Speaker 1: This is how to grocery shop and feed yourself as a college student for dummies. Now what are my qualifications? 1. I'm a college student. 2. I cook and feed myself on a pretty regular basis. 3. I'm a nutrition major. Nutrition and communication major. This is me communicating nutrition things to you. So I'm using my degree. Eating nutritious food and eating healthy amounts of it is so important because these are the foods that are literally fueling your brain and your body so that you're able to study so that you're able to go to class, work out, meet with friends. It is so important while you're young to build these healthy habits so that you can continue to live a long and healthy fulfilling life. Now health is something that is very personal so take all of my advice with a grain of salt. Some of this advice might be kind of like common sense but again, this is how to grocery shop and cook for dummies so yeah, let's get straight into it. The first tip that I have for grocery shopping might sound kind of obvious but it's to make a list before you go out and don't just buy whatever when you go to the grocery store. Usually I like to grocery shop based on the meals that I want to make for that week and so I'll plan about two different breakfasts and four to five different lunch slash dinner recipe ideas and then I'll buy the ingredients I need to make those dishes. I try not to let the dishes be too crazy and elaborate because then I'll have to buy a lot of different groceries and so I try to plan my meals so that the ingredients kind of overlap in between those meals. So for example, if I buy tomatoes, I can use it for my sandwich but also for tomato egg. If I buy carrots and potatoes, I might be able to use that for my curry but also for my yaki udon. If you don't cook at all, I would recommend just trying to incorporate one or two different recipes a week and not try and cook every single meal from scratch all of a sudden just because you get really inspired because it's going to be really hard especially if you don't have the foundation to cook for yourself regularly because it's a habit that has to be built and strengthened over time. So I recommend setting very realistic goals for yourself. If you're having a hard time finding recipes, I would recommend finding inspiration on social media. So on TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram and looking for recipes based on ingredients or things that you've just seen and saving them to a folder so that you can refer to them when you're looking for things to buy. When you're buying produce, it's important to make sure that you're looking carefully at the things that you're buying because you don't want to get any fruits or vegetables that are really soft or that clearly have mold growing out of it. If it's really wrinkly or soft, it probably won't last very long so try to avoid those if you can. Buying groceries can definitely be expensive in the beginning especially if you don't have things like spices and soy sauce and all these different things that seem to be needed in recipes but a lot of the time, these ingredients are very interchangeable and you don't need to have the exact ingredients for recipes. There are certain type of cuisines like Korean food or other Asian foods that use a lot of the same base ingredients like soy sauce, red pepper paste, red pepper powder, sesame oil, oyster sauce. Once you have these basic ingredients, making meals becomes so much easier because a lot of them are very interchangeable and use the same base ingredients anyways. I think this is where shopping for recipes versus just ingredients is really helpful. Second tip which also might sound kind of obvious but I feel like it's even something that I struggle with, it's to buy foods that you will actually eat. If you don't like broccoli, don't buy broccoli. If you don't like salmon, don't buy salmon. If you really like Trader Joe's frozen dumplings, don't force yourself to not buy Trader Joe's frozen dumplings. There's a very popular food creator, Nutrition by Kylie. You might have seen some of her videos but something that she always says is to add, don't subtract. It's way easier to add things rather than subtract things from your diet and so I feel like this is super important especially when you're starting out. It kind of reminds me of how parents get really creative when it comes to sneaking veggies into their kids' diets because most kids don't really like vegetables. Sometimes you gotta do that as an adult too. Now when you're at the checkout of the grocery store, sign up for the rewards program if you haven't already done that. This tip is so easy but it honestly shocks me to see so many people who just pay full price for their groceries. I don't know if this is actually just an American thing but at the grocery stores I grew up going to like Safeway and QFC, they always have a rewards program that you can sign up for when you're checking out. Usually for any type of food in the grocery store, there are rewards for members and it's usually not too crazy of a discount, it'll be like a few dollars here and there but those discounts add