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Spring break begins next week and many of you will be home or away from campus. Some of you will have to remain on campus and that means some of the normal hours such as in the cafeteria will be reduced. So what do you do when you only have a little bit of money and the cafeteria is closed? Here we will provide a few ideas on meals to fill you up and stretch those dollars.
The first thing to determine is what equipment you have? All of these meals can be cooked in an electric kettle.
Do you have a refrigerator? If you don't have one, can you borrow one from someone this week who is leaving campus?
So let's go shopping. If you do not have a car, look for places to shop near campus. Ralph's Food Fair is right across the street and you can always find out what is on sale from their weekly ad (https://www.foodfairmarkets.com/stores/ralphs-foodfair). It is also convenient so that you do not have to walk that far or carry a lot of groceries for a large distance.
Looking through the ad, you will see that Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Tuna, and Pop-Tarts are all on sale. We will start with that and build a menu for 3 meals a day for 8 days (Saturday, March 9 - Saturday, March 16th). This is a total of 24 meals and the average cost per meal on this menu is about $1.85. When you get to the checkout counter at the grocery, the $45 bill may seem like a lot of money to spend on food. However, if you look at fast food for 24 meals and only spend $5 per meal, you would be spending $120.
Pull up the grocery list and let's go across the street!
Kentucky Christian University has a great cafeteria. You can tell because we have many visitors in our cafeteria on a regular basis. While they are closed during Spring Break, if you have an opportunity to eat there, be sure to take it. Their food tastes great, is well balanced, and is inexpensive. It will add variety to your options for this week.
Here is our menu for the week. Click on the date for each day of the week to see our menu suggestions. Feel
free to switch things around. If you decide you want to eat Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all day one day, it is your prerogative. There are hints each day to make your job a little easier.
Breakfast - Pop-Tarts
Lunch - Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich
Dinner - Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna and Peas
Notes: The macaroni can be boiled in your electric kettle. When it is done, drain the water and put the macaroni in a container. Add the cheese packet. This means you do not have to wash cheese sauce out of your electric kettle.
Add your tuna. You can use the entire can.
Use no more than 1/2 can of peas. Otherwise you will have peas with mac and cheese instead of mac and cheese with peas.
Breakfast - Oatmeal
Lunch - Ramen
Dinner - Hot dogs with sauce
Notes: Putting the oatmeal and ramen in a container and then adding the water, will help make cleanup easy.
Boil your hot dogs in the water, put them on the bun, and then add your sauce. If your hot dog is really hot and you do not use a lot of sauce, the heat of the hot dog will warm up your sauce for you.
There are two brands of hot dogs on sale this week at Ralph's - Nathan's and Sugardale. They are the same price, however, you get 8 hot dogs in the Nathan's package but 3 pounds in the Sugardale brand. I chose the Nathan's brand because 3 pounds. is a lot of hot dogs! If you have the refrigerator space and love hot dogs, feel free to get the Sugardale brand.
Breakfast - Pop-Tarts
Lunch - Mac and Cheese
Dinner - Stew with Mashed Potatoes
Notes: Heat the water to make your instant mashed potatoes first in your bowl.
Be careful heating your stew in your electric kettle, you should stir it frequently so that it does not burn and stick to the bottom of the kettle.
You may want to only use half of the can of stew, depending on how much like mashed potatoes!
Breakfast - Oatmeal
Lunch - Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Dinner - Mac and Cheese with Tuna and peas
Note: This will finish out your can of peas
Breakfast - Pop-Tarts
Lunch - Hot Dogs with Sauce
Dinner - Ramen
Note: If you still have some peas left, it would be great to add them to your Ramen!
Breakfast - Oatmeal
Lunch - Peanut butter and Jelly
Dinner - Mac and cheese
Note: If you have an extra hot dog, you can add it to your Mac and cheese.
Breakfast - Pop-Tarts
Lunch - Mac and Cheese
Dinner - Stew with Mashed potatoes
Notes: You can eat just the stew without the mashed potatoes.
Breakfast - Oatmeal
Lunch - Ramen
Dinner - Leftovers
Notes: You have a few options for dinner tonight.
