What do guys out of college normally eat?
I'm writing a story where I need to know this. All my friends say that no one cooks as much as I do, and all my guy friends have either had girlfriends who coordinated or did the cooking, or they lived at home, or they were professional chefs. Even if your typical guy doesn't do a lot of cooking, they have to cook something, right? You can't live on pizza and takeout. So what might a bachelor who's graduated from college who isn't a total cookbook nerd eat?
Simple, prepared stuff a lot, IIRC from my bachelor (which were short-lived since I met my wife in grad school). Boil some noodles and pour jarred, pre-mixed spaghetti sauce on it. Hamburger Helper or similar. Get prepared, ready-to-heat meals that some grocery stores sell. Hot dogs, sausages or similar that require just quick, simple boiling or frying.
Me, I always cooked and ate healthy.
My son, who of of the age you reference could live on frozen pizza, hamburgers, ramen, tuna salad sandwiches, frozen burritos, Coke and chips.
Whatever someone else is cooking!!
First year out of college, me and 4 other single guys, also just out of college, rented a house together, so one had to guard their own food with their life. At that time it was a lot of frozen pizza, mostly DiGiorno. Frozen Hungry man dinners, Campbell's soup, Chunky soup, anything microwavable. But especially a lot of fast food drive thru window, hamburgers, chicken strips, chili and so forth. Between my job, working out at the gym, running & bicycling, and partying, there wasn't time to cook.
When I had my own apartment all by my lonesome, still much of the same. I'd usually stock up on cans of Dinty Moore beef stew and make Minute Rice to pour the stew over. Then there were the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Also lots of cans of Chef Boyardee Ravioli. And I'd keep apples and bananas.
During much of that time I had regular girlfriends so often, I'd be going out to restaurants with them.
Breakfast was often donuts at the office or fast food drive thru for sausage and egg biscuits.