Snacking!

Snacking is hard in college. Your mom sends you with chips and candy and home made sweets and you feel like you have to eat them before they go bad, I have been there! And I am here to tell you, if your mom sends you with home made cookies by all means eat them! I am also going to give you some quick tips for healthy snacking.  

The prime time for snacks are between lunch and dinner, around 3 PM and after dinner before bed (whenever bed may be). These are the times when the food from your meal has been all digested and your body is ready for some more energy. Snacks are all about giving you a burst of energy before the next time you can eat. 

Tip 1: In the Cafeteria.  
Some of the cafeterias on campus are open all day, so you can go up there whenever for a snack. There are some really great options in the cafeteria for snacks. One of my favorites is yogurt, granola and fruit. This gives you a great blend of protein, fiber and carbohydrates. Another option is cottage cheese and fruit. Many cafeterias offer pita and hummus which is an AWESOME option, probably one of the best. Hummus is a nutritional POWERHOUSE because of the amount of protein in there. Sometimes you can also find dried fruit, nuts or trailmix which is another option. It is great if you combine it with some milk or cheeese cubes. If you look around in the caferia you can find some great options.  

Tip 2: At Sparty's.  
If you live on campus, you probably know all about ComboExchange. (If not, ask someone at Sparty's to tell you about it and you will be really excited). So let me tell you really quick about some of the awesome options with Combo. This year you can get hummus and pita (remember how awesome hummus is?). You can also get yogurt, granola bars, dry cereal, cheese sticks, juice (go for the apple, orange or grape because these are 100% juice) , water bottles and fresh fruit. ALL of these are really great options.  

Tip 3: In your Room.  
All of the foods I mentioned above that you can find in the cafeteria or at Sparty's you can also of course buy for your room. I love keeping cheese sticks, cereal and dried fruit in my room. But of course you have more options since you are buying your own snacks! Some great options are any type of dry roasted nuts (almonds, pistachios, peanuts, walnuts, soybuts etc) or peanut butter if you like it (it keeps forever!) I keep whole grain crackers in my room too to snack on. Another option are pretzels, baked chips or pita chips. Last but not least, of course, is POPCORN! Did you know its a whole grain and has a good amount of fiber? Go for 94% or higher fat free and you are good to go.  



Happy Snacking! :)

Quick Tips

Welcome to a new school year!
This year I am a R.A so I am back in the dorms and meeting tons of new students. I wanted to write about some quick tips that anyone new to the cafeteria or new to trying to eat healthy :) can use! Here are 5 easy cafeteria tips! I hope they help!

Tip 1: Fill half your plate with fruits and veggies.
Okay so to be honest this is not my tip, this is from the USDA website. The new food plate shows that half of the plate should be fruits and veggies. These foods are going to fill you up with complex carbs and fiber. The other half should be filled with lean protein and a whole grain. As you can see below the plate is finished with a glass of low fat or skim milk. See how all the food groups are covered? Perfect

Tip 2: Skip the sauce.
These two are probably the worst things you can choose on the cafeteria food line. The sauces (gravy, dip, dressing, glaze, etc) take a reasonable food and load it with either fat or sugar (yes sugar). Skip the gravy on your mashed potatoes, the dip for your veggies, or glaze on your meat and you will be much better off. A lot of times the cafeteria has lean meats that are great to eat, but not when they are bogged down with sauce. If your cafeteria offers oil and vinegar from the bottle (mine does), use this to dress your salad. The dressings on the line are loaded with sugar and or fat. If this is your only choice go for the vinaigrette or use a small amount.

Tip 3: Skip the fried foods.
Just skip the fried foods on a regular basis, they are going to make you feel sluggish and won't keep you full. This includes fries, onion rings, fried chicken (of any type)  etc. Now I'm not saying cut them out of your diet all together, its great to indulge once in a while. Just don't make it an everyday occurrence and balance it out with fruits and veggies.

