College Food

Let's talk about food. College food, to be specific. I'm not talking about what emerges from the cafeterias, but rather what college students feed themselves beyond the cafeteria walls. I'll use myself as an example.

As a graduate student, I don't have a meal plan on campus (nor did I my final year of undergrad studies) so end up creating various concoctions which attempt to blend nutritious, delicious, and fast. We students have important things to do before classes start, you know, such as sitting out on the balcony reading the latest news and swimming laps in the Olympic-size outdoor pool that happens to be a five-minute walk from my dorm.

There are many approaches to college food, but one rule I follow (especially with our small sink) is that fewer dishes tends to be a good thing. Though I enjoy both cooking and washing dishes, I also enjoy getting creative with limited resources. Why whip up a ten-course meal on ten different plates with cutting boards and knives when you could make that same meal on one plate with a single knife (or you could just use the side of your fork as a knife then eat with that fork -- look, only two things to wash!). This meal-creation philosophy has led to some interesting foods over the course of my first four days back in dorm life. Two of my favorites, one old and one new, were
     1) the classic PB&J sandwich bulked up and healthified as two open-faced peanut-butter-and-apple sandwiches (I used whole wheat bread with walnuts, peanut butter ground directly from peanuts, and round apple slices) -- this would probably also be delicious with banana instead of apple - I could imagine enjoying one of each open-faced as a post-workout meal, and
     2) a new savory oatmeal (which I think I'm one of the few people in the world to find delicious, but it's just SO GOOD (and good for you)) with equal parts oats and black beans then half as much salsa -- I cooked up 1/2 cup of oats (in the microwave, as per the dish philosophy) then added 1/2 cup of black beans, cooked another half minute to warm the beans, and added 1/4 cup of salsa. Mmm.

You can go back to your 'real' food now, but know that I'll be sitting here enjoying my berry-and-nut-butter-topped greek yogurt in happy health. I wonder what tomorrow's oatmeal might be....