Thursday, November 17, 2005

Musubi

Three musubi are lined up in the lunch box today. Musubi (also called onigiri) are balls of Japanese sticky rice (that's right, Shannon, James eats sticky rice!) wrapped with nori seaweed and usually stuffed with an umeboshi plum ("You're the ume in my musubi" is a Japanese version of "you're the cream in my coffee"). Along for the ride are some adzuki beans with pickled ginger and soy sauce, and an Asian pear.
Verdict: Wow, these are more filling than I thought; we ate one each and were stuffed. I even tried a bit of umeboshi in mine, and boy howdy that's an aquired taste. Little shmoo ate all the Asian pear and most of the beans, too. 3 stars.
P.S. Yesterday my mom found these cards that she bought back in the 80's to slip into our lunches (which she never did). They say adorable, sappy things like "You Can Do It!" and "No Matter What I Love You". I'm getting quite a collection of cards -- pickle-shaped jokes, cookie-shaped puzzles, mazes, and now these. Does anyone have any lunch notes they'd like to trade with? Or how about some of those little cloth napkins that Catherine mentioned below? Email me (jmccann@veganlunchbox.com) if you're interested.

14 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:08 PM

    I'm a true believer that your kids will eat what you give them. You give them McD's then they'll want McD's. It's wonderful that you're presenting your child with wonderful culinary creations from all over the world. Kudos!

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  2. Anonymous8:21 PM

    Well, I started using my laptop lunchbox yesterday and I'm lovin' it (inspired to commit a copyright violation by reading about McD's above!)

    I loved how I wasn't scrambling to find a fork, and that my beverage was right there, and that it was exactly enough food for snack and lunch for me to be satisfied with feeling "full" and then I was hungry at dinner time earlier than usual, so that we weren't eating so late!

    I had:

    -stir-fried broccoli and "shrimp" with garlic and chili flakes
    -small baked potato with Earth balance
    -oven-baked yam fries with ketchup in dipping container
    -organic corn chips
    -lemon zinger iced tea in the bottle

    YUM!!!

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  3. I remember when we were in high school a friend of ours had a mother who wrote to us on her brown bag each day – she would recycle the brown bag with the daily notes until it was unusable. It was pretty neat. We looked forward to it each day.

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  4. Anonymous7:34 AM

    Thanks for the great idea Harmonia!! I have my daughter brown bag it, and (at the risk of becoming a plagerer) I am going to have to do that for her. Jennifer, your Vegan Lunch Box has been a wonderful tool for spreading all sorts of info. Thanks again to you!

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  5. Anonymous9:04 AM

    Jennifershmoo, I found this blog today from a link on craftster.org. I admit that I've read every single entry regarding the little shmoo's lunches and for the first time veganism looks so tastey! I'm amazed at your wonderful ability to put together such creative, healthy, tastey-looking meals every school day. I will be refering to this blog often for ideas to feed my own children. Thank you for this valuable resource!

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  6. Thank you so much, annieh! Messages like yours are the very best part of having this blog. Veganism is tasty, indeed!!

    Harmonia, what a great idea! That's one clever way to make sure that bag gets brought home and reused.

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  7. :)

    Thanks Jennifer! You and others have brightened my day by commenting on that! Ahhhh...brings back memories!

    Have a FAB weekend!

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  8. Jennifer--

    I love your blog! I pack lunch for vegan me and my vegan hubby daily and you've inspired me to be a little more creative than "leftovers and an apple." Last night I made up some white bean "chicken" salad, sweet potato fries and some curry soup from the freezer. I definately enjoyed lunch more, and I hope he did! :) I'll keep checking in.

    Ruthie

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  9. Hi, Melody -- it's Japanese sticky rice; you can probably find it at an Asian market or the Asian section of a grocery store.

    Hi, little my -- your lunch sounds terrific!

    That's right, chriswife! In fact, they're still in the envelope from Current. My favorite is "Mom Loves You", but it's too "girly" for him. lol

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  10. I love that -- "you're the ume in my musubi!" It reminds me of the "veganisms" in the Vegan Vittles cookbook, only much better. I'd much rather be umeboshi than cream (yuck!) You know, I like umeboshi, but I can't use it enough to justify buying it. I have had the same umeboshi plum vinegar (which I also really like) FOR EV ER (years and years). I still use it every once in long while and just tell myself that vinegar lasts a super long time. Cook on, Jennifer shmoo!

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  11. My mom and dad always put notes into my lunch...All my friends knew about the notes. Sometimes when a friend was having a bad day, I'd give him or her my lunch note.

    She continued this tradition with the finals weeks packages she sent to my sister and I in college. She'd get all kinds of cool stuff and necessary stuff, like blue books. Then she's come up with cheezy puns that had to do with the object and tape the notes onto the object. It got so reading my mom's finals pack was a tradition all of my friends waited for during finals weeks.

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  12. I used to get those little notes from my mom. She used to hide them on the inside of the napkin. I can't recall anythig of what they said, only that they were the sort so of things you'd find batteries on fortune cookies. I used to look forward to them every day.

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