Mid-summer Update: Meal Plan Analysis

Hello all, I hope you've been enjoying your summer. While John is likely being productive somewhere on the west coast, Scott has been recovering from knee surgery and as a result has way too much time on his hands. The product of that time will be this post: analyzing which meal plan is best for you. I know that you all love spending time at O'Donovan's, but chances are that you don't go there 3 times a day. As such, this will be a practical as well as economic analysis of how to best spend your meal plan dollars to feed your appetite.

Let's begin with the two most expensive plans: the Carte Blanche and the "24-meal per week." They cost the exact same: $2,299. Think about it, 24 meals a week means you can eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at Leo's, seven days a week, and still have 3 meals left over for Late Night on a weeknight. Now I know that you GTown partiers would never go to breakfast on a Saturday or Sunday, so I think it's fair to say that you'd have pretty much every single meal covered, even if you were a Late Night fan. Lucky you. So now what do you get by switching that to the "Carte Blanche"? Well for one, a fancy French phrase meaning "blank card/slate" or something like that, I don't do French during the summer. Well the only added bonus that I can see is that you are allowed to go back into Leo's multiple times during a single meal period. And I know of probably 2 instances all last year where I would have liked that... So, honestly, probably not really a big deal. However, you don't lose anything with the "Carte Blanche," with the exception of 100 Flex Dollars that could certainly be very useful. My pick: 24- meal plan.

Next up: the 14-meal vs. 10-meal plan.
I have personal experience with this. I had a 14-meal plan during the fall semester and switched to a 10-meal for the spring. I found that I consistently had 1 or 2 meals left over on Friday and felt like I could cut a few more out of my week if I needed to. So I did. How? Most of all, I stopped eating breakfast at Leo's. I sometimes ate a granola bar, or bowl of oatmeal, or some Honey Nut Cheerios in my room before my first class, then went to Leo's for lunch. In addition, I was off-campus for probably over half the weekends of the spring semester, due either to tournaments or going other places. As a result, I generally only ate Sunday dinner at Leo's, and then could eat all but one lunch and dinner there during the week, and it wasn't difficult to make myself pasta or get Wisey's once a week. These two options are very practical for students who don't need to eat a ton, every meal, every day. If you're on campus for weekends, the 14-meal is a great bet, and gives you the flexibility to eat breakfast on occasion if you like. If you try to avoid Leo's sometimes, but still feel the need to get there to get some quality gourmet dining, the 10-meal plan should suffice.

Now for: the Blocks
Georgetown Dining introduced two new block plans for next semester: the 180-meal and the 135-meal, to go with the traditional 75 and 45. After a bit of research, I have determined that a semester (at least in dining terms, cause who cares about classes) is 16 weeks long. That means that a 180 block plan will get you, on average, 11.25 meals per week. That seems like a very reasonable number, and leaves you plenty of flexibility. The 135 plan averages out to 8.44 meals/week, 75 is 4.69, and 45 is 2.81. You should try to figure out how often you think you'll be eating at Leo's next semester, and if you think it will be irregular, a block plan may be best for you. Of course, remember that only juniors and seniors (and RAs, yay!) are allowed to purchase a block plan.

Moving on: prices:
Assuming a 16-week semester: this is the total cost of each plan, as well as its average per meal
Please note that I am subtracting the value of any included Flex dollars from the listed prices, as I consider that to be real money, so you are essentially buying money. (just be sure to use it all)

Carte Blanche: $2,299. Sorry, but that divided by infinity isn't well defined. If you consider eating every meal there, including all late nights, that's 26 meals per week, which is $5.53/meal. Pretty cheap, but make sure you read my notes above.
24 Meal Plan: $2,199 plus $100 flex. $5.73/meal 
14 Meal Plan: $1,967 plus $75 flex. $8.78/meal
10 Meal Plan: $$1,736 plus $50 flex. $10.85/meal

180 Block: $1,934 plus $50 flex. $10.74/meal
135 Block: $1,634 plus $100 flex. $12.10/meal
75 Block: $891. $11.88/meal
45 Block: $641. $14.24/meal

For reference, here are the door prices per meal, from Georgetown Dining.
Breakfast: $9.55
Lunch/Brunch: $11.55
Dinner: $13.75

In case you didn't figure it out, it would be cheaper for you to pay cash every time you went to Leo's than buy a 45 block. Think about that. And if you plan on eating a lot of breakfasts, the 75 and 135 blocks aren't very well worth your dollar.

