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Sick of eating cereal and ramen for lunch and dinner? Want to spend less money eating out and finally start cooking for yourself? Put down that frozen pizza, because HC’s Health Editor, Sammie Levin, is here to share her daily eats so you can get ideas for healthy, satisfying meals that are easy enough for any time-strapped collegiette to make. After you read Collegiette Eats, your taste buds, wallet and waistline will thank you.

Breakfast

For breakfast yesterday, I had berry banana oatmeal. Perfect way to start the week. I prepared a half cup of oatmeal with almond milk, and then mixed in sliced bananas and strawberries, raspberries and blueberries and topped it with a big spoonful of ground flaxseed. If you’re a flaxseed virgin but are looking to incorporate it into your diet, stirring it into oatmeal or yogurt is the way to go. I also recommend adding fruit into the mix because the sweetness tastes good with the nutty flavor of the flaxseed. 

Lunch

For lunch, I made three portobello mushroom cap pizzas. I haven’t had them in a while and I forgot how amazing they are! All you do is remove the stem of the mushroom cap, bake it at 375 degrees for five minutes, fill the cup of the cap with sauce and shredded cheese (and top with any additional ingredients you desire) and then bake for another 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted. I also had a simple salad with spinach, tomato, cucumber and carrots as a side dish to my pizzas. 

Dinner

For dinner, I made turkey chili. I love chili, whether it’s vegetarian or turkey or beef. I love the different textures and the spices and how filling and comforting it is. Sure, it’s more of a winter food, but the weather has been so all over the place lately that seasons have become somewhat irrelevant. As much as I love chili, I had never made it myself before. When I lived in my sorority house last year, the chefs would make it a lot so I got my frequent fix, but since moving into my off-campus house, I haven’t had it at all. I found myself craving it a few days ago, so I searched around for some recipes. I found one on the blog Eat Yourself Skinny (sounds good to me), and when I saw that it only had two steps in the directions, I was on board. I picked up the ingredients on my Sunday grocery store trip and made it last night.

Even though it takes an hour to cook, you don’t have to do anything during that hour besides occasionally stir and check on it, and the beginning steps are so easy, so it turns out to be a pretty simple recipe. It was really tasty and satisfying, too. At first it wasn’t spicy enough, but I added more hot sauce and cayenne pepper and that got it to the level of heat I like. I also ended up sprinkling a bit of shredded cheese on top after the first few bites because chili isn’t the same without some melty, gooey cheese.

The recipe makes eight servings, so I stored the rest in my fridge for lunches and snacks in the next few days. Each one-cup serving only has 264 calories and 2.5 grams of fat, but almost 40 grams of protein! This means it’ll fill you up without denting your diet. Overall, based on taste, health and ease of preparation, I rank this recipe highly, so I’ve reposted it below. 

Turkey Chili

Recipe from Eat Yourself Skinny

Yield: 8 servings 

Ingredients 

  • 2 pounds 99 percent fat-free ground turkey
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, no-salt added
  • 1 15-ounce can petite diced tomatoes, no-salt added
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 15-ounce can kidney beans, no-salt added, drained and rinsed
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 2 jalapenos, chopped
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
  • Pinch of pepper
  • 1 packet Stevia
  • 3 tablespoons chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

  1. Drizzle olive oil in a large pot and saute onion and garlic until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add ground turkey and cook until crumbled and brown, draining excess liquid as necessary.
  2. Add all the rest of the ingredients and cook on medium/low heat for about an hour. Enjoy!
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Sammie is a student at the University of Michigan where she is pursuing a BBA. A foodie since birth, she enjoys cooking, eating, smelling, looking at, photographing, reading about, and playing with any and all types of food. Her idolization of culinary delights is complemented by her active spirit- she enjoys running, swimming, barre classes, and even spontaneous bursts of interpretative dance if the mood strikes her. She has completed two triathlons and a half-marathon and plans to tackle more races in the future. She also dreams of traveling the globe, saving the world, and marrying James and/or Dave Franco.