Sorority Food
 

Food!!!!!

Does anyone have any ideas on cooking healthy in a sorority house? We have cooks and aren't allowed to make our own food, so we must eat the recipes provided by the housemother. A lot of things are fried and I realized after my second year that we eat the same things over and over again! We always have a salad bar but eating salad everyday gets boring.

Also,
What was/is your favorite lunch or dinner?

My FAVORITE FAVORITE FAVORITE is chicken enchiladas with white sauce. Whenever we have that, all of it gets eaten and there are no left overs.

Our cook also makes really good soups.


Have you tried finding recipes you want to eat and giving them to your housemother/cooks? Our cook loves making new and different stuff based on our suggestions (probably because she gets bored making the same thing over and over lol)

Grilled chicken breasts and baked potatoes. Use Molly McButter instead of "real" butter on your potato.

You can also find some "eating clean" recipes here:
http://www.eatcleandiet.com/Default.aspx?id=21

I read that real butter is actually better for you than artificial butter.

I use a few sprinkles of Molly McButter. I don't gob on real butter by the tablespoonful.

lol :p

Some people do.;)

I use the "I can't believe its not Butter" spray, and its amazing.

The cook in our house used to always make pasta and breaded chicken, but he would still try to keep veggies on plates too. ;) Your best bet towards eating healthier when you aren't making the food is to provide some recipes & see if your cook/house mom will make them.

have you talked to your house manager, or whatever you all call the sister who is in charge of communicating the needs of the house to the house mother and to the alumnae housing board? first, you may want to do this:

take a poll of your sisters to see if they feel the same way. ask them for suggested menu changes and approach your house manager. she , in turn, should speak to either the house corporation board(the local alumnae who make the decisions about the hiring and firing of the staff, approving bill payments, etc.) or the house mother. if one of your sisters is a nutrition major, maybe she could do a project by converting some of the "unhealthy" meal recipes to more healthy ones, or she could ask one of her professors to help.

does your house offer a salad bar during lunch and dinner?

i cannot remember what my favorite lunch and dinner was-we did have wonderful cooks(one for breakfast and lunch, and a different lady for dinner) and i do remember that the food was good.

going in armed and informed may improve your chances of effecting change.

I agree with FSUZeta - I would definitely talk to the house manager and the alum corp and try to get some changes made. The housemother sounds like she's being kind of lazy.

In my chapter we did a food survey and asked people what meals they liked, what they didn't and what they were looking for in terms of food (low fat and lactose free, vegetarian options, etc.) We then presented the survey to the house director and the cook and they took it from there.
I remember that post-survey the cook would sometimes make both the traditional versions of a recipe and the low-fat versions. Also she started using more grilled chicken and ground turkey over beef, etc. She made great stuffed (ground turkey) peppers.
You (or the house manager) could also look into a suggestion/feedback box where members could say what meals currently made that they really liked, submit recipes of their own, what meals they didn't like etc.

In the past, there have been sisters that give recipes to our housemom, but she always seems to revert back to the same old meals.
We are getting a new housemom this year so hopefully things will change.

Feel lucky....only two houses on our entire campus have food service.

Former House Chef
 

I was a former house chef for a sorority in the 90's for 4 years. At the beginning of each year I had a questionaire of different types of foods broken into categories. I also had questions of dietary/religious restrictions so I would be aware of those as well. A good part of my recipies came from Cooking Light magazine because I knew my girls wanted to eat healthy. Maybe the house manager could get a survey from all the girls on meal plan and present that to the chef to give them some foundation. I only did dinner 6 nights but they had breakfast food as well. It is challenging to come up with different menus 6 nights a week and in my case for 22+ girls. Even though I would get in a rut occasionally I would try to keep it tasty and different. Sounds like to me your house chef gets slightly lazy after a time :rolleyes: or not just too motivated. It is hard but they have to try.

I agree with the suggestions offered already. Try giving recipes and making suggestions (probably easier with the new housemom). If that doesn't get anywhere and the girls are still pretty adament about wanting healthier/more variety then take it to House Corp. That's something for them to ultimately handle.