Tip 4: Eat dessert once a day.
Now, I should say to cut dessert out of your diet. I should :) But I love dessert, so I can't do that. So, eat it once a day at the most. A little ice cream or cookie is not going to hurt you, and will probably make you happy. But the problem is when dessert turns into 3 cookies or a huge bowl of ice cream or dessert at every meal. Keep the portion sizes small. Soft serve ice cream is one of your best bets because its has a small amount of calcium and it uses oil instead of solid fats, so the saturated fat level is lower. I love chocolate milk as a little treat after a meal as well. Another tip too, is that most times by the time you leave the cafeteria and walk back to your room you forget all about dessert anyway and if you don't I like to keep dark chocolate in my room for a treat (and antioxidants).

Tip 5: Enjoy your food, but eat less.
AKA portion control. I have this problem so much in the cafeteria, they give you so much! So my advice to you is be specific! I'll say, I want half a spoonful of that, I want 2 spoonfuls of that. They will always accommodate and then you don't feel guilty for throwing away extra food. I never get enough vegetables from the line so I always ask for 2-3 spoonfuls. Just be specific! Tell the servers exactly what you want, they will be (or should be) more than happy to help you out.

Good Luck! Thanks for stopping! :)
Emily

What to do with all those left-over bananas....

In our house, we always have left over bananas. They get brown and no one wants to eat them anymore. Then we freeze them and they disappear.....

I have a solution. Banana muffins and granola bars (granola bars?...just wait.) Now I am taking full advantage of having a kitchen this summer, when I go back to MSU I will sadly only have a microwave and refrigerator (muffins in the microwave? maybe). Anyway, I would definitely make these granola bars on a weekend home to bring back to school for a snack. They are super healthy with no added oil or sugar (I know... believe it). Much healthier than any packaged version with tons of nuts and dried to fruit to keep me full between meals. These are so much better than mindless snacking on chips or crackers or even going to the cafeteria for a 4th meal. Okay here we go.

Homemade Granola Bars
Adapted from So Good and Tasty
Makes: 8

Ingredients: 
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup nut butter (peanut, almond, cashew, walnut, sunflower), preferably all natural
1/2 cup roughly chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachio, cashew, pecan, macadamia)
1/4 cup seeds (sunflower, sesame, poppy, chia)
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup dried fruit (cranberry, cherry, mango, raisin, strawberry, blueberry)
1/4 cup chocolate chips or cocao nibs (optional but recommended :)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions: 

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper.

Step 2: For me, the second step was to make the nut butter. I don't eat peanut butter, I think I am slightly allergic (my throat gets itchy, weird I know). I could probably suck it up, but I don't like it. So if you are a peanut butter eater, go for it and skip this step. All natural is better if you want to keep the added sugar and oil low. There is also almond butter and sunflower butter out there, but it was too expensive for me to want to buy and there is not a huge all natural selection at Meijer. So I made my own. Walnuts in the bulk food section were on sale so I went for those. I just ground them up in the food processor until it was looking like nut butter and all sticking together. Just walnuts, in the food processor. I put 1.5 cups in there and I had left over that I am going to use for a sandwich tomorrow (walnut butter and jelly anyone?).

Step 3: Now it is time to mash your bananas. I did it on a cutting board with a fork. 2 bananas.

Step 4: Combine everything! Rolled oats, chopped nuts, seeds, dried fruit, cinnamon, chocolate chips (if you are using them), and nut butter. So, like I said Meijer does not have a huge all natural selection. My walnuts for the butter were not roasted or salted. For my chopped nuts I used pistachios, these were also in bulk in the shells but they were salted (it really didn't take me too long to shell half a cup, don't worry). Use WHATEVER you like, I wanted to get something that was not roasted (again to keep the added oil low) so pistachios it was. But I love them so I think I would add them again. I used raisins for my fruit, an old standby. They have no added sugar and are easy to find/ cheap enough. I would like to dry my own fruit and add that in here too. Then I used 60% cacao chips. Dark chocolate is so delicious and it does have the antioxidants in there. Plus the 60% has way less sugar and I like the bitter edge. 

Step 5: The batter will be wet, but it will bake. Spread evenly in the baking dish. Bake 20-25 minutes until the top is slightly brown and they give a bit when you push in on them. Allow to cool completely before you cut them into bars, this is important!! Keep them tightly wrapped in a container or in the fridge (if they last that long). I wrapped mine in plastic wrap. 

Yum, enjoy! 

