College-Style Vegan Hamburger

This is a meal I made that was extremely quick and easy. One thing I keep on hand for those quick meals are vegan Boca burgers and Tofurky sausages. They're both somewhat expensive when compared to regular meat ones, but for just over $1 a patty or sausage, that's maybe $2-3 a meal once you're done with all the preparations.

These are the Boca burgers I got from my friendly neighborhood Pathmark. I even think they were on sale, cuz really, who eats vegan burgers anyways.

I just cooked one of these babies up along with a side of green beans ($3 for a massive bag from Trader Joes), chopped up half a tomato and tore off some lettuce, and Voíla! A full burger meal that was very filling and delicious.

Oh I should also mention I don't have burger buns, so I just used that whole wheat bread I had in my cupboard (hence the 'college-style')

Altogether it took only about 5 minutes to whip up, cuz I didn't wanna miss the movie Bridesmaids showing on TV!!

An awesome vegan meal for one!

Power Snack - PB Cheerios bars

My new favorite snack that I discovered at the dining halls my freshman and sophomore years, and is actually really easy to make, is peanut butter & Cheerios bars.

My roommate, an elementary ed major, had a leftover box of Cheerios after using some for an activity with the kids she teaches. 

6 cups of Cheerios, 3/4 of a jar of PB, 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of corn syrup later, we had two jumbo tupperwares filled with this stuff.  Just melt all the sugary goodness first, then mix in the PB, and then the Cheerios last, until they're all covered.

Although I'm not the biggest fan of using so much corn syrup and sugar, this is a great snack to have just laying around, and a quick and easy pick-me-up early in the morning or after a long day of classes.

Another variation that I also like to make is even easier and can be made in small quantities. I just take about half a cup of Cheerios, a tablespoon of peanut butter, and a dash of honey (or sugar) and mix them all together.  

This is the end result - another great snack, or meal, if you're like me and make batch after batch in one sitting.  Enjoy!!

Veggies fah dayz --> Stir-fry

Another easy thing to make that you can always keep in bulk and on-hand in tupperwares, is stir fry!

I cut up a bunch of foods one day in my spare time (here you see green bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, and tofu) and kept the portion that I didn't use in a Tupperware.

  

The rest of it, along with some bean sprouts, I fried up in a pan for 6-7 mintutes. The only thing you gotta be aware of is the order you put things in the  pan, because some things cook through faster than others. I put in the bell peppers first, then zucchini and sprouts, and mushrooms and tofu last.

The only other ingredients I used besides these is oil for the pan, some salt and pepper, red chilli flakes, and some vegetarian stir-fry sauce. 

Some other ingredients you could include, just off the top of my head, are: onions, green onions, spinach, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes... anything really.

It's such an easy meal, with so many servings of vegetables and all the healthy things that are associated with veggies! 

Lettuce Wraps Galore

This is one of the first awesome vegan meals I made up myself, and is about one of the easiest things to make.  I made it for a quick lunch during the day.

The main ingredients you need are lettuce, substitute meat, some sort of flavoring, and some other veggies to go in the filling along with the fake meat.

Here I used sriracha sauce, salt, and pepper for flavor (and used some ketchup at the end too). I mixed some mushrooms, tomatoes, frozen corn, and a random piece of jalapeño I found in my fridge, with the Smart Ground substitute beef as filling.

It's as simple as frying everything together in a pan until it's cooked through, then wrapping it in lettuce and you're finished!  I used about a quarter of the Smart Ground package plus everything else you see below, and was so full I almost couldn't get myself up to go to class.

The great thing about all of these ingredients is that they are very versatile and can be used in many different meals. I'm planning on making chilli or burritos with the leftover Smart Ground, and of course some salad or more wraps with the lettuce.

I had about an hour of time to spare for lunch that day, and I was able to make this meal with time left over to watch some telly! Great success!

To New Beginnings

Hey All!  Classic intro post coming up --> I'm a third year college student at the University of Delaware, and I love to try new things and make changes to my life just to see how things go.  I feel strongly about the human need to reduce consumption and waste and how we should be more mindful about how our actions affect our environment, and how what we eat affects our health and body.

Over this last summer I was able to travel to and stay at several organic farms (see my other blog, urbanandnothing.blogspot.com, to see travel stories), where I ate all vegan or at least all vegetarian food, that was organic and grown right on the farm, and I felt great.  My body never felt sluggish, after meals I never felt the urge to crawl into bed and nap, and the best part is the food was absolutely delicious - some of the best I have ever eaten.

This blog is basically going to be my story of becoming a vegan, at least for the rest of the school year and as long as possible over the summer.  I say 'as long as possible' because I will be traveling back to India for an internship and am not certain about the vegan selection that will be available to me there.

Some background on my vegan-ness: I have been vegetarian for just over two years and will never go back to being an omnivore.  I just don't desire to eat meat anymore, its weird to me, borderline gross at this point.  For the vegan aspect, I am relatively new to it.   Last November, which happened to be national vegan month, I tried to be vegan for a whole month and it worked for the most part.  I made some rookie mistakes - taking coffee with cream instead of asking for soy milk, eating white chocolate, etc, and I gave up towards the end of the month for reasons I don't remember.  I also developed poor eating habits, basically eating pasta with sauce almost every night, sometimes twice or three times a day.  For a $1 pack of pasta and a $3 jar of sauce, I could feed myself for a week, possibly longer (this probably contributed to why I went back to my quesadillas and grilled cheeses eventually).

THIS time, I want things to be different.  Being the penny-pinching person I am, I will still be cooking on a budget, with typical ingredients found in a college girls kitchen, but I will make healthy meals, a variety of meals, and share what I make with others through this blog.  You heard it here first, this time my vegan-ness will last.

To conclude this post, a quote:

"Poor animals! How jealously they guard their pathetic bodies…that which to us is merely an evening’s meal, but to them is life itself."
—T. Casey Brennan (1948–)

And a funny T-shirt with a broccoli tree: