F&M’s Dining Hall, more affectionately referred to as D-Hall, has mixed reviews to say the least. Some people swear by it. Others can’t stand it. Regardless of which side you fall on, most of us probably agree that the food can get pretty monotonous.
We decided to address this issue by getting fanc-ay in D-Hall. And by “fancy,” I mean we combined food from different stations and ended up with some really great results that prompted questions from a lot of other D-Hall goers like, “where are they serving that tonight?”
We made these 5 dishes with D-Hall ingredients to show you that you don’t have to settle for the same old food everyday.
1. Loaded Salad
For our first D-Hall dish, we decided to make a big ass salad. Choose whatever greens you prefer from the salad bar as your base. We chose spinach for the high doses of Vitamin C and Iron. Add a cut up apple—this one is locally grown, for all you locavores.
We checked out the gluten-free station and snagged some tomato-cucumber salad and cajun chicken, which we chopped up for a more enticing protein than the watery tofu you’ll find at the salad bar. Top it off with fixings from the salad bar and grill station.
If you don’t like the pre-made salad dressings, make your own by combining mustard and balsamic vinaigrette.
Photo by Hannah Skiest
2. Burrito
If you want a burrito, but you don’t want to cough up the $8 for Chipotle and you can’t go back to Salsa Rico after watching one of the employees skip washing their hands in the bathroom, making one with D-Hall ingredients is really very simple.
Start with a tortilla from the sandwich station and, while you’re there, add some lettuce and cheese. Go to the grill for some shrimp, onion and rice. Next, we chose red beans and chopped peppers from the salad bar and got salsa and sour cream from KIVO. You can eat your creation as a bowl or or go crazy and fold it into a burrito.
Photo by Hannah Skiest
3. Cheesesteak
For our version of a cheesesteak, we chose steak from the stir fry grill and cheese from the salad bar. Toast two pieces of bread, or a roll, and layer the steak and cheese. Thick cut steak fries were the special of the day, so we couldn’t resist adding them to the sandwich.
Microwave the sandwich to melt the cheese. Add onions from the grill, if that’s how you like it, or top it off with some lettuce from the salad bar and tomatoes and pickles from the sandwich station.
Photo by Hannah Skiest
4. Ice Cream Sandwich
There’s always room for dessert. For a DIY ice cream sandwich, go ahead and take two cookies. Add soft serve ice cream, smoosh it between the cookies and, to get even fancier, top off your ice cream sandwich by rolling it into some crushed up cereal.
photo by Hannah Skiest
5. Banana Brownie Sundae
This one is for all you chocolate lovers out there.
Grab a bowl for some chocolate ice cream and top it off with a sliced banana. Heat up a brownie in the microwave until it’s warm and gooey and then crumble it on top of the ice cream. We also added a drizzle of honey from the tea station for an extra indulgence.
Photo by Hannah Skiest
Sometimes D-Hall just doesn’t do it for us. Check out these articles that do: