Adieu Irene

Hurricane Irene was

only a tropical storm

by the time it arrived

in Massachusetts last

week, but it was enough

to knock out power to

most of the state. We

were without electricity

for about 48 hours,

which was fine, except

for the refrigerator

situation! I was crossing

my fingers that we would have power back by tuesday for the first day of school so I could pack decent bentos of course! And luckily, the night before, shortly after 6pm, we were up and running again...just in time for my husband to arrive home from Seattle with no real idea of what we'd all endured over the past few days.

I managed to salvage quite a lot of the food. Since it's all vegan, and largely produce, most of it was fine without refrigeration. The hardest part was breaking the kids' habit of randomly opening the fridge to look for snacks throughout the day!

Ryan & AJ's 1st day of school lunches: pinwheel tofu salad sandwiches w/cucumber letters; cantaloupe balls; green beans.

Here are Ryan & AJ off to third and second grades, and Nate ready to head off to his first day of kindergarten! His teacher has asked that I leave a selection of non-perishable snack items in his classroom, so no bentos for him until next year! Sigh.

For the second day of school, Ryan requested he help to make strawberry cream cheese. He chopped up some berries and mixed it with Tofutti cream cheese for bagels.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: cucumber slices; fresh pineapple; roasted chick peas; steamed broccoli; mini bagels with strawberry cream cheese.

Time for some sushi! Ryan and I recently went to the new Wasabi sushi train at the local mall. It was very impressive and had him in a sushi sort of mood.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: sesame tofu & vegetable maki sushi w/side of soy sauce; tiny square of Lake Champlain dark chocolate w/almonds; apple slices; carrots; steamed broccoli; a strawberry; edamame.

I was in the mood for smoked tempeh, so I sauteed some Lightlife Fakin' Bacon. I don't buy it often because Whole Foods has increased the price to just shy of ludicrous, but sometimes I just have to treat myself.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: tempeh, lettuce & tomatoes sandwiches on toasted french bread; mini zucchini muffin; dried apricots; pickles; Tofurky & soy cheese clover garnish; carrots; cucumber slices.

Now, for the reason I

REALLY bought the

smoked tempeh strips!

I dreamed this, and I

just HAD to try it:

smoked tempeh &

artichoke heart maki.

Yes, really.

I sauteed the artichoke hearts in Earth Balance and garlic powder until lightly browned. It was

delicious. But...

...I had to fulfill the dream meal and tempura batter and fry more of them, topped with Sriracha laced Vegenaise. O.M.G. Worth every friggin' calorie. These would have made wonderful additions to a bento, but I could barely bring myself to share them at all, and they disappeared quicker than Harry under his invisibility cloak.

For a quicker look at daily bentos, vegan goodies, and environmental news, follow "veganf" on Twitter.

sunny monday lunches

Reluctantly we all oozed back into the weekday after a fairly lazy Thanksgiving weekend...

Ryan & AJ's lunches: whole wheat mini pitas stuffed with tofu salad; Trader Joe's maple sandwich cookie; baby carrots; peanuts; cucumber slices; raisins for AJ, dried apricots for Ryan; green beans dressed with soy sauce.
I hope
the
boys
don't
feel
they're
getting
too
old
for
the
mini
giraffe
forks!
I have
not
seen
any
cool
super
hero
mini
forks,
only toothpicks and cupcake liners. Maybe I should invest in some plainer items...do they even make plain mini bento items?!

We had a few warm days
before Thanksgiving to
spend outside.









Thanksgiving Eve we had
sushi in Cambridge. It's
nice no longer requesting
a booster seat or highchair
for anyone! Of course Maia and Nate still require help popping out their edamame.












Thanksgiving Day was considerably colder, but we still went out for a hike before I cooked the big meal.And finally, the dinner feast...
This
year's
menu:
spicy
baked
tofu;
mashed
potato
celeriac;
roasted
sweet
potatoes;
steamed
aspar-
agus;
stuffing;
rolls;
pumpkin
walnut
bread;
cran-
berry
sauce;
roasted squash seeds; pea shoots with garlic & white wine; corn; and lentil mushrooms loaves. The lentil mushroom loaves were the new item this year...and I was quite looking forward to them. But we found them to be very dry and I didn't care too much for the mushroom lentil combination.












