the cost of cooking

College is expensive. I can empathize with money problems more than most. I have three jobs just to keep up with my expenses. Groceries can be a huge expense, but we all have to eat.

In a survey of 40 Ohio University students I took (yes, I used Facebook), I found that the average amount spent on groceries is about 25 dollars a week. That's 100 dollars a month, and 900 for the school year. Just thinking about that makes my head spin. It adds up quickly. But there are several things that can be done to help save money.

Cook!
This one may be obvious, but the easiest way to save money on food is to not eat out as much. Paying 10 dollars for a meal is ridiculous. Not to mention the two dollars you're paying for a soda. It's unbelievable. Cooking your own food will save you a ton of money. After spending the quarter with me learning to cook a few a few meals, Alli J is hooked. "It's not too hard to cook a few times a week and eat the leftovers," she said. "It's saved me some money and I still get to eat good food."

Make a list
The most important thing about making that list is to actually stick to it. Don't venture away from your list. A lot of times I go to the store for a few things and end up getting a lot more than I had anticipated. This kills the budget. Also, never EVER shop when you're hungry. It always turns out disastrous. Everything in the store looks good when you're hungry.

Look for a sale
There are always sales going on. Kroger does a lot of great 10 for $10 sales. But look around elsewhere, too. There are plenty of stores around Athens to check out, so take a look around and figure out which stores have the best sales. Senior Brett Strickland shops at ALDI. "They always have cheap stuff," Strickland said. "It's really nice to save a little bit of money."

Go generic
Sometimes generic brands suck. But usually, they offer the same value product for a couple dollars cheaper. Saving a couple dollars on several items on your shopping list will really add up.

Look at the top and bottom of the shelf
This is one of the many tricky little things stores to do. The "nicer," more expensive product will be found at waist to eye level on the shelf. The less expensive items will be located at the top and bottom of the shelf. Tricky, I know.

Cut Coupons
Coupons are easy to find, so why wouldn't you use them? Pick up a copy of the Athens Messenger on Sunday and get coupons for local stores. Junior Brittany Brunty cuts coupons every week to keep her costs down. "You'd be surprised at how much cutting coupons really helps," she said. "I usually save 10 to 15 dollars each time I go to the store."

WLWT did a story about grocery shopping on a budget. They targeted women for this story but I believe it applies to anyone looking to save some money on food.



Eating on a college student's budget can be hard. It takes a little more work but it is definitely manageable with these tips in mind.

Have fun and good luck.

take a break for breakfast

You've probably heard that breakfast is important. It's probably the most important meal of the day but is the most commonly skipped meal. This is problematic. Here are a few reasons breakfast should never be skipped.

Eating breakfast kick-starts your metabolism and gives you energy for the day ahead
According to the Better Health Channel, "Glucose is the body’s energy source. It is broken down and absorbed from the carbohydrates you eat. In the morning, after you have gone without food for as long as 12 hours, your glucose levels have dropped. Your body compensates by releasing the glucose that has been stored in your muscle tissue and liver, called glycogen. Once all of the energy from the glycogen stores is used up, your body starts to break down fatty acids to produce the energy it needs. Without carbohydrate, fatty acids are only partially oxidised, which can cause reduced energy levels." So, when you skip breakfast, you are not getting the energy boost your body needs to function.

People who skip breakfast are more likely to be overweight
This totally crushes the myth that skipping breakfast can help you lose weight. In fact, studies have shown that people who skip breakfast are heavier than people who eat breakfast. This happens because by the time the person that skipped breakfast makes it to lunch, they are starving and tend to overeat or have a mid-morning snack. Eating a healthy breakfast is a much better plan.

Breakfast provides nutrients essential to your diet
Even a nice, sugary bowl of Lucky Charms has a significant amount of iron in it, among other nutrients. Breakfast provides a variety of vitamins and minerals that are important for your stable health.

People often skip breakfast because they just don't have time or don't think it's important. Well I've hopefully convinced you that it is important, and taking an extra five minutes in the morning to eat a bowl of cereal is not a difficult task. Make time.

Have fun and good luck.

give me pizza. p-i-z-z-a.

Cooking all the time never happens. We all need a break. Pizza is one of my favorite things to buy because it's fast and usually tastes good. Usually. Athens has several different places to try. I've highlighted a few of my favorite spots around town.


View Athens' Best Pizza Joints in a larger map

Have fun and good luck.

avoiding the skip

This week has been a little crazy for me. I'm in the running for an internship with the American Junior Golf Association and am spending the weekend in Atlanta, Ga., for their intern recruiting weekend.

