Layered Bean Dip

Stone-ground corn chips for lunch today with a layered bean dip made with refried beans, avocado, salsa, vegan sour cream, and black olives. On the side are slices of watermelon and jicama. Beverage: Rice Dream Horchata (cinnamon rice milk).
Verdict: It must have been quite a while since we last had horchata. When I told him it was in his lunch today he said, "Oh YUM! I don't remember what that tastes like." A good lunch, easy to throw together and very well received. 5 stars.
P.S. No lunch tomorrow, see you Thursday!
P.P.S. Gee, if I'd been thinking at all I would have saved this lunch for Friday -- Cinco de Mayo!! Oh well, I guess I posted it early so now you all can make it for Friday!

May Day

It's an old May Day custom to give May Baskets filled with flowers and treats to your friends. I didn't think real flowers would hold up well at school, and what schoolkid really needs another piece of candy? So I'm surprising shmoo with sheets of flower stickers instead.

For lunch I made cream cheese spirals: wholegrain dough spread with vegan cream cheese and a sprinkle of chopped fresh herbs (basil, parsley, thyme, and dill), rolled up like a cinnamon roll, cut it into slices, and baked. On the side are an Odwalla Chocolate Chip Peanut Nourishing Food Bar and a fruit salad of strawberries, orange, and banana. Beverage: Kagome Purple Roots & Fruits Juice, a veggie/fruit juice combo. "Wow...now I can drink my vegetables!" the bottle enthuses. Let's see if shmoo will say the same...

Verdict: He drank all the juice! It tastes mostly of grapes and blueberries; you would never guess it contains spinach, beets, cabbage, etc. At the last minute I worried that I hadn't packed enough food for him, and threw in two more spirals. I shouldn't have worried; he ate the bar and all the cream cheese spirals, but then got too full to finish the fruit salad. Four would have been just right. 4 stars.

Seashells in the Sand

"I'm not usually one for 'cute' recipe names," says Nava Altas in
The Vegetarian Family Cookbook, but she made an exception for this clever combination of couscous and tiny shell pasta. Personally, I'm a big sucker for cutesy names, so I'm glad she did.

Next to the "seashells in the sand" is a dish of cooked frozen bean and vegetable medley (broccoli, carrots, and green, black, white, and kidney beans) and fresh organic strawberries. For dessert, I baked miniature pecan tarts. This was "take two" on trying to make a pecan pie with only barley malt syrup for sweetener. I came up with the idea during our attempt at a sugar-free Lent, but learned the hard way that barley syrup bubbles up to an alarming degree when baked.

Verdict: The tarts were a success -- nutty and chewy with a hint of cinnamon, and not teeth-shatteringly sweet like regular pecan pie (oh, how I love it). Just a few bites of shells and veggies were left. 4 stars.

P.S. As an update to yesterday's Zaru Soba, shmoo had soba for dinner and lunch, and wants to know if I can make it for dinner again! He never goes on "food jags" where he wants the same thing over and over (this is the boy who once walked in the kitchen at breakfast and whined, "Aw, pancakes again?? We just had them yesterday!"). So I am amazed. Zaru soba is like the sleeper hit of the lunch box.

Zaru Soba

Cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey calls zaru soba -- cold buckwheat noodles -- "one of the joys of a Japanese summer". I love her description of slurping icy soba noodles on a shady bridge over a mountain stream in Kyoto.

Jaffrey's recipe for zaru soba and homemade dipping sauce (made from shiitake mushroom broth, soy sauce and mirin) appears in her breathtakingly good book World Vegetarian.Traditionally, the cool buckwheat noodles are scattered with bits of nori seaweed and served with a bowl of sauce on the side. Diners season the dipping sauce with wasabi, daikon, etc., and the noodles are dipped and eaten. For the lunch box I put the sauce in a tiny container and shmoo poured it over the noodles instead.

On the side are edamame and daikon namasu (chilled giant radish and carrot salad), a recipe from Japanese Vegetarian Cooking.For dessert, an Asian pear.

Oh, and gluten-free readers take note: although I used noodles made from wheat and buckwheat, I noticed that Eden Foods makes gluten-free buckwheat noodles.

Verdict: Shmoo wasn't too keen on the daikon (don't listen to him, the salad was fantastic -- the best daikon dish I've ever eaten). Shmoo loves these noodles so much he wants to know if we'll take him to Japan for his birthday. Um, I'm afraid that's a little over our birthday budget for this year. But I can make more zaru soba! 5 stars.

Blueberry Pie

More Chicken-Free Nuggets today, along with organic tater tots and blanched green beans. For dessert I baked two of the tiniest blueberry pies you'll ever see, using eensy little pie tins.

Blueberry season is fast approaching, and I wanted to tell you all about Polly's Perfect Blueberry Pie now so you'll be ready. This is a fantastic pie recipe we came across two years ago. It's ideal for those who don't like making and rolling out pie crust. The crust is mixed right in the pie pan -- you press the pie crust into the pan and the pieces that fall over the sides are used as a crumble crust on top. How brilliant is that? It's easy to veganize by using nondairy milk, and I just leave off the bits of butter on top of the pie filling, but you could use margarine. When fresh aren't in season I use frozen (not thawed) blueberries instead, and bake the pie about 10-15 minutes longer.

