The struggle of eating healthy while saving money is one all college students are familiar with. Meal planning can be stressful, from looking for recipes to make, shopping for the required ingredients, and cooking it at home. College students are busy enough as it is with school, life, and other activities, and cooking can feel like adding another responsibility to your plate. With this being said, it is still extremely important that students eat healthy and
nutritious meals, and with “a shocking 95 percent of college students fail to eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables (five or more servings a day),” it’s important to address this issue.
Meal Prepping
One way to make cooking at home less of a daunting task is by meal prepping. Whether it be full meals or individual ingredients, preparing food ahead of time can be a simple and convenient way to ensure that you are saving money and prioritizing a healthy diet. One example of an easy ingredient to prepare ahead of time is chicken breast. At the beginning of the week, prepare your chicken according to your personal preference, then store it in the refrigerator, ready to eat. Throughout your busy week, the pre-prepared protein can be added to pasta, rice bowls, stir-fry, or simply eaten on its own! This is a convenient way to save time while also keeping a variety in your diet with different meals.
Efficient Grocery Shopping
An easy habit of getting into first is buying all of your groceries at once. Buying your ingredients at once will help you have everything necessary for a broad range of meals. You can eat the same ingredients multiple times a week without noticing by having a diverse array of recipes on hand. Some examples of this are various protein sources (chicken, beef, pork, etc.), eggs, pasta, basic starches, and frozen fruits and vegetables.
You Need To Put In The Effort!
At the end of the day, eating healthy starts with you. It is important for you to have the drive to eat and shop healthily. We hope that this blog post has helped you think of some ideas regarding what ingredients to buy and what meals to cook.