And pumpkin pie with
a chocolate crust, with
butter pecan ice cream
for dessert!

unintentional long weekend

When my husband travels I'm often less inclined to make an impressive meal. I end up skipping a lot of meals myself and just making simple food for the kids. Not great for VeganMofo, but what are you gonna do...he's away a lot this month. But he'll be back for a day and a half, so I made some sushi rice this morning--bento filling for the boys, an afternoon snack for my husband when he returns...and breakfast for me. :-)

Ryan & AJ's lunches: dried apricots for Ryan, raisins for AJ; cold sesame spinach; maki sushi: cucumber, green beans, & avocado; soy sauce; sesame tofu.

Now if you had any doubts about friday's absent sub-par lunches, here they are...

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
1/2 Amy's
rice &
bean
burrito;
apricots
for
Ryan,
raisins
for AJ;
soy
cheese
slices;
cucu-
mber
slices;
mini
pump-
kin
muffin;
cold spinach.

Book Review: Fun & Fancy Sushi

Eye candy alert!! This is one
of my favourite bedside table
books, packed with photos
that make you drool and
inspire you to make a
beautiful bento or party
platter. Fun & Fancy Sushi
by Seiko Ogawa & Ine Mizuno
is one of the best idea books
out there in my opinion.

This is not a vegetarian
cookbook, but there are plenty of vegetarian items and recipes, and many more that are easily veganizable. If you want to learn to cook proper sushi rice, form, fill or top some delicious rice triangles or onigiri, or roll some fabulous looking maki sushi, then this book is a must have.

I have the first edition (1999)
of this cookbook, but there is
a more recent edition as well
(2008). I am highlighting the
1999 edition, but they appear
to use most of the same photos.

There are few actual bento
photos in the book, but most
of the food obviously lends
itself to bento presentation.

I think the best part of this
cookbook is its copious array
of rice triangles & onigiri.
There are full colour photos
of every type, along with a
recipe for each.

For example, this page is
packed with mouth-
watering rice shapes, two-
third of which are vegan:
cowpeas, mushrooms,
shiso, chrysanthemum &
gingko nuts.

Or check out this page
with its barley & seaweed,
molasses & soybean flour,
or delicious kurumi-miso
topping, amazing when grilled.

There are just so many
ideas that I never would
have thought to pair with
onigiri, such as tea leaves
& peanuts, bracken, bamboo
& wild mushrooms, even
pumpkin, carrot & onion.






Rice is used a lot in Japan
for party food, in place of
sugary treats, just made to
look extra fancy & cute.
Rice ball cones! And the
tiny bite in the front almost
look like rice petit fours to me.
There are recipes for rice "cakes", wrapped onigiri party favours, rice & nori finger sandwiches, and of course inari-zushi. In addition to the recipes, there are blurbs about the traditions and customs surrounding the preparation and eating of these foods.

This it all looks too complicated? There are many extremely detailed photo directions, like this spread on how to make this party panda sushi:
There are directions for many of the seasonal sushi:
One of the things I really appreciate about this book is the attention to seasonal ingredients used in the different regions of Japan. Each district of the country has its own unique types of traditional onigiri, often using crops specific to that area.

From basics to ultra-fancy party food, this cookbook will help make your sushi impressive and delicious.

coasting...

I've not been very good about making time to post lately! I took far too many pictures, and there was never enough time to unload them.

Rewind to last weekend...

Ryan
and
AJ
went
to a
Learn
To Fly
event
at the
Fitch-
burg
airport.

They
brought
lunches
of To-
furky
and
lettuce
sand-
wiches;
succhini brownies; carrots; cucumber; a strawberry for Ryan.

