Please Help! U

[Chixlet]

I'm going to a college that actually has the degree I'm looking for -- political science as a history major -- is cheap, and.. has lots of food. Unfortunately, most of the food I can't eat.

I'm vegetarian, and I abhorr cheese. I'll eat it... but I think it's gross tasting.

Another unfortunate is... I can't have a fridge in my room. I *CAN* get a cooler and put stuff in the cooler... But I'm not sure exactly where I'd be getting the ice from.

I know that I need to call the college and get special permission or something, from my doctor maybe saying that I need to have a cooler. My usual protein source is soy: tofu, soy milk, veggieburgers.

While they've got plenty of dishes with legumes... (baked beans, tacos)... I feel like that's not really going to be enough. Alot of times I eat salads with lots of nuts for protein... But, alas, their salad bar contains: bacon, croutons, boiled eggs, basic salad stuff, and dressings. Not anything exotic, like honey, dried fruit, nuts, or brocoli sprouts.

So I'm wondering What's your fave non-perishable protien source?
I know I can't live off of beans and peanut butter!!!
I'm allowed to have food in my room, just not a fridge... I'm hoping maybe I can grow some of my own food, and maybe buy the soymilk in the containers that are okay to not refridgerate until you open them... I'm thinking I can have some potted plants of like... broccoli or bean sprouts, maybe a cherry tomato plant, something like that...

Oh, and I guess I can make soup, because you're allowed to have a crock pot. So... I guess I need to invest in that!!

But please tell me what your protein sources other than soy, chese, meat, or beans are! (I don't eat meat :/ and don't like dairy.) I'm really afraid I'll get sick at school or something. I guess I need to talk to my doctor about it...

[nappydread]

i dunno...i'll just throw out some suggestions...
You could bend the rules and get a 'cooler' that plugs in. Ofcourse don't tell anyone that it plugs in.
You can make a lot of different things other than soup in a crock pot so it would be good to have one of these.
Rice milk is very good even when its not refrigerated....and lasts for months.
FWIW my fav is nuts, dried fruit, granola...but i've also lived on peanut butter for extended periods of time too:D
good luck!

peace

[toman]

You can't have a fridge? Fuck that. What kind of facist regime is running this operation? Either get a little mini-fridge and disguise it as an end table or find a different school. It's not like there's a shortage of schools in this country. Or, maybe look into renting a room or sharing an appartment off campus. If the school is set up in such a way that you are forced to eat the food they provide, they should have to accomodate your dietary needs. If you really, really need to go to that particular school and you want to make your point and help others in the same situation, take some of your tuition money and hire a good lawyer.

[Herbmama]

I'm recently discovered a great veggie "jerky". Primal Strips...all natural, vegan, and they come in a variety of flavors. Some are soy, some are seitan, and my flavorite is shataki mushroom (yum).
The seitan ones are great for ripping up and putting on sandwiches!
you can order them here: http://www.veganessentials.com/

I second the idea of getting a plug in cooler. seriously it's crazy that they wont let you havr a lil fridge.

[treehugger]

Yeah, it's nuts. I went to a fairly straight laced college and we were allowed to have:

Popcorn popper
Small fridge
Hot Pot (teapot; boils water)

Anyway...I like soy nuts for protein and I believe the "oriental" flavor Ramen noodles are vegetarian. At least they used to be.

Oh...and I've never tried this but I wonder if you could cook pasta in a slow cooker....if you mix pasta together with beans you get a complete protein. If you could figure out a way to cook it, you can run the pasta under cold water to "chill" it, add some canned beans (rinsed of course) and veggies and stuff, some italian dressing (Paul Newman's olive oil and vinegar doesn't need refrigeration even after it's open)...and some spices (I like Salad Supreme)..you could do a pretty nice pasta salad.

Kath

[WillP]

nuts, beans(like you said) or possibly a protein powder

Protein powder can be bought made from eggprotein, soy protein, whey concentrate, whey isolate, casein. Its not real food but better than nothing.
If you want more info or a good tasting brand just ask.

[toman]

Pasta can be cooked in a slow cooker. As can most anything else, including whole rabbits.

[1_LoVinVibe]

be careful of all that soy... its a good source of protein, but too much of it is not good.. and ofcourse the manufacturing process is a huge part of it too.. much of the U.S soy industry is produced with GMO's... sketchy.

hemp is a great protein source.. i'm a huge fan of nutiva's hemp protein powder.. just mix it up with some rice milk, maybe some fruit, get creative.. it has kind of a bland nutty flavor, it's just not loaded with sugar so it's not sweet.. but a banana can cure that :)

here's a good site to get it... and if you do decide to get it, i'll pass along a trick.. in the part where you can type in a promotional code to get a discount, type "thyroidbonus"
http://store.yahoo.com/iherb/organichemp.html