All right, first of all, this is in no way a debate about veganism/vegetarianism; so please don't start one in this thread!
I was wondering if there is anyone else in TJ who thinks the food is unsatisfactory for all meals and would like to share cooking duties and eating with me. My floor has a kitchenett thinger, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I like cooking and stuff, I just don't want to cook every meal and would rather cook for more than one as it is easier.

Yes the food here is bad for vegetarians, and being one of the few here in TJ I am actually trying to convince Chartwells to serve more vegetarian meals. In fact, I would suggest that instead of trying to cook around them, you should complain to administration and try to get it changed.

You're not given a choice. You have to have a meal plan to live in the res halls. I don't think they even give freshmen the option to buy one of the reduced plans. Not that the food is worth eating anyway, even if you are an omnivore. Maybe if everything they served wasn't undercooked, deep fried, soaked in greese, or some unholy combination of the three.

This is just one of the major advantages to living off campus. Alcohol, no ras, douchbag students, and definately no dumbfuck RD threatening to have you escorted out of the dorms at the end of the semester because it's been three days since your last final, even though you're working the graduation jubilee that night being some of the others....

What you need to do is email Jim Murphy. Better yet email him then walk to his office. Tell you are vegan, you do not eat meat, cheese, or any other animal products, CC: Julie Bourland, Director of Food Services. Insist that you not pay for a meal plan. Explain that you were told that this would not be a problem. Have any one you know that is vegan or vegetarian do the same. The university will most likely let you out of your contract. Another possibility is that they will have a meeting with you to talk about things that they could add to the menu that you would be ok with.
If you are Jewish or have some other religious reasons for special diet explain it.

Sorry this does not really help your cooking situation.

what you can do is make a big pot of soup or something and then refrigerate/freeze it and make your lunch/dinner all week with it. i've got some recipes i'll gladly send you for some vegan soups/dishes (i had a vegan roommate over the summer, and i'm trying to cut down on meat anyway) if you like.

I am vegan, but I don't live in the dorms. I agree with the suggestion that you try to get out of having to pay for the meal plan. Chartwells make little accomodation for vegetarians, and practically none for vegans. A couple of years ago, we had something of a vegetarian organization on campus, and we tried talking to Chartwells to get more vegetarian items on the menu. They made a little bit of an attempt, but it didn't seem like aenough to merit the effort it took. For them to guarantee that there were reasonable vegan/vegetarian entrees on a given days, we had to let them know days in advance we would be eating there.

Anyway, if you looking to meet other vegans or whatnot, feel free to drop me a line.

I'm curious as to how one makes a vegan soup. The very basis of a soup is a broth, and that comes from animal meat and/or bones.

Not necessarily. Broth is just used for the added flavoring. You could substitute broth with water, or I'd imagine you could boil vegetables to make a vegetable broth.

Chartwells isn't worth paying for regardless of what type of diet you have. Look at this from the Chartwells standpoint for a second. Vegetarians, that eat on campus, are a decent but still small sized minority. Therefore they offer some dishes w/o meat (ie: Salad Bar, Pasta, Cheese Pizza, and various veggie dishes). The food quality of the vegetarian dishes is usually the same as normal food. Now Vegans are a much smaller minority of that, maybe 100 or so total (that is a wild guess based on the people in this forum and some of the people that I know) out of a campus of ~5,000. Do not expect Chartwells to make many vegan dishes. This is not that easy for them to do since the majority of their customers prefer dishes with some kind of meat or meat by-product. Chartwells will serve the majority before the minority, because most of their money is coming from the majority. You cannot realistically expect special treatment from them. They do offer several different options at UCE/Havener that I think are vegan and some I know are vegetarian. Just playing Devil's Advocate, though with Chartwells I think that isn't as metaphorical as it should be.

You are better off trying to get your money back or at least a reduced meal plan than attempting to get them to serve vegan dishes. Hell I'm better off that way and I'm not vegan or vegetarian.

I agree that chartwells really doesn't have any reason to cater to vegans. There simply aren't enough of us on campus. In fact, I would estimate that there are way less than 100, but I don't really know.

Though, that being the case, I think that a vegan should be allowed to get out of the whole meal plan thing. Though, technically, I don't think anyone in the dorms should be forced to buy a meal plan. It seems like such a stupid fascist policy.

The reasoning (excuse) that I have heard from Charthells is that: by requiring all students whom live in the dorms (resident halls) to have a meal plan assures that these same students will have a source of “food” at their disposal.

It would not be a problem at all for Chartwells to cater to vegans. Marriott would bend over back wards for any student no mater how insane. Chartwells was willing to corporate before, they just did not have the organization in place to do it at the time.
Look at a school like Smith that has some 200 vegan students. They go f’ing insane with the Vegan food.
Look at the Menu, drool...
http://www.smith.edu/diningservices/menus/HubbardSept04.php
I dont see why UMR has a head up the ass on Vegan / Wellness foods.
Please get out of your meal plan.

last year they made a big deal out of their healthy food plan (remember the big posters with the gay looking muscular guy from the 80s? "making better bodies" or something like that) but when i asked about it, they told me that there is a salad bar and they usually serve rolls with dinner. that was the sum total of all their healthy offerings. they told me that the healthy plan just meant eating the salad and bread instead of the main dishes.

in any case, my girlfriend (now wife) and i cooked almost all our meals while in the dorms. get a slow cooker or soup pot, and make trips over to 4S or 7S and you're covered.

and there are TONS of broths that you can make without meat, not to mention non-broth based soups.

some broths to mention are tofu broth for tofu soup called "miso," other assorted japanese broths called "dashi" made from things like seaweed "kombu" or "konbu" which is very tasty, or even broths from mushrooms like shiitake or portabella. you can make broths from wild plants even, like for instance milkweed blossoms (in a cheesecloth bag) make a tangy broth for soups... or add sugar and boil it down for a delicious syrup that can go on pancakes or ice cream.

non-broth soups like chili (use lentils instead of beef), or curried barley and rice with mint, are easy to make with a slow cooker.

Granted I posted this information in another thread I really wish for returning students to know the following information:

To justify reposting this information I will qualify my previous statement with additional information. This is in regards to requesting all points.

1. You must be a returning student.
2. You must not be required to be in university hosing (intentional spelling)
3. You have to switch to meal plan option ‘8’ (5 meal & 300 pts.)
         This is a reduced meal plan; which relates to statement ‘2’.
4. You must visit the Charthells office and request all points.

You may have to pester them a bit before they will allow you to do this. But if you know the key words you should be fine. I told them that I was told that I could receive all points (DBD’s) in the amount of the value of my meal plan which was option ‘8’.

Now, the reason I mention all this is because points (DBD) gives in my opinion more options to the student in regards to food choices. I also understand that the new meal plan will work at UC East; But, the new way they are allotting meals per week with defined time periods of use and the fact ‘you use them or loose them’ to me really sucks for better choice of words. Now with points (DBD’s) you at least can skip a week of eating at Charthells and still have your points with you. Fortunately this year the points are dollars for dollar (excluding tax I’m sure), so it will not be an ass raping to get points. In previous years Charthells penalized you for getting points as it gave the student more options (can’t have that).

Anyway UC East, which is where I would assume most Vegans and Vegetarians would most likely go to dine, I would think that there is a better chance they would be able to find foods that would respect their diet.

Again if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me: jshnp7@umr.edu

Sincerely

Jason Holm