Moving out, ideas please!

For protein: can you cook a batch of beans at home on the weekends? Or you could have canned beans, if your budget isn't too tight, which would allow for more variety during the week, especially if you don't have the freezer space at school to freeze smaller portions of a variety of different beans. Whether canned or cooked from dried, they can be eaten cold in salads, or with rice, in tortillas, or smashed into hummus/bean dip.

Can you hard-boil a batch of eggs at home on the weekends?

Then there are microwaveable frozen foods with plant-based meat substitutes, if your fridge has enough freezer space to make that work.

Unfortunately, to me, the best tasting tofu/tempeh/seitan meals from scratch generally require a stove-top.

Sometimes I see cooked and shelled edamame in the produce section of the grocery store. They're on the pricey side, but very tasty (toss a little soy sauce and rice vinegar on if you want to boost the flavor) and convenient, and a good source of plant-based protein.

I haven't needed a stove or an oven in years. 2 more pieces of equipment to buy - toaster oven and a George foreman grill. They aren't necessary, but they'll help a lot!

Things you can cook in the microwave

baked potato (6 minutes)
pasta- single serving in a small bowl, fill with water to cover noodle, microwave for 3 minutes
eggs - scrambled 3 minutes, hard boiled in a dish with water to cover the eggs 6 minutes
frozen veggie burger- 2 minutes
instant rice - according to the box
instant quinoa- according to the box
beans- warm up for 1 minute
frozen veggies - 2 minutes
tofu/seitan/tempeh - chop, season and warm for 1 minute

Uses for the toaster oven and George Foreman
make potato chips out of a thinly sliced potato and oil spray
bake or grill tofu/seitan/tempeh
bake or grill your veggies for different flavor


Easy combinations

baked potato with 2 scrambled eggs, raw spinach, salsa and cheese
grilled tofu with taco seasoning, fajita grilled veggies put into tortillas
teriyaki baked tempeh with instant rice and frozen peas/carrots mix
cooked veggie burger on a bun with baked sweet potato fries
tofu baked in marinara sauce, over microwaved tortellini/ravioli
raw carrot and celery steamed in the microwave, mix into veggie broth with beans and instant rice (soup!)
instant rice with curry sauce, peas and chickpeas and mozzarella cheese
scrambled eggs with cooked broccoli, cheddar cheese and veggie bacon

Just remember, you can pretty much cook anything in the microwave.

Canned beans, refrigerated “meats” like Tofurky slices, eggs, and yogurt can all be kept on the shelf or in the fridge and eaten cold or cooked in the microwave. Sometimes you can even find canned flavored seitan, usually at Asian markets (Companion brand is one) or at health food stores under the Loma Linda or Worthington brand in the US.

Tofu and tempeh are stored in the fridge but would be trickier to cook in the microwave.

What do you usually eat? Any plans to get other equipment?

Hummus
Cottage cheese vegetable salad, bean salad, pasta salad
Beans and rice
Bean and cheese burrito
Cereal
Bagel
Nachos
Baked potato

Maybe get frozen or canned vegetables as well.

A small halogen oven like a Flavorwave might be handy. I don't have a cooker and I use my halogen oven for making toast, grilling and roasting meat and vegetables, defrosting, cooking ready meals, and you can remove the cooking rack and use the bowl to make stews and chilli.

Learn to use your microwave on it's different settings. The defrost setting can slowly cook and gently reheat, so experiment with the settings and don't automatically use the highest to blast everything. You can use it to bake cakes, cook oatmeal, noodles, boil/steam rice and vegetables, make scrambled eggs, it even cooks meringues in minutes.

Your rice cooker is basically an enclosed hotplate with a built in pan. Even with two basic settings of 'hot' and 'warm' I can boil, steam, braise, sauté, stew and make soup. It's pretty easy to figure out, so don't be afraid to try out some recipes. Like every appliance, you learn quite quickly how to use them. You'll be cooking like a pro in no time.

My favorite thing when I was in college in that situation was to steam some fresh broccoli in microwave (microwave safe container, a little water, cover and cook for about 2 minutes) drained well, on a wheat lavish with Munster cheese on it then melted the cheese slightly. I would but the pre cut broccoli bags for this as I had ZERO space because I rented this little hole-in the wall room.

I agree with others to batch cook some protein sources (beans etc) over the weekend.