It’s BACK TO SCHOOL time – and that means it’s time to stock the dorm room with muscle-building, fat fighting, health supporting foods.
Here’s what I would do if I lived in a 10’x10′ dorm room armed only with a mini-fridge and microwave.
Stock Up
“Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance” as my buddy MANdler once told me. Or as I like to say, “You can’t eat what you don’t have.” This one works both ways. Don’t have the good stuff? Looks like you’re unprepared and screwed. Likewise, if you don’t buy the garbage, you can’t eat that either!
As I told you in last week’s Food Matters post, your health is directly and immensely impacted by the foods you put into your body. So as always, our food choices are of the utmost importance. However, since our prep/cooking methods are limited, we must choose wisely. Here’s my list:
- Carb Sources: Minute or instant rice, rice cakes, oats, potatoes, frozen mixed berries, fruit (make sure the instant rice doesn’t contain unwanted additives)
- Protein Sources: Protein powders, egg whites, canned (wild-caught) tuna/salmon/chicken
- Fat sources: nuts, nut butters, coconut flakes, cocoa nibs, avocados/guacamole, grass-fed butter, coconut oil, olive oil
- Veggies: frozen broccoli, kale, spinach, celery, kimchee, saurkraut
- Equipment – a blender and a Foreman grill will open up options you can’t imagine!
- Sauces and toppings – salsa, San-J gluten-free Szechuan sauce, mustard, sea salt
Putting It All Together
- Wild Salmon Salad: Spinach, canned wild-caught salmon, and San-J Szechuan sauce (instant rice optional for more carbs)
- Pimped PB & Celery: Add protein powder to natural PB/almond butter, mixing in SMALL amount of water until you get a cake batter consistency. Enjoy with celery
- Nuclear Eggs: Dump some egg whites into a glass dish and pop in the microwave for a few minutes. (Check a few times so they don’t explode!) Top the steaming white “scrambled” eggs with grass-fed butter and add some broccoli and your choice of tater or instant rice to complete the meal
- Super Shake: That sweet blender will come in very handy – water, ice, spinach, banana (or frozen berries), protein powder, cocoa nibs, coconut flakes and BOOM!
- Foreman grilled Chicken: If you do get a foreman, you’ll have the ability to “grill” any animal flesh you please – steak, chicken, fish, turkey, etc. Follow the same rules, adding veggies, fat, and possibly carbs if you need the energy/glycogen replenishment.
Dining Halls For Main Meals
Of course, you can always skip the Foreman and rely on the dining hall for those 2-3 meals per day when you want the things you just can’t make in your dorm room.
Bottom line, living on campus, in dorm room, or wherever you may be is nothing more than a hurdle on a track. It doesn’t stop you from reaching your destiny – it simply requires you to make adjustment in your path. Get creative, be determined. Be successful!
Post your favorite dorm-room foods/meals below.