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This is the fifth post in my THM Success Series. You can see the previous posts on this page.
While this menu is geared toward challenges that college kids face, it can also give you great ideas if you frequently eat in a cafeteria setting, are on the go a lot, work away from home, or just generally need quick and easy meal ideas. In other words, there are ideas here that pretty much all of us can use at some point or another!
My best tip to college students trying to implement a healthy diet is this: remember to give yourself grace. Eating healthy at college is hard for several reasons: a) you have limited resources and equipment with which to work, b) you’re eating in a cafeteria geared toward the conventional American diet, and c) you have no time (or money). Make the best choices you can and don’t get tied in a knot because your chicken still had the residue of a sugary sauce on it.
This menu is all about functionality for people who are trying to eat healthy (and more specifically, follow the Trim Healthy Mama plan) in adverse circumstances. When making this sample menu, I didn’t follow all my own rules for “best results”. I included shortcut items such as Breyer Carb Smart, and there’s not as much coconut oil in this menu as I’d like to see. This menu is about making the best choices possible in a difficult season of life.
While I personally have not gone to college, I’ve attended some short-term Bible schools (once for six weeks and another time for three) where I ate in a cafeteria setting. I’m not gonna lie – it can be hard to find options, but it is possible to still make good choices most of the time.
Helpful links and pages:
- Starting THM – this page includes my quick synopsis of the plan, a bunch of helpful links, and links to some of the products I like to use.
- Complete Pictorial Recipe Index – all my recipes by category in picture form
- THM Sample Menu (Walmart Edition) – this is a menu made entirely of recipes using ingredients that can be found at Walmart!
- Preparing for Bible School – a post I did last year before I went to the Bible school I mentioned above
Tips for cafeteria eating:
- Grab a protein source. Stay away from sugary sauces and breading. Grilled is great. Lean meats (chicken or turkey breast, fish) can be used in any fuel setting as long as they’re not covered in buttery/creamy sauces. Fattier meats such as dark meat poultry, beef, and pork should be reserved for an S setting.
- Add veggies. Stay away from white potatoes. Utilize baked sweet potatoes and maybe a little corn once in awhile as E (carb) fuels.
- Use fruits in an E setting.
- Skip the breads, pasta, and sweets.
- Casseroles can sometimes be salvaged if the noodles are easily picked out (like lasagna). Casseroles with smaller noodles are harder to work with.
- Cheesy or creamy sauces belong in an S setting.
- Make good use of the salad bar and deli section!
- Healthy desserts are probably not going to be found in your cafeteria. Unless you consider fruit to be a dessert. I’m happy for you if you’re capable of that…but I’m not. Keep healthy dessert options on hand in your dorm room if you have a sweet tooth.
Equipment this menu uses:
- Mini fridge with freezer drawer
- Sink with hot water (it’s a good thing that coconut oil has such a low melting point because you can actually make Skinny Chocolate stuff in a sink of hot water! Just put a ceramic bowl in the sink, add your coconut oil, cocoa powder, and sweetener, and stir as it melts. This makes a great ice cream drizzle that will harden as it cools. You can also use this method to make the instant chocolate covered strawberries mentioned in the menu below.)
About this menu:
- All meals are single serve
- For most lunches and suppers, I made up meals based on typical choices that can be found at a college cafeteria (looking off the menu of an actual college in my area for inspiration). Obviously your options will vary a lot according to where you go and what you are served.
- A few of the meals in this menu are taken from fast food restaurants. College students are often on the go, especially if they’re working off campus, so I thought I’d throw in some of these types of meals for inspiration too.
- Meals or ingredients in italics are from your own dorm room.
- This menu relies on repeat recipes to save time and ingredients. During any free time or on vacations, you can make up baggies with the dry ingredients for your overnight oatmeal to save time during the week.
- Be careful: oatmeal served in cafeterias is likely to be made with quick oats. Old-fashioned oats are recommended for the Trim Healthy Mama plan. This being said, I personally wouldn’t have a problem with eating quick oats once in awhile if that’s what’s available. Edited to add: I just found out that quick oats are actually now considered acceptable on plan (even though rolled or steel cut oats are still preferable beacuse they’re not broken down so much)! Just be sure you get lean protein with them to blunt a sugar spike. Bring your own sweetener, and top with berries and/or fruit. Be careful of cafeteria yogurt – unless it’s specifically marked as being plain, it’s likely sweetened with sugar or one of its variants.
- Use your purse to smuggle low-carb wraps/pitas into the cafeteria (is this allowed? Having never been to college, I really have no idea. Someone please inform me…lol.) when necessary.
- You’ll notice that I’ve used cottage cheese for most of my meal suggestions below. That’s because I prefer cottage cheese to Greek yogurt, but you can gladly use Greek yogurt instead or keep both on hand. I just thought that using one or the other would eliminate the need to store an extra container. Buy low fat cottage cheese and/or Greek yogurt so it can be used in any fuel type.
- Breyer Carb Smart ice cream is approved in limited quantities. A girl has to have ice cream in her life, and this is the most convenient way to get it if you don’t have a blender or ice cream maker. If you do have a blender, you could always make some of my single-serve ice creams.
