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!

before the feast

With my husband finally back from weeks of business travel, I can begin thinking about the coming holiday. But to be honest, I just want a break!

Maia's lunch: oyster crackers; Tofurky slice; pea shoots; pickle; steamed asparagus; carrots; cherry tomato.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
mini
cinn-
amon
raisin
bagel
with
tofu
cream
cheese;
cucu-
mber
slices;
Tof-
urky
slice;
carrots;
steamed
aspar-
agus.

Today was the Thanksgiving feast in Nate's preschool class. The parents walking around asking if kids would like some "delicious chicken" brought him to tears at first, but I encouraged him to try the pumpkin muffins & stuffing we'd brought (he had two helpings) made with farm vegetables (sadly the celery leaves in the stuffing were the only green vegetable among the dozen plus food items). He
eventually decided to have
some cider and a clemen-
tine as well, and I'd given
him some animal crackers
to replace all of the other
cookies.
But he looked cute wearing
his painted pasta necklace
and vegetable print vest.
Maia's class made mini pumpkin pies...hers made with tofu instead.

I never did get 'round to posting fridays lunches...I was at the end of my rope then!

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
steamed
broc-
coli;
pickle;
peanuts;
apri-
cots
for
Ryan;
miso
chive
hummus
& spin-
ach
sand-
wiches;
mini
gel cup;
mini
pumpkin
muffin.

And here's Maia grazing on pea shoots at the farm yesterday...









...while Nate managed to find
probably the last fluffy dandelion
to make wishes with.

waiting for winter share

It's friday! Hooray! Now I'm not usually excited about fridays because my husband usually works on the weekend, in fact he's been gone this month more days than he's been at home. But this friday is the first winter farm share pickup! I've been stubbornly refusing to purchase lettuce or other greens, subsisting on pea shoots from the cover crops and whatever extras were available. I even had to resort to pulling the leaves off the pea tendrils to put in the boys' wraps for lunch this morning...

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
banana
walnut
bread;
veggie
crack-
ers for
AJ,
dried
apri-
cots
for
Ryan;
Tof-
urky,
soy
cheese
& pea
shoot
leaves
roll-ups
on flax lavash bread; carrot; pickle; steamed broccoli; peanuts & raisins for AJ, peanuts & almonds for Ryan.

And Nate needed a lunch to eat at Grandma's house...
Nate's lunch: carrots; pickle; cherry tomato; pea shoots; peanuts, almonds & raisins; broccoli; banana walnut bread.

As soon as 1 o'clock
arrived, Maia & I were
off to the farm. We
brought home 3 big
bags of food: potatoes,
celeriac, carrots, sweet
potatoes, kale (2 kinds),
collard greens, parsley, sage,
chives, leeks, onions (red
& yellow), bok choy, butternut
squash, mixed salad greens,
spinach, cabbage, & 4 heads
of lettuce! The only thing I was surprised not to see was parsnips, which means I'll have to alter out Thanksgiving menu slightly, but that's fine.

Hello Wednesday

Hello lunch...
Maia's lunch: 1/4 english muffin; carrots; broccoli; red grapes; pickle; Tofurky slice.










Here's Maia just before
leaving for preschool. I
dressed her in her Hello
Kitty jumper & tights to match her Hello Kitty shoes...her last day wearing them as she is clearly outgrowing them.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
home-
made
pizza;
broc-
coli;
grapes.

Oh the
pizza...
last
night I
thought
I had a
brill-
iant
idea:
butter-
nut
squash
grated
onto pizza. Ya know, it would camoflage itself like shredded cheesy stuff, taste sweet & savory, and be well-received by all. Little did I know it would cause double tantrums...from the older boys of all people! Luckily two of the four pizzas I made had alternate toppings. So the boys had leftover spinach & black olive pizzas for lunch. ...And I had quite a lot of pizza to eat myself!
Above is the delicious looking squash pizza that only Nate & I enjoyed.
I even put crumbled sage in the crust mixture to compliment the squash. I made one pizza intended for just me (Dada is in Texas again)... butternut squash, caramelized onions & kalamata olives. It was superb.

in my dreams

It was a good thing I had leftovers ready to go and frozen items prepped in the freezer...this morning was pouring rain and conducive to sleeping and coffee. It stopped by 9am then proceeded to get really windy. But I didn't even glance in the fridge til after 8am to start making lunches...

