Watching what you eat in college is difficult. With back to back classes, exams, projects, and papers, eating properly probably isn’t your top priority. Especially when you have a dining hall at your disposal, it is so much easier to just grab whatever they have and head to your next classes.
The problem, however, is that we may not be getting an ideal amount of nutrition when we’re just grabbing any old thing at the dining hall. So, to we just need to learn how to cook recipes that are simple and nutritious!
To help you do just that, I’ve created a simple superfood meal plan for a busy college student, with meals you can easily whip up at your apartment or recreate at the dining hall. (For reference, here’s a list of superfoods and their benefits.)
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
1. Breakfast: Oatmeal with Berries
Breakfast, as you know, is the most important meal of the day. Even when you have those morning classes you dread to go to, you really shouldn’t skip it.
So let’s kick off the day with our first superfood to incorporate into your meal plan: oatmeal.
Oatmeal is known to be high in fiber which lowers cholesterol. Because of its soluble fiber, beta-glucan, oatmeal makes you feel full for a long time, so your stomach won’t be growling halfway through your first class.
Instead of the bland and mushy oatmeal your parents made you eat in the mornings when you were little, you can make your oatmeal taste awesome! Add some blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries for some flavor plus an extra superfood boost. Then, if you’re feeling a bit extra, top it off with some cinnamon and honey!
2. Lunch: Chicken Sandwich with Fried Egg & Avocado
Lunch time. The time you’ve been waiting for since you stepped in your first class. Let’s make a healthy and amazingly delicious lunch with some avocados.
Avocados are high in monounsaturated fat (aka healthy fat), as well as potassium! Now, the fat in avocado not only helps lower your cholesterol but when eaten with greens, it actually makes you absorb more nutrients, faster.
As an alternative to having guacamole and chips, switch it up for a more filling meal by making this fried egg and chicken sandwich. You guys will never get tired of eating this sandwich. Even if you eat this on the daily, it’s like eating it for the first time over and over again!
This meal only consists of your choice of bread and sauce (mayonnaise tastes great with this sandwich, if you can’t choose) some sliced up avocados and fried eggs, grilled chicken breast seasoned with salt and pepper, and spinach!
If sandwiches aren’t your thing you can always leave out the bread and mix it up into a spinach salad.
3. Snack: Blueberry Smoothie with Chia Seeds
After a long day of classes, you’re dead tired from waking up for your morning class but you still need energy to keep you up. What better way to perk yourself up than with a refreshing smoothie?
Next up on the list are blueberries! Blueberries are packed with antioxidants and are anti-inflammatory. One of the interesting facts we know about blueberries is that they improve short-term memory. So stock up on blueberries when you need to cram for exams.
Blend up your blueberries with the milk of your choice, some chia seeds, and a banana to add onto the health benefits!
4. Dinner: Salmon with Broccoli
The last superfood of the day is salmon.
Salmon is full of omega three fats, which benefit the brain and the heart. Salmon is packed with protein as well! So, if you like the taste of fish, salmon is the one you should incorporate into your diet.
For this dinner, just pan fry a fillet of salmon with some broccoli and rice on the side and you’ve got yourself a dinner. For the salmon, since I’m not much of a cook, I follow a simple recipe by adding lemon, garlic, salt and pepper. However if you’ve got some cooking skills up your sleeve, go ahead and spice it up!
What do you think of this meal plan?
What are some of your favorite superfoods? Which recipe would you try out? Let us know in the comments below!