I haven’t eaten in the dining hall all of spring semester. I also haven’t had a bite of Subway, and I’ve indulged in a slice of pizza on three occasions. No, I’m not starving, and no, I don’t like ramen. I cook all of my food myself, and I’m neither starving nor broke. In fact, I spend the same amount of money on food as I did when I only bought snacks to eat between meals.

As last week’s article on student health pointed out, many students have trouble finding nutritious things to eat if they don’t want to venture to Sodexo Dining Hall. However, there are many easy and overlooked snacks students can prepare themselves.

First on the list is the mighty potato. Costing you $0.98, both baked potatoes and sweet potatoes are often overlooked microwavable delicacies. When bought in sealed plastic, these mighty spuds cook in about six to seven minutes and can be filled with whatever you want. Some suggested fillings are cheese, chives, chicken, or butter for russet potatoes, and marshmallows for sweet potatoes. Fun fact: marshmallows aren’t very high in calories, so long as you don’t consume more than a cup.

Next up is the quesadilla. While most of us aren’t capable of reproducing an authentic quesadilla with limited time and expertise, you can throw whatever you want in tortilla bread. I filled one last week with corn, shredded cheese and some leftover kielbasa sausage, then microwaving until the cheese melted. One friend prepared an egg and cheese filled delicacy by microwaving an egg in a mug and adding it to the tortilla bread. There’s countless ingredients you can throw in.

If you’re not a fan of the above snacks, try keeping the following inexpensive and basic ingredients and see what you can whip up.

• Eggs. As mentioned before, you can crack a few eggs, stir them up in a mug, and microwave them for less than a minute. Stir every 15 seconds when microwaving for scrambled eggs. Add cheese, sausage, vegetables or whatever you have laying around.
• Bread. Add some peanut butter and marshmallows for a sandwich. Add deli meat and mayonnaise for a more adult sandwich. Toast it and add some jam or cheese.
• At least one fruit or vegetable you can snack on. There are usually strawberries in my fridge for a quick snack. Maybe you like celery and peanut butter, maybe you can eat bananas all day. Don’t play the picky eater card now, you like at least one fruit or vegetable.
• A topping you like. I’ll add cheese to literally anything, so I always keep a bag of shredded cheese in my fridge. The same goes with kielbasa. In rice? Sure. In scrambled eggs? Even better. With scrambled eggs in rice? Perfect.

If your favorite foods aren’t dorm friendly, consider making meals on the weekends and stocking up. I boiled a pot of whole grain spaghetti this weekend to eat for a few meals. Rice can also be prepared in advanced and it pairs with everything, whether its vegetables steamed in the microwave or some leftover meat.

The point of all of this is that there’s very little excuse for junk food addictions. If you’re willing to get creative and familiar with a microwave, there are many options for healthy dorm snacks. Most importantly, there is a minimal difference in the time, effort, and cost involved in microwaving a bowl of ramen and microwaving a sweet potato.