Welcome to College!

So, today is my first day of classes. It's only 9:48 am, and I don't have class until 12:30, so I got breakfast in the cafeteria. I guess now is a good time to talk about good and bad cafeteria choices for breakfast.
If the cafeteria offers...:
-omeletts (made to order with add-ins such as cheese, tomato, mushrooms, spinach, ham, peppers)
-pre-made eggs (regular and egg-whites)
-bacon
-pre-made pancakes/french toast/breakfast breads such as that
-belgian waffles, to order, self-serve
-pre-made potato product (home fries, french fries, etc)
-cereal
-oatmeal
-mini muffins
-yogurt
-fruit
-bagels/bread & toppings (butter, cream cheese, jelly, peanut butter)
...You are going to be fine. This is a list of basically the only things my cafeteria serves. It is basic, and not that bad for you if you balance out your meal.
Today I think I ate the most balanced meal I've ever gotten for myself. I had an omelette with cheese and spinach: not extremely fatty, there's protein, greens, oh and I put salsa on it so it was extra delicious with extra veggies. I also got a banana nut muffin which yes, has a lot of fat, but it's a mini muffin so it's not as bad as other choices I could have made. And then I got a bowl of fruit and a banana. I got my protein. I got my veggies. I got my carbs. I got my fruit. That's how you navigate a cafeteria. You balance out the meals so you have a little of everything, but preferably more of the good stuff, such as protein, like eggs.
I have never tried the oatmeal in my cafeteria, mostly because it's off to the side and I forget it's there. But oatmeal is a very good choice for breakfast in the winter. In the summer, it's a little too hot for me to recommend such a hot dish, but to each their own. Oatmeal is a good healthy option, as long as you don't add in sugar and other unhealthy toppings.
Yogurt is my summer weeks oatmeal replacement. It's much lighter, colder, and absolutely delicious. My favorite thing to put in my yogurt is dried oats and raisins. They aren't too sugared so I still think I'm being healthy. But most schools will also have fruit everywhere in the cafeteria, which is another amazing add-in to yogurt. Go crazy with fruit, it's nature's candy.
I will have to say, stay away from pre-cooked and set out eggs. My school has a counter for self-serve breakfast, consisting of a large plate of scrambled eggs (regular and white), a plate of bacon, potatoes, and today was pre-made pancakes, sometimes it's french toast instead, or french toast sticks which aren't any good. Honestly, I steer clear of the self-serve counters. Bacon is always really good (I don't eat it but I hear no complaints...bacon is bacon) and the potatoes are generally pretty decent. However, everyone complains about the pre-made eggs. On the flip side, everyone loves the omelettes that are made to order. But the eggs on the counter are just not the same. They are greasy and made from egg-product, not real eggs, like the omelettes are...My suggestion when it comes to eggs is to get smaller amounts of the pre-made kind, and get it all made-to-order as often as you can. Sometimes there's no choice but to get self-serve food, but if that is the case don't eat too much of those pre-made eggs. They just usually aren't all that good.
All the bread products a cafeteria will generally serve (cereal, toast, bagels, etc) are perfect. I eat too much bread. But balanced out, it's great. No cafeteria can mess up cereal and bagels. Seriously, they would have to try (and sometimes we think our cafeteria really does).
However, pre-made (yet again) things aren't as good because they are usually sitting out for a while, unless you are the first in line when they place them on the counter. I usually pass up the pancakes because they are rock solid by the time I get them but the french toast is usually really good. However, french toast sticks are over cooked, over fried, and just plain bad. Be careful of things that look over fried, because it "over fried" is probably an understatement. Food in cafeterias tend to look better than they taste, while the food that doesn't look so good actually tastes quite delicious.
I'll finish up this post with the best way to look at breakfast: YOU HAVE ALL DAY TO BURN IT OFF! Honestly, breakfast is supposed to be the largest meal, while lunch and dinner are progressively smaller. Eat what you want for breakfast (make sure your breakfast is before noon), just be active during the day and don't eat junk food all day long. Oh, and it's not the best idea to eat after 10 pm (because college kids stay up later, they can eat a little later than the typical 7:00 dinner)...but no later because after that, everything you just ate stays because you can't burn anything off while you sleep.

The Start of Something New...

I'm here packing to leave for my second year at school. I decided now would be a great time to start this blog. My dream is to make it into a book, but that will be once I've finished this blog. The blog is going to follow me through the year (maybe the last few years of school actually) and will basically be a commentary on how I'm dealing with such strong limitations on food. I'm a vegetarian. This blog will not be a vegetarian blog intentionally, but if that's how it ends up, I apologize to those who expected more meat.
Here's my personal food situation at school: We have one dining hall. It's not very big. It can barely fit the amount of people in for the dinner rush. However, we've got kitchens in most dorms. Just not mine. I'm living in one of the sophomore dorms without kitchens in the suites. But my friends have a kitchen. So this year is going to be all about me dealing with a tiny cafeteria (that only makes one special vegetarian dish a day, if at all, and only makes zucchini if you want grilled vegetables. Zucchini is easy to get bored of.) and also taking advantage of my friends' kitchen.
To start off this whole blog though, I'm going to talk about packing. Not clothes, but food. I'm going to say the easiest way to get your car too full, but some food pre-packed, is to go to Costco with your parents. Costco is the Disney World of whole-foods. Everything is delicious and cheap and packed in large quantities as if they knew that you were going to be feeding all your hungry hungry friends...all...the...time...
At Costco, me and my brother decided to stock up on a small supply of sugar-free Red Bull. This stuff is awesome. Unhealthy, yes. But awesome. Perfect for those nights/days without enough sleep and too much to do, without making you feel like you just ate sugar cubes and nothing else for 3 straight hours.
We also purchased a good amount of Arizona Iced Tea. The cans. I love the cans. Everything is better in cans. Except coke, that's best in glass bottles (we also purchased a large quantity of those at Costco). Arizona Iced Tea is my favorite iced tea. It's not too sweet, but it's not water. I hate water. Unfortunately, water is best for you, so get a Brita filtered pitcher. It's better than tap water, and no one wants to drink college-campus tap water.
I also decided it would be a good idea to get something else that's delicious and not water. And even kind of healthy. So I got a big jug of V8 Splash. It's just so good! And I'm not one of those good vegetarians that eats vegetables I just eat breads. So the vegetables in V8 Splash make me feel better.
Lastly in the drinks department: Tea and Coffee. I stocked up on every type of tea that I enjoy, and got a whole bunch of instant coffee/cappuccino mixes. Chances are, you aren't allowed to have a real coffee maker. It's awful, I know, but some instants aren't so bad. Starbucks Via is pretty decent if you make it up right, and there are some others but I'm no good with names. As for tea, my favorite that I've got for school is Sleepytime. I don't remember the company right now but it's Camomile and mint, and absolutely delicious with a little bit of soy milk. Vanilla soy milk is my choice of milk product because it is sweeter than cow milk, and I don't like adding sugar to things so the natural sweetness of it makes my tea and coffee a little more delicious and I don't have to add any artificial sweeteners or extra sugar. By the way I got a gigantic box of soy milk from Costco as well.
Stock up on snacks. Costco has boxes upon boxes of variety packs and candy and all that's good and wonderful in packaged foods. I happened to get a variety box of veggie sticks and chips. Delicious stuff. Better than potato chips. I also got Fiber One bars, because they are awesome.
My most exciting purchase at Costco happened to be this Lentil dinner thing. I don't remember what it's called or the company name (trust me, it'll come up again soon enough, I'll tell you then.) but they had samples and it's so delicious. Always take Costco samples, you find amazing things that way that you wouldn't have looked at in the aisles. This Lentil thing comes in a pack of 4 and you just have to put it in the microwave for 90 seconds. It's spicy though, so I wouldn't recommend it as a meal alone. Eat some crackers or something with it. But we'll get into that later.
Pack your favorite things! I have two boxes filled with food stuffs. That's probably why I can't fit my brother in the car after I pack it up, but whatever, the food is worth it...and all my suitcases of shoes...
I have to finish packing up my clothes and shoes actually, so I'll see you at school!