up. I don't think Trader Joe's has any discounts but sometimes there are like manager specials where things are at a discounted price and so even though I recommend not buying something just because it's on sale, if it's something that you will actually eat, why won't you get it? I'm back from the grocery store so let's do a haul. My total came out to $68.88 which is honestly a little bit more than I was expecting but I did save $5.40 though using my membership. For my dairy items, I got some soft goat cheese and oat milk, this is my favorite kind. Protein I got 18 pack of eggs and some prosciutto. I didn't buy too much protein because I already have frozen chicken in the freezer that I need to eat but one thing of carbs which is this sourdough bread, I like to buy the sliced and then freeze it so it'll last me a while. I didn't get too many veggies, I got some broccoli, arugula, mushrooms, and tomatoes. I know they're technically a fruit but I don't know, tomatoes are vegetable to me and I actually got a lot of fruit this time. Got some bananas, two apples, three oranges, and a bag of lemons. Usually I use this for seasonings and stuff like that. I also got this hachiya persimmon. I've tried persimmons before, they're native to Korea but I've never tried this kind before so I thought it looked interesting. This was expensive though, it was like $3. And I also got these chicken jerky sticks, I'm gonna be honest, I love a good jerky stick so I found these intriguing, $6.99, but I did get a $1.50 off so, grow math. Now with all those groceries that I just bought, here are some of the meals that I cook throughout the week. First bite. So you planned your meals, you got your groceries, you might even have gotten a little discount on them. What do you do when you get home? You might just shove everything into your fridge and call it a day, but if you want to get better at meal prepping and not wasting food, I would actually recommend utilizing your freezer. I feel like it's a universal immigrant experience to have your freezer always so full to the point where you have to shove things in to get things to fit, but there's a reason why immigrant parents like to use the freezer so much. It makes food last FOREVER, well not forever but you know what I mean. Don't be discouraged if you find it hard to manage your food waste in the beginning of your cooking journey because in the beginning it can be really hard to gauge how much you actually eat and use in a typical week, and so it gets better over time. Some things that I always keep my freezer stocked with besides ice cream and frozen food is rice portioned out so that I can just pop it in the microwave for like two minutes and just have fresh steamed rice, cut green onions, minced garlic, sliced bread. If you put bread in the fridge it usually dries out and so I always like to freeze it if I can't finish it in a week because it'll make it last a lot longer and you don't have to let it thaw, you can just pop it in the toaster and just have it go for a little bit longer. When I first started cooking for myself, I didn't know what people my age were buying. At least the people that weren't just eating ramen and boba every day. Amount-wise it's pretty accurate to what I would get in a typical week but I always like trying new recipes so it always looks a little bit different. Now if these tips sound kind of generic to you, congrats. You know more than I did when I first started cooking for myself. My number one piece of advice is that being fed is the most important thing. A lot of times I'm just too tired to be able to actually cook something even if I wanted to. And so I don't beat myself up for eating frozen food because it's there for a reason. It's convenient. And some frozen foods are actually pretty good and nutritious, it's just not good to eat it every single day, you know? You don't have to cook glamorous meals, you don't have to cook yourself food from scratch three meals a day because I don't think anyone does that and if they do, like, good for them. But especially if you're a college student, you shouldn't be putting that expectation and pressure on yourself. I love food. I'm so grateful for food because it allows me to do the things that I love. I haven't always had the best relationship with food but this is the mindset that I try to have when it comes to eating and cooking for myself. Food is fuel and it is such a blessing that we were able to have access to so many different types of amazing, delicious, and nutritious food. Don't beat yourself up because you can't get it right the first time. Food and cooking is literally a lifelong journey. It's something that you have to do no matter what age or demographic you are. I started making this video back in November and it is almost February so it's been two months since I started filming it. Honestly, the biggest reason is because I've been overthinking this topic so much because it is something that I'm really passionate about and when I'm passionate about something, I want it to be perfect. I hope this video was useful or at least a little bit entertaining and I'll see you guys in my next video. Bye.