VeganMoFo, Day 1 - the college vegan

First time doing VeganMoFo, but I'm sure the jitters will go away quick enough.

Now, for the question from our first caller, Phil Andrews*...

Why, Phil, I'm glad you asked.

Behold, a college vegan's "pantry":

A drawer in my room. Currently in it: spices, extracts and flavorings, bouillon cubes, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt, dried beans (pinto, black, chickpea), dried seaweed (kombu, wakame), pasta, and larabars for the days where cooking just isn't happening. I've spent a while building up a spice collection;  most of them get used within 18 months of purchase, which is a little slow, but I'm okay with it. Most of them came from home, fortunately, because they're kinda expensive...

Yeah, so it's in the window because I have nowhere else to put it. It's okay, we don't like the Cathedral of Learning anyways. I, ah, borrowed the containers from my parents. Everything in them was my sort of food anyways... The rice cooker and miniblender are my roommate's, but we share cooking stuff. Hidden is more sugar and oatmeal. 

The glass bowls, I picked up at Walmart for a dollar each for prep. Something about them makes me feel... professional. I use them, and people come in the kitchen and say "Wow, what are you making? It looks sooooo gooood", and it's like, "I haven't even put food to pan yet..." I've found great use for oversized, plastic cups from target: thingholders. I went 6 weeks without a drinking glass because I was using them to hold pens, pencils, utensils, etc... So I bought more.

I keep a few things behind my bedframe. Potatoes, apple juice that can't fit in the fridge, some vinegar, breadcrumbs, canned goods like tomatoes...

The cutting board is on top of a mini bookcase from Bed Bath and Beyond, which holds all my cookbooks. The cutting board is also multipurpose; it's super thin, so I use it as a lapdesk to do homework in bed. Otherwise, I don't recommend it, because it's already a little bit warped. The fridge was kindly loaned to me by J. It runs really cold and freezes all the vegetables I put in there. All my tea is corralled in a mixing bowl, next to my knives. While my mom was very concerned that I was taking a 10 inch chef knife to college, I'm glad I did. Victorinox Fibrox knives are super-cheap and super-sharp, so cutting things while bent over to avoid hitting my head is somewhat bearable (I can't stand straight up under my bed).


*I did not name him, J named him.