the college student nutrition thread

Paleo college student here. My meals tend to be uniform in size and I do 3 meals a day. Pretty much always a meat + 1-2 veggies. Supplement with omega 3 and vitamin d (it was on sale and winter is pretty much here). Too poor and lazy to eat grassfed most of the time (the nearest butcher that carries grassfed is inconvenient for me to get to) so I always go for lean cuts of farmed meat instead. Tend to eat more beef than any other protein. Occasionally I'll open up a can of tuna or salmon for a meal. Switch it up with some pork? Different cuts of meat? It's more cost effective to roast a whole chicken but more fussier and won't save you any time I suppose. You could always do soup/stews (I tend to save up leftover bones and make a big batch at once that lasts me like 6 meals). Curries? Yeah, I tend to cook at least 2-3 meals every time I cook. Just always make more than you would normally eat and leave it in a container for easy eating. My lazyday ground beef recipe is a bunch of ground beef + a jar of pasta sauce. Put them together, cook 'em, yeah it's as lazy as it sounds. I tend to spend $50 a week on groceries so no help from me for really reducing food costs. If you want to eat well, you have to pay for it. That being said, if there's an asian supermarket you have access to, meat and veggies tend to be a lot less pricier there as opposed to western ones. The same logic applies to farmer's markets near the end of the day I suppose.

Milk
Eggs
Cottage Cheese
Sardines
Whole Wheat Bread
Chicken
Pork
Sweet Potatoes
Various Fruits
Salads

combinations of the above are what I have everyday + multivitamin + fish oil

The only things I eat daily are (sans supps): - chicken breast - sweet potatoes - broccoli - cauliflower - almonds - olive oil On occasion (couple times a week): - eggs - brown rice - kidney beans - canned tomatoes Cheat day: - whatever the hell I want I cooked chicken breast and sweet potatoes in bulk (usually 3 days worth). broccoli, cauliflower, eggs, rice, and beans - I cook when I eat them.

Are kidney beans and canned tomatoes healthy? What do you cook them with? We eat pretty much the exact same stuff

I don't think so. Usually canned food have a lot of sodium.

breakfast - Usually All-Bran, skimmed milk and oatz.
Snack - whey protein bar
Lunch - Chicken Breast/Lean Meat, salad, broccoli, tomatoes, white/brown rice, beans. Depends on the day of the week.
Snack 2 (Pre workout) - Whey protein and some whole bread
Post Workout - Whey Protein and Maltodextrin
Dinner - Chicken Breast, salad, broccoli, tomatoes

I know my diet not very good, but I am all my day away from home, so most of my meals are made when I have a break.

I find them fine since I'm not eating them everyday and I thoroughly rinse the beans before I used them. I cook the tomatoes, beans, and rice together with some spices. pretty good with some hot sauce thrown on top.

Whack some minced beef in that and it sounds like you're cooking a chilli.

I'm also a college student and my main concerns with eating healthily are definitely the money and the time it takes to cook certain meals. Dinner is usually fine, but I keep missing breakfast when i've been out the night before and don't wake up until 1pm on a Saturday.. so I can't keep to any routines.

Do you think this disrupts it too much?

The cheapest and fastest way to eat is to make too much food and save the leftovers for when you don't want to cook. Soups, stews, and casseroles keep well and soups and stews can be made with pretty much anything.

Same as the above, basically. These are the staples of my diet (IF)

Chicken
Ground beef - sometimes I'll get around to making myself some good steaks w/ quality beef, but usually just ground
Shitload of veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce etc.
Quark cheese - makes a mean dessert when mixed with the local koolaid mix (or similar)
Cottage cheese
Tuna, salmon, cod - fish is always good
Eggs

I don't usually prepare my meals beforehand, but if I have a busy wk coming up I'll just bake a ton of chicken breasts, steam some veggies and pack them to go. Works for me.

Get fresh tomatoes. Canned fruits are not particularly healthy and have a shitload of sodium in them.

Kidney beans are awesome. They have some of the highest protein per cooled volume among all the dry beans/lentils. Buy them dry, not canned and soak them in water overnight to soften them up before cooking them.

Canned and frozen fruits and veggies are cheaper and last longer and if you're going to cook them the difference is negligible. Save the fresh stuff for salads.

Even the "sodium free" canned foods are a problem. Take a look at the ingredient list and you'll often see HFCS as a substitute preservative. That shit is effing everywhere.