My personal opinions:
1) The 14-meal plan is a great option for rising sophomores or anyone living on campus. As long as you think you're going to eat 12+ meals a week, it's a better value than the blocks, and you don't have to worry so much about rationing out your 180 or whatever.
2) 10-meal and 75-block have a good value. If this seems like the amount of meals that you would eat, I recommend them. Consider that 75-meals is just under 5 meals a week.
3) The 135 is the most contentious, for myself at least. It seems like a perfect number of meals for me, but the per-meal price is less than desirable. Still not convinced either way, but it's an option.

I hope this will help some of you decide what meal-plan will be best suited toward allowing yourself to enjoy the full Leo's experience next semester. If you have any contributions, comments, or questions, please let us know. Thanks, and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Simple Pleasure Mondays: Getting to Know the Staff

Hi all, best of luck to you in the slew of finals season. We have had quite literally the best school year of our lives (well...Scott had a pretty good time in high school), and we hope the rest of you look back--maybe after you're done with finals--with similar sentiments on what has truly been a tremendous year.

We leave you on this fine Monday with our final simple pleasure (and overall post) until next school year: getting to know the Leo's staff. A simple suggestion for good measure, we hope that our readers will take the time before summer starts to thank the staff for all their hard work. When next year comes around, and hopefully you've done it this year too, take the time to thank and perhaps engage in a short conversation with the staff at Leo's. They are all lively and warm people, and I have not met a single one who didn't enjoy at least my asking how their day was. It's an incredibly simple gesture that can make their work a lot more enjoyable (and can perhaps score you some extra of whatever you're craving). Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the dining hall doesn't have to do with the food.

Thank you all for what has been a fantastic season of O'Donovan's on the Waterfront. The blog clocked over 4,500 total views and hopefully made the dining experiences of many students more enjoyable. We wish you to savor your time away from one of the world's most exclusive dining clubs, and we hope to have some cool new ideas in time for the start of next year. Feel free to contact us at odonovansonthewaterfront@gmail.com if your summer dining experiences give you a sudden O'Donnovative inspiration. Congrats to the class of 2011!

-John and Scott

Cinnamon Toast Applesauce

I'll have to think of a better name for this; it is a seriously cool and easy O'Donnovation. It takes as much prep time as a regular bowl of cereal but is a delicious and addictive substitute. I'd like to call it the poor man's apple crumble, but that would imply that it is inferior to actual apple crumble, which--having eaten some pretty mediocre apple crumble in my day--I'm not so sure is the case.

Ingredients:
-Applesauce
-Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal

Directions:
As you might have guessed, put a fair amount of applesauce in a bowl and cover it with a solid layer of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I like to mix it all together, but keeping the cereal at the top would work fine too as long as you get both the cereal and the applesauce in one spoonful. The texture is really what makes this dish awesome; try it for yourself.

A HUGE thanks to Pete Metzger for his irreplaceable team leadership this year, and also for this O'Donnovation!

Cookie Crumb Waffle

Roger Chu, the trusty treasurer of the ultimate team, has been pushing for a while for us to blog about a chocolate chip waffle recipe. We initially balked at the idea, seeing as ice cream toppings aren't out at breakfast and the chocolate would perhaps do something funky to the waffle iron. What's more, the chocolate chips were gone from the toppings selection! Nevertheless, one fine study day, Scott tried out a similar concept with the chocolate cookie crumbs at the ice cream toppings station. To our surprise, the result was fantastic: a golden brown waffle with the delightful accents of chocolate cookies. Thanks Chu!

Ingredients:
- Waffle batter
- Several scoops of cookie crumbs from the ice cream toppings station
- Syrup, butter, powdered sugar, etc. if so desired

Directions:
Spoon about half of the waffle batter onto the waffle iron--make sure you cover as much of the iron as possible. Proceed to sprinkle the cookie crumbs all around the batter, taking great caution not to put cookie crumbs directly on the iron. Finish by adding the rest of the batter onto the iron. Close the iron, wait to cook, add syrup/butter/powdered sugar when finished, and enjoy! Just be careful not to bite off more than you can Chu...

