Your brain is faltering at the worst possible moment, with just 12 hours left to write your nastiest research paper. Although you’ve blocked your Internet and barricaded yourself alone inside your dorm room, you have absolutely no ideas. (Except that vivid mental image of your professor cringing over the feeble gibberish you’ve emitted.) And your eyes keep flitting to your computer’s clock as time gets shorter and shorter…
SURPRISE! It’s snack time. While you might not have the time for a full-fledged study break, a quick snack allows you to grab a second wind and emerge from that study coma. Here’s our list of seven tantalizing, lightning-quick recipes for coping with deadline pressure.
1. Candied Apples
(Photo via Undressed Skeleton)
Apples alone make a great snack, but this recipe sweetens the deal with only one added ingredient: Jell-O powder. Since neither component requires refrigeration, this snack is completely portable, unless your campus forbids students from carrying concealed Jell-O. Those wanting a bigger energy boost can get extra fancy and dip the apples in chia seeds. (Trust me, they stick.)
2. Avocado-Dip Chips
(Photo via thedailymeal.com)
Compliments of Mother Nature and Tostitos, this snack provides the same healthy taste of homemade guacamole, just without the effort. Cut a ripe avocado in half, dig out the pit and start dipping your favorite tortilla chips in that luscious green interior. You don’t even need to remove the avocado skin, which forms a natural bowl that’s perfect for scooping. However, you DO need a ripe avocado. It’s a bad sign if the tortilla chips aren’t the only things that crunch.
3. Pickle Wraps
(Photo via foodfamilyfinds.com)
These fill you up enough to replace a dining hall lunch. Take a piece of deli meat with cheese on top, put a pickle in the middle, roll it up and enjoy. Play around with this recipe to find extensive opportunities for customization: turkey versus ham, cream cheese versus cheddar versus Swiss, and even – gasp – baby pickles versus pickle spears. Hipsters can add basically anything, from soft tortillas on the outside to garlic-stuffed olives on the inside. Just don’t weird out your friends.
4. Trail Mix
(Photo via CNN Eatocracy)
“Trail mix” is code for “the kitchen sink” …or maybe the dorm bathroom sink. Empty your under-bed stash into one big Ziploc, shake it all up and you’ve got your snack. It’s impossible to screw up, unless your under-bed stash contained your rock collection. Dried fruits, pecans and sunflower seeds are my favorite, but chocolate chips also deserve a mention, if only to appease the wrath of chocoholics worldwide. Oh, and your roommate just requested that you seal the bag before shaking it.
5. Energy Ice Cream
(Photo via Flickr user Charles Haynes)
Ice cream doesn’t have to be a guilty pleasure – you can make ice cream that’s no pleasure at all. Or at least, an evil genius could. For the rest of us, there’s Energy Ice Cream. In a large bowl, mix two parts ice cream with one part nut butter. My favorite combination is So Delicious’ coconut milk ice cream with almond butter, but anything goes. The nut butter’s high fat content will give you a steady stream of energy. In other words, you’ll have plenty of brain waves as long as you don’t get brain freeze first.
6. Fruit Yogurt
(Photo via Flickr user Luz)
7. Caramel Crisp Marshmallows
.jpg)
(Photo via designtimesfour.com)
Are you that guy demanding me to show you something unhealthy for once? You’re in luck. Caramel-coated marshmallows might make your gym-rat roommate wince, but I have yet to hear that marshmallows taste bad. Simply pour caramel ice cream topping into a jar, submerge the marshmallows and roll them in Rice Krispies. Better than alarming the fire department with a failed s’more experiment, right?
(Main photo via Robbwolf.com)