Now, lets move on to the muffins. This recipe is very loosely based on Betty Crocker's Banana Bread. In her recipe she uses sugar, butter and eggs. I cut all of that stuff out to make super healthy muffins. The yogurt takes the place of the eggs and sugar. I used a vanilla variety which has sugar in it already. The yogurt also acts as a binding (instead of the eggs). Muffins are commonly mistaken for a breakfast food. Betty's muffins are not breakfast, they are frostless cupcakes. But this updated version would fit in nicely for breakfast with a glass of skim milk and piece of fruit.

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins 
Loosely Based on Betty Crocker Banana Nut Bread
Makes: 12 Muffins 

Ingredients: 
4 bananas
1/4 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
raisins, choc. chips, or nuts (optional)

Directions: 
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a muffin tin, or spray with non stick cooking spray.
Step 2: Mash up the bananas. You should be a pro at this by now :)
Step 3: This step is optional. If you do not like chunks of banana in your muffins you can blend the banana and yogurt. I did not do this though.
Step 4: Add the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Combine until throughly mixed and moist. You can add the mix-ins here if you are making all the same kind of muffins, I add mine later.

Step 5: Spoon into the muffin tin. I use two spoons. This is when I added the mix-ins. I had 3 regular, 6 with dark chocolate and 3 with raisins. Bake for 18-25 minutes.

Enjoy your healthy treats! :) 

Yeah....he helped. :) 

Round 2 Recipe

So, if you were like me and made the Mediterranean vegetables from yesterday's post and had a ton of vegetables left over here is a recipe to use them up. Ill post the original recipe and then tell you my add ins :) I found this new cookbook "The Ultimate Fat Free Cookbook" at a garage sale for 75 cents. It has some old fashioned recipes but some really great ones too. All of them have less than 10 grams of fat and most of them have less than 3. It was a great find! That is where the recipe for this soup comes from and the veggies from yesterday. This soup is delicious and filling. You won't even miss the meat!

Vegetable Minestrone

Makes: 6 servings

Source: The Ultimate Fat Free Cookbook

Calories 87 Fat 0.7g (0.1g Saturated) Cholesterol 0 mg Fiber 3.3g

Ingredients:

1 Onion, Chopped

1 Leek, Sliced

1 stalk Celery, Sliced

2 Carrots, Diced

2 cloves Garlic, Crushed

2 1⁄2 cups Chicken Stock

1 can Chopped Tomatoes, 28 oz can

1⁄2 cup Frozen Peas

2 ounces Pasta

1 teaspoon Sugar

1 tablespoon Chopped Fresh Parsley

1 tablespoon Chopped Fresh Basil

 Salt and Pepper

Directions: 

Step 1: Put the prepared onion, leek, celery, carrot and garlic into a large pan. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Step 2: Add the canned tomatoes and the frozen peas. Bring back to a boil and add the soup pasta. Simmer for 10 minutes until tender.

Step 3: Season with sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the chopped herbs just before serving.

• So. I skipped the leek- and I didn't miss it. 
• I added fresh peas from my garden, instead of frozen peas. 
• I used whole grain elbow macaroni for my pasta (the recipe said soup pasta- but what exactly is that.....) and it cooked in the 10 minutes it simmers and looked cute in there :) 
• I added about 3/4 cup of left over baked veggies from yesterday. I chopped them up a little bit just so they would be the same size as everything else. 
• I skipped the sugar 
• I skipped the parsley (I added extra basil because I had that in the garden) 
• I added a bunch (about 1/2 cup fresh) of spinach from the garden. This made it so much better- but I love love love spinach in just about anything. 

My sister said "so there isn't really anything bad for you in here right?" she is right. Even the pasta is whole grain :) How can you go wrong with veggies and whole grain pasta?! Yum! 

http://www.kitchenmonki.com/recipe/Vegetable_Minestrone

Mediterranean Dinner

Hey everybody! I have some great recipes for you to make a summer Mediterranean dinner (hence the title :) 


I started using www.kitchenmonki.com  to organize all my recipes. Its a great website where you can enter in recipes then organize and share them. I added a bunch that I clipped out of magazines and cookbooks. I also picked up a recipe for this chicken I am going to share below. If you are like me and want all your recipes in one place and nicely organized- this is a great site. I added the links to the recipes on kitchenmonki if you want to check it out. 

So enjoy this healthy summer dinner!

