Around the World: Japan

Here it is, the final photograph from my new book! This was the Big Bento Box Photo Shoot, an epic day of cooking, set-up, and photography. I wanted to show every bento box menu I made for the Japan section of Around the World;I've been so inspired by Japanese bento culture, I couldn't leave anything out, and I also included lots of tips on how to make your own bento-style vegan lunch boxes.

Okay, let's start with the red Laptop Lunch Box: Zaru Soba (cold noodles with dipping broth) with Carrot and Daikon Salad, edamame, and persimmon.

In the pink bento box: Tofu Tamagoyaki with Potato Salad Balls, Octo-Celery (instead of the ubiquitous octodog, because vegan hot dogs won't curl, and celery is healthier anyway), Cucumber Sushi Rolls, cherry tomatoes, a Botan Rice Candy, and kiwi and watermelon stars.

In the small red bento with red apple side dish: Onigiri (rice formed into shapes by hand or with a mold), vegan chicken nuggets, Stir-Fried Arame with Carrots and Ginger (this is one of my favorite dishes from the entire book, btw - sooo good!!), Radish Rosettes, and Apple Bunnies.

Finally, in the two-tier kitty bento: Tofu Tiger on a bed of rice, Carrot-Cucumber Tulips, Broccoli Salad with Daikon Flowers, and some strawberries.

Except for the Laptop Lunch Box and the apple all these bento boxes were from I Love Obento!

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Hawaii

Here's another picture that didn't make it into the book, but I'll show it to you here! This is my Hawaiian Luau Lunch Box: (starting far left) Tropical Fruit Salad (mixed tropical fruit with coconut cream), Maui Onion Dip with sugar snap peas, Huli-Huli Tofu (grilled tofu with a Hawaiian-style barbecue sauce, and Aloha Sweet Potatoes (roasted sweet potato and yam topped with yummy toasted coconut).

Okay, so maybe the fabric is a bit busy, but I still had a lot of fun making and setting up this lunch box! You can have fun when you make it, too, by including a paper umbrella to garnish the fruit salad or wrapping your lunch box in a plastic lei.

Speaking of lunch boxes, this is another Lunchsense, size medium. The website says that this is the most popular size for grade school kids, and if you get it in this bright construction-worker orange, I'm sure your kids will never lose it!

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Indonesia

Indonesia -- land of tempeh! For those of you not familiar, tempeh is made by cooking and fermenting whole soybeans until they form a solid cake that can be sliced and steamed or fried; it has a nutty, mushroomy flavor and a firm texture. Nutritionally, tempeh has more bioavailable protein than tofu or plain cooked soybeans, and the fermentation process makes it easier to digest. So thank you, Indonesia, for inventing my favorite soy food and a vegan protein powerhouse!

Lunch inspired by Indonesia: (clockwise from top right) Golden Indonesian Tempeh, made with a sweet soy sauce - brown sugar caramelizing glaze and a touch of spicy chile, Indonesian Vegetable Pickles, tangerine and star fruit, and Yellow Coconut Rice. The rice is garnished with a Chile Blossom (Have I mentioned that the new book includes an entire chapter on lunch box garnishes? Indeed it does!)

The vegetable pickles include lots of shallots, a member of the onion family which might not be familiar to all of us here in the West but is used extensively in Indonesia.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Morocco

Oh, I can't look at this picture without wanting to make and eat this all again! This is the menu for Morocco: Moroccan Tagine, Orange Couscous, tangerines (named after the city of Tangier, in Morocco!), and Cinnamon-Sugar Almonds.

Tagine is a thick Moroccan stew made with chickpeas, vegetables (tomatoes, zucchini, butternut squash, and peppers), raisins and spices, served on a fluffy bed of couscous. Couscous looks like a grain but is actually a tiny semolina pasta; it is a staple food in the cultural area of North Africa known as the Maghreb (west), which includes Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. So there you go -- your geography lesson for the day!

