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 made a baked apple and ate it with a container of vanilla Greek yogurt on the side. It tasted like dessert! It was like a crustless apple pie.
To make a baked apple, wash and core an apple, being careful not to punch all the way through the apple bottom. Put the apple into an oven safe bowl. Add ¼ cup apple juice, a handful of old-fashioned oats, some raisins and dried cherries. Dot the top of apple with a pat of butter or margarine. Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until the apple appears done. If you were eating this for dessert instead of breakfast, I would go for some whipped cream on top or a scoop of vanilla ice cream or fro-yo.
Lunch
For lunch, I made a panini. In high school, I used the panini press all the time to make grilled sandwiches for myself and my friends. I need to get one for my kitchen at school! I mashed ¼ avocado onto two slices of Ezekiel bread and topped with tomato, arugula, turkey and turkey bacon. I then sprayed the outsides of the bread with a little PAM cooking spray and let the sandwich sit on the press until it was grilled.
Dinner
Last night, I was running some errands with my mom at the mall and we ended up getting a quick dinner at the bar of the Cheesecake Factory. The Cheesecake Factory is known for their huge, not-so-low-calorie options, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a very expansive under-500-calorie menu. I was even more pleasantly surprised to find that they served eggs all day—when I saw that, I immediately decided I wanted an omelet. I’m big into breakfast for dinner (brinner).
I created my own, filled with mushrooms, asparagus, spinach and avocado with grilled tomatoes on the side. I also had some sweet potato fries that came with my mom’s turkey burger. All I need in this life of sin is an order of sweet potato fries every now and then.