It's The Final Countdown

With finals week here bringing tons of paper writing, studying and zero sleeping, students tend to forget to fuel their bodies!  Me, being one of these students, mindlessly eats during finals or just simply does not put effort into making a well-balanced dinner or lunch and, let's be honest, coffee=breakfast.

In efforts to turn this around for myself this semester I have brainstormed a few of my own ideas as well as researched what experts think we should eat in order to keep us energized and attentive during some of the roughest days of the year. 

Even though it is a really bad habit, in the past I have frequently replaced my breakfast with coffee (justifying that my body can use the carbs and the sugar in the milk as a boost for the day).  This is not only unhealthy, it's wrong!  Because of my latest efforts to kick this habit, I developed some simple fixes to these problems. 

During what I call a "study-break" I will prepare my breakfast or dinners for the morning and the next night.  Not only does this give my mind a rest but it also helps me to eat well the next day.  One of the ideas I came up with are what I call "mini omelets." The how-to is listed below.

Mini Omelets
6 egg whites
1 diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup shredded cheese (any)
Tabasco, pepper, salt to taste

-In a big bowl, whisk the egg whites, add diced pepper, onion cheese and your favorite Tabasco and season the mixture to taste.
-Line a muffin pan with muffin sheets and start equally dividing the mixture throughout the pan until all of your mixture is gone.
-Bake in the oven on 350 for 10 minutes or until your eggs look done
-After letting all of the cups cool, take them out of the baking sheet and place them in a Ziploc baggie in your fridge.
-The next morning you can heat up one, or two of these if you'd like and you have breakfast ready in about 30 seconds.

Not only does this serve as a quick way to eat something in the morning, what you are putting in your body will help keep you nourished and focused well throughout the day. NOT TO MENTION IT IS EXTREMELY LOW IN CARBS!!




Personal Meatloaf (ITS NOT AS GROSS AS IT SOUNDS)
1/4lb ground turkey breast
1/2 cup onions
1 whole bell pepper
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup tomato paste (or ketchup)
pepper, salt to taste
1 tbs cheese



In a large bowl, mix your meat, onions, bread crumbs, cheese, tomato paste and salt and pepper to taste.
Once you have mixed your ingredients, cut out the stem and scoop out the seeds of your pepper. Make sure you rinse out the inside!

Next, stuff your pepper with all of your mixture.  You can put this pepper in the fridge overnight and the flavors will blend together really well.  The following day, preheat your oven to 450 and keep your pepper in there for 35 minutes.

When you take this out, you have a flavorful dinner made just for you and it took you no time at all!

For other good tips refer to the livestrong website below!
http://www.livestrong.com/article/436722-what-are-good-foods-to-eat-before-finals/