Thank you, Bobby Flay!

Yes, even Bobby Flay can provide inspiration for the vegan chef! His Chinese Chicken Salad is one of my favorite salads of all time: shredded Napa cabbage, sugar snap peas, cilantro, carrots, and peanuts with a zippy red chile peanut dressing. I veganize it by substituting agave for the honey and topping it with grilled tempeh instead of chicken. The flavors sing!

Today, however, I tried topping the salad with cashews and Orange Cashew Dressing, basically because I had some in the fridge. I also packed a kiwi fruit (I like to slice them in half and scoop them out with a spoon) and one of my new favorite snacks: Millet Rice Manna Bread. Manna Bread is made entirely of sprouted wheat kernels, which are said to be easier to digest than regular wholewheat flour. The loaf is cakey, dense, and moist, excellent plain or topped with cashew butter. This fall, when it stops being hotter than blue blazes round here, I plan to bake my own.

Verdict: I liked the cashews, but missed the more assertive peanut dressing. 4 stars.

P.S. Yes, this was a little lunch just for me; shmoo is eight now, and has been really into cooking for himself these days (his specialty is smoothies). I'm happy to step back and let him choose his own meals; it's fun to watch him learning to cook, and I'm not about to give him a complex by jumping in to take pictures.

Can it really be August already?

Today Disease-Proof blog is reminding me that it's almost time for back-to-school with their post on Packing A Lunch For School.

We're going to have to give that Hot Russian Dressing a try.

A Shmoo Review

Recently I set out to find books my son and I could read together that would encourage healthy eating without requiring any dairy deprogramming afterwards (kids are always being told to drink lots of milk for "strong bones and teeth", with no mention of other sources of calcium).

The first book we ordered, The Children's Health Food Book, sounded promising: superhero "Health Guardians" like "Vegetarian Warrior" and "Fruitarian Fighter" do battle against the evil "Meat Monster" and "Sugar Demon". Sounds perfect for an eight-year-old!

But when we sat down together to read the book we both became...confused. What does the author mean by "mucus"? Is this some kind of raw food thing? Mucus, he says, causes all the adult diseases and all childhood illnesses like colds, flus, and asthma. Mucus comes from eating "thick gooey food" like meat, milk, sugar, and starch. I told shmoo my best guess was that the author was referring to atherosclerosis, but I really have no idea.

My son's biggest complaint was the lack of story line; the book reads more like a lesson than the action-adventure he had been hoping for. 1 star.

Next came The Race Against Junk Food, starring the S.N.A.K. Posse ("Super Nutritionally Active Kids"). The message here is clear, straightforward, and universally acceptable: junk food and cigarettes are BAD; fruits, vegetables, and exercise are GOOD.

The author uses an action-packed story to get the point across, combined with colorful, detailed illustrations (we loved all the exercising vegetables). Shmoo liked sitting down with this one; he carefully analyzed each picture and read the story several times on his own. I only wish a competent editor had helped with punctuation and sentence structure; better writing could have made this story easier to read. 4 stars.

Road Food

We're heading out for a little summer vacation today, and I'm too excited to sleep! So here I am at 4am preparing a few healthy snacks to take along.

I've been working on creating healthy bars and cookies that shmoo will eat but that are also Eat To Live-friendly for me, meaning no white flour, sugar, oil, or salt.

Here are our two favorites so far: Fruit & Nut Bars made with spelt, oats, raisins, apricots, and walnuts, and Banana Oatmeal Cookies, made with oats, bananas, sunflower seeds, and dates.

We don't like to eat out more than once a day when we're on vacation (too many other things to see and do), so I'll be packing a big cooler with these cookies & bars, plus tons of fresh fruit, veggie sticks, hummus, sandwiches, crackers, juices, and a jar of almond butter.

We're off! I'll probably fall asleep as soon as we hit the road....

Shmoos Can Travel

Here's four-year-old little shmoo (back when he was still a little shmoo), on a summer campout. Shmoo has always been an enthusiastic hiker, camper, and traveler, and tomorrow we're heading out on another Big Adventure!