Yaya's Chicken

Makes: 2 Servings  

Ingredients: 

2 Chicken Breasts

1 Lemon 

1/4 cup Olive Oil 

2 Tablespoons Dried Ground Oregano 

1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes 

1 Dash Ground Black Pepper (to taste) 

1 Dash Fine Sea Salt (to taste) 

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder 

Directions: 

Step 1: Cut large chicken breasts in 1/2 

Step 2: Squeeze lemon juice and drizzle olive oil over chicken, and add the spices 

Step 3: Bake at 400 degrees for 45 min- 1 hour (I grilled it about 5 minutes on each side) 

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables 

Makes: 6 Servings 

Source: The Ultimate Fat Free Cookbook

Calories 120

Fat 5.2 g (0.68g Saturated)

Cholesterol 0 mg

Ingredients:

1 Each Red and Yellow Pepper

2 Spanish Onions

2 Large Zucchini

1 Large Eggplant

1 Fennel Bulb, Thickly Sliced

2 Beefsteak Tomatoes

Directions: 

Step 1: Halve and seed the peppers, then cut them into large chunks. Peel the onions and cut into thick wedges.

Step 2: Cut the zucchini and eggplant into large chunks.

Step 3: Preheat the oven to 425F. Spread the peppers, onions, zucchini, eggplant and fennel in a lightly oiled shallow oven proof dish or roasting pan or, if desired, arrange in rows to make a colorful design.

Step 4: Cut each tomato in half and place, cut side up with the vegetables.

http://www.kitchenmonki.com/recipe/Yayas_Chicken

http://www.kitchenmonki.com/recipe/Roasted_Mediterranean_Vegetables

Lunch Date

We all remember packing a lunch for school or having a lunch packed by mom. It was probably peanut butter and jelly :) That wasn't so long ago for me, but now that I am working through lunch and packing my own lunch again I am starting to see why I ate the same thing every day for lunch. It can be hard to come up with creative healthful lunches that don't get boring (or repetitive!) So I thought I would share some tips for healthy lunch packing and eating.

Tip 1: Pack your lunch the night before.
Why? If you pack your lunch at night when you aren't rushed to get out the door in the morning you are more likely to think though what you are packing and making the meal balanced. In the morning when there is such limited time it is easy to grab a couple pre packaged things or to skip packing lunch all together and roll through a drive through. If you just don't have time the night before or you think your lunch may not taste good pre-made over night at least think about it before you go to bed or jot it down (if you think you'll forget, like me :)

Tip 2: Don't skip the protein and make your grains whole
Why? The carbs from the whole grains will give you energy for the rest of the work day and the fiber will keep you full until dinner. The same with the protein, it will keep you satisfied until the end of the day rolls around. If your lunch consists mainly of white flour and sugar (the main ingredients in processed foods) you will be looking for something else to eat in a couple hours.

Tip 3: Pack your lunch!
Why? It might seem easier or quicker to run through the drive through and pick up something but packing lunch is cheaper and healthier. A lot of fast food meals skip the whole grain, fruit, vegetable and dairy and give you a whole bunch of fat and calories instead.

So what should you pack for lunch? Here's an idea.

If you like to buy your lunch....
Try recreating your favorite drive through meal. If you have a favorite sandwich from Panera Bread, buy the ingredients and make the sandwich yourself. Panera may seem like a healthy alternative, but their breads and sandwiches are loaded with salt and calories. The Sierra Turkey for example has 920 calories  and 1900mg of sodium (thats almost your whole days worth!). Try this recipe instead:

Slimmed down Turkey Sandwich 
1 Onion Roll (whole grain if you can find it)
2-3 slices of deli turkey
1 slice of reduced fat provolone
Any type of lettuce, as much as you want (baby greens would be the best)
Sliced onions (if you like)
1 T reduced fat mayo

One more thing, make your lunch fun! You want to look forward to your lunch. If that means having something sweet at the end pack a square of dark chocolate (antioxidants!!) or a homemade cookie- whatever you like. If you like chips with your sandwich- shoot for a health alternative most days and treat yourself at the end (or the beginning) of the week. Try bringing nuts, whole grain crackers or pita chips instead.

