Quick and Easy Eats!

This week of meals has been all about convenience. My class schedule is really strange this year in that I have a lot of awkward gaps of time in between classes and sometimes those gaps fall around meal times. Usually I'm trying to be as productive as I can during this spurts of 30 minutes or an hour hear and there, and that definitely doesn't leave a lot of time to cook meals. With that being said, I also don't love to spend money all the time going out to restaurants or ordering food to go because it just adds up really quickly and I am on a meal plan. Here's a look at what I've been doing to eat well this week without spending a lot of time or money.

First up, protein shakes and smoothies! I've followed in Sophie's footsteps and have been hooked on these frozen treats lately. Every morning this week I've taken a protein shake to class with me via with the help of a solo cup and straw. In the blender goes ice, 1/2 banana, 1 scoop organic Trader Joe's coffee, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, a little unsweetened vanilla hemp milk, and flaxseed. Quick and easy! You could also add a scoop of almond butter in there for an extra protein punch! 

Today I had a protein shake for breakfast and then was in a huge hurry to get to my 1:30 class but was starving so I quickly whipped up a SMOOTHIE to go! Ice, 1/2 banana, raspberries, 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder, unsweetened vanilla hemp milk, and a little greek yogurt all into the blender to make a deliciously fast meal to sip on during class. 

Yeahhhh blended meal two-a-days.

With such little time, sometimes lunch is as pathetic as this. A kind bar and a fruit cup I grabbed from one of our food courts before going to Chemistry Lab for 3 hours (you don't know misery until you've had to be locked in chemistry lab for hours). 

Quick sautéing of VEGGIES! I can't get enough of them this week! I really great way I like to save a little money is to use the "dining dollars" allotted to me through my meal plan to buy a bunch of raw veggies from the salad bar at our food court and then bring them up to my room to cook them for dinner! 

Green and delicious. Also some tofu in there from the salad bar.

Lately I've also been cooking things in bulk and then putting the leftovers in tupperware and throwing them in the fridge so that I can quickly grab them and heat them up for lunch the next day if I need to. Easy as cake!..only it's carrots :) I do this with veggies and quinoa mostly.

I had a little more time to make tonight's dinner so I had some elegant canned tuna, heated up tomato soup, and sautéd veggies. I also had some of those cooked carrots. 

Switching gears, tis the season for colds. It seems like everyone around me has a cough, a runny nose, watery eyes, etc. Just the other day a girl sat down next to me in chem lab lecture and was almost hacking up her lungs the whole class. I felt so bad for her plus I'm paranoid about catching other people's colds. I hate being sick (and hardly every am!) so I've been taking extra caution to protect my body against sickness this season. Enter extra Purel, Emergen-C (vitamin C packets you mix in water), Kombucha, and tea (well tea probably doesn't really prevent a cold, but it's very comforting). 

So much studying lately too. We're coming up on the first round of midterms here at Hopkins which is never a fun time, but at least I have friends to keep me company in my second home--the library.