Cinnamon-sugar turnover

A sweet but slightly time-consuming creation, this can be satisfying at all hours of the day. It takes a few minutes to prepare, but is very simple and easy. I encourage you to try experimenting with the bread and cooking methods. I've considered the MYOP oven and panini press as well.

Ingredients:
2 pieces white sandwich bread
2 pats butter
powdered sugar (near the waffle maker)
cinnamon (same)
little bit of apple, very thinly sliced (optional)

Start by breaking the edge of the crusts off your bread. Yes, you look like a 5-year old, but it's necessary. Then spread about 3/4 pat of butter on each piece of bread. Thoroughly dust with a layer of powdered sugar, then sprinkle a coating of cinnamon. If using apples, spread those on now as well, leaving a little space on the edge of the bread. Top with more powdered sugar, and another repetition if you so desire. (Reccommended if you want a full flavor) Top with the other piece of bread, and tightly press the edges together all around. You may have to do this several times to get a good seal. You can also press the entire composition together to flatten it out a little to get a better crust texture. Once it's sealed, place your turnover in the toaster, set almost to its fastest setting. Once it drops down, check the edge seal, flip it over, and put it through once more. Break open the sweet, warm deliciousness and enjoy!

 

An edit: In the picture, I topped the turnover with a drizzle of honey and a dusting of cinnamon. This is entirely up to you. It looks nice, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a big fan of honey, like me.

Simple Pleasure Mondays: MYOPasta

A good morrow to all O'Donovan's faithfuls and happy last day of classes. Scott and I have once again been swamped with work, and I am currently in a sling due to an unfortunate collision during a game of ultimate. Of course, that didn't stop me (and Scott, with his flip flops) from sprinting down to the White House last night and celebrating the good riddance of the world's most dangerous terrorist. USA! USA!

This week's simple pleasure is--well, quite simply--an exposé on an already rather popular Leo's station: Make Your Own Pasta. We have little to say about this station, but as finals creep up on us all Scott and I figured that everyone has less time than ever to be O'Donnovative (or perhaps more, depending on your procrastination habits). Nevertheless, some important things to keep in mind when concocting a carbo-loaded creation at MYOPasta:
- MYOPasta is a vegan/vegetarian station, so forget trying to ask chefs if they'll cook your pasta with meat you bring them. For more on how to turn your MYOPasta carnivorous, consult the Meat Add-ins post.
- Spring for the whole wheat pasta over the white. Its consistency is quite similar to the white pasta, but you get a whole lot more nutrient-wise. If the focus of your dish is pasta texture, you're not being creative enough.
- Add more veggies to your pasta than you would think; they tend to shrink down a lot once cooked (spinach especially). For interesting textural variety, try adding some uncooked veggies to your pasta after it's been cooked--I prefer adding carrots after cooking rather than before.
- K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple, Stupid! Too often I see wayward souls getting ingredient-happy by mashing up every possible veggie and sauce in a muddled MYOPasta dish. For those who have tried everything else and truly believe that nothing may be omitted, fine. For me (and I would venture to say most others), keeping ingredients down to four or fewer is the way to go. Sometimes less is more; one of my favorite creations is simply pasta with mushrooms and cream sauce.

I hope this post leads you to get more enjoyment out of the MYOPasta station, and let me know if you have any suggestions for combinations. Enjoy the study days (it was worth a try...) and stay tuned for the last Simple Pleasure Monday of the year next week!

The Team Sundae

This might be seen as just another ice cream recipe, but no! It is an entire experience. This is designed for those team dinners, where the sense of community created by O'Donovans' mood lighting is just as important as its gourmet fare. If you want raw, unadulterated satisfaction, this is it.

Ingredients:
Cookie Crumbs
Ice Cream (several flavors)
Sprinkles
Butterscotch Chips
M&Ms
Cookie pieces
Hot Fudge

Special Equipment:
Pasta/Stir-fry size bowl
Several Spoons

First of all, make sure your bowl is COLD!  Create a bottoming base of cookie crumbs. Then fill it with 7-10 scoops of ice cream, strategically placed for optimal complimentary flavors. This means separate raspberry from mint and peanut butter, use chocolate as a transition, etc. Add toppings--again strategically distributed with respect to their proper ice cream bases, i.e. no Reeses' on the Raspberry Road Runner. Top with 3-4 cookies, broken into smaller pieces, add a sliced banana, and load it up with hot fudge and/or caramel. Serve with many spoons for your many co-diners to enjoy.