you really getting the satisfying nutrition you need to keep going?
Not only does time stop you from preparing decent meals, but limited facilities, cooking tools and culinary experience can be barriers to making anything resembling home cooked meals. Because of restrictions on what you can keep in a cramped college dorm room, you just have to hope that the common kitchen area in your dorm has decent supplies. Still, many college students with limited time may wind up subsisting on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and dried, packaged noodles, which grow old to the palate quickly.
There are recipes that you can make that require little culinary know how and can be made with just a microwave. Try these two fun, delicious and easy recipes to fuel your hard-working body and mind:
No Bake Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened
2 cups creamy peanut butter
2 c confectioners’ sugar
3 cups crispy rice cereal
1 cup chocolate chip
Directions:
1. Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, stir together the butter, peanut butter and confectioners' sugar until well blended. Mix in the rice cereal so that it is evenly distributed. Press the mixture into the prepared pan.
2. In the microwave, melt chocolate chips, stirring occasionally until smooth. Spread the melted chocolate evenly over the peanut butter bars. Refrigerate until set before cutting into bars.
If you don’t have access to a microwave, but have a way to store food in a refrigerator, this twist on egg salad can still be achieved with precooked hard boiled eggs:
Avocado Egg Salad
Yield: Serves 3-4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Avocados take this egg salad to a whole new level! We love this healthier version of the traditional egg salad!
Ingredients:
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
2 hard-boiled egg whites, chopped
2 small avocados, pitted and peeled
1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, combine the hard boiled eggs and egg whites, avocado, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, green onion, and mustard. Mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serving suggestions: Spread between two slices of bread for an Avocado Egg Salad Sandwich. Eat with crackers, cut up veggies, on toast, or in a wrap. This salad is best eaten the day it's made.
Best of luck with the fall semester, and happy eating!
