College. You've done it. You've escaped the parentals and are out living on your own, being your own person, staying up late, partying, sleeping whenever and wherever, especially the super comfy chairs in the library, and you're eating all the free food at the welcome back events around campus. Enjoy it while it lasts; soon you'll be living off of Top Ramen, Easy Mac, Cereal, Frozen Pizzas, TV Dinners, PB & J Sandwiches, and don't forget the Nutella.
Now there's nothing wrong with this diet as long as you don't mind the monotony of eating the same thing over and over again, and the lack of nutritional value, but you're young right? Going to college makes you invincible! Nothing can hurt you! What's sleep, right? WRONG! You're diet (and sleep habits) can make a huge difference in your life for years to come. Now I could ramble about the importance of a healthy diet and start spouting off nutrition facts, but most of you probably don't care, so here's the deal:
Last year at school I was required to have a meal plan for the dorms I was living in, and I only had access to a community kitchen that had to be unlocked by a RA from five to midnight. When I found this out I almost switched universities so I could have a kitchen...no joke. Luckily my parents convinced me that I would live without a kitchen for a year, and promised to buy me my own microwave so I could cook as much as possible in my room. I barely survived the meal plan (never eating at the HC again...ever) and now that I have a glorious kitchen (my dorms ROCK this year) I've been cooking dinner for myself, my roommates and the occasional neighbor or two as often as I can. What can I say, I'm a woman that definitely belongs in the kitchen, although I don't have to stay inside cooking a cleaning all the time, and NO I will not make you a "sammich."
My friends all know I love to cook and that I am going into a nutrition related field of study, what exactly is still up in the air a little, but know it has a lot to do with healthy diets and in turn healthy lives. A few have asked me for advice on eating healthily on a budget, others have asked for recipes, so I figured why not make a blog so anybody can see and benefit from what I'm learning, I mean who knows, maybe I'll only help a few readers, maybe I'll change the world. Why not dream big!
Julia Child said it best when she said "This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook--try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun!"