Cooking with Karina: Rise and Shine! Back to School Special Cooking Videos

Karina Arnold, a junior at the University of Oklahoma who’s passionate about healthy cooking, provides creative, healthy recipes and tips on clean eating. (Photo: Dylan Aguilar) 

Karina Arnold is a junior at the University of Oklahoma who’s passionate about healthy cooking. She provides creative, healthy recipes and tips on clean eating.

Moving back to college after a summer home is often a rude awakening. Literally. During summers home, many college students enjoy mom doing the laundry, lounging by the pool, and study-free Sundays. Returning to college means back to doing your own dishes and folding your own underwear while writing that 10-page paper you put off until the night before. When running from office hours, to club meetings, to class, there is little time eat or prep food. This month’s The Breakfast Club: Home cooks who rule the morning by Jennifer Oakley reveals tips and stories on how Buzz-area parents are able to feed the kids and usher them out the door with a good breakfast (and without a shirt on backwards).

But what about the big kids? The teens who crave mom’s lunches and perfumed hugs before class? Although our cool exterior reveals otherwise, us college kids miss dad’s breakfast scrambles and the chimes of “Have a great day,” or “Don’t forget your charger,” and my mom’s favorite, “Have the best day ever!”

College is the purgatory between adolescence and adulthood. I pay bills and make my own appointments but continue to watch Sunday cartoons and eat my cereal out of a turtle mug.

Although I graduated high school, I did not graduate my love of the classic PB&J. In college, PB&J is the ideal breakfast or lunch on the run. Easy to make and with no refrigeration necessary, my PB&J Wrap is a dietary staple. Each ingredient has its role in getting me to class. The nut butters provide healthy fats that protect and fire up neuron transmissions in the brain. Healthy neurons mean a sharp brain, ideal for studying. Furthermore, the fiber-filled wheat wrap kept me full for my two-hour lectures. The low-sugar jelly in conjunction with the strawberries and banana provide a serving of fruit packed with vitamins and anti-oxidants. Note: when selecting the “J” for your PB&J, look for low-sugar contents and make sure the jam’s fruit is the first ingredient listed.

Since I could eat solid foods, cereal was my favorite breakfast. However, when I’m running late to my 8 a.m., I don’t have time to savor turtle mug full of Special K. For a cereal on-the-go, try these Overnight Oats. I provide the recipe for a berry and banana flavor, but see the equation for the perfect overnight oat proportions. Flavor your overnight oats with cocoa, maple syrup, pumpkin and jelly. The combinations are endless!

The back-to-school blues affects everyone, young and old. For the college kids, it means more independence, but less helping hands. Try these flavorful throwbacks that hit close to home. What are your morning rituals or routines that help you get going? Comment below!