As popular as it is, I find healthy meal prepping to be quite boring. I mean, who wants to eat the same thing five days in a row? I understand the organization behind the idea; after all, most people meal prep to save time, energy, and money. Eating a piece of grilled chicken with steamed vegetables every single day of the week, however, is not my idea of convenience. I realize as a college student, our wallets are pretty tight and our budgets are pretty strict. What little time we have is valuable, and the energy we get comes from caffeine, so here are four meals you can prep ahead of time that are low-energy and cost-efficient.
- Whole wheat pasta with homemade sauce
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Begin by cooking some whole wheat pasta, preferably spaghetti noodles. (It blends with the sauce much easier than other shaped noodles). Next, gather together half of an onion, some cherry tomatoes, and tomato paste. Dice up the onion and half the cherry tomatoes. Add them, as well as some tomato paste and water to a pan, and cook and stir until the onion has slightly browned. Optional: Add ground beef to the homemade sauce. Once cooked, pour the sauce onto the noodles, and sprinkle your choice of cheese on top.
- Texas salad
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Also known as a Cobb salad, this salad contains pretty much every single member of the food group. To start, grab a base green of your choice; this could be arugula, spinach, or even iceberg lettuce. Then gather up the rest of the ingredients: chicken, bacon, blue cheese, sweet corn and tomatoes. To begin the cooking portion of this meal, grill the chicken. You can prepare fried chicken if you wish, but grilled chicken is the healthier option. Prepare the bacon and the sweet corn if it was bought as frozen. Wash the tomatoes and slice them in half. After the chicken is grilled, cut it up into slices and arrange it in the center of the lettuce of your choice. Break up the bacon into smaller bits, and arrange the bacon, sweet corn, blue cheese, and tomatoes around the chicken. Optional: top with tortilla chips and salsa.
Jenny Georgieva / Spoon - fall grilled cheese sandwich
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Begin with a toaster and two pieces of whole wheat bread. Slightly toast the bread, then butter them up and put them on a skillet. Add Swiss cheese, and let the cheese slightly melt. Then add your flavor of choice of jam, as well as baby mushrooms. Top it off with the second slice of bread, then flip the sandwich over. After the cheese has melted and the sandwich is cooked, plate it and add a soup of your choice as a side.
- Tuna bowl
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Similar concept to a buddha bowl, this bowl is low in calories and high in nutrition. You will want to begin with a bed of mixed greens. Next, get a can of tuna and break it up in a separate bowl. Add a small dollop of mayonnaise or veganaise, and stir together. Add the tuna mix, along with some brown rice. Then, dice up some cucumber and avocado into cubes and add to the bowl. Season with a sesame sauce or vinaigrette, and enjoy.
