As convenient as a college meal plan is, many students — including myself — opt out of one. I do love grocery shopping and cooking for myself and my friends, but I won’t lie — it can often feel overwhelming to come home from a full day of classes to a bunch of random ingredients staring back at me from their shelves, waiting to be whipped into a meal.
To ease this responsibility, I like to set aside an hour or two on Sunday to make those weekday meals a little easier. Here are a few meal ideas you can make on Sunday to store in the fridge or freezer until you need them.
Breakfast
With some college classes beginning early in the morning, I like to have a few grab-and-go, fresh breakfast options that are full of nutrients and protein to help me power through the morning. Overnight oats and chia seed pudding recipes are some of my favorites, especially because they are easy to customize to your flavor preferences and to make your morning meal far from boring. Additionally, I like to top these items with whatever fruit I have in the refrigerator, drizzle with nut butter or honey, and sprinkle with any extra toppings like nuts, chocolate chips or chia seeds.
If I wake up in a savory mood, any dish involving eggs is a sure fire choice, and breakfast sandwiches are my personal favorite. With bread options like bagels, croissants and english muffins to protein options like eggs, sausage, bacon or a combination, these sandwiches are highly personalizable and easy to prepare in large batches to store in the freezer.
Overnight Oats
The variations of overnight oat recipes are endless, almost overwhelming. Most Sundays, I choose one base flavor to prep for the week, and as I pull the servings out on weekday mornings, I like to add fresh berries and toppings depending on my appetite.
If you like to take your breakfast on the go, set out your desired number of bowls, one for each day you plan to eat the oats. I like to make one large batch and store it in a single container to later scoop into a bowl and add toppings the morning of.
Some of my favorite bases include peanut butter, berry and chocolate chip overnight oats. If you’re feeling adventurous, I’d recommend browsing recipes for matcha, strawberries and cream or oreo flavors — you name it.
Chia Seed Pudding
Don’t underestimate the power of chia seeds — they may be tiny, but their health benefits are mighty. As a superfood, these little specs are dense with fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, and various antioxidants, meaning before you’ve even begun your day, you’ll be setting yourself up for success.
Similar to overnight oats, the internet boasts of endless flavor inspirations for these seeds, and the texture of the pudding will be perfect as they soak up the liquid overnight and blossom up to ten times their original size.
Each Sunday, I like to make either a vanilla or chocolate base to later top with berries, nut butter and granola. These bases allow you to substitute for your milk preference, and I find the pudding to be easy on my stomach, especially for early mornings.
Breakfast Sandwiches
Who says sandwiches have to be reserved for lunch? The breakfast sandwich is the ultimate grab-and-go choice, and I tend to prepare 15 to 20 of these every month or two to wrap in foil and store in the freezer.
While my go-to-sandwich would have to be egg, cheese, and pesto (you have to give it a try) on an English muffin, these sandwiches can be prepared with any fillings you desire — be that bacon, sausage, ham or a meatless alternative — and enclosed between your desired form of bread — I’ve done bagels and biscuits, and can recommend both. Often called freezer-door breakfast sandwiches, I like to assemble these treats after cooking any of the filling components, and then I wrap them in foil, label in Sharpie the contents and packing date, and place them in an accessible freezer shelf.
Enjoy these by microwaving for 30 to 60 seconds.
Lunch & Dinner
Whether you have 20 minutes between classes that has to make do as lunch or your days end late and you’re hoping to avoid the meal delivery fees that always seem to pile up (the invention of Uber Eats was fatal to the college student population), these lunch and dinner ideas that you can prep in advance will save you both time and money during the week.
Mason Jar Salads
A meal that is both pleasing to the eye and to the stomach, Mason Jar salads surely live up to the hype. After shopping for various vegetables and salad items and chopping any ingredients, all that’s left to do is set your jars out (I usually make 4 to 5) and layer.
Some recipes I’ve loved include harvest grain, crispy chickpea, and kale, Mediterranean and crunchy salmon and cucumber. Although I have experimented with adding ingredients without a unifying theme, I’ve found much greater success when I have a definite idea.
Pro-tip: to avoid sogginess, pour the dressing first to sit on the bottom of the jar, especially for the salads you will be eating later in the week.
Chicken Taco Bowls
Maybe this is my Texan roots coming out, but I am always in the mood for Mexican food. Also, putting some beans, rice, chicken, avocado and cheese together demands so little effort while creating a dish packed with so many flavors and nutrients — it almost seems illegal.
After cooking the rice (I’m a huge fan of microwaveable rice for convenience sake), I like to assemble the rest of the tex-mex ingredients in microwave-safe bowls for easy reheating later in the week. On the day-of, feel free to add sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce and any other fresh ingredients.
Bento Box Lunches
Bento boxes are the lunch that take me back to my elementary school lunch room, and they can flawlessly clean out my fridge of spare ingredients when I haven’t had time for a grocery store run in a while — what more could you ask for?
First, if you haven’t already invested in some bento-box-style lunch containers, I would highly recommend it. I keep five in my college apartment, and they get more use than any other piece of dishware.
From there, the bento box is your oyster. Pack it with turkey wraps, sliders, pasta, fruit, you name it.
Other Tips & Tricks
Aside from these meal ideas, a few other ways that I prepare food to minimize work during the week include chopping fresh fruits and vegetables for quicker access, preparing some granola bites or protein muffins for a mid-day pick-me-up, and dishing any leftovers into single-meal containers for quick reheating.