With the fourth week of the semester just coming through, many students might find themselves struggling to make time to cook or find affordable, relatively healthy options on campus – no, chicken goujons do not fit any of these categories unfortunately.
Managing time to find a spot in your schedule to prepare meals might be hard during the week, so weekend grocery trips and your freezer will be your best friends. If you have the option of making food for the whole week and storing it at home (you can defrost it as you go), go for it.
It might be a hardship bringing your own food to campus every day, and I find that, if I have to prepare it in the mornings before lectures, I always just give up and end up buying something on campus.
The easiest way is just to leave everything prepped in the fridge so you can grab it and go before leaving the house. Save one or two hours on your Sunday evening to make sure you won’t fall into the trap of running out of food mid-week. Lidl and Aldi always have sales going on products about to expire, and there should be no problem if you cook them on the same day and freeze it for later.
If you’re not a big cook, easy meals can be prepped with leftovers; My favourites are stirfrys with the option of rice or noodles and anything you can find hanging around in the fridge. It’s an easy, fast way to get rid of bits you can’t eat by themselves.
Salads are also a great option for the healthy souls – and it also gives you freedom of choice to make it your own (I recommend to try the spinach and feta cheese one). Grains and seeds can be easily added to salads or eaten with yoghurt for extra nutritional value. Veggies such as chickpeas, beans and peas are also great to be eaten cold.
Just always make sure you’re snacking on something if staying all day on campus, or you’ll get to the end of the day drained.
If you’re desperate for a hot meal, the U building has a working microwave just in front of the first-floor toilets for all your reheating needs. You’ll just probably want to avoid fish and soups – people will smell your lunch for miles.