Eating while also living off a college budget is so hard right now. Fear not! Your local retired Trader Joe’s employee, myself, learned a thing or two about which products are perfect for college students. This user friendly guide is for people with beginner to average cooking experience and just the thing to take your meals from just surviving to mildly tasty.
1. Staples in the frozen aisle
The first and most versatile pick is going to be the teriyaki chicken. It is abundant in quantity and tastes great, even without the sauce, making it the perfect option to pair with just about anything.
As a side, you could go for the Joe’s dinner mac and cheese or the frozen jasmine rice. However if you’re perhaps more of a healthy side dish kind of person, all of the Trader Joe’s frozen veggies are long lasting and perfectly quick to warm up. My favorite is frozen edamame.
Any of their frozen pastas are easy to make in the microwave or stove top and can be topped off with a protein of choice. Some of their better ones are the alfredo or the focaccia pink sauce pasta.
The last and most pivotal item is the chicken or pork soup dumplings! They’re a very delicious midnight snack that takes no more than 2 minutes in the microwave and leveled up with a side of their crunchy chili onion oil.
2. Late night sweet treats
It wouldn’t be a grocery run if there weren’t a few unexpected sweet treats in there. Some fan favorites are the dark or milk chocolate pretzels. Beware though, as they WILL disappear fast when snacking with a good tv show. The sour strawberry belt strips aren’t in season often but if you’re lucky, you should snatch up at least one or two. The brookies in the baked goods section are a good mixture of doughy and crispy, a great pick if you’re craving something that feels homey. Finally for a sweet treat on the go, the mini chocolate chip cookie bags are a necessity, arguably better than Famous Amos, and cheaper as well.
3. Breakfast, the most important meal of the day
Start off by picking up some vanilla almond granola to throw over smoothies or Greek yogurt, a perfect crunch and level up of flavor. Some of their multigrain crackers are good with some cheese. They also have frozen turkey sausage patties along with hash brown slabs, which can be used to make hash brown sandwiches; innovative but quick. Lastly, my personal favorite is avocados! Trader Joe’s avocados never disappoint and that’s coming from the inside scoop of someone who helped unload them from the truck.
4. The most important item
The final item on our list is to treat yourself as you walk out. I know it’ s not cheap as a college student when our budget is quite literally in the negatives. However, if you go to the filler flowers section, then some of the purple and magenta flowers are the perfect pop of color to make your week. If I were a scientist, I would say they improve mental health and just make the day brighter so go get yourself some flowers!
