For anyone who lives off campus and has the struggle of sometimes not knowing what to eat, I’m right there with you. I have so much of the same stuff, but don’t feel like eating the same thing every night for dinner. Too often I have to resort to fast food and/or getting a “Hot-N-Ready” pizza from Little Caesars. This is when I started getting creative in trying to come up with new things to eat based on the basic ingredients I have. I have to say, I have come up with a couple cool ideas that will introduce your taste buds to new things.

Triple-decker sandwich

A triple-decker is essentially just a sandwich, except with three pieces of bread. You can do many things with this. My personal favorite is the triple-decker peanut butter and jelly. I bring this to work almost every day, and it always gets the job done. If you buy large enough bread, it can fill you up almost entirely by itself. You can do this with ham and cheese, too. If you have a George Foreman type grill, you can make this experience much better. Throw some ham in between the top and bottom along with two slices of whatever cheese you like with ham. Throw some butter on the top and bottom pieces of bread, and place it on the grill. In about two minutes, your sandwich will be nice and crispy and packed with excellent flavor. You can do the same thing with a grilled cheese. You can make a really good triple-decker grilled cheese. Just make sure you have tomato soup to go with it.

Ramen tacos

While these actually aren’t tacos at all, the name sounded cool and kind of fits the thinking going into this idea. The name speaks for itself, as you’ll need some ramen, preferably chicken flavored. Throw two pieces of bread into the toaster and butter them both up when they come out. After you spread the butter on, sprinkle some garlic pepper seasoning on the bread (don’t skip this part, unless for some reason you dread garlic). Place the ramen on the pieces of toast, evenly distributing the amount of ramen that goes on each piece. Once this is done, fold the piece of bread and take a bite. You have just taken a bite of a ramen taco. My cousin and I thought of this idea randomly one night when we couldn’t decide whether to make ramen or toast. I know, a weird two options for dinner, but it led to the creation of this brilliant idea. I guess you could call that a win.

Tortilla, shredded Cheese, fill in the blank

Maybe some of you already do this, and if so, I applaud you. This is one of the simplest go-to food options anyone can think of. By saying “fill in the blank” I was mainly referring to a type of meat. However, it’s not limited to just that. This helps if you have a George Foreman as well, but there are ways around it. (Yes, I have one, and it makes the world of a difference.) If you have one, you pretty much put the cheese and meat on one tortilla and then throw another tortilla on top and put it on the grill for a couple minutes. You’ll have a giant quesadilla ready to eat. If you don’t, no worries. Simply grab a pan and throw the tortilla on until you see some areas brown and/or it gets crunchy, then take it off. You don’t actually have to do this part, but I do because I prefer a crunchier tortilla. You then add your ingredients and throw it in the microwave for about a minute or until the cheese is melted. When done, fold it up into a burrito and you have yourself a meal. You can add any kind of meat, but I usually do ham, salami or pepperoni. Out of the three, I have to say pepperoni is probably my favorite.

I will surely think of more clever ideas as the year goes on, and I need to keep finding ways to feed myself. For now, hold on to these and please give them a try. Chances are you might have tried a triple-decker and/or tortilla idea, so please give the ramen tacos a go. Though not the healthiest, they are amazing and an excellent treat after a long week (or any given day). The ingredients needed to make these aren’t expensive either, so you can save a lot of money by making these creations. There are so many creative ideas that can be thought of, whether it’s as simple as putting a slab of butter on your burger or throwing in a splash of barbecue sauce in your mac and cheese. All creative ideas are accepted, and please email me if you have an idea. It will not only help me out, but also those who read The Spectrum.