Happy Lunching! :)

Banana Muff-Cakes

Now that I am home for the summer I have a real life kitchen and I was inspired with boxed baking mixes. I know, not so interesting and definitely not healthy right? Well right, the brownie cupcakes I made were definitely not healthy. So to make up for that treat I thought I would try to lighten up for my next recipe. I saw caramel cake and thought it looked like a fun box mix but I ended up getting spice cake on accident. Oops. I was bummed thinking spice cake didn't sound half as good as caramel cake! But I experimented and I came up with these banana muff-cakes. Why the combination name? Well I have to credit my friend with the name :) but these cute little cakes are made with cake mix but they look like muffins (partly because they have no frosting) and let me tell you they were delicious! I thought they tasted like cinnamon crumb cake. Yum! I lightened them up by changing the box instructions a bit. I used only one egg and substituted a smashed banana and plain greek yogurt for the oil. Try these guys out, they are awesome! 


Banana Muff-Cakes 
1 Box Spice Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines)
1 Egg
1 Banana Mashed
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Greek yogurt, but I'm sure regular would be fine too and if you wanted to used vanilla that would be fine)
1 cup of water

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a regular sized muffin tin with paper liners or spray with non stick spray. (I used the muffin liners) Combine the dry mix, egg, banana and yogurt until it is all mixed. Add water little by little until the consistency is think and moist. I ended up using the whole cup of water, but you may need less. I checked them after 15 minutes and then every 5 minutes after that, they took about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (you know the trick :)
Yield: 12 Big cupcakes (with some batter left over)


Enjoy!


TRIED AND TRUE: 
One friend used chocolate cake mix with the same recipe- yum. 
Another friend used the caramel cake (that I meant to get)- pretty good :)
This same friend used a mini muffin pan and the baked in 15 minutes. 
Thanks for the tips! :) 

The Most Important Meal (In honor of Finals Week)

Hey everybody!
I am going to take a little study break and write a quick little bit about, you guessed it, the most important meal of the day. So if you have never heard this saying let me fill you in. The most important meal is breakfast! Since it is finals week for me I have been thinking about breakfast a lot. I had a super early final so I had to get up a whole extra 15 minutes early to eat some breakfast before my exam but I know there are many out there that either wait until after class or an exam to eat breakfast or just skip breakfast all together. So I am here to say that you should always eat breakfast!

First a little scientific info. Breakfast is so important because during the night when your body is sleeping the body goes into hibernation mode and is less depended on energy from glucose (sugars) that come from food. In the morning when your body comes out of that hibernation it is in need of fuel for the day. Without this fuel the body and mind will not have enough energy to get through daily activities of the day. Research shows that people who skip breakfast are often more tired, cranky, and irritable (not something you want ever and especially during an exam!) However people who eat breakfast are more productive, have a more positive attitude, and it can also encourage weight loss. How you ask? Well have you ever felt so hungry by lunch that you need to rush out and grab fast food immediately at noon? Did you skip breakfast? If you think about it, you haven't eaten anything until dinner the night before and you are starving your body! Eat breakfast and you will be less likely to gorge at lunch.

So for those of you who have exams this week, would you rather be tired and cranky or productive and positive? Thats what I thought, looks like breakfast is the best choice! So let me tell you some of the best breakfasts you can find in the cafeteria. What you are looking for is an ideal mix of carbohydrates, fiber and protein. The fiber will keep you full and the protein and carbohydrates will keep you going until lunch time. So some of the best breakfasts involve eggs, peanut butter and yogurt. All of these things have lean protein and not a ton of saturated fat. Peanut butter does have a lot of fat, so limit the serving to about 1-2 tablespoons. This is great spread on toast, bananas, apples, english muffin, etc. Now I don't like peanut butter so this is out of the question for me.

