One of the most difficult things about eating at school is figuring out what to do when time is short or you just don’t feel like doing anything special. As a vegan, it’s troublesome ordering something to be delivered (can’t really call up the local greasy pizza place and expect them to have something without cheese, eh?) and getting food late at night can be difficult if the only place open is the burger and fries cafeteria. So rather than sitting at my desk with a bag of pretzels and assorted junk foods, I’ve made myself a few simple meals that cook quickly and don’t cost all that much.

The first of these simple meals is probably my favorite thing to eat that takes under 10 minutes to prepare: cous cous and bombay potatoes. Cous cous being the amazing grain that it is, I’ll assume you’re all familiar with it. Bombay potatoes, as you might guess, is a type of Indian food based around potatoes and a bit of spice. But don’t worry, you won’t really be cooking to prepare this! Just go to the grocery store and buy some Tasty Bite Bombay Potatoes - Precooked food, I know, but it sure won’t taste like it.

This meal is very simple, a layer of cous cous covered by the bombay potatoes; so let’s get into the preparation.

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Not much to say here, but I wanted to point your attention to the new page on ingredients that I just put up. Hopefully some people will benefit from my experience there, as it can indeed be tricky learning to manipulate different ingredients in vegan cooking. Best of luck to you all with it!

After my last post about the recipe exchange, I thought it would be fun to share with you all the same recipe I shared with my recipe exchangers.

This recipe holds a special place in my heart because of a few things:

• it was my first real attempt at social cooking (and it worked fantastically)

• one of the dining facilities on campus has adapted the recipe and every so often I get to see my name in front of some tasty cookies

• I get asked all the time for this recipe by non-vegans, so I know I’m doing something right

I originally found this recipe somewhere on the web, but it has changed a bit since then, so I will give you all my version as well as some notes on some of the variations that I’ve tried in the dozens of batches I’ve made.

These cookies are really good, and have a really interesting flavor. They’re not oatmeal like in the sense that you’ve probably had oatmeal raisin cookies, but there is a distinct oatmeal taste and texture. Be sure to give a bunch away when you make them, you’ll make some new friends, *wink*.
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Recently I received one of the most interesting and delightful emails I’d gotten in a while. Flatteringly enough, it came from two friends nearly simultaneously; it was an invitation to participate in a holiday recipe exchange. It looked something like this:

Hey there! Happy holidays, blah blah blah.

1. My super friend
my.super.friend@dartmouth.edu
2. Oh my gosh it’s me
oh.my.gosh.its.me@dartmouth.edu

I’d like to invite you to participate in a holiday recipe exchange. So get your mind going and pick out your favorite recipe (as long as it isn’t too complicated).

To do this, address and email to the first person on this list, copy this message with my name in the first slot and yours in the second, and send it to 15 friends. You won’t be getting recipes back from your friends, but rather from friends of friends and many people you might not have met.

Thus far I have sent out my recipes and my 30 feelers to my most culinary of friends. I knew neither of the people I sent recipes to, and was overjoyed to share my favorite recipe for Ben and Colleen’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Banana Cookies to two new people. Hopefully I’ll get some really interesting recipes back I can try out over the next term on campus.

This exchange will work best among close communities like schools, offices, and families where you will still feel some sort of connection to the people you’re receiving recipes from. However, if you’re the really adventurous type, you could do this with just about anyone and meet a few new friends. This is a great social cooking opportunity!

If anyone’s participated in an exchange like this or does in the future, please let me know how it goes!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new blog, “College Vegan.” My goal here won’t be to lecture about why veganism is the best, what vegans “should” be doing, or endorse PeTA. At times I may discuss certain aspects of veganism and other nuts and bolts, but my main goal will be to provide an interesting look into veganism on campus.

As with many other such “liberal” pursuits, veganism is often picked up in high school or college. As such, college is often a sort of “proving grounds” for the vegan lifestyle. While I’m only in my second year I have seen friends pick up, drop, and endlessly waffle on the topic of veganism at school. Sometimes it’s too hard, too boring, or too expensive. Other times, we’re just not sure what’s right for us.

So, that considered, I’ve started this blog hoping to share my experience with veganism at college. Certainly, this is applicable to other students, but I hope that everyone will benefit from my discussion of the “vegan lifestyle.” I will be focusing on quick, cheap, and delicious foods for people who need to eat well but don’t have an unlimited supply of time or money to blow. However, I will also be detailing my ventures with social cooking and veganism, because when I have the time I often feel the best vegan food is shared vegan food.

Pfew! I hope that wasn’t too heavy. Thanks for stopping by!

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About me: My name is Benjamin Jones, and I am a member of the Dartmouth College Class of 2010. I love my school and the people I’ve met there, and am extremely happy with it. I’ve been vegan since shortly before leaving for college and vegetarian for perhaps a little over 3 years. Some day I will post on the reasons why just to get that out of the way, but for now, just know that it’s multi-faceted.

Please feel free to contact me about anything at all. You can quickly and easily reach me by email at benjamin@collegevegan.com.