Packed / School & College lunches / Dorm food

[Roxy]

Another lovely forum member taught me how to cook veggies in the rice cooker. When you're cooking your rice in the cooker, add a layer of thin sliced veggies on the top of the rice. It steams them really nicely and makes for a healthy meal

[confusionisben]

Sandwiches, wraps, toast and all things bread seem to be my staple. I'll make the occasional curry, bake or pasta sauce, but with a kitchen that looks like an a bomb epicenter it's hard to prepare or make anything grand. I love it when i return to my parents house on holidays and have a big clean kitchen to run around in, and extravagant recipes to try.

[JC]

Sandwiches, wraps, toast and all things bread seem to be my staple. I'll make the occasional curry, bake or pasta sauce, but with a kitchen that looks like an a bomb epicenter it's hard to prepare or make anything grand. I love it when i return to my parents house on holidays and have a big clean kitchen to run around in, and extravagant recipes to try.

i'm exactly the same! our kitchen is disgusting, but there are so many recipes from the forum i want to try. i guess i'll just have to wait until easter

[Sarah_]

Oh jeez. I'm glad this thread was made. I've been living the Poor College Student life for a while now since I quit my job, and so I've been eating ramen daily. There's only so many things you can put on noodles before you want to scream.

[bryzee86]

How's this site? :

http://www.simpleveganrecipes.co.uk/

Suggested by JC the other day, in a different thread.

[ellaminnowpea]

Oh, some great suggestions!

So far I've tried making quinoa a few times in (low sodium) veggie stock w/ garlic and mixed veggies. I've also made a crapload of stirfries w/ lots of veggies and edamame. Salads are getting better with my Bragg's sesame ginger dressing as well! Oh and I found some Amy's black bean burritos and have to say they're bangin with some salsa on top.

I think tonight I'll try some mac and "cheese". I have some whole grain pasta that I need to use and I bought a bit of nutritional yeast the other day to test it out. I think if I add a bit of water to the nut. yeast, I can just drizzle it over the pasta.

[AnneCE]

One of my basic low-cook meals is couscous with some stock powder, with a tin of ratatouille thrown on top - warmed in microwave or on stove top if I can be bothered. Some nutch on top and it's ready to eat. All you really need by way of resources is a source of boiling water for the couscous.

[RubyDuby]

I think tonight I'll try some mac and "cheese". I have some whole grain pasta that I need to use and I bought a bit of nutritional yeast the other day to test it out. I think if I add a bit of water to the nut. yeast, I can just drizzle it over the pasta.

or just shake it on top. love the nut yeast.

or if u have time, instead of water it would be better with veg stock, garlic, n a lil lemon juice and mustard, simmered to thicken with flour- vcon style.

[ellaminnowpea]

I'm bumping this thread up to add my chili. Sorry for the UK-ers, it's in US measurements, but its not too important, I just chuck everything in as I feel like it.

1c dry beans (soaked) I use kidney beans and lentils
2c-3c water or veggie stock
3 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp dried chilis
2 stalks of celery
2 tomatoes

Cook forever... like 2 hours on medium heat. I just let it sit there and go about studying or whatever until its done. I'm guessing it'd be much faster with canned beans.

[ellaminnowpea]

I'm making lentil carrot soup:

1c soaked lentils
2c water
1/2c chopped carrots
1/2 mini white onion
2 tsp garlic powder
dash of sea salt
dash of pepper

Cook on medium for an hour. Really simple! Any ideas on how to spice it up a bit? It seems kinda plain.

[Glossgirl]

Some vegetable stock, chilipepper, ginger, cumin or some fresh herbs... coriander?

[Noogle]

I'm not sure if anyne has recommended this yet but if now, get this book:



It's vegetarian, but we all know how to work around a few milk ingredients and such. I've found this to be the best cookbook I have, cheap and cheerful, and not at all pretentious.

[ellaminnowpea]

Awesome, Noogle. Thanks for the book info. Would you say the cookbook recipes are quick? Or just simple with the ingredients?

[pavotrouge]

I'm making lentil carrot soup:

1c soaked lentils
2c water
1/2c chopped carrots
1/2 mini white onion
2 tsp garlic powder
dash of sea salt
dash of pepper

Cook on medium for an hour. Really simple! Any ideas on how to spice it up a bit? It seems kinda plain.

a splash of red wine or red wine vinegar, or that too fancy for the student kitchen?

[ellaminnowpea]

I do have some red wine! I'll give it a try!
I tried it with some cumin last night, turned out okay.

