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Eating healthy in college is a constant struggle that many students deal with every day. With the combination of being on a tight budget and not having access to a full kitchen all the time, it can be very difficult to cook healthy meals. On top of that, many college campuses don’t offer the healthiest dining options.
Most college students resort to prioritizing fast and cheap while forgetting about being healthy all together. However, one OU student hasn’t let being in college stop her from creating beautiful, healthy and fun meals, even in a dorm room!
Grayson Wise is a freshman student at OU double majoring in French and art history. Although her dream is to become an art curator, she is also a (not-so) secret chef. It can seem like a hard task to cook your own meals while living in a dorm room, but Grayson makes it look easy.
Originally, Grayson found inspiration in the creative outlet she found in cooking. She found that it was like art, which is something she already loved. When she baked her first loaf of bread, she wanted to keep baking to see what else she could create, said Grayson.
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Another reason that Grayson grew to love cooking is that she can control exactly what she is eating. “I actually have a lot of stomach issues including having had a few surgeries and as a result, it is hard for me to eat some foods. It is usually just easier for me to cook something I know will not make me sick,” said Grayson.
She is inspired by Mimi Thorisson and Tayler Marie (@itstaylermarie) to create meals that are healthy and delicious. Grayson said that Tayler Marie inspired her to cook in her dorm room since she shares many recipes that are “dorm-friendly.”
Marie gave some of her best advice, saying “Think smarter, not harder: buy things that you can easily steam in a microwave such as potatoes, carrots, broccoli, etcetera. Overnight oats are your best friend, a mini rice cooker holds so many possibilities like soups and pasta and a tiny waffle maker can make some bomb sandwiches and toast as well. It is all about finding multiple purposes for everything in your little dorm kitchen.”
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Grayson views cooking as art. With each recipe, there is an opportunity to create something beautiful that comes with a chance of failure. “I have had plenty of recipe fails in my day, but I don’t really think about those. I just focus on the joy I get from cooking and how it has changed my life,” she said.
If you would like to follow Grayson on her cooking adventures, you can follow her food blog on Instagram @alagrayson. She shares dorm-friendly recipes that you can recreate on your own or draw inspiration from.