- Plan Your Meals
One tip that is extremely useful when living off-campus is to plan your meals for the week at the beginning of the week. When life gets busy with assignments and tests, you don鈥檛 want to stress about what your eating options are. If you plan and even prep your meals at the beginning of the week, it takes a large weight off your shoulders, enabling you to eat healthily while still remaining focused on your studies. Another thing with meal prep is that your Notepad app can be extremely useful. Create a list of all the possible meals you can make at different times of the day (i.e. snack, lunch, dinner, breakfast). If you create this list, you don鈥檛 have to think off your feet about what you can eat; rather, you can scroll through your list, thus taking pressure off of decision-making.
- Amazon Prime (and Prime Day) is your best friend
When I was moving into my apartment off-campus, I was missing a lot of the small stuff that you don鈥檛 really think about until you need it. For example, a paper towel holder or a cutlery organizer. When it comes to small things like that, sometimes it can be tedious for a student to find the time to go to the mall in between studies. A useful tip that I have discovered is that Amazon Prime is your best friend, largely because when you realize you need those small items, you can order them and get them delivered the next day without having to go out of your way to go shopping. Whatever you need is a few clicks away and can be delivered right to your home. Simultaneously, Prime Day is extremely useful because you can get amazing deals on good-quality items.
- An air fryer is the best thing invented since the toaster.
I truly never 100% understood the hype behind using an air-fryer until I became a student living off-campus. With air fryers, you can cook without the somewhat tedious task of having to monitor it a lot, and or operate a stove. It makes cooking items such as fries or chicken easy while taking away a lot of the time required to make healthy meals. Just make sure that you clean the air fryer tray oil after every use.
- M & M Food Market
When I was in high school, one thing that I absolutely loved was the M and M Food Market which allows you to be frozen, high-quality food that you can easily make later. Options at the M and M Food Market are limitless, enabling students to store food in their fridge that only requires an oven or a microwave to be made easily. Once again, there are ways to make cooking fun and simple. M and M Food Market and its pre-made meals is one of those ways.