Monday
B (E) – My Fave Overnight Oatmeal
L (S) – cold cuts, mayo, and lettuce in low-carb wrap, steamed broccoli with butter
S (S) – string cheese and small handful of nuts
D (S) – Hamburger with the works, no bun (eat it over lettuce or bring a low carb wrap), California blend veggies, strawberries and blueberries
S (E) – low fat cottage cheese, orange
Tuesday
B (S) – scrambled eggs and 2 sausage patties
L (E) – salad with sliced grilled chicken breast and lean toppings (lots of carrots and green peas, a low fat dressing – or just use vinegar, and little or no cheese); fresh fruit of choice
S (S) – Chocolate-Covered PB&J Protein Mess
D (E) – grilled chicken breast, moderate amount of corn or brown rice, broccoli, strawberries and blueberries
S (S) – Breyer’s Chocolate or Vanilla Carb Smart Ice Cream with Skinny Chocolate drizzle
Wednesday
B (E) – Mock “Cinnamon Life” Muesli
L (S) – chicken salad in low-carb wrap, salad with S toppings
S (S) – string cheese and small handful of nuts
D (S) – Mexican restaurant – carne asada with lettuce, sautéed onions, and guacamole- no tortillas
S (S) – Instant PB&J Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
Thursday
B (S) – scrambled eggs and 2 sausage patties
L (S) – Wendy’s – cheeseburger of choice (no bun) with a Caesar side salad (minus the croutons)
S (S) – 85% dark chocolate
D (E) – grilled chicken breast, baked sweet potato with a teaspoon of butter, green beans
S (E) – low fat cottage cheese, orange
Friday
B (E) – My Fave Overnight Oatmeal
L (S) – chef salad with sliced grilled chicken, hardboiled eggs, avocado, and other S toppings (I love to add hot sauce too!)
S (S) – 85% dark chocolate
D (S) – McDonald’s – Double Bacon Burger with side salad – you can get this off the value menu for $3. Toss the bun from the burger. Get Ranch with the salad, but go easy on it as the carbs in McDonald’s Ranch are pretty high.
S (FP) – low fat cottage cheese with sweetener and cocoa powder
Saturday
B (S) – omelette with cheese and sautéed veggies
L (S) – Arby’s – Farmhouse salad with smoked turkey and Buttermilk Ranch – and maybe some Arby’s sauce and Horsey sauce if you feel like it!
S (E) – low fat cottage cheese, orange
D (E) – baked fish (minus buttery sauce or cheese if possible), green peas, salad with lean toppings (plenty of carrots and green peas, low fat dressing – or use vinegar, little or no cheese), fruit of choice
S (S) – Breyer’s Chocolate or Vanilla Carb Smart Ice Cream with Skinny Chocolate drizzle
Sunday
B (E) – Mock “Cinnamon Life” Muesli
L (E) – grilled chicken breast, baked sweet potato with a teaspoon of butter, green peas
S (S) – Instant PB&J Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
D (S) – lasagna (remove the noodles), steamed broccoli with butter, salad with S toppings
S (FP) – low fat cottage cheese with sweetener and cocoa powder
Want to save this menu for later? Pin it here!
You can find lots of easy recipes in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
Sally says
I’ve been to a college dining hall with my daughter when she attended, they really don’t care what you bring IN, they just look to see if you are taking anything out! Thank you for all your great recipes and menus. I can’t wait for your cookbook to come out!
Joy says
Thanks so much for the ideas, Briana! I love your Cinnamon Life Muesli for a quick breakfast before heading out the door (no microwave needed, just douse in almond milk and go). My new favorite lunch is a salad and a mim, stuffed in a jar with skinny chocolate drizzled over it (the mim, not the salad…lol). I store my refrigerated food in the department lounge fridge (I commute and don’t have a cafeteria meal plan). And, of course, I always carry some dark chocolate in my backpack for “emergencies”, as well as Truvia packets for my coffee.
Briana Thomas says
Great suggestions!
Emma says
Briana, thanks so much! I worked three weeks at a Christian summer camp last year, and will be there again this summer. The food choices are pretty terrible, health-wise, and although I didn’t gain any weight last year (I was physically working hard!), I got very sick and felt awful. I will definitely make use of your menu this year and am determined not to get sick and stay on THM as much as possible!
Margaret West says
This is also helpful as a mom who’s family isn’t eating on plan. I can use the breakfast and lunches and then modify the dinners for them. Thanks so much!
Michelle Martin says
Thanks for the menu! I was wondering, I saw you have 85% chocolate as a snack. Would you eat the serving size on the package, or less? Thanks for your input.
Briana Thomas says
Hi Michelle! I’m not even sure what the serving size on the package is…lol. I usually get the Moser Roth chocolate bars from Aldi which come wrapped in 5 sections. I’d eat 1-2 sections. Probably 2 if that’s all I was eating for a snack, or maybe one with a bite or two of cottage cheese for extra protein to hold me over.
Gladden Grace says
Thanks so much for this. Really helpful! I’m probably going to be in college soon, so this was interesting and useful to see. 🙂