"Z" last supper

It's "Z" big day! The last letter of "Z" alphabet. I'd be pretty happy to have this as my last meal to be honest...
Ryan's "Z" lunch: baked ziti; zucchini brownie; zucchini pizza.

That's it then! All letters accounted for. Now could I do it again with all new foods? Probably not, thanks to Q and X.

Baked Ziti

1 box ziti pasta
2 T. olive oil
1 medium onion
1 cup soy crumbles
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 jar pasta sauce
4 oz. cheez (I used Vegan Gourmet mozzarella)
1 T. vegan parmesan (optional)

Preheat oven to 375F. Boil a pot of water. Add pasta. Cook until just al dente.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large skillet or pot. Chop onion. Add onion and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Add frozen soy crumbles. Stir and cook another 1-2 minutes until soy crumbles begin to brown. Add pasta sauce, garlic powder & salt. Stir.
In a 9X13 inch baking pan, pour in cooked, drained pasta. Pour sauce over pasta and mix together to coat all the pasta.
Grate the cheez. Mix half into the pasta & sauce, along with the parmesan if using. Sprinkle the remaining grated cheez over the top.
Bake, covered with foil, for 30-35 minutes.

Me, yesterday:
7am- 1/2 an avocado.
10am- sushi platter.
1pm- leftover sushi; 2 bananas w/almond butter, agave nectar, grated coconut.
5:30pm- salad: romaine, cucumber, tomato, shallot, olives, balsamic vinegar.

I made enough sushi for
two meals! It really hit
the spot. Clockwise from
the upper left: snow pea
sprout nigiri, futo maki
(lettuce, snow pea sprout,
yellow bell pepper, scallion
& cucumber), miso scallion
cucumber, shoyu, avocado
& snow pea sprout, avocado & cucumber, miso scallion avocado, a side of sliced mango. I used my raw sushi "rice" #1 for this, and nori of course. I'm still working on a second rice alternative...but this one is so good maybe I don't need to bother!

"Y" buy lunch when you can bring a bento!

"Y" is Ryan's lunch a bit small today?? Because all of the 1st grade classes are having a World Fair, where they will be presenting food from the country that they studied to the other classes.
Ryan's "Y" lunch: vanilla soy yogurt; yams; sauteed yellow squash; yellow bell pepper.

I contemplated making tofu yakitori, but I was already pretty swamped making vegan food for Ryan to have at the World Fair.
I supplied alternatives for Ryan's class' food from Greece...this time a small container of plain soy yogurt w/agave nectar. The class studying Japan is serving chicken ramen and green tea, so I packed a small container of ramen with just a little soy sauce & scallion. Another class is studying Brazil, and they're serving rice & beans and cherry soda (I'm guessing that's in place of grumichama or ponche, so that most kids will actually try it), so I made my rice cooker rice & beans, and bought a natural cherry soda and sent him with a water bottle 1/3 full of that. It turns out that all the food being served by the class studying Kenya is vegan, so no substitutions necessary there! And they're actually serving 3 items.
So anyhow, I figured Ryan will be quite stuffed between the World Fair food, his regular snack (which he made me pack anyways), and his lunch!

As for me, yesterday marked the halfway point of my 40 days of raw food:
7am- smoothie: 1 banana, 1/2 mango, 1/2 blood orange, 3 frozen strawberries, liquid DHA, water.
9:30am- small bowl of raisins, date pieces & sliced almonds.
12:30pm- salad: romaine, tomato, cucumber, olives.
3:30pm- a pickle.
5:30pm- watermelon & cantaloupe; 1/2 an avocado.
8pm- 2 sliced bananas topped with a little almond butter, agave nectar, & a sprinkle of grated coconut.

not "X"actly

X is most definitely the hardest letter for food.
Ryan's "X" lunch: xacuti over rice; X tater tots; xigua.

Xacuti is a spicy Indian potato, chicken & onion dish that includes coconut, plenty of hot peppers, cloves & poppyseed paste, in addition to the usual Indian spices. I only gave Ryan a tiny bit because he said he didn't like how it smelled. My husband said (as he blew his dripping nose) that it was very good but VERY spicy, LOL. And I used about 1/6th the recommended hot peppers!

Xigua is Chinese watermelon, usually smaller than the typical melons we see in the US. So I bought one of those mini watermelons which seemed the most similar.