And I went to a retirement party of sorts, down at Arcadia State Park in Rhode Island. I brought along sushi to celebrate...
I just used whatever veggies I had on hand: cucumber, scallion, lettuce, red bell pepper, kanpyo (pickled sweet gourd strips). It had to last for most of the day covered with plastic wrap and a dish towel with an ice blanket underneath. And then I added some rice balls roll in various furikake and toasted sesame seeds. I brought along some shoyu and tiny paper cups. It all worked out pretty well! With the exception of leaving my platter behind and not realizing it until I was 10 minutes along home...at least it was only 10 minutes!

So with no time to shop or prepare, it was on to another week of "plain" bento...
Ryan's lunch on Monday: vegetable fried rice (mainly spinach & corn); homemade mango applesauce; smoked Tofurky slices; a strawberry.

When I returned hungry from a day of hiking during my weekend travels, I created a rather bizarre sandwich. But it turned out to be a hit and Ryan wanted it for lunch...
Ryan's lunch on Tuesday: carrots; grapes; sandwich of Veganaise, melted Daiya cheddar, smoked Tofurky, thinly sliced onion, dill pickle flats, lettuce.

Nothing like fresh hummus. I go ahead and eat it for breakfast after making it for the kids' lunch and snacks...
Ryan's lunch on Wednesday: grape gel cup; a strawberry; cucumber slices; baby carrots; flat pretzels; vegetable crackers; white bean & onion hummus.

Getting desperate by thursday! Definitely had to go grocery shopping by friday...
Ryan's lunch on Thursday: brown & white rice; steamed broccoli; meatless meatballs; apple slices; corn & peas.

But before friday arrived, I had to attend school "pride night". AJ was excited to stay up late and show off his classroom...





















Some highlights were his grass head, purple crayon drawing, wormery, garbage garden, and globe.

Both boys' classrooms this year face the interior of the school's inner courtyard.












Ryan enjoyed showing off
the class tadpoles, the balance
scales, a letter he'd written
to his brother (all of his
classmates had written to
a parent instead), and running
around the courtyard checking
out the new plantings and the
raised beds full of strawberry
plants with lots of little white
berries that were doing quite
well.

I'll hold off on Friday's post,
because there are simply
too many photos left for this post alone!

Home Tweet Home

So I decided to make an entry for the Spring 2010 Bento Contest at JustBento. It was a lot of fun to make. I'm sure the competition will be steep, but that's okay.

I tinted the rice with home-
made beet vinegar. Other
highlights include mini grape
tomatoes nestled inside some
steamed Brussels sprouts.

We have a birdhouse on our
garage that both the birds and
the squirrels have been checking out this week. Spring is definitely here despite the flood of rain!

Stuck inside during the wet
weather, I fed the kids a
"picnic" dinner indoors and
everyone enjoyed Maia's
first showing of Toy Story 2.
She seemed to enjoy seeing
"her" Jessie doll come to
life on screen.
Ryan's lunch: asparagus maki; avocado & cucumber maki; mini rice triangles; sesame tofu; apple bunnies.

Only one more day to go before my raw 40 days are up! I cheated again this weekend when my husband arrived home from the west coast and was hungry for a good dinner. I couldn't just watch him eat it alone...

friday:
7am- Raw Revolution chocolate coconut bar.
9am- 1 orange.
10:30am- sprouted chick peas w/lemon juice, scallion, olives, bell pepper.
12:30pm- honeydew melon.
3pm- apple slices w/almond butter.
8pm- pasta w/zucchini & olives

saturday:
7:30am- honeydew melon.
11:30am- 1 Raw Revolution chocolate coconut bar.
1:30pm- 1 orange; mixed nut.
3pm- 1 banana; handful of baby carrots.
8:30pm- pasta w/zucchini & olives. Yep, blew it when my husband got back!

sunday:
7:30am- tomato salad: tomato, onion, olives, olive oil, sprouted chick peas
9:30am- bowl of honeydew melon.
11am- small container of raisins, sliced almonds & date pieces.
1:30pm- 2 bananas w/almond butter, agave nectar & grated coconut.
4pm- leftovers from bento prep!
6pm- a pickle; Raw Revolution spirulina & cashew bar.