Meal Plans.

(Note: This blog, unlike most of the others, was written spur of the moment and created in the rambling style in which it appeared in my mind.)

This is my third year as a student at college. The most significant difference, to me at least, between these years, is my living conditions. The past two years, I lived in a dorm where I shared a room with Judy and didn't have a kitchen and was required to by a meal plan. This meant that for a major part of the week I could depend on always being able to have a hamburger or salad or fries or something of the sort. Also, I never really palnned on making anything big in my dorm, because when your cooking space consists of a sink and a microwave, options are limited. (Though with foil and a clothes iron, I can make a mean grilled cheese sandwich.)

However, this year I am in the apartment style dorms. This means I have my own bedroom and a kitchen with a full sized refrigerator. Whoa! I know, impressive, eh? However, this means that my diet has significantly changed. I know over the summer I had grand ideas of cooking meals all the time and making tasty dishes that I was accustomed to making at home, where Mom does the dishes and buys the ingredients and I don't have to worry about obscure spices or kitchenware or things of that nature. Here at college, it's different. I don't have most of the little ingredients and items houses seem to acquire, I have only what I'm willing to buy from the store, which usually isn't much since I have to carry whatever I buy up three flights of stairs, making my shopping list as short as possible.

So, I basically have reverted back to my high school diet: frozen pizzas. Tostinos pizzas at that. In high school, I lived off of these and bagel bites. Now, again, I find myself stockpiling these in the freezer, ready to make for any given meal of the day (yes, I do eat them for breakfast on occasion.) I also have a box of cheerios I've eaten from once. Milk goes bad faster than I actually use it. That's the same reason I don't make the macaroni and cheese as often as I would like. Sandwiches have become a possibility after my grandma explained to me that you can freeze bread. Now I can actually use an entire loaf! With this bread, I can make the peanut butter and jelly described in previous blogs, or a turkey sandwich, provided I have turkey at the moment. And mustard and mayonnaise and pickles. Also I eat Eggo waffles alot. They're nice: put them in the toaster. Syrup. Meal.

Other than that, I'll buy food from somewhere on campus or drive somewhere to get something. Pollo Tropical and Quiznos, being on campus, are particular favorites.

The issue, besides the fact that there is little variety in my diet, is also that I eat less. At the meal plan place, it was basically all you could eat or fit in your takeout box. I didn't overeat, but I certainly never under-ate. However, now that I have a limited supply of food, I eat less than I did. I'm still eating a normal human amount, but I think the issue is when I'm living off of frozen pizzas and waffles, from where are my vitamins coming? I really don't know.

Anyways, it's 6 at night, and all I've had all day were two frozen waffles. I think I'm going to Subway.