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As lackluster as the Broward Dining Hall could be, I 100% took the simplicity of walking through those double doors and immediately having a meal at my disposal for granted. Navigating cooking for yourself in college is a little more involved than just, well, cooking. You have to plan out when to go grocery shopping, what ingredients to buy, how long those ingredients last, when you have time to cook, what you have time to cook, etcetera etcetera. It can definitely get overwhelming. But don’t worry, I’m here to share some tools of the trade with you!
Step 1: Planning
A key part of successful cooking is a well thought-out plan. Without a plan, it’s easy to buy things that’ll be left to die in the drawer of your fridge or leave the store with a lot of ingredients but no meals. The first step is figuring out how often you’d like to grocery shop. I personally make a grocery run every two weeks, but I know some people who go weekly, some who go monthly. It’s all up to personal preference and availability! And, of course, life happens, so this is a loose schedule. After determining how often you’ll shop, it’s time to think of meals that will last you that period of time. When doing this, it’s super important to keep your schedule in mind. If you only want to cook once a week, pick meals that will stay fridge-stable for that amount of time. If you’re a Cava fiend like me or just in a lot of organizations that cater their GBMs, build your schedule accordingly! This is the skeleton of my typical meal plan:
- Two dinners for the upcoming week (two servings each)
- Two dinners for the following week (two serving each)
- Three easy breakfasts
- Three easy lunches
- Four “floater” meals
Step 2: Meals
After developing a framework of meals, it’s time for the fun part: picking out meals! If you’re like me and grocery shop less than once a week, your freezer will be your BFF. I like to pick out meals that require lettuce, spinach and other unstable vegetables for the first week of my meal plan and leave frozen veggies for the second week. This is also a safe space for frozen meals of all kinds. I personally like to cook at least three of the four core dinners of my plan and stick a couple frozen ones as floaters, but you do you! Trader Joe’s frozen Spicy Peanutty Noodle Bowl has never done me wrong. Outside of frozen meals, I get most of my meal inspiration from Pinterest and TikTok. I tend to gravitate towards sheet-pan meals, one-pot meals and anything marketed as “quick.” This is partially due to laziness, but also because these meals tend to have shorter, cheaper ingredient lists with multiple servings. My favorite food creators on TikTok are the following:
- @heresyourbite
- @chacekitchen
- @jordanramsy
- @gilliehouston
- @eatwitzo
- @caileeeats
- @harrywwallace
- @violetwitchel
- @thegraceupdate
- @rosiepiper_*
- @alyssarayelee*
* These two mostly post “What I Eat in A Day” content, not recipes, but they’re still great for inspiration.
Don’t have TikTok (or trying not to doom scroll)? No worries, here are some of my staple meals:
- Creamy lemon orzo with salmon
- Burger bowls
- Chicken cutlets and pasta with red sauce
- “Egg roll in a bowl”
- Sheet-pan Greek chicken and veggies with tzatziki
- Penne alla vodka and Italian sausage
- Chicken caesar salad
- Buffalo chicken wrap
- Nachos
- Fish tacos
- Salmon & cucumber salad over rice
- Dino nuggets and mac & cheese (…yes, seriously)
- BLTAs (bacon lettuce tomato avocado)
- Shrimp scampi
- Chicken alfredo with broccoli
- Steak and veggies
- Loaded baked potato
- Breakfast for dinner
- Gnocchi in cream sauce with spinach
- Shrimp fried rice
- Steak chimichurri dense bean salad (so so good)
Step 3: Grocery Shopping
Now that you’ve made your beautiful skeleton plan and you’ve gotten some meal inspo, it’s time to put it into action. Gainesville has a pretty wide selection of grocery stores, and I’m not here to tell you where to shop and what to buy, just to give some food for thought for the next time you go on a grocery run:
- Download the Walmart, Publix and Target apps so you can compare prices and product availability
- Trader Joe’s frozen meals >>>>
- Go to Publix and Whole Foods for produce and fresh seafood for the quality – everything else could probably be purchased elsewhere for cheaper
- Don’t sleep on Aldi!
- If your parents are Sam’s Club members and are in a generous mood, ask them to add you to their account!
- It’s MUCH cheaper to buy certain things in bulk (protein shakes, snacks, etc)
- Don’t forget about coffee/energy drinks, snacks and sweet treats
Although navigating meal planning and cooking can be a little rough at first, it’s so fun and rewarding once you get the hang of it! The days of Broward Dining and Gator Corner may be behind you, but eating solid meals each day shouldn’t be.