I’m a broke student, and a celiac vegan, which kind of limits my options at the dining hall. In the interest of not dying of starvation, what are some cheap things I can do with only a mini-fridge, a teakettle, and a toaster oven at my disposal?
No hob for the teakettle – it’s electric.
I’m a poor, traveling vegan who doesn’t eat any highly processed foods, doesn’t eat out, and is sometimes fridgeless, and I’ve managed very well so far! Just because we’re vegan and poor doesn’t mean we have to eat blandly! Here are some tips:
Beans will become your best friend. Excellent source of protein and fiber, cheap, easy to find, and the canned ones don’t even need to be cooked. Just rinse and mix with some veggies of your choice (or a whole grain – quinoa is great but tends to be more expensive – try millet instead) , along with some spices and salt! Consider wrapping them in lettuce leaves to make wraps.
Energy bars. Make them yourself by mincing and mashing together dates and your favorite nuts or nut butters (not that expensive when you consider the amount of calories that are packed in the jars, especially peanut butter being the cheapest), and store in your fridge. Cheaper than buying Larabars, which are one of the better bars out there. Great for on-the-go days. If you’re having trouble finding cheap nuts, consider ground flax seeds – They are the best source of omega 3, great fiber content and all kinds of other nutrients, and you can usually find them really cheap. Some health food stores have grinders where you can freshly grind their flax seeds.
Fruits and veggies can sometimes be expensive, so find out where you can get them cheapest. Check out farmers markets for deals. In general, bananas and avocados are the cheapest fruits out there. Buy lots when you see sales on veggies that last long, like onions, potatoes, carrots, squash… Potatoes, yams and squash can all easily be cooked in your toaster oven. Just poke a couple of holes in them and let them bake until the are all soft, sprinkle with herbs, garlic and salt and sat as is, or add to soups.
Oatmeal makes excellent breakfasts with rice milk or hot water, dates or bananas and cinnamon. Being celiac, just make sure you get gluten-free oats. Just heat your water or rice milk, pour on top of your oatmeal, and cover with a plate for a few minutes, and voila! If gluten-free oats are too expensive, look for buckwheat groats – usually very inexpensive and, although not the same as oatmeal, has a really fun texture!
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions, I’d be glad to help out =)
May 15th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Yikes. Any chance you could expand to borrow someone’s microwave, or invest in a cheap blender?
Foods that immediately come to mind are hummus with fresh vegetables. You can buy hummus or make your own. This is a pretty good link for other recipes. Good luck!
http://www.fatfreevegan.com/gluten-free/index.shtml
References :
May 15th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Fruits, veggies and nuts. Can I assume you have a cook top for your tea kettle? If so, some lentils, rice and beans can be added to that list. I’m celiac too so I empathize with you. I hate rice noodles and gluten-free breads. It’s a little limiting but you can work around it.
References :
May 15th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Salads. Baked vegetable casserole. Soup(you can bake it in the toaster oven). Sandwiches on gluten-free bread. If you can plug in a kettle and toaster oven, you might want to get a hotplate which uses the same amount of current. That could expand your possibilities enormously, though you may have to plug things in one at a time.
References :
May 15th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
TGI Fridays buffalo chicken
References :
May 15th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Eat a lot of rice krispies and soy milk, my cousin is celiac and he eats rice krispies
References :
May 15th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Trade the toaster oven for a crock-pot and make a vegan chili.
References :
May 15th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Tasty Bite meals. They will tell you on the package which ones are vegan and gluten free. They can sit on a shelf and heat in a microwave in about a minute (or a tad longer in a toaster oven). You can order them in bulk from Amazon and have them shipped straight to your dorm room.
(P.S. Rice Krispies are made with malt flavoring from barley, and are NOT gluten-free.)
References :
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=mozilla-20&index=blended&link_code=qs&field-keywords=tasty%20bite%20vegan%20gluten%20free&sourceid=Mozilla-search
May 15th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I’m a poor, traveling vegan who doesn’t eat any highly processed foods, doesn’t eat out, and is sometimes fridgeless, and I’ve managed very well so far! Just because we’re vegan and poor doesn’t mean we have to eat blandly! Here are some tips:
Beans will become your best friend. Excellent source of protein and fiber, cheap, easy to find, and the canned ones don’t even need to be cooked. Just rinse and mix with some veggies of your choice (or a whole grain – quinoa is great but tends to be more expensive – try millet instead) , along with some spices and salt! Consider wrapping them in lettuce leaves to make wraps.
Energy bars. Make them yourself by mincing and mashing together dates and your favorite nuts or nut butters (not that expensive when you consider the amount of calories that are packed in the jars, especially peanut butter being the cheapest), and store in your fridge. Cheaper than buying Larabars, which are one of the better bars out there. Great for on-the-go days. If you’re having trouble finding cheap nuts, consider ground flax seeds – They are the best source of omega 3, great fiber content and all kinds of other nutrients, and you can usually find them really cheap. Some health food stores have grinders where you can freshly grind their flax seeds.
Fruits and veggies can sometimes be expensive, so find out where you can get them cheapest. Check out farmers markets for deals. In general, bananas and avocados are the cheapest fruits out there. Buy lots when you see sales on veggies that last long, like onions, potatoes, carrots, squash… Potatoes, yams and squash can all easily be cooked in your toaster oven. Just poke a couple of holes in them and let them bake until the are all soft, sprinkle with herbs, garlic and salt and sat as is, or add to soups.
Oatmeal makes excellent breakfasts with rice milk or hot water, dates or bananas and cinnamon. Being celiac, just make sure you get gluten-free oats. Just heat your water or rice milk, pour on top of your oatmeal, and cover with a plate for a few minutes, and voila! If gluten-free oats are too expensive, look for buckwheat groats – usually very inexpensive and, although not the same as oatmeal, has a really fun texture!
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions, I’d be glad to help out =)
References :
http://nocrapdiet.wordpress.com