So let's move on to eggs. In my cafeteria everyday they serve scrambled eggs, hard cooked eggs and made to order omelets. Let me guide you in the right direction with these three egg variations. The scrambled eggs are a good option if you like them cooked this way. Eat them with whole grain toast, a piece of fruit and salsa (as much as you want!) and this is an awesome combination breakfast. The disadvantage here is the potion, a lot of times the cafeteria servers will give you a huge portion which can contain up to 3 eggs and a ton of saturated fat. Beware of this. At home scrambled eggs are also a quick option in the morning and can be taken on the go wrapped up in a whole grain tortilla or english muffin. The next option are hard cooked eggs. These are a great portion controlled option. You can eat them plain and again are great on the go and can also be boiled ahead of time and be ready for you in the morning. Finally, if your cafeteria offers if made to order omelets are one of the best options. Omelets get a bad rep. for being oversized, stuffed to the brim with cheese and hash browns and pretty much terrible for you. But that is not always the case! Ask for a egg white omelet (or if you can't stand it half and half or EggBeaters if you like that too) and add all kinds of veggies- spinach, tomato, broccoli, onions, green pepper, whatever you like. The veggies provide carbs and you can sneak an extra serving into your daily count.

Lets talk about yogurt now. A lot of times you can find this on the salad bar. The best type of yogurt is plain or vanilla because the added fruit usually adds sugar as well. If you are grocery shopping for yourself the ultimate yogurt is fat free greek yogurt because it is loaded with protein. Now you can add your own fruit and a little bit of granola and this is another great breakfast option. If none of these sound good to you and you are heading straight for the cereal let me give you a few pointers. Stay away from sugary cereals. They only thing they have going for them is well sugar and that isn't going to keep you running for very long. Just because a cereal has a low calorie count does not mean it is the best choice. For example, Rice Crispy cereal has about 100 calories per serving but zero grams of fiber which is what you are really looking for. So what are the best cereals? The best is shredded wheat (not frosted), Fiber One Original, and original Kashi GoLean cereal (not the crunch kind). But I know that these are not the most interesting cereals to eat. If you think you can handle them add some fruit to add texture and sweetness. Other good cereals are Grapenuts, Cheerios (my personal favorite), Kix (if you like more sweetness), and Kashi makes some pretty good ones too. Make sure you are adding skim, 1/2% or 1% milk to the cereal bowl to avoid extra fat and calories.

Last I want to give you a few breakfasts to avoid. I already mentioned sugary cereals. What you want to avoid here are empty calories and carbohydrates. Without fiber you will get a sugar buzz and crash from empty carbohydrates. So you want to avoid sugary cereals, bagels, white bread, muffins (even if they are bran muffins- it doesn't cut the sugar content), donuts and other pastries.

I hope this helps encourage you to eat breakfast! I have included the nutrition facts for (1 extra large) wonderful egg so you know how much of a perfect little breakfast package it is!

Thanks for visiting!
Emily

Where did I get all this info?
http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=3261&terms=benefits+breakfast
http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6442453049&terms=breakfast
http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slideshow/great-cereal-spectrum
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/111/2

Grilled Chicken Wonders!

Welcome Back!
I am glad you all enjoyed my first post enough to come back and read some more! This week I want to talk about finding healthy, lean protein in the cafeteria (and in a small kitchen as well!) One of my favorite types of meat is grilled chicken breast. It's super versatile, lean, low in calories and high in protein. Whenever this is served in the cafeteria, let me tell you it is a treat! What I want to encourage you to do is to think outside of the box! Many times in my cafeteria the grilled chicken is advertised as a grilled chicken sandwich (on a white bun). You may see that on the menu and pass it over maybe because a sandwich doesn't sound good or because you like to eat whole grain bread (kudos to you!) instead of white bread like I do. What you should do instead of passing over that wonderful piece of grilled chicken is ask for it without the bun and think of all the things you can do with it :)

So let's start at the salad bar. The easiest way to eat the chicken is to eat it all by itself (but how boring is that?). If you aren't feeling creative just pick out your favorite salad dressing and dip away! I like honey mustard or BBQ sauce the best but sometimes you can find surprise sauces if you look around. I have seen hot sauce, sriracha, curry, soy sauce, grainy mustard and the list of ways to dress up your chicken goes on and on. If you want to take another step up add the chicken to salad greens. Once you take this step (this isn't so hard right?) there are a million combinations. I love to add feta cheese, dried cranberries, almonds and raspberry vinaigrette. Another great one is an Asian inspired salad with mandarin oranges, green pepper, carrots, peas, and chow mein noodles. Try this simply dressed with olive oil and maybe a little soy sauce (remember we found that earlier?)

