Cooking Woes

I am having some serious cooking issues. Dinner is a challenge! Here are the problems:

1. I don't like to cook.
2. My microwave died some months ago.
3. I gave up meat and dairy.

So, in the past I might have done one of the following:

1. Stop and pick up something already prepared like pizza (nope. no dairy.) or chicken (nope. no meat.)
2. Pop a frozen meal into the microwave (nope. no can do.)
3. Pour a glass of wine and take the time to whip something up (nope. no wine. have to suffer through the entire cooking process with hot tea or a tall glass of water. boring.)

I had just gotten into my crock pot and fallen in love with two simple recipes. One with chicken, apricot jam, thousand island dressing and onion soup mix. OMG. Could not be any tastier. But nope. And the taco soup I made a couple of weeks ago I loved but somehow I don't think would be the same without the turkey, sour cream and cheese. Darn.

What's a lazy, food-loving, Lent-observing gal to do? I have been eating more salads. That's a plus. I throw on some croutons and nuts and dried cranberries to make them more interesting. But sometimes you just want a hot meal. Especially since it's been in the teens! So I am forced to come up with some new dishes that don't have meat or dairy and it's hard!

I often skip the cookbook and try to whip something up from the top of my head. Like the black bean burrito I whipped up last week. I started with a package of dried black beans and cooked them myself. They were bland, bland, bland so I added some sauteed onions and bbq sauce. Better. Then I rolled them in a whole wheat tortilla with some rice cheese (not sure how I feel about that) and avocado. They were actually quite good.

Last night I tried my hand at Thai curry. That was a joke. I don't suggest trying to make curry without a recipe. It looks good, right?

Yeah, not so much. Let me tell you it does not taste anything like Thai restaurant food even with the coconut milk and curry. (And I've never been to Thailand but I sincerely doubt it even comes close to the country's worst chef.) Now don't get me wrong, I ate it --but I think it needed some fish sauce or lemongrass or something to make it more authentic but who has those items lying around the kitchen? Not I.

So, can anyone give me some ideas?! The whole vegan diet thing is really starting to grate. Between the diet restrictions and not being able to have a glass of wine and the daggone dossier paperwork getting on my nerves I am starting to go crazy over here! Can someone post a tasty, easy to prepare recipe or a link to a recipe to make the next 32 days go more smoothly? I would really appreciate some help! :-)