The toasty, sugared almonds are actually even better using whole blanched almonds (almonds without their skins), but I wasn't able to locate any locally for the photo shoot.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Italy Again

Here's another "Around the World" menu inspired by the cuisine of Italy: Grilled Vegetable Stromboli, Balsamic Strawberries, and a green salad with Italian dressing.

Stromboli is usually made by rolling meats and cheeses up into an Italian bread dough before it's baked. After the loaf is cooked and cooled it's cut into slices and served. You can easily make stromboli with vegan meats and cheeses, but I decided to switch things up and use an assortment of grilled vegetables and a layer of roasted garlic instead.

This lunch was photographed in a Lunchsense lunch box. The owner was kind enough to send me a Lunchsense to photograph for my book, and everyone who saw it was impressed. The containers have tight lids and fit together perfectly along with an ice pack and beverage container in the lunch box, which has a nice shoulder strap and also folds out to make a place mat for your meal. It's a great design, especially if your kids are old enough not to lose track of their containers and lids.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: The Southwest

This lunch showcases some of the traditional foods of the southwestern region of the United States, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado: Corncob Cornbread, Anasazi Beans with roasted chiles, Prickly Pear Pudding, Fried Nopales, and a Baby Squash Medley topped with sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Just for fun I used scissors to cut corn tortillas into "cornhusk" shapes and wrapped them around the cornbread to resemble fresh ears of corn. The tortilla strips are used for scooping up bites of beans and nopales at lunch time.

One cactus is in this lunch, served two ways: First, nopales are the flat, green pads of the prickly pear cactus. When cooked they taste something like lemony green beans, with a slippery quality like okra. They're very popular at the Hispanic grocery store in my town, where I usually have to stand in line to get to them, in bags already deprickled and diced. (I cut a whole pad into a little garnish, too.) Next, the red fruit of the prickly pear cactus is made into a sweet syrup that flavors the nondairy pudding for dessert.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Nebraska

My menu for Nebraska features Chik'n Pot Pies filled with chicken-style seitan, mixed vegetables, and creamy gravy. Why Nebraska, you ask? Because the chicken pot pie was the first mass-marketed frozen pot pie, developed in 1951 by Swanson company in Omaha, Nebraska! So there!

This lunch also includes Sticks-and-Stones Salad (carrot and celery sticks and water chestnut "stones"), and Apples with Caramel Dip. The caramel dip is amazingly quick and easy to make; I paired it with tart Granny Smith apples but it's also wonderful with bananas.

This meal was photographed, by the way, in a Mr. Bentostyle lunch jar with separate containers that stack together inside an insulated outer shell. These are spendy but they're a nifty lunch container for those who want individual servings of different foods to all stay hot or cold together and stay upright like a thermos.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Caribbean

I love this picture we took for one of my Caribbean lunch menus. Oh yeah, pink flamingo food picks with googly eyes, baby!

Here's the menu, inspired by the island cuisine: Plantain Wrap with Tangy Black Bean Spread, salsa for dipping, and an easy Caribbean Coleslaw with lime and pineapple.

Fried ripe plantains are popular in the Caribbean. I was surprised at what a great sandwich filling they made! The slight sweetness of the plantain paired perfectly with the tangy mashed black beans and spicy salsa. If you're not familiar with them, plantains look like large bananas, but aren't as sweet and aren't eaten raw. For this recipe look for ripe yellow plantains with black spots. Use a paring knife to help peel them.

(Oh, and leftover bean dip tastes great on pita chips, corn chips, and veggies, too!)

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Thailand

I love Thai food so much, I couldn't settle on just one Thai menu for the new book! Pictured here are my two menus inspired by Thailand: (counter-clockwise from front left) Pad Thai with sliced Asian pear, Red Curry Vegetables, and Cucumber Salad; Lime and Thai Basil Salad, Thai Iced Tea, and Mango Noodles.

