Upgrade your meals with these dining hall hacks

UNC-Chapel Hill's dining hall is great, but students have discovered creative ways of making it even better. By choosing items from various food stations and mixing them together, students can create entirely different meals. 

Starting with breakfast, students digress from the normal breakfast offerings by taking advantage of the shredded cheese offered at the salad bar.

“I take cheese from the salad bar and little mini biscuits from the breakfast station and make egg and cheese biscuits,” first-year Sydney Addison said. 

Myra Parker, junior, mixes the cheese with her eggs, bacon, tater tots and a little salt and pepper. 

“It’s like a delicious breakfast bowl,” she said.

The dining hall hacks don’t end at breakfast. If a student is looking for a quick snack, they should try sophomore Yaman Peksenar’s hack. He uses the banana chips, dried cranberries, raisins, nuts and chocolate chips to make a personalized trail mix. 

Tired of waiting for chicken and waffle day? Sophomore Khara Vassell said anytime there’s fried chicken, it is chicken and waffle day. She just makes her own waffle and then voila — one’s chicken and waffle consumption can double. 

Bryant Gilchrist, sophomore, suggests making a cheese quesadilla for a change. 

“In Rams Dining Hall, I’ll go get a tortilla from the deli and then get cheese from the salad bar and then take it back to the deli and they’ll toast it for you,“ Gilchrist said. 

Students can even complete the quesadilla meal by asking for sour cream or guacamole at the burrito station adjacent to the deli in Lenoir.

When there’s chili in the dining hall, junior Corinna Fonseca also takes advantage of the surprisingly useful cheese from the salad bar.

“All you gotta do is take the French fries that they offer, and put some of the chili on it, and then take the cheese from the salad bar, and you got chili cheese fries,” Fonseca said.

What would go well with fries? How about a milkshake or peanut butter ice cream?

According to James Zak, junior, he makes a pretty great milkshake using coffee creamer. 

“The best one is when you take chocolate ice cream, fill up the rest of the glass with milk and then add a little bit of hazelnut coffee creamer,” Zak said.

For the Reese’s lovers out there, sophomore Jameson Blount found that mixing two parts chocolate ice cream and one part freshly ground peanut butter creates a Reese’s flavored ice cream. 

First-year Allison Ruvidich’s suggestion is not one to ignore. She makes ice cream floats by simply filling a cup with ice cream and then soda.

“I used to pair the Valencia orange lactose-free ice cream with orange soda and it was like a Dreamsicle,” Ruvidich said.

Breakfast bowls, chili cheese fries, ice cream floats — UNC's dining halls provide the supplies for endless meal combinations. 

You only have to get a little creative.

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