Healthy diet at college
 

I am going back to college in about a month and I cannot eat more fried, crappy food at my fraternity house. I am looking for suggestions for a more healty diet than I had last year. I will be eating house food most of the time, because some of it is actually pretty good and has nutritional value. Also, meals are not provided on the weekend, so I need an alternative to fast food.

I plan on stocking up on fruits, veggies, granola, and yogurt for snacks. Main courses are where I need suggestions. What are some tasty, inexpensive, and healthy things I can make with relative ease? I have a full kitchen at my disposal, so there are no culinary limitations, but as I said, I'd like simple things. Are stouffers or hamburger helper type dishes a good alternative?

I'm sure there are plenty of people my age cooking for themselves, so what are you doing?

Kavli crackers with avacado is a great snack.

Eat whole foods, nothing processed!

Hi,
tell your Mom you need a used Joy of Cooking. The used ones are better
than the new ones. It will teach you how to cook. Basics are easy.
Fry up an onion, set aside, fry up a half pound of burger and throw the onion back in. Add sloppy joes and in a couple minutes you have sloppy joes. Add spaghetti
sauce and some cooked noodles and ya got spaghetti. Make some instant potatoes, put the burger mix on the bottom of a baking dish, then stir an egg or two and some grated cheese into the taters. Slap the taters on top of the burger, throw in a 325 oven for 30-40 minutes and you have shepherds pie.

Gals love a guy that can cook a decent meal.

Chicken thighs are cheap, and make for easy cooking. Get a cheap small dutch oven ( your Mom can help you find one ) and throw in some chicken or turkey thighs. Add goop. What goop? Anything.... BBQ sauce, wing sauce, cream of mushroom soup and a can of mushrooms. . Cook at 300 for an hour, flip the thighs and cook for 10-15 minutes more. Depends on how much you are making.
When they are not red in the middle they are done.

When I was in college we used to use a Hibachi constantly. Chicken legs in BBQ sauce, we may not have known how to cook, but we could dunk and burn :)

A few guidelines:

* Prefer brown rice over white rice
* Most beans are pretty good as long as they aren't cooked in oil/lard. They're also cheap.
* Look for whole grains.
* Less processed is better than more processed.

You can do a lot with pasta. Spaghetti sauce by itself, or with a few sauteed vegetables, or adding some fairly-low-fat sausage. There's a lot there to experiment with.

BBQ is also great. A Weber Smokey Joe is cheap, will last a long time, and will give you great flavor.

You might also pick up an issue or two of Cooking Light magazine - they have a series with simple recipes that are quick to make.

There are decent fast food options. Raw burritos (no cheese on top) with beans, rice and salsa are pretty good. Sandwiches are good if you have lots of vegetables and avoid the high-fat choices.

I thought this thread had some good ideas :)
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=201257

Try to avoid the Hamburger Helper. Lots of saturated fats and too much sodium. Make your own with some lean ground beef/turkey and whole grain noodles and a sauce you make - fresh mushrooms and plain yogurt, for example, or a real melted cheese.

Does your house hire a cook/steward, or are there brothers who plan the menus? I ate a lot of junk in school but we also had some good meals (my house had some members who actually knew something about nutrition). Talk with the cook/menu planner about some healthy alternatives to "Deep fried de jour." I'd expect some of your fraternity brothers are atheletes or a little more health concious and would support some alternatives or could go in with you on rolling your own meals.

Having access to a big commercial-grade kitchen really helps - I learned to cook a decent breakfast and miss having a BIG gas-fired cooktop to work on.

Good luck.

Yeah, we have a cook and we just started a foods chair to work with her on a menu. The thing with our cook is you constantly have to ride her ass to cook what you want, or she gets lazy and throws stuff in the deep fryer. This topic was posted more on what do on weekends when food is not provided. Our kitchen does have everything I need, so that is a plus.

+1 Eat as much whole, unprocessed produce as you can.

But to learn why and how, read "Eat to Live" by Dr. Joel Furman.