Luckily I'd made twice-baked potatoes the night before for dinner. The kids loved them, especially the older boys. They'd never had them before, since I hadn't made them in years and years. It wasn't Ryan's heritage research for homework about Ireland that put me in a potato mood, nor the big bag of potatoes sitting in the cabinet, not even the cold windy weather. It was a dream. Over the weekend I woke up from a most delicious dream where I was pulling a big tray full of these yummies out of the oven...

Ryan & AJ's lunches: mini pumpkin muffin; twice-baked potato; red grapes; green beans; clementine on the side.

I didn't try to make these remotely healthy... I just went for completely scrumptious. They've got chives, Daiya mozzarella and Tofutti Sour Supreme in the filling. And they're topped with Daiya cheddar and paprika. So pretty! Even in our poorly lit kitchen at night I just want to bite the screen.

let it roll

We're all about games in our family. Here's a simple lunch for the easy to please. The sandwich happens to be one of the kids' cousins' faves...which to them makes it even cooler.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
peanut
butter
& agave
nectar
sand-
wich
squares;
carrots;
cucu-
mber
slices;
grapes.

Cutting
carrots
into
shapes
takes
only a
minute,
and
punching out a few nori
dots with a hole punches
is almost too easy. But it
makes what would otherwise
be a very boring looking
meal into a fun kid-friendly
lunch perfect for an elementary
school lunchbox.


On to the preschool lunch...
Maia's lunch: mini pumpkin muffin; cucumber slices; red grapes; carrots; cherry tomato; pickle.

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.

Don't Mess

...With Texas. It may have been a holiday, but Dada was off on back to back trips to Texas. So I made this snack for his flight.
Husband's snack: clementine on the side; spinach salad w/tomato slices, kalamata olives & chives w/Goddess dressing on the side; mini pumpkin muffin.

The tomatoes and chives are still from our CSA share last month! But there's only one more ripe tomato in the fruit bowl. Luckily the boys were happy to have more green tomato salsa with their lunch...
Top clockwise: sauteed Tofurky sausage & collard greens; pita chips; spinach & chive hummus; tortilla strips; green tomato salsa; waffle pretzels; baby carrots & cucumber slices.

a new low

Not only are my lunch pics more horrible than the badest worstest pics ever thanks to another soggy morning and an iPhone, but I let the boys leave for school wearing a Mario mustache and spiked hair. I'm awesome, hahahaha.Ryan & AJ's lunches: pickles; carrots; Tofurky slice; cinnamon apples; leftover mushroom spinach black olive pizza.
And here are the dudes...

Terrific Tuesday

I had lunches all but ready to go by 6:45am this morning. Then I took off to north central Mass for some hiking in the Pioneer Valley.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
tofu
salad
on
wheat
buns;
straw-
berry
gel
cup;
green
beans;
carrot
rounds;
pickle.

Appar-
ently
Ryan's
friends
think
the little gel cups are really cool and ask him when he'll bring them again. Who woulda thought.

Maia's lunch: pickles; carrots; green beans; soy cheese; Tofurky; pea shoot.

I hiked from 9am-4pm
and the rain held off
pretty much the entire
time which was great.
I saw NO ONE on the
trails, and only two
people around the state
forest headquarters.
Very quiet day in the
woods! Of course I was
looking at a nice view
wondering what peak I
was seeing in the distance and what an idiot I feel like now, realizing I should've been using my Peak.ar app on my phone. But I'm guessing it was Monadnock.
I eat sooo much less when I'm off hiking all day...just a clementine, a banana, and a Luna bar. For dinner I had a cold package of Tasty Bite curry. It's amazing the habitual eating that occurs around the kids, sigh. Of course they bribed Dada to order pizza for dinner, LOL.

worst picture award

Wow. All my pics were terrible this morning! Maybe it had something to do with the sleet and rain and dark clouds? And no flash? And the iPhone camera? Possibly. No recipes either today. Such is life...Ryan & AJ's lunches: clementines; rice & beans garnished w/carrot flower & steamed broccoli; vegan rice krispie square; pickle; peanuts & smoked almonds; baby carrot; checkered apple.

