Thursday, May 21, 2009

Serving Up Spring

Ryan's lunch: spinach & scallion hummus with cucumber bagel sandwich; Nutter Butter Bites peanut butter cookies; strawberries & grapes; green beans; carrot cake w/walnuts cupcake (I added walnuts to the last 1/3 of the batter so that some of the cupcakes could have walnuts, but there would be plenty of nut-free ones for AJ to choose for preschool).

AJ's snack: carrot cake
cupcake; soy cheese; baby
carrots; green beans; grapes;
1/2 bagel sandwich.

AJ was "Star of the Week"
this week. He brought a book
that he wrote called "Giraffy's
2nd Day of School" to read to his class, a folder of PacMan drawings to show, a lightsaber, a picture story I put together of AJ from birth to age 5, and his "new" Star Wars shirt (not a hand-me-down from Ryan).












Nate's lunch: 1/2 bagel
sandwich; soy cheese;
green beans; strawberries
& grapes.

A batch of hummus always
keeps us fed for a couple of
days in many meals...

my breakfast: corn thins
with hummus, tomato, &
cucumber; smoked almonds;
sliced strawberry.





Around the yard, the peonies
are being found by the ants
as they start to open. These
were hidden in the woods in
back when we moved in, and
I discovered them as I cut
away brush to create a bigger
yard. Eventually I may move
them, but they seem to like
where they are, even though
it's partially shaded.

The new honeysuckle vine
appears more reddish than
orange to me as it was was
advertised, but it's still very
nice.

The rhubarb is growing quite
big this year. For some reason
it didn't do well last year; I
guess it was the weather. It's
another bunch of plants that
was here already that I
definitely want to transplant
to a different location.

Muffin tin meal...Row 1: raisins & dried aprictos; baguette slices w/spinach & scallion hummus; edamame; flat pretzels...Row 2: mini waffles; grapes; seaweed rice crackers; soy cheese...Row 3: cucumber salad; almonds; strawberry slices; carrots & half-sour pickles.

Soba & Seaweed

1 bunch soba noodles
6 baby carrots or 1 large carrot, julienned
2 T. wakame seaweed, rehydrated
1/2 cup bok choy, thinly sliced
2 scallions
1/2 tsp. grated ginger
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
1 tsp. soy sauce

Place 2 tablespoons dried wakame in a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup water. Nuke 30 seconds (or heat the water and pour over seaweed). Chill in fridge, or once rehydrated run under cold water.
Slice carrots, bok choy & scallions.
Boil a small pot of water & add soba noodles, carrots & bok choy. Reduce heat to medium. Cook 6 minutes. Drain noodle in collander and rinse with cold water. Place in a medium bowl.
Add seaweed, ginger, sesame oil & soy sauce. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with scallions. Serve.

This goes great with a cold cucumber salad and edamame.

3 comments:

Misty said...

That soba dish sounds yummy. I'm going to have to try that one. Did you make the spinach hummus?

Eroteme said...

Once again, I simply love your ideas for food. If it is ok to ask (and I will have to ask for you to decide whether it is ok or not), don't your kids sometimes complain that they end up being "uncool" in school or "abnormal" in not having tuna sandwich or hamburgers or hotdogs? How do you tackle that? BTW, May is on the verge of ending... :-)

veganf said...

Misty - I talked about it a couple of posts earlier, basically just adding some extra scallions and a few big handfuls of raw spinach to the mix.

Eroteme - I've never heard anything but positive remarks from the boys or others about their "different" lunches. And as for typical American kid food, I often imitate it with something healthier, ie. veggie burger vs. hamburger. But many of the kids bring lunches of all types to school. As my oldest says, his lunches are way better than his friend who brings a lunch of 2 chicken nuggets, a pack of "fruit" chews & a Capri-Sun Every.Single.Day.
Or the one who buys lunch ($3) only to make himself a PBJ sandwich at the sandwich station every day. Talk about a waste of money!
So no complaints so far. Just this morning Ryan said to me, "I like it when you make me fancy lunches. It's okay when you don't have time and you just make a boring lunch, but I like the other ones better."
To which I responded that if there is ever a time when he wants a plain looking lunch he just needs to let me know.