My food from monday:
7:30am- apple slices w/almond butter.
9:30am- small bowl of raisins, almonds & date pieces; a pickle.
12pm- 1 avocado.
2:30pm- a banana.
5pm- bowl of watermelon & cantaloupe chunks.

I
haven't
posted
many
hiking
pics in
awhile,
so...





































My
crazy
husband
in a
tree

"W"your appetite

It's the final week of alphabet bentos!Ryan's "W" lunch: wafer cookies; waffles (w/maple syrup, separated from the cookies by a weiner dog baran); welsh rarebit; watermelon; water chestnuts w/snap peas & chik'n strips.

The weather over the weekend was great. Though I spent much of saturday at an event indoors, sunday was spent almost entirely outside. So I made a "picnic" dinner:
top row: strawberries; snap
pea crisps; smoked Tofurky
slices; yellow bell pepper
strips & snap peas.

middle row: baby carrots;
mini bagel quarters with
peanut butter; gherkin
pickles; raisins & dried
apricots.

bottom row: roasted almonds; cucumber slices; purple grapes; popcorn.

My friday food:
7:30am- smoothie: 1/2 banana, 1/2 pear, 1 T. almond butter, liquid DHA, water.
9:30am- carrots & yellow bell pepper w/cauliflower dip.
12pm- salad: romaine & bib lettuces, tomato, onion, purple cabbage, avocado, olives, lime juice.
4pm- maki sushi: sprouted quinoa, avocado, ginger, vinegar, nori, cucumber, scallion, shoyu.
5pm- small bowl of raisins, date pieces & sliced almonds.

I tried another permutation of raw sushi filling, this time with sprouted quinoa. It tasted fine, but didn't hold up that well...back to the drawing board on that one.

Luckily on saturday, I was at a potluck event, and there was plenty of fruit and raw veggies, so I didn't even touch the snack I had stashed in my backpack just in case...
7am- smoothie: 1 banana, 1 pear, 1/2 an apple, 1 T. almond butter, liquid DHA, water.
10am- a banana.
12pm- bowl of fruit: grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew melon.
2pm- bowl of veggies: baby carrots, broccoli florets, grape tomatoes.
6pm- marinated broccoli & tomatoes in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, shoyu; 1/2 an avocado.

And sunday:
7am- soaked steel cut oats w/sliced strawberries & walnut-cashew creme.
9:30am- a pickle; a banana.
12pm- smoothie: 1/2 banana, 1/2 mango, 3 frozen strawberries, 1/3 starfruit, liquid DHA, water.
3:30pm- 2 dozen baby carrots; 6 olives.
6pm- 1 avocado.

Don't be en"V"ous...

Today's bento was rather easy. I wish it was mine! As I was putting the lunch together, Ryan came into the kitchen and asked what letter today was. When I told him he said, "V...vanilla! Vanilla...ice cream!" Welllll, being the nice mama, I quickly tossed the Thermos into the freezer, hoping 10 minutes was enough to chill it sufficiently, then scooped in some Trader Joe's vanilla soy ice cream.

Ryan's
"V"
lunch:
side of
Veggie
Booty;
Thermos
of vanilla
ice
cream;
Valencia
oranges;
Viennese
carrots;
vegetable
fried
rice.

Sticking
strictly
to the
letter
of the day hasn't always yielded the prettiest food combinations, but today's looked really nice I think.
Tomorrow is friday, so I'll take a break before next week's final alphabet installment, the tricky last letters of W, X, Y & Z!

7:30am- smoothie: 2 strawberries, 1/4 cup black raspberries, 1/2 mango, 1/2 banana, liquid DHA, water.
10am- 1/2 an avocado.
12pm- carrot "chips" w/sprouted chick pea hummus; 10 olives.
2pm- 6 strawberries w/
walnut-cashew creme.
6pm- salad: romaine &
bib lettuces, tomato, red
onion, yellow bell pepper,
snow peas sprouts, shoyu.

Ryan had a friend over
after school, so I made
cupcakes and let them all decorate their own. I didn't want to be too jealous, so I put 6 frozen strawberries into a bowl and allowed them to thaw partially, then topped them with walnut-cashew creme. Delish.

Dinner was just a salad,
par for the course. I'll
admit that I'm already
imagining what pasta
awaits me when the 40
days are up!

"U" try it

Go ahead...try to list enough "U" foods for 5 fingers. Can you name 10? I challenge you. I couldn't.

