Healthy, Yummy, AND Cheap: Clean Cooking in College

My number one favorite thing about living off campus is being able to cook for myself.  It's such an adventure (with the most amazing reward at the end: FOOD!)

There is a terrible stigma about college eating habits.  While there may be some students who live solely off of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Ramen, and beer... I don't actually know any.

What I do know is that it is important to fuel your body with healthy, whole foods.  And sure, I've been guilty of having the occasional Totino's party pizza for dinner...  But I feel 100x more energized and healthy when I eat lots of fresh vegetables, fruits, dairy, and complex carbohydrates.  I try to limit my meat consumption (I had a 6 oz steak at Outback a couple weeks ago and that will probably hold me over until the summer) but I do occasionally enjoy tilapia filets, lean chicken breasts, tofu, and meatless "meat" products.

Some common misconceptions:
1. College students don't have money to eat "fresh" or "clean".
Too which I say:  Yes you do.  Shop smarter, make it a priority in your budget.
2. College students don't have time to prepare healthy meals.
To which I say:  Make it happen.  It takes 30 seconds to slice a tomato.

I'm not a chef, and I'm also not one for very complex meals or recipes.  The rest of my life is crazy busy so I want my time in the kitchen to be relaxing.  You don't have to "de-bone", "reduce", or "concasser" anything to prepare a quick, healthy, enjoyable meal.

Really, the key to eating something delicious is to start with whole, pure ingredients.  Ingredients are EVERYTHING:  Cook them sparingly, mix them consciously, and eat them slowly.

Healthy cooking starts with shopping: which is fairly pain-free in a small town.  My strategy?
1. Go to Aldi for basics (whole wheat pasta, bread, english muffins, milk, soy milk, eggs, cheese, basic produce)
2. Go to Hyvee (preferably after 9PM so it's not very busy) to buy anything I can't get at Aldi (diet coke, bare chicken breasts, eggplant, greek yogurt, coconut water, garbanzo beans, larabars, Ben and Jerry's, basil, etc)

...Then take those ingredients and cook!  Like I said, I don't usually follow elaborate recipes, I just put things together in ways that I think they belong.

Since I am *such* a nerd, I've been taking pictures of some of my food-things that I've created lately, just to show how simple eating can be.

Turkey bacon, avocado, tomato, and mozzarella cheese sammich

English muffin with peanut butter (w/o hydrogenated oil) and vanilla-honey greek yogurt

Romaine chopped salad with homemade black been chili 

Banana "ice cream" 

Spaghetti squash with spinach, tomato, and feta

Chinese stir-fry tofu and broccoli 

Spring mix salad with tomato, avocado, veggie burger, and parm

Spring mix with olive oil dressing, parm, and a turkey burger

Indian spiced pumpkin, cauliflower, tomato, and green pea stew - over brown rice

Pesto spaghetti squash with tomato and green beans

Zucchini-egg scramble with tomato and toast

Saffron risotto with turkey meatballs

So that was a random mess, but just a few of my typical eateries.  

I didn't really include breakfast because it's almost always this:

...with a banana and milk.  

I'm not sure what point this blog post is trying to prove, other than the fact that it is really easy to eat in a way that prepares your body to successfully take on the tasks of whatever your day contains.  I would definitely recommend it.  So healthy eatings, friends!