That's all I got! Tomorrow I'll be off hiking, so I'll be packing up most of the lunches tonight before bed.

green tomatoes

There were a lot of nice looking green tomatoes left over at the farm, and most likely many of them wouldn't ripen before they rotted. So I brought home a flat of them and now I have to use them.

Tonight I made my rice cooker rice & beans, picked up a couple of bags of chips, and made salsa.

Green Tomato Salsa

6 small-medium green tomatoes, chopped (about 2-3 cups)
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 small hot pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon or lime juice
2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Let sit for 20 minutes before serving.

This
salsa
was so
good
I am
tempt-
ed to
make
and
eat
nothing
else
but
this
for a
week...
well,
along
with
a marg
arita!
But I
supp-
ose that's too many chips, so I'd better come up with some other ideas too. But this is one of my favourite salsas ever. I love chunky crunchy salsa that isn't a bowl of homogeneous mush. Even the older boys loved it.

making Stone Soup

I volunteered to make the Stone Soup at Stearns Farm today. This meant I would be preparing food mostly outdoors in 40 degree overcast weather with only cold water available from an outdoor faucet and only a
small plug-in electric
burner. And I had to get
most of the ingredients
from the seconds and left-
overs in the farm's root
cellar. But I came prepared
with a bag of red lentils, a
can of black beans, and my
bottle of liquid hickory smoke to add just a touch of something different for the farm staff.

All the soups at the farm
are vegetarian, usually
vegan, so this was a piece
of cake for me. What wasn't
a piece of cake was the fact
that I wanted to bring a
little something extra to
accompany the soup...which was a good thing, because they were out of bread. BUT the farmer has recently switched to a gluten-free diet, AND I didn't want to exclude anyone that might happen to be anti-soy. SO whatever I made had to be vegan, gluten-free, and soy-free.

So before I left for the farm
in the morning I whipped
up what I hoped would be
a decent batch of muffins.
No wheat flour. No Earth
Balance margarine. None of
my usual crutches.


I had just broken down
most of our jack o' lantern
pumpkins, including one
pie pumpkin from the
farm. It was already in
the fridge cut, steamed,
and ready for use. So
pumpkin muffins they
would be!

I sub-
bed
coco-
nut
oil &
maple
syrup
for my
usual
melted
marg-
arine.
This
res-
ulted
in a
slightly
greasy
exteri-
ior to
the
muffins,
but the flavour was absolutely fantastic, so I think it's worth posting the recipe of my crazy concoction. The kids and my husband tested them first and absolutely loved them. They commented on the different texture (since they're used to wheat) but kept asking for more since they tasted so good.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins

2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 T. Ener-G egg replacer powder + 4 T. warm water
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups pumpkin or other winter squash, peeled, cut & steamed
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup glutinous rice flour (otherwise known as "mochiko", or sweet rice flour, available at most asian markets)
1/4 cup organic cornmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 T. vegan cane sugar for garnish
spray olive oil for muffins tins

In a large bowl, mix first 3 ingredients. Then prepare egg replacer, whisking with a fork until frothy, and add to bowl along with the vanilla. Stir well.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Puree the steamed pumpkin (or mash very well) and add to bowl, stirring to combine. Add the next 9 (dry) ingredients. Mix well. Add the walnuts (or your nut of choice).
Spray mini muffin tins with olive oil. This recipe made 30 mini-muffins so plan accordingly.
Fill muffin tins with batter just up to the top. Sprinkle a little sugar over each. Bake for 18 minutes.