Easy (healthy!) Recipes by Kaili Woop

Is bread your main carb too?

You wake up late for your 9 am class. Your day ends at 9 pm. You are rushing to get ready to go to class. You did not eat, and you dread the idea of spending money on overpriced snacks in the vending machine.

As we adjust back to in person classes, we as college students need to make time for other aspects of life, including how we eat. There are numerous recipes that are cheap and easy to make that can be brought with you to eat in between classes.

Here are my top three healthy, low carb snack ideas that will help college students eat healthy in a fast and affordable way:

Ingredients: peanut butter, oats, mini chocolate chips, chia seeds, cranberries Optional: white chocolate chips

- Mix enough oats with peanut butter until the mixture is somewhat sticky and not dry. - Add your desired amount of cranberries, chocolate chips and chia seeds. - Mix all ingredients into a bowl. - After creating the mixture, scoop small amounts and roll them into balls. - (Optional) put the granola balls into the fridge to have as a cold snack

Ingredients: canned tuna, lettuce, mayonnaise Optional: onions, Frank's Hot Sauce, garlic powder, paprika, chia seeds

- Mix one can of tuna fish with your desired amount of mayonnaise - Wash 4-6 pieces of Romaine lettuce (Optional) Add chia seeds, garlic powder, Frank's Hot Sauce and paprika to your desired amount - Add tuna on top of the Romaine lettuce

Ingredients: cucumber, cream cheese, everything bagel seeds Optional: Replace cucumber with bell peppers or broccoli, chia seeds, replace cream cheese with vegetable cream cheese or hummus

Wash and cut vegetable of your choice Apply cream cheese (or hummus) to the surface of each cut vegetable. Sprinkle everything bagel seeds and chia seeds on top of the cream cheese.

These easy snack recipes will help you eat healthy in a fast and affordable way. They are great because there is no "right" way to make these because you add the ingredients to the amount that you desire. All of these snacks can be adjusted to be gluten free/dairy free! If you start eating these snacks, you will no longer find yourself getting one of those small bags of popcorn from the vending machine or that $2.50 cookie. This transition in how you eat will help you save money as well as keep your digestion in good shape.