Being on meal plan as a student can be wonderful. Having a buffet of delicious foods that are prepped and ready to eat every day is delightful. However, if not used correctly, the meal plan becomes repetitive and stale. Here are a five tips to successfully use your meal plan so you’re never bored.
Know Your Options
The meal plan at the University of Georgia (UGA) offers five different locations to dine: Bolton, Snelling, The Village Summit, The Niche and O-House. Each location serves the same basic foods but “they all have a little different personality,” said Katherine Ingerson, the UGA nutritionist. For example, the Village Summit offers a smoothie bar, O House has an Asian stir-fry station and Snelling offers 24-hour dining services. It is also important to understand what foods are offered at the various stations within one dining hall. Knowing what each dining hall offers will allow you to change up your diet and make for less repetitive meals.
Plan Ahead
The University dining halls post their menu for the day and the nutritional value of each entrée/ food item online every day. Planning what you are going to eat can not only be a great way to spice up your meal time, but it can also allow you to watch how much you are eating. This makes it easier to maintain a healthy diet. Rushing to the main entrée line or grill line because you only have thirty minutes to eat and you don’t know exactly what you want, is a common phenomenon. Choosing what you are going to eat for the day is as simple as pulling out your phone and checking the menu.
Talk to your Nutritionist
Sometimes you are not able to learn everything about the dining hall meal options on your own. Speaking with UGA nutritionist Katherine Ingerson will open your eyes to the lesser known foods and secrets on meal plan. It is also a chance to learn about healthy eating. If you want to know more about healthy ways to spice up your meal, contact her at ingerson@uga.edu.
Get Creative
Pizza and hamburgers may seem like a luxury at first, but you will “get tired of it,” Ingerson said. You have to take control of your own meal choices. All of the dining halls offer free recipe cards to meal plan users. “Each dining hall has six different [cards] that specifically use dining hall foods so you can go to any dining hall, find those foods and make the recipe on the card,” Ingerson explained. The cards are located at the nutritional station in each dining hall and are available for students to take home.
Keep it interesting
Once you have officially tried new recipes you should keep things interesting by making substitutions every now and then on the classics. Instead of the burger, get a turkey burger. Instead of hummus and pita chips, try hummus and vegetables for an equally delicious but more nutritious meal. The small substitutions here and there will keep you from getting bored. And you never know, maybe one of the substitutions will lead to a new recipe that you can share with your friends.