Cooking meals can be both a fun hobby, and a useful way to ensure you get all your nutrients. Although cooking meals at home decrease the amount of processed and fast foods we eat, it can be quite time consuming. That’s why today I want to talk about how we, as college students, can make time to cook meals either at home, or in your resident halls.
Meal Planning
When making time for anything a planner is very helpful. If I know I have a long and exhausting test one day, I wouldn’t plan on making a complicated lunch. Instead, I might go out somewhere and not overstress myself with more work. Meal planning can help decrease the amount of time you spend thinking about what to eat and can help you keep track of what food items you do and don’t have.
If you aren’t sure what meal planning looks like, it’s okay because not everyone’s planner will look the same. A simple way to set it up can be seen below.
Prep Time v.s Cook Time
Sometimes a big determining factor of whether I cook or not depends on how much time I need to take to make it. Some recipes require a long prep time and is watched over for a long period of time to make sure it doesn’t burn. Other recipes may have shorter prep times and can be thrown in the oven, slow cooker, etc, and only checked on when it’s near its end.
On the Nutrition Navigator Instagram, we show a variety of recipes ranging from short prep/cook times to long ones.