Both of the main dishes are made with gluten-free rice noodles that have been cooked, drained and stir-fried. The Pad Thai is a quick and easy dish made with the help of a storebought mix. The Mango Noodles take a little more time but are one of my favorite dishes from the cookbook: noodles seasoned with soy sauce, lime juice, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil, fried tofu, sweet pepper strips, snow peas, baby corn, and fresh ripe mango. They have a wonderfully complex sweet-sour-savory taste.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Korea

Traditional Korean meals feature a wide assortment of panchan, or side dishes, surrounding a main dish of rice or noodles. Diners choose from the many panchan, adding a bit of something spicy to one bite of rice, a bit of something crunchy to the next, and so on.

My Korean lunch box includes (in the bottom container) Beansprout Salad, kimchi, and Stir-Fried Watercress with three purple plums nestled in between; (top container) Korean Dipping Sauce with vegan meatballs on food picks ready for dipping, and a large helping of Rice with Toasted Millet.

The lunch box you might recognize as a To-Go Ware tiffin and four Sidekicks. I love the way three Sidekicks fit together in the tiffin, making it perfect for panchan.

By the way, this picture was taken in the middle of my strawberry patch!

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Turkey

This is one of the first recipes I made for the new cookbook. Last year around this same time I baked baby eggplants and filled them with lemony rice cooked with onions and tomatoes. This is part of my Turkish-inspired feast: Stuffed Eggplants, Fresh Fava Bean Salad, Mini Pita Bread, and a bite of Turkish Delight for dessert.

In the photo I surrounded the stuffed eggplants with pretty yellow pear tomatoes and garnished them with fresh dill, all from the farmer's market. It's the time of year once again when the farmer's markets are awash with eggplants and tomatoes, so keep your eyes open for baby eggplants that are just the right size to fit into your lunch box!

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: New England

Another photograph from the United States section of my new book, this one inspired by New England: New England Chowder and Fish Crackers.

I love a warm bowl of chowder on a cold fall day, but I don't like the heaviness of most cream-based soups. I wanted my recipe to be healthy and light, so I made my version of chowder with corn cream: cook fresh or frozen corn kernels in water, then blend and strain. Stir into a soup made with carrots, celery, onions, potato, mushrooms, and seasonings (including lots of white pepper!).

The Fish Crackers are a modified version of the Vegan Goldfish Crackers recipe I posted several years ago.

The entire New England menu also includes Boston Brown Bread Muffins with vegan cream cheese and a pear for dessert.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Italy

This picture is so beautiful, with those gorgeous dark blackberries glistening like little jewels, I can't believe it didn't make it into the book! This is one of two Italian menus I wrote for the book: Caponata Sandwich, tri-color pasta spirals, Mini Vegan Cheesecakes, and blackberries.

Caponata is a sweet-and-sour eggplant relish, wonderful here sandwiched between slices of crusty Italian bread with a slice of vegan mozzarella.

These muffin-sized vegan cheesecakes are one of my favorite "decadent" recipes from the book. They were very simple to make, down to their graham-cracker crust, and were a big hit with everyone who tasted them, both vegan and non.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

Around the World: Kansas

I'm going to post pictures for the next few weeks to give everyone a taste of what the new bookis like!

Here is the photo we took for Kansas: Mini Veggie Burgers with french fries and ketchup. This is my favorite picture from the book.

The complete menu for the Kansas-inspired meal is: Mini Veggie Burgers on Mini Burger Buns, baked frozen french fries, Limeade Fruit Salad, and Oatmeal Cookies. The burgers are made from amaranth, lentils, carrots, and sunflower seeds, and are gluten- and soy-free.

I chose to make a veggie burger for the Kansas lunch because of a line from the children's book This Is the Way We Eat Our Lunch.In Kansas, it said

But the favorite lunch of Reggie's
is a burger made of -- VEGGIES!

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

It's Almost Here!

My new cookbook Vegan Lunch Box Around the World is coming out August 11th, just in time for school to start again! If you want your copy the minute it becomes available you can even preorder at Amazon.

When the advance copy arrived I just had to take a pictures of my two books side-by-side; I love the way this cover complements the first one in a "collect-the-whole-series" kind of way. I've been looking through it and I have to say I'm delighted. I love the style, the photographs, and all the work everyone at the publishing company did to make the book pretty and easy to read.

