Today I decided to try a few recipes from Dreena Burton's cookbook Vive le Vegan! I filled pita pockets with her Cannellini Bean Yam Hummus. Shmoo's is plain, but I added lots of romaine, spinach, cilantro, and red cabbage to mine, and a lot of extra chipotle to my husband's. I packed them with organic pear slices and sugar snap peas. For dessert I made Dreena's Chocolate P-Nut Butter Squares; creamy peanut butter sandwiched between an oatmeal cookie-like base and a layer of melty chocolate.Verdict: Hooray, another way to get super-nutritious sweet potatoes into my son! I was worried that the chipotle would be too spicy so I used the smaller amount; it added a nice hint of smokiness without being too hot. Shmoo ate it all with an "mmm!", even the "crust". I tried to point out how much nicer my pita looked with all those lovely greens and purple cabbage, but he was having none of that. And the bars? Gooey, sweet peanut butter and smooth, rich chocolate -- what's not to love? Thanks, Dreena! 5 stars.
24 comments:
This looks awesome. You just need to keep talking Shmoo into eating the goods! I think I am going to have to make these P-Nut Squares tonight, although I still am scared of my oven! Everything looks wonderful today (not like it wouldn't anyway)!
Thanks for all your really great ideas. I've already ordered the lunch box; now it's on to the recipes.
A tasty recipe that includes sweet potatoes is the peanut stew from The Joy of Cooking. It's spiced with chili powder, ginger, and other goodies, so the sweet potatoes are a little bit hidden in the rich broth. It's a bit spicy, but obviously could be adjusted. I also make a sweet potato casserole that has coconut and pecans on top, but the sweet potato might be too obvious for someone who doesn't like them.
I don't have children but am a teacher and pack my own lunch daily. I absolutely love checking out your blog and getting ideas for delicious and interesting lunches! Thanks and I can't wait for your book to come out! :)
Do you fix a lunch box for your husband every day also? I hope so because I LOVE to check your posts every day and cannot imagine what summer vacation (and spring break) will be like. So if you pack for your husband, maybe we have a fighting chance of getting our daily vegan lunchbox fix.
your hard work is greatly appreciated.
i love sweet potatoes too..hopefully shmoo will continue to try them in the future..just curious if uve ever seen something called "potat-oh!"..its an individually wrapped sweet or white potato with directions for microwave cooking..cuts the time down quite a bit and comes out really well..anyways another great lunchbox today..i also love hummus
ooh.. the peanut butter squares look like HEAVEN!!..
and the hummus sounds amazing...
will Shmoo be going to summer camp? I can't imagine my summer without ideas from the vegan lunchbox camp!
WE ALL SURVIVED WINTER BREAK!
That hummus sounds awesome!!
I knew you weren't going to update yesterday, and I still checked the site about four times. That's how great it is!
No, thank YOU Jennifer, for trying some of my recipes and including them in your lunchbox post!
I am quite honored to be part of your vegan lunchbox history! :)
I'm really pleased you liked both the hummus and P-Nut Butter Squares. Many thanks for featuring both today, and I hope you continue to find recipes you like in Vive.
Thanks Jennifer!
Oh, I love Vive le Vegan!! Drenna is awesome! You must make little schmoo the Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies...they are fabulous!
Julie
bcJewelle@hotmail.com
I second the fabulousness of the Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies--oh, and the Fudgy Brownies! That looks like another delicious lunch (although, would take your pita over Shmoo's :)
here's a third for the chocolate chip cookies!
Oh and I love the Peanut butter squares!
Oh, I love Dreena's book Vive Le Vegan! It was a gift from an ex and I cherish it. I love getting new cookbooks because it gives you a whole new set of recipie ingredients to buy, therefore a whole new pallate of tastes! I can't wait to try the Cannellini Bean Yam Hummus! I love the idea of using recipies from popular vegan cookbooks once and a while in your blog.
Your recipies are always perfect too, though.
loves it!
Thanks to Jennifer and Shmoo I went to order Vive Le Vegan, and ended up ordering also Everyday Vegan, La Dolce Vegan, and the Uncheese cookbook from Amazon.
My credit card salutes you!
I am so jealous of Shmoo's lunches :)
Oh wow - how do you keep up the consistently fantastic lunches? My kids and I love popping in each day to see what little Shmoo has in his box! My daughter is insisting on having some kittie shaped sandwiched :) Weve linked you on our diary so our readers can enjoy too.
Mmm, hummus! I love hummus with vegetables.
Hey, I just wanted to compliment you on this blog. What a fantastic idea! I'm new to vegetarianisim myself, so I'm finding lots of great ideas.
Kudos!
For some reason, I read this and saw "Ham Yummus," thinking maybe you'd made some crazy faux ham concoction. Anyway, I check the lunchbox almost daily, but haven't posted yet, so I figured I'd add on and tell you how awesome this is!
>I read this and saw "Ham Yummus," thinking maybe you'd made some crazy faux ham concoction.
LOL, that's next week!
>Do you fix a lunch box for your husband every day also?
Sadly, no. My husband works at home; his lunchtime commute is walking down the hall to the dining room table, so I usually prepare a hot meal. This time I fixed him a sandwich right before I left to volunteer at school. He added even *more* chipotle to it -- he likes it hot!
Those cookies look yummy. I have a copy of Vive on request at the library. I hope it comes in soon so I can make those!
(also, hi! I'm delurking. I've been reading your blog for a couple months now and it's just fabulous.)
Hello!
I'm a new reader, I discovered your site a few weeks ago...of course, love it. Am so super jealous of your son, as I know most of your readers are. I eyed the laptop lunch set at my local cooking store in downtown Burlington, VT, but couldn't bring myself to plunk down $23 just yet (I'm a super poor post-college grad!). However, I've gotten tons of great ideas from your posts.
When is your book coming out?
Glad to be reading here!
We got our Laptop lunchboxes yesterday and the kids were so excited. We homeschool, so I plan to use them for nature walks, field trips, etc. But just before dinner, the oldest dd asked if I could put their food in their lunchboxes! So I did.
This morning, the 2 yr old was looking for her lunchbox already!
Thanks, Jenn for the inspiration!
On mine I already met this news on the Internet and not time!
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