I'm a vegan. How do I make dorm food work?!

I'm a vegan. How do I make dorm food work?

Most of the entrees served at the dorm are non-vegan, so how do I improvise to make sure I at least get the required protein, nutrients, vitamins, etc? There's an expansive salad bar (with cold tofu), cereal and soy milk is available at every meal, a sandwich bar at every lunch (with hummus), and gardenburger patties are available every lunch and dinner. Plus there's a microwave inside the cafeteria.

More specifically, what common key food items should I try to eat everyday so I don't get malnourished?

I think we can forget about trying to make the food taste good. I figured after a year of college that there's no hope for that in the dorm cafeteria.

21 hours ago
me: the spice dial is priceless

I'm actually a college student who turned vegan after a semester in, so it was a bit of a change. One thing to make sure is that you get a variety of the nutrients that you eat, and not just focus in on tofu, or soy. Hummus is a great thing to base sandwiches or wraps in, but try to eat as many fresh vegetables as you are willing to try. Spinach is great for calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamin C and vitamin A, all of which are awesome for you. One of the things that people warned me about initially was also B12, which is only in animal based products, although, if you have silk soy milk, then that is fortified with a lot of essential vitamins, including that one. A good way to judge, is to judge based on the colors that you are eating, try to get a variety in. Depending on how much fruit you already eat, that might be another thing to increase in your diet, try to get the recommended amount a day. I also am not sure about how long you've been vegan, or if you like the garden burger patties, but I know that they started to be too bland for me after a while, although my dining halls also vary the brands that they use. Another possible suggestion is to talk to the chefs of your dorm cafeteria, because once one of our chefs realized that I was, he would cater to vegetarians and vegans, and would make sure to remember to serve an entree that was vegan per meal. People tend to be really friendly to vegans once they know that you are, and one of our dining halls even has tofutti consistantly, which is always a treat.