Thai Spring Rolls

I finally, FINALLY came across vegan spring roll wrappers in a local grocery store! All the wrappers I had seen before contained egg; these contain flour, coconut oil, and salt -- that's it. Time to whip out the Fry Daddy!

I had never made fried spring rolls before, but back when I was 17 I cut out a recipe from our local newspaper, and I still had that yellowing slip of paper in my recipe binder. I swore one day I would get around to making them, and today it was finally time to get on a roll (doh)!

The filling is a mix of blanched cabbage, carrot, and mung bean sprouts mixed with fried onion and cellophane noodles. The wrappers were easy to work with and needed just a nudge to stay sealed when they first went in the fryer.

The dipping sauce is a mix of sugar, vinegar, and sweet chile sauce from the Asian market.

Below the spring rolls we have my other recent discovery at the grocery store: enoki mushrooms, roasted in olive oil and tied with green onion stems. I placed the enoki bundles (they look like sheaves of wheat to me, wouldn't that be cute in a harvest-themed lunch box?) on a bed of brown rice. A serving of Japanese Spinach (from Vegan Lunch Box) is along the base.

Verdict: My husband was thrilled with the sudden appearance of a deep fryer in our kitchen this morning (it's just on loan from mom, so don't get used to it). He ate at least four rolls for breakfast at 6:00am before heading out for work. At lunchtime, he showed off his lunch and reports the rolls and sundry were fantastic. The mushrooms, however, were a bit chewy. 4 stars.

I'm a Twit

As you can see from the new sidebar, I am now on Twitter (and it's not because of Oprah, it was sheer peer pressure from my friends who have been extolling the virtues of Twitter until I just had to try it for myself). Henceforth! I will be twitting away about all manner of mundanity if you care to tag along.

Some readers here have expressed an interest in knowing more about my nutrient-dense eating plan, so I will use Twitter to share a bit about what I'm eating now and then and perhaps give people more glimpses of an Eat To Live-style diet. Of course, I'll also share some of the other things I do during the day ... which would be mostly "doing laundry", but I'll try to spice it up a bit.

As if figuring out that bit of new technology were not enough, I have also created a Facebook page for Vegan Lunch Box. You can become a fan there, write or post pictures on my wall, or even visit my personal Facebook page where I've added a folder of my own favorite pics from Vegan Lunch Box through the years.

Foodscapes

Oh my gosh, check out these Foodscape Posters, so perfect for a school cafeteria or homeschool classroom setting:

Banana porpoises!

Cauliflower sheep!

A kiwi monkey!

What a great way to encourage kids (and us big kids!) to eat fruits and vegetables. Along with the posters they also sell a whole Foodscapes line with things like temporary tattoos and stickers ("Veggies can't be BEET!" hee). I think these would be so fun offered at information tables or at a nutrition class, or even tucked into a lunch box.

(thanks to Linda Marks for telling me about Foodscapes!)

Flower Sammy

Making lunches for Summershmoo is about how many ways I can make a peanut butter sandwich. Today the pb & agave is a flower with her name in fruit leather letters along the top. I got this idea from Hawaii's Bento Box Cookbook,which uses cheese for the letters.

(By the way, most decorative bentos use cheese and meat slices in their designs, and I'm finding that fruit leather makes a great vegan replacement. It comes in a variety of colors, punches out well with cookie cutters, and doesn't tear or crumble like the some of the vegan meats and cheeses I've tried.)

On the side are baby carrots, celery sticks, cucumber flowers, and the tiniest little grape tomatoes I've ever seen at the store. In the apple container is (what else?) half an apple.

Verdict: Girls are fun! I don't think my son was ever as tickled and thrilled as my niece was when she saw her little pink lunch box and red apple. "Is it for me? Oh, it's beyuiful!" She loved eating the letters first, then happily ate everything but just a few of the veggies (I had no idea if she liked tomatoes -- turns out she doesn't.) 5 stars.