I couldn't find uglifruit locally, and Ryan doesn't care for umeboshi plums because they're "too sweet", his explanation for most things he doesn't like.

Ryan's
"U"
lunch:
pine-
apple
upside
down
cake;
upper
crust
pota-
toes;
udon
noodles
with
thai
sesame
peanut
tofu,
carrot
and
scallion.

The udon noodles were
frozen, and used packaged
thai tofu, so that was the
quick dish of the meal.

I found plenty of upper
crust potato recipes loaded
with butter, heavy cream,
milk & cheese. So instead I
veganized my own. It got
a 50/50 response from the
kids, but my husband raved,
so I think it's worth posting
the recipe. It's not some-
thing to include often in one's
diet, but it sure does hit the
spot on a cold winter day in
March. (And if you're won-
dering, no, I didn't taste it myself, but I froze a bunch for the end of the month when I'm done eating completely raw foods. I can't wait to try it, along with a dozen other dishes I've got waiting for me in the freezer!)

Upper Crust Potatoes

5 large russet potatoes
1 1/2 cups soy creamer
3 cloves garlic
6 shallots
2 T. margarine
1 tsp. crumbled rosemary
1/2 tsp. fresh thyme
6 oz. Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (3/4 tub)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 cup vegan parmesan crumbles
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

Peel and slice potatoes thinly,
preferably with a mandoline.
Place in a large bowl and pour
on 1/2 cup of soy creamer.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Next chop the garlic and
shallots finely. Melt the
margarine in a medium saute pan over low heat. Add shallots, garlic, rosemary & thyme (if you don't have fresh thyme just omit it--dry thyme is icky). Cook for a couple of minutes until just softened, then add Tofutti cream cheese. Increase heat to medium-low and stir to combine. Add the other cup of soy creamer, salt, pepper & paprika. Stir until there are no large lumps. Pour over potatoes.

Grease a square baking dish with margarine or olive oil. Put potatoes into baking dish, creating fanned out rows. Repeat another layer. Pour remaining sauce over top. Sprinkle on vegan parmesan, followed by bread crumbs. Bake uncovered for 1 hour.
The other thing I knew I wanted to make was a pineapple upside down cake. Finding vegan recipes wasn't a problem. But you know me...I wanted something QUICK! And something that didn't dirty too many bowls. Oh, and something that worked without a springform pan! So I took what I liked, omitted what I didn't, and made a 1 bowl cake recipe.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1 large can pineapple rings
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1/3 cup organic canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup unbleached white flour & 1/2 cup quinoa flour)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Drain canned pineapple into a measuring cup (you should get about 1 cup juice). Grease a round nonstick 9" cake pan. Place 5 pineapple rings in the bottom. If you'd like, cut 2 more pineapple rings into quarters and arrange them in the spaces. Sprinkle brown sugar over them. Preheat your oven to 350F degrees.

Pour pineapple juice into a large bowl. Add the cider vinegar & canola oil. Whisk to combine. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir by hand until no lumps remain. Pour batter over pineapple rings. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Allow to cool until pan can be
handled with bare hands.
Place a large plate over cake
pan, then invert to remove
cake from pan. The boys
enjoyed this with vanilla ice
creme (coconut vanilla is great,
or we like Trader Joe's soy
vanilla too).

Yesterday it looks like I barely ate! But a bowl of soaked steel cut oats is FILLING. I just wasn't hungry. And later I was distracted by hiking...

7am- soaked steel cut oats w/blueberries & walnut-cashew creme.
3pm- bento lunch: cantaloupe, orange, starfruit, raisins, date pieces, sliced almonds, carrot sticks, salad wraps (bib lettuce, green onion, yellow bell pepper, marinated portobello mushroom).
8pm- bowl of snap peas w/sprouted chick pea hummus; 8 olives.

tas"T"

Time for some tasty treats...
Ryan's "T" lunch: truffle;
two trios of triangle Triscuits;
Townhouse Toppers (crackers);
tater tots (w/ketchup); tempura
broccoli, onion & carrot; tofu; a
tropical juice drink box on the
side.

On sunday, when I was doing
the last of my shopping prep before the school week, I lost my alphabet list at Whole Foods. I returned to the store, asked at customer service, groped around the parking lot, but it was gone. So I attempted to re-create the list for the last 8 letters of the alphabet, which had consisted of almost 2 months worth of jotting down this food and that as they came to mind.

