It’s 2:00 in the afternoon. You slept late, had class all day, and on top of all that, you are absolutely starving. It sounds like Godzilla took up residence in your stomach and is wreaking havoc on the rest of your body—that kind of starving. Trust me, we’ve all been there. And the only thing that keeps you going is knowing that once you get to the dining hall, be it in Warren Towers, West Campus, or Towers (Towers has a dining hall you say? Yes!), your day will be infinitely better. So with high hopes, you lug yourself to said dining hall, looking forward to the immense amount of food you are about to inhale until…you realize there is absolutely nothing there that you want to eat. Now, I’m not knocking the dining halls, but there are just some days when everything seems unappetizing. Stir fry? Had it three days in a row. Fried tofu? No, thank you. Pizza? I can do better than that.
As college students, part of our education is focused on learning how to be innovative. I know, I know. It’s the dining hall, not class. I should just be able to pick up a plate full of food and eat whatever is on it and hope that it is fairly edible. And while on most days, I am lazy and I do just that, the fun part about the dining hall is learning to be creative with your meals. It isn’t just your mom cooking whatever is in the fridge, telling you “you’ll eat it, and you’ll like it.” We are the masters of our own meals! And to help you become such masters, I offer here a beginners guide to building your own dining hall delights.
The Riesz Sandwich
Named after a floor mate of mine last year who created this sandwich, the Riesz is perfect for people who want a sandwich full of flavor and are not exactly sure how do go about building the perfect one.
At the sandwich station, ask for:
-French bread (or a roll if they are out)
-Roast beef
-Lettuce
-Tomato
-Pickles
-Onions
-Hummus
-Pepper sauce
Spinach Quesadilla
My favorite day in the dining hall is quesadilla day. Sadly, it isn’t every day, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t have them during the week! While you can keep it simple and get shredded cheese from the salad bar and ask the sandwich people to put it on a wrap and toast it, you can always get more creative. One idea is:
At the sandwich bar, ask for:
-A wrap or a tortilla with provolone cheese.
-Put about 2 generous tongfuls of spinach on top of that, which you can always get at the salad bar.
-You can also get some shredded cheese, raisins, and tomatoes and put those on as well.
-Have it toasted.
Yogurt Pancake Stack
For those of you who are lucky enough to actually wake up in time for breakfast, here’s a little recipe to turn your boring old pancake into, well, a not so boring one.
-Take a pancake and cut it up into 3 parts. And if there are no pancakes available, try using an English muffin or toast.
-Use of part of the pancake and spread some strawberry yogurt on it, then top it with some sliced bananas.
-Place another part of the pancake on top of that and spread it with more yogurt and jam.
-Place the final pancake on top and garnish with a drizzle of honey and more sliced bananas.
Side Dishes
As much as I love the main meal, I find myself eating more of the side dishes. Call the appetizers if you want, but between eating my first cheeseburger and then going to grab a bowl of mac and cheese, I like to have a little something to cleanse the palette.
-Cucumbers or broccoli florets.
– Ranch dressing from the salad bar or hummus from the sandwich station.
-Toast some bread, whether you get it from the sandwich station or not.
– Cover it with olive oil and shredded cheese from the salad station.
-Put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, or until the cheese is melted.
-Take some fries from the burger bar.
-Cover with shredded cheese and microwave
Simple, right?
Salad
When I first got to school and had an entire salad bar at my disposal, the only salad I could really put together was iceberg lettuce and Italian dressing. Very green, very bland. Fortunately, with the help of my friends, my salads became not only more nutritional and delicious, but colorful as well!
– Start with some romaine and then add spinach on top of it.
-Broccoli
-Tomato
-Zucchini or Cucumber
-Chick peas
-Tofu
-A sprinkling of cheese
-Peppers
-Granola (if you’re feeling really devious)
-Alfalfa sproats (load ’em up! Top it off!)
-Your choice of dressing
Dessert
Dessert is probably the best part of the dining hall experience. This is mostly because I can get more than one. I live life on the edge and I choose not to fear the freshman (or now, sophomore) fifteen. So instead of having cup after of soft serve ice cream, try one of these dessert creations instead.
My personal favorite dessert that is not hard to make at all is:
-Take one of the ice cream cups and fill it with whipped cream from the waffle station.
-Drizzle it with chocolate sauce.
Some others are:
-Take two cookies and put ice cream in between them for your own ice cream sandwich
As a general rule, cookies/brownies/muffins are always good with ice cream. To maybe make it a bit more interesting, try a chocolate brownie with bananas and ice cream.
-Rootbeer floats. Easy enough—fill a cup with root beer and vanilla ice cream.
For you health nuts out there, here’s a delicious, more nutritional dessert:
-On nights when there are muffins for dessert, take one and cover it with frozen yogurt and sliced fruit. Or you put on a little bit of whipped cream if you want to get crazy.
The overall key to making your own dining hall meals is to think of the dining hall as more of a grocery store. Feel free to mix and match food from different stations. Go crazy and ask the stir fry people to put some chicken in your salad. Mix and match and treat everything as an experiement. It’s all about having fun. And if something doesn’t taste good the first time you make it? Don’t worry. You have all year to perfect it. Bon appetite!
