A Week in the Life of an Upperclassman with No Meal Plan
One of the most amazing and convenient things about being a first-year at Tufts was the unlimited meal plan. Tufts Dining puts a lot of other colleges’ food to shame (trust me). But one thing I really missed when living in a dorm was cooking my own meals. My junior year I decided to not sign up for a meal plan in order to save money, and since then I’ve been cooking for myself. I was worried about having the time for it, but a lot of meals don’t require much work and meal prep helps for days when I’m really busy. Now I even use cooking as a stress reliever, a nice time that requires me to step away from schoolwork and just relax. Here are some of the things I’ve cooked up (a loose term as you will see) this week:
Monday: Spicy Udon Noodles with Tofu
Everyone complains about Mondays, but this semester my schedule makes this day one of the best of my week. My first commitment of the day is my Behavioral Economics class at 4:30 PM, which means I can sleep in as long as I want! Today I woke up late, had a light breakfast, and then went to the gym to work out. I came back home and cooked this up! I make this pretty often – I love spicy things, so this is a perfect staple for me. It also easily makes a couple of servings so I can save those for later in the week when my schedule gets busier. But for now, I can take my time making this while watching Netflix before getting some work done.
Tuesday: Banana and Fig Bar
This is my go-to breakfast, especially with my Tuesday and Thursday schedule: 9:00 AM – Modern (Dance) III, 10:30 AM – Contemporary Dance Technique, 12:00 PM – Teacher’s Assistant for Dance on Camera, 3:00 PM – Filming the African Diasporic Dance class, 4:30 PM – Salsa to Sardanas: World Social Dance. Needless to say, I don’t have much time to eat. I usually eat the banana on my way to class and then the fig bar in between classes. This way I have a good level of energy since I’m dancing all day long – a.k.a. living the dream (or my dream at least).
Wednesday: Chicken Sausage, Brown Rice and Quinoa, and Asparagus
Wednesdays are my meetings day: at 9:00 AM I meet with my Advanced Filmmaking professor, every other week I meet with my professor for my directed study researching Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy, and then at 2:00 PM I head to the admissions building to get together with the rest of the Student Communications Group and check in about content for the magazine and website! After class, I headed back home and whipped this up pretty quickly because I had to head back out to go to work at the Digital Design Studio for 7:00 PM.
Thursday: Goat Cheese, Walnut, and Cranberry Salad
As I said, my Tuesdays and Thursdays are booked solid with dance classes. So this is what I bring with me every week for lunch to eat during my break. I usually hang out in the dance program’s lobby while I eat so I can chat with Erin, the program administrator, and Jaclyn, my dance professor. It’s been really great to get to know both of them and just talk about dance outside of class. They also often are happy to give me feedback on my own work, which is amazingly helpful. Most people would hate having class from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM twice a week (extremely unusual in college), but these are my two favorite days of the week.
Friday: Mozzarella and Spinach Raviolis with Asparagus
This meal is brought to you by Costco. I went home last weekend and stocked up on some bulk items, which you see here. Today I didn’t have class, but I did have a meeting and rehearsal for my dance minor capstone, so I was out of the house for most of the day. I eventually got home and had this for dinner, before I went to the movies with some friends. My housemate also made some snicker doodle cupcakes so I had one of those for dessert!
Saturday: Pizza (and asparagus – not pictured)
Okay, so I didn’t cook this one. Everyone needs a day off. Don’t worry mom, I had some of that bulk asparagus as a vegetable. I went grocery shopping today but didn’t really feel like cooking dinner, so I ordered pizza with my housemate instead. There are so many pizza places that deliver around Tufts, let alone restaurants, that the most effort I had to put into this was deciding from which one we were ordering.
Sunday: Chicken Noodle Soup
Today I have no plans other than to relax and get some work done. I woke up pretty late and wasn’t too hungry, so I heated up a can of soup for lunch. I’m headed out now to the campus center with some friends from my Economics class to study for our exam later this week. Already thinking about what I’m going to make for dinner!
Bonus: University Holiday (No Classes!)
We had today off for the holiday, so Kristin, my co-choreographer, and I cooked brunch for our dance group as a bonding activity. A lot of Tufts teams, clubs, and groups often have bondings during the semester, which are some sort of social event outside of usual activities that allow everyone to get to know each other better. As you can tell, I love food, so I had so much fun cooking all this up for the people in my dance. Most everyone showed up, and we had a great time just hanging out, talking, and eating on our day off.