Now that I have completed two bentos without my original list, I found snap peas and strawberries in the fridge that I neglected to put in Ryan's lunch because I never added them to the new list. And today I forgot to put in a tangerine on the side. Eh, it probably would have been too much food for him anyhow! On to me...

7:30am- an apple.
9am- romaine lettuce w/
leftover sprouted quinoa
tabbouleh salad.
11am- 1 banana; small bowl
of dates, raisins & almonds.
2pm- carrot "chips" &
cauliflower dip.
6:30pm- salad: romaine
lettuce, tomato, marinated portobello mushrooms (mushrooms, shoyu, olive oil).

I made a bento lunch for myself today to take hiking...but that can wait for tomorrow when I list today's food.

"S" it Spring yet??

Seriously, enough with the constant rain, and the weather that can't make up its mind from one minute to the next. The lighting was horrible on the porch for picture taking this morning...

Ryan's "S" lunch: juju stars;
spinach; soba noodles; star-
fruit slices; sesame sticks;
seaweed crackers.

Served in a Snoopy bento
with a spork, and a S'mores
mini Luna bar on the side.

I should have posted over
the weekend...hmmm...so
much else to blab on about...

Well, first my food:

friday:
7am- 6 flax crackers w/almond butter.
10am- Greek cucumber salad: cucumber, red onion, olives, vinegar, salt, sugar, paprika, black pepper; flax crackers & leftover pineapple mango salsa.
1pm- a banana.
3pm- bowl of red grapes.
5pm- 2 bananas; 6 dates; 6 flax crackers.

saturday:
8am- smoothie: 1/2 banana, 1 mango, handful of frozen blueberries, liquid DHA, water.
10:30am- flax crackers & guacamole (avocado, tomato, onion, lemon juice).
1:30- 1 orange; 6 flax crackers w/almond butter.
3:30- small bowl of dates, raisins & almonds; grapes.
5:30- leftover guacamole w/flax crackers; 3 olives.

sunday:
7:30am- a banana; 4 flax crackers w/almond butter.
9:30am- sprouted quinoa tabbouleh salad: sprouted quinoa, tomato, cucumber, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, ginger, olive oil, shoyu.
12pm- 1 avocado; 1 apple; last of the flax crackers w/sprouted chick pea hummus.
3pm- red & green bell peppers w/sprouted chick pea hummus; 6 olives.
5:30pm- an orange; small bowl of dates, raisins & almonds.

Drum roll...I've finally found
a way I really like quinoa!!
This sprouted quinoa salad
from Juliano's RAW was
marvelous...though I omitted
the mint. It's not that I don't
like mint, but, well, I just
don't like mint often in a lot
of things. Mint chip ice cream
is another story. :-)

The weekend kept us busy. It began with a bonus farm pickup on friday afternoon! They're really getting the hang on winter growing now during the second year trying it, and for $30 we brought home 10lbs of root veggies, a monster bag of spinach, some garlic, and as many extra purple-topped turnips as we could use. Plus for $5 each we could purchase another bag of spinach and/or a bag of swiss chard & beet greens. We got both.
The greenhouse was already filled with flats of seedlings poking out of the dirt, getting ready for spring planting. It was very muddy around the farm though, as we had a ton of rain.













In other news, the Death
Star is finally complete!
It only took 3 months of
friday evenings, LOL.
It has its own shelf, up
high of course so that it
is protected from the
destructive forces of a
toddler and 3yo.

"R" you hungry?

"R" was relatively easy, reasonably so, regarding reliably creating a recognizable repast for Ryan's ridiculous rookie reader appetite. Um, yeah, well, you get the idea. I avoided the obvious, like rice... And Ryan requested his name appear in the lunch since it starts with the letter of the day...

Ryan's "R" lunch: ravioli
with red sauce; raisins;
black raspberries; romaine
lettuce; radiatore with red
beans, red bell pepper,
spinach & a red wine
vinegar dressing & Ryan
rice cheese letters; rice
milk on the side. And a
red napkin and red spork too.

7am- soaked steel cut oats,
sliced almonds, raisins,
chopped dates with banana
milk (1/3 banana + water).
9am- romaine lettuce leaves
dipped in leftover sundried
tomato sauce.
11am- apple slices dipped in
almond butter.
1pm- portobello salad wraps: marinated portobello mushrooms (in shoyu & olive oil), bib lettuce, cucumber, tomato, scallion, avocado; 12 baby carrots.
3:30pm- smoothie: 1 cup pineapple, 1/2 banana, 1 T. shredded dehydrated coconut, water.
5:30pm- salad: spinach, mixed baby greens, tomato, onion, shoyu; small bowl of dates, raisins, & sliced almonds.

avoid the lunch "Q", bring a bento!

