Cannon Center Creations

So as a Helaman Halls resident, I've grown accustomed to eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the Cannon Center. (For those of you who don't know, the Cannon Center is basically the BYU cafeteria). Overall, I love the Cannon Center! It's fairly good, especially for cafeteria food, and it has a lot of options available; however, eating there every single day can get a little old. Us freshmen thus have to turn our culinary creativity on to ensure that our meals don't become monotonous. Here are some great Cannon Center hacks that can help you keep your dining experience interesting:
 
1.) The Y App is a necessity for your freshmen year. With it, you can access the Cannon Center's menu every day of the week, and you can also see the nutritional facts of anything they serve. So if nothing looks appetizing, you can go get dinner somewhere else. Or you can plan your schedule around the chicken quesadilla day at the grill (they are soooo good!)
2.) The Cannon Center does build-your-own burgers and mini pizzas on the off-hours of the day (usually from around 2:30-4). Super good!
3.) You can ask for basically anything at the stations. Like sometimes, a station will have Chinese food for lunch, and I'll go up and ask for two scoops of rice and then make a killer burrito out of it. And other times, I'll go to grill and ask for a basket of sweet potato fries to pair with whatever else I'm eating. This is good for all you picky eaters out there.
4.) There is a microwave in the Cannon Center!!! It's in the Grainery, by the cereal. I've seen people heat up chocolate chip cookies and apple pie in it... Mmmmm.
5.) Panini Bar! In the Euro station, there's a panini maker you can make use of. Just go over to the salad bar, create your panini, then ask one of the workers at the Euro to press it for you. Deliciousness!
6.) For special occasions, you can do waffles and ice cream for Sunday dinners. We did this for my friend's birthday, and it was a ton of fun! Every Sunday, they have BYU Creamery ice cream, and they have waffle irons available at all hours of the day. It's a SUPER yummy, tasty treat!
7.) The SALAD BAR! Honestly, the salad bar is waaaaay too underrated. It's got all kinds of secrets people don't know about because they never eat salad. For example, the salad bar often has gummy worms and goldfish out for the yogurt and salad bar respectively, but I'll often just go get a bowl full of Goldfish. The salad bar also usually has pico de Gallo, guac, and chips. There's nothing stopping you from putting guacamole on your bacon burger or ranch on your pizza. I've also made super yummy spinach berry salads using the berries from the yogurt bar. And my day is made whenever the salad bar has mozzarella cheese out because I usually top off my tomato and basil soup or chicken and white bean chili with some fresh mozzarella. Definitely, definitely use the salad bar.
8.) The salad bar also has ice cream bars! It's in one of the little areas that usually holds plates and bowls, but instead of holding plates and bowls, it holds ice cream. A pleasant surprise!
9.) Also at Grainery, there's a bunch of random stuff that's fun to eat. There's crunchy and creamery peanut butter, jelly, and bread, so you can make a PB&J sandwich for lunch. There's also a pump for caramel and hot fudge. Think of the possibilities of that! Fudge covered chocolate chip cookies... caramel sauce on your cheesecake... homemade caramel apples... toasted peanut butter banana sandwiches... the possibilities are endless.
10.) Breakfast at the Cannon Center is honestly the best meal they serve. They have a made-to-order omelet bar that's super good! They also make these amazing blueberry scones... soooo good. My personal favorite thing to eat is oatmeal or cream of wheat with raspberries, blueberries, and granola mixed in. Maybe I'm biased because I love breakfast foods, but my advice is to never skip breakfast at the Cannon.
So there you have it! There's honestly sooooo many more hacks I've heard of; this is just a little flavor of what eating at the Cannon Center is like. Feel free to comment below with your own favorite Cannon Center Creations!
Gosh, now I'm starving from thinking about all this food. Thanks guys. I'm going to head to the Cannon Center for dinner:)