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.

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.

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.

soup at sunset

Talk about photographically challenged--morning pics in the dark rain, dinner pics as the sun was setting. Plus we were low on groceries...

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
honey-
dew
melon;
mixed
nuts;
apple-
sauce
cook-
ies;
rice
w/goma
shio;
broc-
coli.

Tonight
is movie
night
at the
elem-
entary school. The boys have a choice of Toy Story 3 or the Karate Kid.

Dinner
was a
yummy
soup
full of
farm
veg-
gies
and
beans.
On the
side I
made
some
rose-
mary
bread-
sticks
and
pepper-
oni
bread
twists.

White Bean, Cabbage & Celery Soup

2 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 vegetable bouillon cube
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup celeriac (celery root), peeled & chopped
1 large potato, peeled & chopped
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 cup cabbage, roughly chopped in bite-sized wedges
1/2 tsp. liquid smoke
1 can (15.5 oz.) cannellini beans (or other white beans)
1/2 cup celery leaves
1/2 tsp. marjoram
water to fill pot

Add first 6 ingredients to a soup pot. Saute over medium-low heat until veggies are tender. Add next 4 ingredients plus water to fill the pot three-quarters full. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook 20 minutes. Add cabbage & liquid smoke. Cook another 20 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and cook another 10-20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Remove about 2 cups of the soup and puree (or use an immersion blender briefly) and return to pot. Stir and serve.

Pepperoni Bread Twists

1 batch of my pizza dough
for dummies
1/2 a package of veggie
pepperoni
kosher salt
garlic powder
dried oregano
olive oil

First make the pizza dough and allow to rise. (I like to let it rise for an hour, knead it for 1 minute and cover again, let it rise for another hour, then use.)
Break dough into 8 pieces. Flour your work surface or use your hands to roll and stretch the dough into long thin pieces about 1 foot long each. Two at a time, place the ropes of dough down next to each other. Place 2 pieces of veggie pepperoni on the dough every 2-3 inches, twisting the other piece of dough around and over the top of the pepperoni. Repeat 3 times for each foot-long pair of dough. Then cut into 3 equal sections and place on a baking sheet. Repeat until you have 12 bread twists. Brush tops with olive oil, then sprinkle with a little salt, garlic powder & dried oregano. Bake at 350 degrees 15 minutes for scrumptious soft bread twists.

You can also use this same exact process to make rosemary breadsticks. Just create 8 long dough ropes, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with a little garlic powder and some chopped rosemary & kosher salt. Then bake 15-20 minutes. Yum!

lots of

Every season brings its bounty. Apples are done, and cool weather greens are thriving. Up at the CSA, I can still pick plenty even though our summer share is officially over. Many herbs don't mind the dropping temps, and cover crops often produce their own treat. Dada worked at the farm yesterday harvesting carrots & leeks for the upcoming winter shares...






















Maia and Nate ate a few
dozen raw pea shoots
from the cover crops.
Then we joined the day's
farm staff for soup and
sides. I brought along
extras for the kids. And
we made applesauce
oatmeal cookies from our
dwindling local apple supply.

I had made a whole lot
of applesauce, and I
needed to do something
else with it. It just felt
like a cookie day. And
my recipe created 3-4
dozen cookies, enough
to share at the farm as
well as pack for snacks and lunches the next day.Ryan & AJ's lunches: Toy Story pasta & broccoli w/Daiya cheese; honeydew melon; applesauce oatmeal cookie; baby carrots; cucumber slices.

Maia's lunch: Toy Story pasta w/broccoli & Daiya cheese; applesauce oatmeal cookie; honeydew melon.

Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies

1 stick Earth Balance, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup applesauce (if it's fresh and hot it creates a caramel texture when mixed with the sugars)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups quick oats

Melt margarine and mix well with the sugars. Add applesauce & vanilla and mix again. Add the next 6 (dry) ingredients and mix well. Add the oats last, stirring to combine.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees (actually just between 325 and 350 would be ideal...depends on how accurate your oven is).
Lightly spray/grease 2 cookie sheets. Drop a dozen blobs of dough on each sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes. Remove with a spatula to cool on a wire rack. Repeat once more with remaining dough.