Even though I love love love Vegan Lunch Box, I actually think the new book is -- dare I say it? -- even better. The first book was written during my very first year of making lunches; this one was put together after many more years of experience. I think it reflects a growing aesthetic, a better understanding of menu planning and packing, and a more adventurous palate.

And the recipes! Looking through it I remember testing and eating each recipe, and I want to make and eat them all again! Right now I'm hungry for the Vietnamese Pho, German Cabbage Rolls, and Hot Noodle Soup... (Ooh, the Hot Noodle Soup -- so good I even crave it on a hot summer's day!)

I learned a lot writing this book. Like the title says, the lunch menus are inspired by cultures and cuisines from across the globe. I took the time to research the cuisine and culture of each area I touched on and have interspersed the menus with tidbits of information about the regions and what lunch is like for people in different parts of the world.

So if you're contemplating lunch time or shopping for back-to-school, keep Vegan Lunch Box Around the World in mind! You'll be eatin' pretty and helping the shmoo and I stay off the streets!!

And the Winning Cover is...

My name is in baby carrots!

Cover Photos for Around the World

My friend and professional photographer Michelle Ellis stopped by last week to take the final cover photos for my forthcoming cookbook Vegan Lunch Box Around The World.

For the cover I wanted something special, so I chose my son's number one favorite lunch from his first year at school. That turned out to be the lunch I packed him for Chinese New Year: Tofu Char Sui on a bed of brown rice, Teriyaki Green Beans, a steamed dumpling filled with sweet bean paste, mandarin orange segments, and kiwi fruit.

I set up three different Laptop Lunch Boxes to provide the cover designer with three different looks to choose from: a sophisticated, more adult look in a black bento box, the more playful purple bento to the left, and the adorable, pink, child-friendly smiling dumpling bento above. Guess which is my favorite?

You can see more images, including the "sophisticated" look, at my Flickr photostream.

Long Shmoo Update, with Bonus Momma Lunch

Hey, it’s been such a long time since I’ve posted a lunch! I just had to take a picture of mine this afternoon -- isn’t it beautiful? This is pretty much what I eat every afternoon: some kind of salad and steamed veggies or soup. This salad is topped with Blood Orange Vinegar, sliced oranges, and cold cooked beets. I just love all the color and freshness.

The cooked vegetables are asparagus and yellow squash. This is such a treat, the first asparagus I’ve had in months – so good! I can’t wait for May, when half my refrigerator will be devoted to our local asparagus.

Well, a lot has been happening here, some of it good, some of it bad. In the GOOD NEWS, I’ve finished writing a new cookbook! Vegan Lunch Box Around the World features menus from, well, around the world, with emphasis on nutrient-dense recipes and the healthy vegetables, salads, and fruits I like to feature in my meals (don’t worry – there are more than a few special treats thrown in as well!) Visit my flickr album to get a glimpse at the great pictures my friend Michelle took for the book (the veggie burger is my favorite). It will be available in September, so stay tuned!

In BAD NEWS, my son’s health has been failing this fall and winter. Bit of background: as I’ve mentioned before, shmoo lives in a mixed “mom loves veggies/dad loves steak” household, and although I try to present him with healthy plant-based options at all times, I’ve never dictated what the shmoo was “allowed” to eat. Although he consistently prefers veggie meats over the real thing, he’s never gotten over his passion for junk food, soda pop, and cheese. I battle with sugar addiction myself, and I know I haven’t helped at all with all the times I’ve broken down and brought home bags of cookies, taken him to Baskin-Robbins with me, or shrugged my shoulders when he wanted soda pop. Even worse, he continues to dislike a lot of the vegetables I offer, and his resistance to them seems to be getting more intense as he gets older. Many of the healthy foods he used to eat he now refuses to touch (he even turned down broccoli the last time I made it!)

Then a few months ago my husband decided to start buying raw, unpasteurized whole milk. This thick milk comes in glass jars with enormous globs of cream rising to the surface. Shmoo has been sucking this stuff down in huge glassfuls and loving it…it’s like drinking half-and-half.

