Welcome to Gaia! ::

Good morning fellow student. I face many of the same problems you do, namely being out on campus from sunrise until sunset. And I too am trying to organize my meals accordingly. This semester I was fortunate enough to get partial ownershp (have to share it) on a car so it makes getting to and from campus faster than public transportation would.

I have several ideas I've been tossing around that I feel I may employ for myself that I'd be happy to share with you. But I'm sure you have things you've tried for yourself that've been met with success. Anything you'd like to share?

Last semester was a lot easier for me because I had all afternoon classes. There wasnt really a day where I got there in the morning and didnt leave until the evening. It was easy to just eat something before going off to campus.

I have a few things I made last year that I think would work out well. I find that as with most things, a lot of times its about deciding how long you want to devote to cooking things for your bento. It could be ten minutes or two hours. a lot of times I either just add leftovers from last nights dinner to my lunch bento, or repurpose whatever it is into something new and add it.

I'd say look at the recipes some people have posted here in the guild. There are pretty good ideas out there that people have posted. I keep toying with the idea of posting more recipes but I'm never sure exactly how much it really helps people so I'm always wary to do it.

And I have access to a microwave at school as well, how nice. Oh I do have one quick suggestion for breakfasts. It would make use out of the soup bowl. You can buy it at grocery stores, sometimes I see it in a can (Itll be in with the oatmeal or dried cereals). I buy it at local buk dried goods stores usually. "Steel cut oats" (Steel cut oats wiki page) Theyre relatively cheap, very healthy, and ridiculously filling. I just thought of it right away because I visited my local bulk dried goods store today (It was student discount day heh) Its much better than the processed instant oatmeal I usually buy hahah.

Well it is a good idea hahah. I have other things I do too, but I was thinking about making most of my tips a journal entry so I can draw from that when people ask similar questions.

Oh sorry, I did mean the part of the bento with the lid attached. I guess I just thought bowl seemed shorter to write out. And thinking of you I believe I'll add one or two new recipes to the appropriate sections of the guild. Oh and if you happen to like asian food at all, I could share three youtube channels of people who post instructional videos of themselves preparing various recipes.

All day meal sitting in a backpack.

Do you have access to a fridge and/or microwave? We had that at my program. Even a coffeemaker and kettle.

@Balena: no, i don't. and even if i did i wouldn't use it; i'm pretty paranoid. after having various items stolen from me in high school, i'm careful about where i keep my things.

@Duo-chan: i worry about the recipes i post too. since no one responds, it feels like i'm just posting spam. :
that said, the rice sounds good, so you can take pride in the fact that it touched at least one person. :3

thanks for the links! ^^ i'ma bookmark them, and i'll likely take a peek soon. i think i'll pass them to my mum, too, since it seems like the kind of thing she'd like. :3

this is the Manga Cookbook i was talking about. and before you take stock of it, i can say the recipes contained within are really useful (before this i had never heard of Oshinko, and now it's one of my favourite bento foods). i got my copy when i had a falling out with an ex friend. he stopped being friends with me because i wouldn't go out with him, so when he stopped talking to me i figured i'd keep the cookbook. he always gets takeout anyway, so someone who cooks might as well keep it. >>;

went to the city today, and picked up some ingredients for the week, including Umeboshi. ^^ i also got a riceball case, something i've been needing for awhile. ^^;

@Choco

Yeah I definitly feel a lot better when there are responses >.>; Thats why I went so far as to put a poll in the first recipe just asking if it was helpful. Its funny you should mention passing the links along to your mother, I'm going to do the exact same thing. Well I've tried multiple times over the phone to guide her as to what to search, but she doesnt really ever use a computer so she can't even work an internet browser.

Gotta love it when people are immature like that, how obnoxious. I had a friend who did something similar, but not quite the same. The effect of not speaking to me ever again (except for the occasional derisive comment) is the same. And I envy you, your ability to go into a city. I'm out here in the middle of nowhere rural Canada >.> And it is coooooold hahaha.

Eventually I just lived right next to school, but before that I would keep meals light, a nice combo of a variety of things: raw and cooked vegetables, some protein, something heavier like bread. Different flavours to keep it interesting. And assortment of tea, dried or fresh fruit, cheese for snacks. It helped a lot to notice how I felt after every meal and pinpoint which foods made me feel the clearest, letting me work for longer periods. You also become sensitive to when your blood sugar goes down ^^;
In the beginning the challenge for me was where to eat than what. Lot of strangers everywhere, wasn't comfortable in a cafeteria. But I moved to a new school, where we had our own small room used as both a class but also for meals and potlucks.