Q was tricky indeed. I could not find quince at any of the local markets. And as it turned out, even my alphabet tater tots that I was going to cheat with didn't have a real "Q" because the holes in the middle of the letters are too small to accommodate the entire cross. Nevertheless, a P turned sideways looked very convincing...

Ryan's "Q" lunch: Q potatoes w/ketchup; tofu quiche; quinoa vegetable paella.

I keep trying to like quinoa. My friend Melissa of The Papaya Chronicles blogged about her new favourite quinoa recipe recently here, which is her version of this one from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. So I made it...and my husband taste-tested. He said it was okay, that he'd eat more later, but it wasn't fantastic.
FWIW I added some salt,
and cooked the onion &
garlic in olive oil instead
water, just to give it a
little more flavour. Ryan
thought it was so-so,
hence the small portion
in his bento. I froze a bunch to try after I'm done rawing. The recipe makes a TON.

I was worried that this
wouldn't be enough food
for him, but then I
realized that his snack
was pretty hearty today.
His class has been studying
Greece for the past few
weeks (not sure why),
and today they were going
to be trying a few Greek foods: yogurt w/honey, feta cheese, and olives. So I sent along a soy yogurt w/maple syrup, and some crumbled firm tofu. He came home full enough, speaking Greek to everyone and showing off pages of words he'd written all in Greek.

So in preparation for the Q lunch (I couldn't shake an image of Q from Star Trek: TNG making the lunch for me with the flick of a finger, then making it quack or something ridiculous), I made the tofu quiche for dinner the night before, along with lots of onigiri. In order to avoid supreme food jealousy on my part, I created some raw sushi...

Here it is: avocado nigiri; kappa maki; avocado maki; marinated portobello maki.

I created the rice alter-
native with the remaining
cauliflower I had on hand,
with vinegar to give it that
sushi rice tang.

Raw Sushi "Rice" #1

1 cup cauliflower
1/2 cup raw cashews
2 tsp. cider vinegar

Put all ingredients into a
food processor and blend
until granular.



And my raw food for the entire day:
7am- smoothie: 1 banana, 1/2 a nectarine, a dozen frozen blueberries, liquid DHA, water.
9am- fruit salad: pineapple, peach, plum, orange, grape.
12pm- bowl of snap peas; 2 pickles; 1/2 an avocado.
1pm- small bowl of raisins, dates, & sliced almonds.
3:30pm- leftover fruit salad.
5pm- raw sushi: nori, cauliflower, cashews, cider vinegar, cucumber, avocado, marinated portobello mushrooms, scallion, shoyu; 1 orange.

"P"ita "P"izza

"P" is just too darned easy. In the kids book Eating The Alphabet, P is the only letter to earn two pages! I avoided my favourite P ingredient, pumpkin, and still had to cull my list...

Ryan's "P" lunch:
pepperoni pita pizza;
pineapple, peaches, &
plums; pea pods; a
pickle; peanuts; pretzels.

And of course served in
a Pokemon bento with
a Pokemon napkin!

Yesterday after school, Dada took all the boys for haircuts, and afterwards out for sushi, so the leftovers made for nice snacks...
Ryan's snack: cucumber & avocado sushi; baby carrots; oriental crackers.
AJ's snack: inari; baby carrots; oriental crackers.
Nate's snack: baby carrots; grapes; oriental crackers.

My food yesterday...
7am- soaked steel cut oats w/blueberries & cashew creme.
9am- 1 banana; 6 baby carrots.
11am- 1 banana; handful of almonds, raisins & date pieces.
1:30pm- 1 banana; handful of almonds, raisins & date pieces.
3:30pm- zucchini "pasta" w/sauce: sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, pine nuts, spinach, brine-cured olives, tomato, salt, olive oil.
5pm- blueberries w/cashew creme.

I knew since my husband
returned from a trip to
California the day before
that I'd head out for a long
hike, so I planned ahead
and soaked some steel cut
oats overnight--a hearty
breakfast to keep me going
for almost 6 miles.

When I returned I craved the usual heaping bowl of pasta. Instead I peeled 2 zucchini into ribbons and made a yummy salty sauce to coat it. Super yum.