Eating healthy meals in college can be tough to do, especially on a limited budget. If your parents are wealthy and throw you thousands of dollars a month obviously you won’t have a problem with being able to eat healthy because you can buy the high quality foods.
Most college students however don’t have that luxury. They scrimp and save just to afford their next meal, sometimes they wonder if they will even be able to eat the next day. Such is the life of a poor college student.
Being a senior in college I’ve had the experience of being very poor, sometimes living off as little as 100 dollars a month after my bills were paid. I always managed to eat healthy though. Here are simple ways for the broke college student to eat and stay healthy. The idea is to spend as little as possible, but get the most out of your meal choices as far as keeping your health up.
Before you buy anything, buy a supply of multivitamins. This is so necessary to keep your body working properly at a somewhat decent level. A multivitamin doesn’t solve all your nutrient worries, but they aren’t too expensive, about $13 dollars for a large bottle of Centrum which in my opinion is the best you can get. If you take one every morning when you wake up you will feel a huge difference in your body even if your eating habits aren’t up to par.
Let’s get back to the topic of healthy meal choices for the broke college student. Being in college, we want to cook meals that will fill us up, are healthy, AND have leftovers. Cooking something for your self and having enough leftovers for the next meal or two is really crucial to meal planning. My main rule of thumb when going to the grocery store is to buy generic brands! This will save you money and I guarantee you if you compare the labels of generic brands to major brands they will be extremely similar, if not identical in ingredients. Also, learn to eat smaller portions, and drink a lot of water. More leftovers and less consumption will make your food last longer, and you might even shed a few pounds in the process.
Pasta is one of my favorite meals to cook. A box of pasta costs about a dollar, and will feed you for at least three days, if not more. I will warn you, pasta has a lot of carbohydrates, and I will recommend if you eat a lot of pasta you maintain a level of physical activity so that you can make use of the carbohydrates that are found in the noodles. I also recommend you buy generic brands of whole wheat pasta. Whole wheat pasta contains fiber and complex carbohydrates (the good kind) and in my opinion tastes better than the standard egg noodle type. Generic pasta sauce is cheap, two dollars or so for one of the larger jars and that should last you for at least two boxes of pasta depending on how sparingly you use it.
Frozen vegetables are a meal in themselves. You can buy frozen mixed veggies, or specific types like broccoli florets, corn, etc. At Wal-Mart large bags of frozen veggies cost about $0.87 without tax. Why buy frozen veggies instead of fresh ones? The main reason is because it’s cheaper. The second reason is because frozen veggies will last a whole lot longer than fresh ones. Frozen and fresh veggies contain the same nutrient levels, so don’t think that you are missing out on something buy not buying a fresh head of broccoli. It’s all the same, except fresh rots faster than frozen. I like to get a variety of frozen veggies, pick up a clove or two of garlic, and an onion from the fresh veggie section. Buy some olive oil too, but use it very sparingly when you cook because it gets to be expensive and it’s quite healthy. When it’s meal time, heat up about a teaspoon of olive oil in a small skillet, cut off a piece of onion and dice it up, adding in a teaspoon of garlic along with a small amount of your frozen vegetables. Sautee them until the vegetables start to brown just a tiny bit, adding salt and pepper as it cooks. Spoon the vegetables onto a plate and enjoy. You can add different seasonings like soy sauce or teriyaki sauce to give you a different taste variety.
There are many meal ideas or variations of things you can make that are healthy and make the most of your money. Don’t buy soft drinks, drink tap water. Try not to buy a lot of perishable food items; buy frozen, canned, or dry foods. Long grain brown rice is a great and healthy food item to have around, along with canned beans of all types, canned soups, and things of that nature. Experiment when you cook, try new things; it’s fun and will give you some knowledge of cooking and you’ll discover new ways of making the same things. When you are doing grocery shopping as a college student, think healthy, think longevity, think savings!
