Trying to avoid the “freshman fifteen”? Want to lose weight before spring break? Don’t know how to buy fresh chicken? Look no further. Registered Dietitian Heidi Diller has your back in her blog, “Better than Dorm Food”. When Diller sent her two children off to college, she quickly realized that many young adults, like her two sons, are living alone for the first time and have little-to-no idea on how to cook and shop for themselves.
Now, if Diller’s black bean burger doesn’t make your mouth water, I don’t know what will.
Originally, I was drawn to this blog because of the title. I knew before I even started browsing the blog that all of the information would be relevant to me. I find myself complaining and loathing about the generally unhealthy, repetitive “dorm food” that I am used to here at Penn State. The cafeteria-style food is so-so, but it just does not match up compared to my mother’s home-cooked, healthy meals. The design is very contemporary and clean, making it very reader-friendly. It was extremely easy to navigate the blog, with tabs at the top of the page that allows readers to search for exactly what they want. I particularly enjoyed the sliding visual at the top of the page, which made me crave a black bean burger more than ever before. Diller addresses her audience informally, as expected, because of the young target audience. The information on “Better than Dorm Food” is both reliable, accurate, and relevant to the target audience, with many of the posts even including additional sources that support what is positing about.
My favorite section is the “kitchen tips” tab. Here, Diller engages and interests the readers by writing in a simplistic, yet useful manner that young adults who are cooking and shopping on their own may find helpful. For example, Diller writes about the difficulties of buying fresh produce and tips for buying and storing cheap, healthy, and ripe produce in her post entitled “Shopping for Produce 101: How to Pick the Best”. Many of her posts include “how-to” in their title. Young adults may feel intimidated by cooking because it is so new for us at this point in our lives, but Diller encourages young adults like ourselves to take control over their own eating habits. Moreover, another thing that grabbed my attention as a reader was that Diller’s recipes were geared for one or two people. Often times, college students and young adults cook for themselves, or maybe one other roommate. Recipes that serve five or six people may intimate some young people. Diller tackles this issue head on and adapts her recipes to better suite her audience. I would like to incorporate this strong connection with the audience in my own blogging, in addition to her aesthetically pleasing, yet simplistic layout and design. One suggestion for Ms. Diller: include more science-backed information so the readers not only know that they should eat a particular food, but know why they should eat it.
You can follow up with Diller’s latest posts at http://betterthandormfood.com/