You didn't think you could find all of that in a cafeteria did you? This is one of my best tips to give you, are you ready? Look around the cafeteria before you get any food! This way you know all of the options. I used to go straight to the hot food line and by the time I get to the salad bar and see something I want I already have way too much food! Now I walk through the salad bar first to see what kind of options are there before I even check out the food line. Remember that okay? :) Now back to the chicken.

We are still at the salad bar, are you with me? Another common salad bar staple are prepared pasta salads. These make a great side dish but they also can be more filling if you add chicken to them. A lot of times in my cafeteria they are lightly dressed and loaded with veggies. The combination of carbohydrates, vegetables and the added protein from the chicken is awesome! Make sure you stay away from mayo based salads though because these have a ton of added fat. One more thing from the salad bar, if your cafeteria has it, is hummus. If you like it this is a great dip for grilled chicken as well! You could even make your own greek salad with hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes and some feta cheese- delicious!

So I've got a couple more ideas once we move on from the salad bar. If you actually did want that grilled chicken sandwich but refuse to eat white bread then head over to the breakfast station and pick out a whole grain or multi grain bread and make your own sandwich! Add some grainy mustard, lettuce and tomato and that is a perfect lunch or dinner. If the soup looks good that day you could add cut up the chicken and add it in there also. I love to doctor up the soups in my cafeteria with added veggies from the salad bar or the hot line or grilled chicken like in this example. Try adding it to vegetarian minestrone. Yum!

Now look at all the things you can do by thinking outside of the box just in the cafeteria. If you have your own kitchen you can of course try all of these ideas but you have the luxury of grocery shopping! Try cooking up a bunch of chicken on the grill (or indoor griddle, George Forman grill, baked in the oven, etc) and using it in salads, on sandwiches, in pasta for dinner, in tacos, on pizza or thrown into soups and stews. The possibilities are endless!

I hope this helps you all think outside of the box with cafeteria options and add one of the best lean proteins into more of your lunches and dinners! One last thing, I wanted to show you the nutrition facts for the famous chicken I am talking about so you know just how fabulous it is. Here are the facts for 3 oz  (that's about the size of a deck of cards or your fist) of a boneless skinless breast.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!
-Emily

Thanks to www.livestrong.com for the nutrition facts! 

Recipes

Banana Muff-Cakes 
Homemade Granola Bars
Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables 

Slimmed Down Turkey Sandwich 

Vegetable Minestrone

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins 

Yaya's Chicken

Welcome to Collegiate Kitchen!

Hey All!
Thank you for joining me at Collegiate Kitchen! I am so excited to share my passion with food, nutrition and healthy eating with you. My goal for this blog is to share some healthy eating wisdom to one college student to another. If you aren't a college student, you are welcome to join me...my tips will still apply in any cafeteria or restaurant too! And I'll throw some real cooking in there once in a while too :) I should start off my saying that I don't have an ACTUAL kitchen. I am a college student and as a result I live in the dorms. You may think I am crazy for starting a food blog without a real kitchen to cook in :) I may be crazy, but I will try to provide some interesting tips and tricks for those of you who, like me, live in a place with no kitchen! I hope to inspire other college students like me to eat healthy when it is so hard with an unlimited meal plan in the cafeteria.

 I've picked up tips from watching other people around here at school, trying out new things with the cafeteria food, the limited space in the dorm room, and from my training as a future dietitian. You might wonder if an actual recipe shows up or maybe some pictures. I do have a kitchen at my parents house, so I cook there sometimes and I may share with you! Don't be alarmed, I am not cooking in my dorm room or sneaking into the cafeteria kitchen after hours :)

 Let me warn you, I am not a trained chef or cook, actually I am not a trained anything yet! But I will soon be a registered dietitian and I hope to share some of my new knowledge with you as I am learning! In my new blog posts you will see tricks to healthy eating, tips that you can use in the cafeteria (or in everyday life), recipes I have seen that I think are super cool or have inspired me, and (hopefully) pictures of some of the stuff I have tried out! I also love to read about food, cooking, and gardening so you may see some book/ article recommendations thrown into my posts too!

 Anything else you want to see? Questions? Leave a comment or email me and I would love to answer and try to accommodate anything you all want to see! Thanks again for stopping by! I look forward to sharing my love of food, and healthy living with you :)

-Emily