Getting Messy with Peanut Butter: Life on a Meal Plan

There are only a few things in my residence cafeteria that I really like; very basic turkey sandwiches, honeydew melon, grapes and peanut butter toast are pretty much it. I find that a lot of food tastes like the same kind of spice and just isn’t my cup of tea. So I use my meal card as a chance to venture outside of my comfort bubble and as a way to get creative with my options to create new meals that I won’t get bored with.

Peanut Butter is food and your best friend. Although peanut butter toast is a ‘been there, done that’ kind of side dish that you have during breakfast, I challenged myself to go to the next level. I eat banana peanut butter sandwiches, peanut butter on blueberry bagels, which is absolutely tasty, and peanut butter on hot banana bread. A discovery I made in one of my lectures is that a snack of peanut butter and bananas really is an energy booster to keep you awake.

Diving into Sushi. I moved from the east coast to the west coast to attend this university. Home, we have a lot of water but not a lot of sushi. I can’t say I’m a big fish person, but I still fell in love with sushi. I stick to vegetable rolls like my personal favorite, yam sushi. Like most people, I didn’t know that yam sushi was an option. It makes some breaks in between class really special and I now know how to use chopsticks. Trying something new when you are on a meal plan is a smart thing to do. It is the right time to take that risk and try some sushi or some Indian cuisine.

How do you eat healthy? If your cafeteria offers a grill or a fast food type service, you should stay away as much as possible. Yes, hamburgers and fries are yummy in all of our tummies but will not make you feel good when you are trying to sit through a class and you are falling asleep in front of your professor. Not cool. I frequent the wrap and sandwich bar almost every single day. I also spice up my oatmeal with banana chips and granola. For snacks, I grab some fresh fruit like bananas, melon, kiwi or an apple. But there are those occasions where I get my really big mug and fill it up half way with hot chocolate and then load the rest with whip cream until it overflows. Those special and memorable treats are allowed.

Remember, it’s a meal plan - go wild with creativity.