Oh, and the beverage today is shmoo's new favorite nondairy milk -- oat milk!

Verdict: The pie pans came back empty, but the fork and spoon were still mysteriously clean, wrapped neatly in their napkin. "How did you like the pie?" I asked.

"Good!" shmoo replied.

"How did you eat the pie?"

"I just scooped the pie out with my teeth."

Oh, my. "Show me how the piggy eats." My husband has also enjoyed these past couple days, with brioche and blueberry pie around the house. He didn't face plant into it, though. 4 stars.

Broccoli & Brioche

It's so nice having a mom that cooks as much as I do. I call her out of the blue and ask, "Mom, do you know where I can get some tiny brioche pans?" "Sure," she says. "I've got a few dozen, what size do you want?"
I veganized a standard recipe for brioche (an eggy, buttery yeast bread from northern France) by substituting almond milk for milk and Earth Balance for butter. My favorite egg substitute in yeast breads is 2 TB mashed potatoes (per egg) and a pinch of turmeric (for color). I love the soft tenderness that mashed potatoes give to bread dough. In the thermos is some Broccoli Cheez Soup, one of our favorite recipes from Jo Stepaniak's Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. For dessert, an apple and half a Newman's Own Sweet Dark Chocolate bar.
Verdict: The brioche was so buttery, light, and soft! I hope someone is working on a vegan french cookbook (Mastering the Art of Vegan French Cooking? What would Julia Child say?) All but a few bites of soup were gone. 5 stars.

Tofu & Stir-Fry

Welcome to Monday! Today I made caramelized tofu, one of our all-time favorites. I fried squares of firm tofu until golden, then glazed them with a mixture of brown sugar and soy sauce. I packed the tofu next to some basmati rice, and topped them with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. On the side is a dish of "Baby Carrot and Baby Corn Stir-Fry" from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas. For dessert, a honey tangerine.
Verdict: I was excited to finally get some baby corn into the lunch box; it seems so perfectly lunch box-sized. And mixing baby corn with baby carrots was certainly inspired (thanks, Nava!). Shmoo seems to have played with the corn more than eating it -- cutting it into pieces, eating the kernels off one like corn-on-the-cob, etc. The tofu was a hit, as usual. Although it's not in the picture, shmoo asked for a tiny container of soy sauce at the last minute, so he could sprinkle some on the rice and veggies. 4 stars.

Banana-Molasses Muffin

Lunch Box reader Céline was kind enough to send me her veganized version of Banana- Molasses Muffins from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook(2 tsp. water in place of the egg, and strawberry soy yogurt instead of plain). They have now become a favorite of mine, especially since they call for blackstrap molasses -- a great vegan source of calcium and iron. Thanks, Céline! Alongside the muffin is some Stonewall's Teriyaki Jerquee, peas & carrots, and a lime soy yogurt topped with frozen blueberries.
Verdict: Since I made the muffins the night before this was a nice, easy lunch for a busy Friday morning. Shmoo ate the top off the muffin and left the rest behind. Yes, we all know that's the best part! 4 stars.

Asparagus & Cream Pie

It's that wonderful time of year again -- we just bought our first bundle of locally-grown Washington asparagus! Local asparagus season is like an annual celebration in our family. As soon as the farmer's market opens we start buying enormous bagfuls of the stuff, eating it lightly steamed with a dab of margarine, stir-fried with sesame oil and soy sauce, creamed into soup, even pickled (well, really just my crazy aunt likes it pickled).
Today's lunch is filled with crisp, blanched aspargus, Chicken-Free Nuggets, fresh pineapple, and a cute little pielette for dessert. The other day at the store I discovered that Keebler Ready Crust Mini Graham Pie Crusts are vegan. They were crying out to go in a lunch box, so last night I came up with this simple Coconut Cream Pie Filling:

First, blend 6 oz. (half a box) of soft silken tofu until smooth, and set aside.

In a medium saucepan whisk together 1/3 cup sugar and 5 TB cornstarch. Pour in one 14 oz. can light coconut milk (I used Trader Joe's brand) and cook, stirring or whisking constantly, over medium-high heat until thick.

Fold in the tofu, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/8 tsp. coconut extract, and 1/3 cup finely shredded coconut. Pour into six mini graham pie crusts and chill.

Verdict: The pie was sturdy enough to travel well in the lunch box, covered with a bit of plastic wrap and nestled in place with crumpled parchment. Shmoo loved everything! 5 stars.

Potato Soup

A simple homemade potato-carrot soup in a thermos for lunch today. In the lunch box I packed homemade crispy croutons and a tiny container of Bac-Os (yes, indeed, they are vegan!) to sprinkle on top of the soup before eating. For fresh fruit and dessert, green grapes and a Chocolate Chip Bake-At-Home Oatmeal Energy Bar.
Verdict: Did bacony Bac-Os make every bite better? "They gave me Bac-O Burps," shmoo reported. "Oh, bad?" "No! It was g-o-o-d good. I had Bac-O Breath!" Every last bacony bite was gone. 4 stars.
P.S. Another noon release tomorrow. See you Thursday!