[pavotrouge]

I flicked through "Student's go vegan cookbook" last night and couldn't really find any funky ingredients to students O_O Am I that spoilt?

[Maisiepaisie]

I'm not sure if anyne has recommended this yet but if now, get this book:



It's vegetarian, but we all know how to work around a few milk ingredients and such. I've found this to be the best cookbook I have, cheap and cheerful, and not at all pretentious.

Thanks Noogle. This book gets some good recommendations on Amazon. I managed to order a copy for just 1 penny + £2.75 p+p

[fondducoeur]

I flicked through "Student's go vegan cookbook" last night and couldn't really find any funky ingredients to students O_O Am I that spoilt?

I have that cookbook and found the recipes pretty easy and ingredients easy to find. I used it a lot when I first became vegan, but don't use it all that much anymore. The basic baked tofu and lemon rosemary tofu I still make often. They are nothing special, but for some reason I like both of them a lot.
The one-pot pasta with baked tofu is very quick and good. I used to make the herbed tofu lasagna often (this does take a little time though) but have now abandoned that recipe for the one in v-con because its better.

There is also some pasta dish with tempeh and black olive marinera which is pretty good, but not something to get too excited about. I have made it a couple of times. The shepards pie I have the same opinion on. I have made it once, and may make it again, but think I might look around for a better recipe as this seems to be prevelent in lots of vegan cookbooks(suggestions??).

I didn't really like their scrambled tofu recipe, I much prefer the VWAV one. Although I don't really follow a recipe for that anymore now that I have a feel for what I like.
Also, the crunchy blueberry pancakes were not all that amazing imo, but I also didn't have much pancake making experience at the time.

Anyway, its not a bad book. Some of the recipes are really quick, but most are average in cooking time.

[ellaminnowpea]

I think I'd like to try to bake some muffins and brownies. Does anyone have simple recipes? I have absolutely no idea how to bake w/o those pre-made mixes (which are obviouly not vegan).

[fiamma]

What kind of muffins are you looking for, Ella? Plain vanilla, or something a bit fancier? I'm sure I can oblige on the brownie front...

[ellaminnowpea]

Oh I was thinking something like apple but it doesnt have to be. I'm more interested in muffins than brownies, though... not a huge chocolate person.

[Quantum Mechanic]

I don't have a kitchen this year, so yesterday what I did was I had a peanut butter and agave nectar sandwich with dried cranberries and bits of dried pineapple. Mmm. I also have a nut chopper I got for $10 and I sprinkled chopped almonds and assorted nuts on top. Very yummy.

[Jaceymacy]

If u have any time at all u should cook something before hand.......idk.....I have a really good lunch idea.......black bean din din.......black beans, mushrooms, tofu, flax seeds, brown rice and sprouts............its really great!!!!!!!!

[Jaceymacy]

My dining hall is ok...has no soy milk though =/

It always had a salad station and a pasta station (but the pasta is not whole wheat). I bought organic peanut butter, soy milk, walnuts and apples to snack on though.

But like veggiejess said, ours have vegetarian entrees but they almost always have cheese or eggs in them =(

About soy milk.........I do not like it at all....i have tried soy milk and rice milk.......

[Annie M. Green]

I've been in college/uni for 2 years now and have never eaten at the canteen. In fact, only twice I bought a black coffee from there because i had no other choice but that's it.
Right from the start I invested into a good plastic air-tight container and a thermos. So I always have my tea/coffee with me (in addition to a water bottle usually) as I like it and my lunch as well (although some days it is left uneaten until I leave in the evening).
My usual things are:
-a sandwich
-houmous and cut up veg and bread
-fruit
-salad
-whatever is leftover from last night's dinner/brekky
-yoghurt with muesli (i've got a smaller pot that i put that in)

I find that I save looooooooaaaaadds of money this way, plus don't have to spend all of my lunch break in the massive queue at lunchtime and don't have to worry about if things are vegan or not and healthy or not (from observing the canteen menu I found that not every day you can have a decent vegan meal that is not chips and they don't have soy milk for coffee which is a shame).

[harpy]

The Guardian newspaper had a supplement about packed lunches today - while it's not vegan by a long shot there were quite a few recipes that could easily be made vegan, so perhaps it's of interest to those of us that were lamenting our inadequate/repetitive lunches in another thread

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardia...packed-lunches

I didn't post it in the bento box thread but I bet some of these would be suitable.