Day 1:
I started off by doing some food shopping at Whole Foods and West Side Market (despite the hefty price tags at these markets, they were close by and worth it for the produce quality). From there I looked for deals and steals. I ended up buying a three for $5 avocado deal, some brown rice ($1.99) and pre-sliced sweet potatoes ($3.99). I then went over to Breads Bakery to pick up a loaf of their famous sourdough bread ($4.50 with student discount). For lunch, I made myself an avocado toast with a little salt and saved the other half an avocado for dinner. Dinner that evening was brown rice with avocado (the other half) and sweet potatoes in a honey glaze. One avocado down, two more to go.
Note: What I found was that throughout the week my meals were increasingly more filling as well as larger, but on day 1 I found myself holding back out of fear of having not enough for the rest of the week.
Total=$15.48
Day 2:
For Day 2, I ventured out of my dorm-sized kitchen and into the real world where there is such a thing as a $1,000 bagel. When lunch came around, I popped into Hu’s Kitchen, a place known for it’s expansive gluten-free options, as well as their motto “Get Back To Human” (this is there way of explaining that they only serve foods served before the industrial revolution; in other words nothing processed, nothing refined). I ventured over to their bowl station and chose a base of Root Vegetable Mash and a topping of their Organic Moroccan Chicken. Surprisingly enough, it’s extremely filling and comes with a side of their grain free Hu Bread. They also give a 10% student discount, costing me a grand total of $5.23 for lunch. After a long day of classes and terrible weather, I marched through the pouring rain over to Sweetgreen (18th and 5th Ave) and picked up a salad, more specifically their Guacamole Greens salad ($10.65) which I cannot praise enough.
Total=$15.88
A little trick I learned from my roommates is that oatmeal can be your best friend. Not only does it come in a variety of flavors (i.e., cinnamon, chocolate chip and, oddly enough, dinosaur (another discovery courtesy of my roommate), but it’s also a great source of fiber ($5.00) . When mixed with honey or some of your favorite fruit(s)($5.00), a full serving of Oatmeal can bring a great start to the morning.
As the sun started setting, I managed to squeeze my way into Trader Joe’s to pick up some pesto-filled ravioli for dinner($3.25). They’re super good with a tiny bit of added sauce or just some heart-healthy olive oil and seasonings.
Total=$13.25
Day 4:
I walked home and made a beeline to the Breads bread, grabbed a banana (as mentioned above), and made myself a toast with sunbutter ($9.99 sunbutter jar). Sunbutter is an (vitamin rich)alternative to peanut butter, made from sunflower seeds. I added on some honey that my roommate let me “borrow.” Shout out to my roommates who were super supportive and let me steal their spices etc. during this week.
Around 7:30pm, hunger pangs kicked in again and, well, “I decided to treat myself.” As Tom Haverford, or, Aziz Ansari, might say. I headed over to Glaze Teriyaki (139 4th Ave) and picked up a salmon teriyaki, a plate which comes with rice and salad and is honestly some of the best teriyaki I have ever had. I really, really recommend this place, especially if you like anything with teriyaki sauce. Their dumplings are also really good. The food is very filling and a good reward for a day well done. Although this day I went over budget, I planned to spend less money on day 5.
Day 5:
For my fifth and final day, I made a second run to West Side Market to pick up some mozzarella and a tomato ($4.28). From there I went back to the dorm kitchen and made myself an open face tomato mozzarella tartine with some of the bread from earlier in the week (kept fresh by putting it in the freezer). You can either toast it or it eat as is. After an extensive day of work, while on my way back from the 12th street building, I stopped at Dorado’s Taco’s (one of the best taco places in the neighborhood) and grabbed a fish and shrimp taco. The taco’s are really good, and not too expensive for Manhattan.
Total=$11.30
Eating cheap, and semi-healthy in New York isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but it is definitely possible if you’re able to plan ahead and/or cook most meals. I found myself eating in a lot more as well as cutting the portions of a lot of my meals towards the beginning. As time went on, though, I realised that if you budget yourself well enough you can find great alternatives to what you may find at the UC. But I would say that if you are running out of money or if you aren’t on the meal plan there are definitely alternatives that are healthy, cheaper and taste better than the UC.