Listen, y’all. I love my roommates. I love them so much I gave up red meat and pork for them. Do you know how hard it is for a girl from the South, like me, to tell her mother, “No Mama, I really don’t want any bacon”? It’s like a death sentence in my home.
Because I love my roommates so much, I cook for them often. This isn’t exactly easy while living in a dorm. If you don’t have any appliances to cook with, you go down stairs and hope that someone else didn’t nab the kitchen before you did. But, if you can purchase cooking supplies, do it. It saves hassle, money, and time in the long run. As for my roommates and I, we have an electric skillet, a Crock-Pot, an air fryer, and a rice cooker/steamer.
You may wonder how to I use these to make vegetarian friendly meals. The answer is frozen vegetables. The easiest meals I have ever made were just using the steamer basket on my rice cooker and cooking rice while steaming some vegetables.
Steaming vegetables is super easy, even easier if you have a rice cooker with a basket. If you’re cooking rice, then the steam from the cooking rice will cook the vegetables for you. If not, put about two cups of water in the “rice” pot, if there’s an option of “steam,” press that. If not, just press the button that usually cooks the rice. Make sure to season your vegetables to taste.
One of my favorite meals that is super easy to make vegetarian is Shepard’s Pie! Now, I make everything separately and add each together in a bowl because I’m about to go down stairs just to bake a giant shepherd’s pie.
1. Mock Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie
- Mashed Potatoes (I use instant, or the kind that you buy in the refrigerated section)
- Veggie ‘Meat-less’ crumbles
- Canned or Frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, onions, peppers)
- Flour
- Butter
- Vegetable Stock
- Salt, Pepper, Garlic powder, onion powder
- Cheese for topping
Directions:
Cook Veggie Crumbles to package directions. Remove from skillet. Add butter to skillet to melt. Add flour to melted butter along with seasonings, Cook flour for about a minute. Add vegetable stock slowly, stirring while you add. Add vegetables and crumbles and cook through. Assemble “meat” mixture, potatoes and cheese and enjoy!
I’m going to be transparent with all of you. We eat more pasta than recommended, too much pasta if we are being totally honest. However, most pasta dishes can be made vegetarian by simply taking out the meat. You want lasagna? Use zucchini and eggplant instead of meat! Make a really good tomato sauce, slather on some ricotta and mozzarella for a delicious, meat-free lasagna! If you like your Nonna’s meat sauce too much to give it up, make it vegetarian with veggie-crumbles instead of meat. It’s that simple, y’all. I would highly recommend everyone get real comfy with your spice racks and perhaps some olive oil or butter, as not using meat can sometimes mean a lack of flavor. But you can easily fix that! Vegetarian meals don’t have to be boring!
Speaking of pasta, pasta also goes wonderfully in soups.
2. Vegetable Pasta Soup
- 1 and ½ carton of vegetable stock
- A bag of frozen “soup vegetables” (Usually contains peas, green beans, carrots, onions and celery)
- A can of beans of your choice (examples: pinto, kidney, lima beans), drained
- A can of tomatoes (diced or stewed, if you like bigger chunks of tomatoes)
- Half a box of ditalini pasta
- Dried Thyme
- Parsley
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
Pour all ingredients in a stock pot, skillet, or crock pot. If cooking in a crock pot: Cook on high for about four hours. If cooking in a stock pot or skillet: Cook on medium heat until heated through.
I personally like serving it with a bit of hot sauce and some cheese. This is also delicious with oyster crackers!
Now lets say you don’t have all that time, and it’s too hot for soup, because let’s face it, it is too hot for soup. You can still cook pasta in the microwave. Put the pasta in a microwave safe bowl, I use a “noodle bowl” from the neighborhood bulk distributor of goods. It’s just a plastic bowl with a handle. You check to see how long you need to boil the pasta traditionally! This is important! Then, to that time, you add two minutes. You cover the pasta with water, add salt and a little bit of olive oil if that’s your thing, then you let it sit after the timer goes off. Only about a minute. This is to let the pasta finish cooking and to allow it to cool down so you don’t reach into a boiling bowl. Drain if you need to.
3. Quick Mac & Cheese
- A serving of small pasta (shells, ditalini, macaroni)
- Whole Milk
- Cheese (Whatever super melted cheese you like, Colby Jack is my favorite)
- Salt & Pepper
- A little bit of Cayenne (If spicy is your thing)
Cook pasta in the above-mentioned method, or in a pot. Drain the excess, unless you want a lot of cheese sauce. Add cheese and milk and stir to create sauce. This is totally a personal preference. Add seasoning to taste.
Now that you have an idea of how you can cut meat out of your dorm life, I totally expect to be invited over for dinner. You’re welcome.