This summer I was alarmed watching his weight go up, and then listening to the doctor prescribe him allergy pills. But I continued to maintain that my son was his own person and could make his own choices. I provided all the educational material I could without sounding too “geez, mom” lectury, but in my mixed household (i.e. without the agreement and support of his father) I feel like I’m only listened to so much, and that my hands are somewhat tied (i.e. I can suggest he lay off the crap, but I can’t remove it from my house).

Then in December, shmoo started coughing continuously, day and night, and was finally diagnosed with asthma. Now he carries an inhaler wherever he goes. Since then he’s also suffered two long-lasting colds that never seem to go away.

Is it the milk? I hate to talk trash about something certain people near-and-dear to me see as an ideal food, but I honestly think so. Of course, it could also be the junk food we’ve allowed (even vegan food can be unhealthy garbage!!), or the soda pop he always drinks when he’s away from home, or something else entirely.

Anyway, after nagging his wheezy little head off, I finally convinced him to lay off milk for the last three weeks or so. It’s impossible to say anything for sure just yet, but he tells me he feels a difference, and he has only needed the inhaler twice in the last week, versus several times a day before. Now if only the cold would go away…

What’s the moral, peoples? If I had to go back and do it again, you bet I would be laying down the law a heck of a lot more, enforcing instead of suggesting healthier eating, and hopefully would manage to be a better, more consistent role model for my son.

Around the World: Indonesian Yellow Rice and Tempeh

Indonesia: land of tempeh! I absolutely adore tempeh. It's got a nutty, mushroomy flavor and a very impressive nutritional profile. For those who haven't met tempeh yet, tempeh is made from cooking and fermenting whole soybeans until they form solid cakes that can be cut into slices and steamed or fried. It's got more bioavailable protein than tofu or plain cooked soybeans, and the fermentation of tempeh makes it easier to digest. Thank you, Indonesia!

Today I fried my tempeh and then coated it with a glaze made from brown sugar, soy sauce, shallot, and red chile. Sweet and spicy! Next to the tempeh is Indonesian Yellow Rice: rice cooked with turmeric, lemongrass, and coconut milk. This dish is prepared in Indonesia for festivals and sacred occasions. It is often shaped into a cone to represent the sacred mountain Meru. I garnished my cone attempt with a fresh chile cut into a flower blossom.

Beneath the rice is a simple Indonesian vegetable pickle -- carrot, cucumber, and shallots pickled with vinegar, sugar, and salt; very easy, sweet and crispy. And for dessert, two little clementines. Citrus was appropriate, as there are more varieties of citrus fruits in Indonesia than I have ever heard of in my life.

Verdict: The pickles were my favorite part, crunchy and addictive. The tempeh and rice were good together, but I really can't wait to eat all the leftover tempeh on top of a big green salad; that's my favorite way to eat tempeh. 4 stars.

Around the World: Caribbean Beans and Rice

It's a taste of the tropics! Today I made Caribbean Beans and Rice: black beans and rice cooked with coconut milk and spices. Cooking beans and rice with a touch of coconut milk is a common practice in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean. (That's a green onion curl in the middle, trying to look all fancy-shmancy. Mine doesn't look as good as the one in the instructions picture...)

On the side is Spinach Bhaji, an Indian-style spinach recipe from the island of Trinidad. There is a large Indian influence on much of the cooking of Trinidad, where hundreds of thousands of Indians came as indentured servants to work the sugar plantations.

And for dessert, fresh pineapple with googly-eyed flamingo food picks. (I love these flamingos! They appeared in my birthday cake this year and made me squeal with delight -- their little eyes even roll around!)

It's all pictured in a Lunch on the Go lunch box from Bed Bath and Beyond (bought cheap with the coupon!).

Verdict: Seriously, best beans and rice EVER. That little touch of coconut milk transformed it from a humble meal into something so tasty and satisfying! Beans and rice and greens was a perfect combination. 5 stars.