What to Order In from Delivery in These 4 Situations

What to Order In from Delivery in These 4 Situations Image via. https://pixabay.com/photos/food-japanese-asian-bowl-dish-eat-715542/ Finals Week Food Delivery You probably just cringed while reading the two words “finals week;” I know I did. When people are eating during finals, they tend to go one of two ways: (1) they forget to eat and end up not eating enough throughout the day/week, or (2) they eat constantly throughout studying without ever actually feeling satisfied. On college campuses, many local restaurants also provide delivery deals and food deals so that delivery is not as expensive as it normally would be. However, if you split up the delivery fee and food price between multiple people, the price goes down substantially. If you want some sense of normalcy during finals week, plan out your food deliveries to your 12-hour days at the library. Let’s start with lunch delivery. I know a pizza sounds delicious, but if you have hours of studying ahead of you, I would opt for something that won’t make you feel as sluggish. For lunch, order either a salad, a smoothie bowl, a grain bowl, a sandwich, etc. Make sure that whatever you decide on you get some form of protein in it so that you feel full and aren’t tempted to make another delivery order an hour later. In your lunch order, make sure you get some extra items to snack on if you get, in the words of Jack Peralta in Brooklyn 99, “snackie.” When getting snacks delivered, I would go for the classics: potato chips, pita chips, granola bars, etc. However, depending on where you’re ordering from, the restaurant may have some specialty items that are great for snacking as well. One of my favorite finals snacks that I would get delivered along with my lunch was a yogurt parfait and a vegan banana bread that tasted so delicious I always wished that I ordered more than one piece. Snacks, in my opinion, aren’t always used to satiate hunger, rather, I used them to help me focus while going over a long study guide. Finally, dinner. Dinner is so important and, since you remained relatively healthy during the stay, allow yourself to splurge and treat yourself a bit. Depending on where you’re located, options might be different, but most places have a restaurant that delivers pizza and pasta. Finals week is essentially a marathon; and what do marathoners do before a big race? They carbo-load. Therefore, you need to carbo-load during dinner to have the energy to make it across the finish line. Image via. https://pixabay.com/photos/ice-ice-cream-ice-cream-flavors-1601932/ Break Up Food Delivery Whether you were broken up with, you did the breaking up, or the end of the relationship was mutual, a big part of your life has changed. This big change calls for some special food delivery. The hardest part of any breakup is getting adjusted to this new normal of not having this person in your life anymore. However, you need to let yourself grieve before getting back to a sense of normalcy, so let’s start with food delivery for that. I’m not trying to sound like a cliché, but ice-cream, popcorn, and pizza are essential, especially if your closest friends are sitting by your side helping you get through this tumultuous time. If you need to switch things up, Chinese food is also a FANTASTIC option; nothing like some fried rice and dumplings to get you through the harsh beginning of a breakup. Now that the hardest few days/weeks are over, it’s time to get back into routine and start taking care of your current number one priority: you. I’m not saying to get on any sort of health kick, unless you want to, I’m just saying to go back to some sort of regular eating schedule and eating practices that you considered regular pre-breakup. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in-between are essential to getting back into a routine. Let’s start with breakfast. If you still aren’t up to cooking, order in yourself a bagel with a side of fruit, or oatmeal, or a smoothie bowl (my mouth is watering as I write this). Eggs don’t deliver well, so avoid getting omelets or a BEC sandwich. As the saying goes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Infographic by Amanda Cohen Lunch is important as well, and it’s important to surround yourself with good people during lunch to give you a boost during the day. So, what should you and your friends order while watching Netflix and chatting? Mediterranean food is always the answer. Chicken and beef skewer platters, rice, grilled vegetables, some hummus, baba ghanoush, and tzatziki, and some pita bread. This also works for dinner, but I suggest doing this for lunch because filling up your day prevents you from holing up in your room looking through old photos and making yourself sadder than you already are. Now that you are already conquering your breakup in the best way possible, its time for, “Winner, winner, chicken dinner.” You don’t actually have to have chicken for dinner, but definitely have something tasty and substantial. I have one word for you: sushi. Not only is sushi delicious, but it classes up your delivery experience. In addition, if you’re anything like me, you always want something sweet after having sushi, so you can use up the rest of your ben Jerry’s pint if Phish Food after going ham on your spicy tuna rolls and miso soup. Plus, if you order edamame, you will feel like the epitome of health, which is fantastic. Image via. https://pixabay.com/photos/friends-phone-bed-bite-a-vampire-1390679/ Girls Night In Food Delivery Unlike the two situations above, you only have two meals to think about during a girls night in: dinner and dessert. Let’s start with dinner. You can handle dinner one of two ways; you can either order in from one place and get a variety of dishes from there, or you can create a Smorgasbord of sorts and order from a variety of places. If you want to order from one place only, I suggest either Chinese, pizza, or Mediterranean. Chinese food is always large in portions, so you can order a variety of dishes and each have a little bit of everything (my personal favorite is sesame chicken, but you do you). Pizza is pretty straight forward, I would order multiple types of pizza pies, some salad, and a few pastas; don’t worry about over-ordering because pizza and pasta make for great leftovers. Finally, Mediterranean is great because you can usually get large platters from restaurants that have a variety of meats, vegetables, dips, and more! What to do for dessert? Here are some options. First, Get McDonald’s McFlurries delivered; they are already individually packed and they are excellent; definitely a fun splurge for a girl’s night. I prefer the Oreo McFlurry, but if you and your friends have differing opinions, no need to worry because everyone has a chance to order their flavor of choice! Another fun thing to order for dessert is a variety of cookies. Most places have an Insomnia Cookie or something along those same lines, and they usually deliver until very late hours of the night (and even into the morning). Order a dozen (or more) cookies, some ice-cream and either make some ice-cream sandwiches, which would be a fun girls night in activity, or you can just get the cookies and dunk them in some milk and re-create the Oreo commercials if you want. The world is truly your oyster! Image via. https://pixabay.com/photos/pizza-food-italian-baked-cheese-3007395/ Syllabus Week Food Delivery Syllabus week is super busy; reuniting with friends, meeting new people, preparing for classes, and a jam-packed social schedule. During this busy time, cooking and grocery shopping are the last things on your mind, so you have to take advantage of delivery. Since you’re so busy, you are going to want every meal to be quick, easy, and tasty. To avoid tons of delivery charges, place one order at lunch and order extra so that you have food already in your fridge for dinner. Since you are going to order ahead of time, you need to order food that saves well and has a longer shelf-life, so to speak. If you plan on doing a lot of partying, it is important to nourish your body with carbs and protein. Italian food is the easiest food to order that saves well and will fill you up. Italian food is so much more than pizza: order a few pasta dishes, some salad, maybe a chicken parmesan dish, and so on. You will feel full and have lunch and dinner for the next few days. The beauty of Italian food is that it also helps to ensure that you get in all your food groups because it’s both meat, carb, and vegetable based food. You have good food to keep you going, both physically and mentally, which is all you can really ask for during syllabus week. If you are planning on doing multiple deliveries, you could order in some Thai food or sushi to switch things up. However, don’t place any orders until you talk to your friends because maybe you will go for a big group order where the options are limitless. Your group orders can follow the guidelines of the girls night in order talked about above. You probably won’t need to worry about breakfast because you’re a college student and will rely mostly on easy-to-cook items and power bars. Now that you have all the food you can order for a variety of scenarios, here are the apps to download to ensure that you have access to the largest and most diverse restaurants you can think of: Door Dash Grubhub Seamless Caviar UberEATS Take Out Taxi Yelp Postmates Instacart Delivery.com Foodler GoPuff Now that you have all of the tools, let me tell you my personal opinion about what type of cuisines deliver the best and taste just as good when they are delivered as they do when you sit down at the restaurant: Chinese food Thai food Italian food Mediterranean food (with the exception of cooked fish) American food (with the exception of steak) Health food (i.e. salads and grain bowls) Other foods deliver well, but are not nearly as tasty as they are if you were to eat them sitting down at the restaurant, so this is just something to keep in mind. I hope this has helped you and can help you achieve all of your delivery dreams and desires. These suggestions are especially useful in the winter where leaving your apartment/house/dorm room is treacherous because of the frigid weather. If you are worried about spending too much money on delivery, make sure you sign up for e-mails from the various apps on your phone. I know the constant flood of messages may be annoying, but these apps often offer promotions, opportunities for free delivery, and they will send you lists of restaurants that are having the best deals on food. If you are a college student, these deals should appeal to you and you should be okay with the extra volume of e-mails trickling into your inbox. So, don’t stress when life hits you in ways that you couldn’t even imagine, because you now have one less thing to worry about: what you’re going to eat during those times where there are high levels of uncertainty.