Cafeteria food. If those two words just sent shivers up your spine, keep reading. If they didn’t, definitely keep reading. But first, re-evaluate your taste in food. As a New York City girl for most of my life, I have grown accustomed to many of the great restaurants, diners, and shops offered there. For people like me who are from the city (or even those of you who aren’t) the selection of food available on campus is quite a change from what you may have had access to in your hometown. Maybe you’re Italian, or Dominican, Jamaican, Indian, Albanian, or Puerto Rican. You miss the cultural dishes you grew up with. For guys I have this advice: cook for yourself! Many may think, “I can’t cook.” You are wrong. Anyone can cook! When I became a vegetarian thtree years ago, I had to learn to cook a lot of different dishes. My other alternative was to dine out all the time and that was way too expensive! I didn’t think I knew how to cook (and apparently neither did most people I cooked for) so I had to really step out of my comfort zone in order to learn to prepare meals for myself. It was so empowering, and I learned that I really can cook! If I can do it, so can you. Discover your hidden talent! Another common excuse people use to avoid cooking is the expense. Um, have you seen the cafeteria prices?! Before I became a full time resident at Old West I was a commuter, and I paid out of pocket for food at the coffee shop, Dunkin Donuts, and Nathan’s. I will tell you from experience, it much less expensive to just cook! For those of you who are pressed for time, there are tons of meals that you can make in under 20 minutes, that’s probably less time than you will spend waiting in line at the cafeteria! You can make a meal that will last you two days in under 30 minutes for $10…or, you can waste your Den Points and then complain that they just “go too quickly” like everybody else on campus. One starter recipe I recommend is angel hair pasta with tomato and basil. It takes about 20 minutes to make and the ingredients are one shuttle bus ride away to the supermarket:
“Easy Peasy Pasta”
1 Package of Angel Hair pasta
1 Tomato
1 Sprig of basil
1 (small) container of olive oil
Pinch of salt
1 Contained Shredded Parm
5 Cloves of garlic, chopped
Pepper (optional)
1) Bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil. Add salt.
2) Chop tomato, garlic and basil. Place basil and tomato into a separate pile.
3) Pour the entire (about 5 oz) bottle of olive oil into a skillet. Once the oil begins to sizzle, add the chopped garlic and let cook for 5 minutes.
4) Add angel hair pasta to boiling water. Let cook for about 12 minutes and then strain.
5) Add tomato and basil to the pot of pasta, then mix with the olive oil and garlic mixture.
Voila! You have a yummy, swift meal…and a couple of extra minutes to get to class with it!