If your family is planning some vacation and travel adventures this summer, you might want to check out the article I wrote recently for kidscantravel.com: Eating Vegan on the Road.

The article had to be brief, but I really wanted to say a bit more about the link I included to Mary Jane's Farm. Her organic instant meal packets were a revelation to us on our last campout. Do a search on the word "vegan" and you'll see they have quite a selection (including brownies!). We loved the Couscous & Lentil Curry, Velvety Black Bean Soup, Black Bean Hummus, and Pinto Bean Flakes.

Happy summer holidays, everyone, and if your plans include a sing-along around a roaring campfire, don't forget the vegan marshmallows!

And the Winner Is...

Wow -- over 400 comments on the last post! Unbelievable! Thank you all for your votes, comments, and suggestions on which cover to choose for Vegan Lunch Box ("The Book").

Extra-special thank yous to all the book designers and stylists who emailed me with suggestions, mock-ups, and new ideas -- your advice has really made a difference!

We've used a combination of your votes along with some of the new ideas we've received to come up with the final cover. Sadly, we are nixing the stripes (sorry, stripe lovers!) and will be giving Contestant #1 a final makeover before her big debut. Stay tuned!

Please Judge a Book by its Cover

Finally, proof that I really AM writing a book! Here are the two potential covers for the soon-to-be sensational Vegan Lunch Box. (Click on the images to see larger, higher resolution versions.)

Contestant Number 1:

Contestant Number 2:

Right now, both covers are tied neck-and-neck here in the McCann household. Hubby is cheering for one, I am strictly a fan of the other. I'm not telling which is which, so as not to influence your opinion in any way.

Please help us decide by using the comments to let us know which cover reigns supreme, and which one belongs on the scrap heap. Thanks!

The Magical Mystery Loaf

Leonard over at Crummy has created something I don't think is crummy at all: a Mystery Loaf Generator that uses the Magical Loaf Studio to generate and name a brand new loaf every five minutes.

The amazing thing is, every loaf I've seen so far actually sounds good! Now, as Leonard says, "you'll never be loaflorn" again.

Vegan Lunch Box Wins VegWebby!

Hey, VegNews magazine voted Vegan Lunch Box "Best Family Blog" in its first annual VegWebby Awards:

"Jennifer McCann's Vegan Lunch Box defies the deprived-vegan-child stereotype. Enthused web prowlers have been brewing up buzz about this blog since its inception in 2005. The premise? McCann chronicles and photographs her son Shmoo's daily lunchbox gems. With her aloo samosas, empanadas and phyllo bundles, she could well be raising the best-fed kid on the planet."

Hee hee. As a VegNews lover from waaay back (I take my VegNews canvas bag with me whenever I go shopping!), I am so surprised and delighted by this honor. Thanks so much, VegNews -- your magazine is the BEST!

Now Bring Us Some Figgy Salad...

I hope everyone is having as much fun this summer as we are! Summertime here is hot, hot, hot, and filled with activities. We've been zipping off each day to one fun thing after another -- swimming, park days, play dates, and bumper boats! Last weekend I even hosted a sushi party (first two pics), where I demonstrated the fine art of rolling sushi (filled with vegan goodies like tofu, peppers, avocado, mango, and cucumber, of course!).

And here's a photo of our latest Power Picnic: first, a giant salad made with romaine, spinach, pear, fresh figs, and walnuts, with a little container of D'Anjou Pear Vinegar (shmoo was going to pack an extra pear for himself, but ended up eating it on the spot instead). For the shmoo there's a cashew butter and homemade rhubarb jam sandwich on cracked wheat, surrounding a pyramid of baby carrots. For me, a thermos filled with red lentils, beets, carrots, and my beloved kale.

Verdict: I'm learning that shmoo is usually too busy having fun to really stop and eat when we're on our picnics, but he did manage to finish all his sandwich and ate his carrots on the way home. I'm learning I can always keep my daily salads interesting and heighten shmoo-appeal by adding different fruits and nuts and flavored vinegars; pears and figs was a great combination. 4 stars.