Since I am not at home and was too busy preparing myself for this weekend, I did not have time to cook. I think that happens a lot. Life gets crazy and one of the first things that we put on the back burner is cooking. We rely on whatever questionable food we find in the refrigerator or maybe skip meals altogether. This is when problems arise.

When you skip a meal, your body goes into what FIT Lauch calls "fasting mode." While in this altered state, your body uses carbs, proteins and fats to for energy. According to FIT Launch, if your body remains in "fasting mode," the glycogen storage deposits found in the liver and muscle become depleted. As the glucose levels drop, the body looks for other sources of fuel. Since the brain and nerves prefer energy from glucose, protein tissues (muscle and liver) are broken down. In efforts to preserve the remaining protein, the body starts to metabolize fat for energy in the form of ketone bodies.

This process of using ketone bodies can bring on a lot of unwanted side effects such as fatigue, nausea and constipation among many others. If this process continues, the body enters "starvation mode," which leads to a slower metabolism because of the muscle loss it is enduring. A slower metabolism, as you may know, means gaining weight just got a whole lot easier (as if it wasn't easy enough).

While occasionally skipping a meal will not have a great effect on you, making a habit of skipping meals will. It's important to take some time to eat a small meal. And it may seem like there just is not enough time in a day to get everything done, sometimes take 15 minutes to eat and clear your head can really help you out when things get out of control.

Have fun and good luck.

cooking from the heart

In case you missed all the pink and red that bombard you when you walk in the door at Wal-Mart, it’s Valentine's Day. Now while I really do think it’s a pretty cheesy holiday, I’m always a supporter of any excuse to eat chocolate. Chocolate is marvelous. And it makes you happy. But I digress.

I’m going to bet that most people simply go out and buy and box of chocolates for their significant other, which is fine. Like I said, chocolate is marvelous. But I think some of the best Valentine's Day gifts I’ve gotten are homemade. I think it’s nice when someone takes the time to actually make me something. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, but baking a few heart-shaped cookies isn’t very difficult. And there are plenty of Web sites out there that will give you step-by-step instructions to anything you could possibly want to bake.

I looked around at what is out there this year. Out of all the sites I looked at, I thought Family Fun had some of the best stuff because there were some really simple recipes. I highly suggest you check out this site for any last second Valentine's Day gift ideas.

My challenge to you is to make your own gifts this year. I think it really helps to show that you care about the recipient. Taking the time to bake is much more personal. Even if your baking adventure turns into a disaster (which, let’s face it, many of them do), I truly do believe it’s the thought that counts. If it turns out appalling, get some chocolate. It makes you happy.

Have fun and good luck.

13 things you may not have known about food

While researching for my post, I stumbled upon this website with a large list of interesting facts about food. Alli J and I went on to search for more facts and were intrigued, disgusted and, overall, enlightened by what we found. Here are a few of the best:

1. Corn always has an even number of ears.
2. A typical American eats 28 pigs in his/her lifetime.
3. A “brain freeze” was invented in 1994 by 7-Eleven to explain the pain one feels when drinking a Slurpee too fast. The medical term is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.
4. An apple is made up of 25 percent air, which is why it floats.
5. Chocolate may have its romantic effect due to the effects on the brain of a naturally occurring substance called phenylethylamine which enhances endorphin levels, increase libido and act a natural antidepressant.
6. You are more likely to be hungry if you are cold.
7. When a source of Vitamin C (orange, lemon, grapefruit, strawberry, tomato, potato, etc.) is eaten with meat, the body makes better use of the iron in the protein food.
8. The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter.
9. Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.
10. Ice cream was brought back by Marco Polo from China in 1295, from a recipe called "milk ice." Europeans substituted cream for the milk to create “ice cream.”
11. Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented in 1889, was the first ready-mix food to be sold commercially.
12. Hamburgerology can be studied at Hamburger University, located in Elk Grove, Illinois.
13. Bakers used to be fined if their loaves were under weight, so they would add an extra loaf to every dozen, just in case. Hence, the expression “baker's dozen.”
    

While some of this information may be completely useless, there are a few things you can take away from doing a little research about the food you consume on a regular basis.

For more interesting facts check out these Web sites:

-Fun Facts, Strange Facts, and Trivia about Food

-Fun Food Facts

-Arrow Scientific – Amazing facts to do with food

Have fun and good luck.