Facebook Bento

So my latest Bento: Impossible challenge was born of random suggestions from friends on Facebook. I took the first 3 suggestions and vowed to turn them into the main dish of a bento lunch.
Ryan's lunch: avocado, bbq tempeh & couscous wrap; 2 chocolate chip cookies; steamed broccoli; cantaloupe.

The wrap was a little
messy with couscous
as a filling, so I included
a Pikachu spork in his
lunchbox just in case.

I've been changing my
bbq tempeh recipe over
and over during the past few weeks. Finally I've opted to post the one my husband liked best, since he's usually the most critical. I like it because it's darker and not too tomato-y (I've never cared for bbq sauces made with tomato paste as a base), plus it's really simple. And my husband likes its moistness.

This recipe is full of estimates. I may come back later with more precise measurements, but I'm not one to measure everything exactly.
If you're using this for a packed lunch, it's easy to assemble the bbq sauce the night before, slice the tempeh, and cover it to marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Then just pop it in the oven while you're making breakfast and it's ready in no time!

BBQ Tempeh

1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 T blackstrap molasses
1/2-1 T ground cumin
1/2-1 tsp. garlic powder
1 T smoked paprika (or 1 T regular paprika + 1/4-1/2 tsp. liquid smoke)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 package tempeh
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix the first 7 ingred-
ients in a baking dish.
Slice the tempeh into
strips. Toss in the bbq
sauce. Sprinkle with
salt.

Bake in a 350F (180C)
oven for 20-25 minutes.

For use in the wraps, I
sliced the tempeh again
lengthwise after cooking
so that I had nice thin
strips.

For the couscous, I just
followed the directions on
a box of dried couscous, using the whole box with 2 cups water, 1 T olive oil, & 1 cube vegetable bouillon. Couscous is probably the easiest rice-like pasta to cook. You just boil the water, add the couscous, cover, turn off the heat, and come back later to fluff it up and serve. Thanks for reminding me about couscous Marianne! I hadn't used it in so long!

Tempeh & Burgers

Friday evening a friend
brought by some food
so I wouldn't have to
cook. The next day
baby Maia was born.
I don't know where
her recipe is from, yet,
but I'm going to dub it
"Mel's Magic Tempeh".
It was either that or
walking on our sharp rock patio in bare feet. LOL.
This kept us fed for 2 days including my post-birth midnight munchie insomnia.

A birth bead necklace sent from some mama friends.

Tuesday:
My husband picked up our CSA share and took this photo...I'll try to decipher what's here:
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 head lettuce
- 1 bunch scallions
- 12 stems kale
- 12 stems swiss chard
- what's left of the peas
- 1 bunch salad turnips
- some basil
- 1 yellow squash
- 1 pattypan squash
- 3 cucumbers
- 1 pint blueberries
- 1 quart green beans
- 1/4 pint red raspberries

Nate, the new big brother.

Wednesday:
Thank goodness for shortcuts and frozen leftovers!
AJ's lunch for camp: cucumber slices, cold spinach, cold tofu, onigiri triangle, raisins, pita chips. Not shown: lemonade, water, and a Luna bar for morning snack.

A toddler dinner:
whole grain flax
pasta w/ sauce; a
piece of summer
squash; blueberries;
raspberries; spinach;
mango pieces...and I
think he brought a
stray Ting to the table
and put it in the corner there, LOL.

Thursday:

Time to put those
farm veggies to good
use!
This veggie burger
recipe evolved from
a veggie pate recipe
in the cookbook
Cooking For Life,
by Cheri Calborn &
Vicki Rae Chelf, which
I believe is now out of print.

It's a great way to use those dark leafy greens. Feel free to substitute collards, spinach, etc. for the kale, or use all kale instead of spinach. Use walnuts, almonds, etc. in place of the sunflower seeds. I'll sometimes add garlic scapes, swiss chard stems or leaves, mushrooms, or different herbs & spices to give the recipe an ethnic twist. Also, if you're gluten-free, substitute another flour or simply omit the flour.

The boys enjoy them as sandwiches, or plain dipped in ketchup. Back when Ryan was a toddler, he used to call them "cookies", before he knew any better.

Kale-Sunflower Burgers

1 pound potatoes (~3-4 small)
4 medium carrots
1/4 pound spinach (~1 bunch)
3 large kale leaves
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flour (optional)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional)
1/4 cup tamari (soy sauce)
1/2 tsp. sage (optional, or substitute rosemary &/or oregano)
1/2 tsp. marjoram
5 garlic cloves, pressed, or some garlic powder
pinch of cayenne pepper
spray olive oil for the baking sheet

Preheat over to 350F.
Chop greens and place in bottom of food processor with sunflower seeds. Process.
Follow with cut up potatoes and carrots, then the remaining ingredients.
You may have to stop it a few times and push some of the ingredients back down to the bottom a few times.
Shape into patties and place on an oiled baking sheet. Bake ~40 minutes, flipping half way through.

Makes ~12 patties.

With my husband back
to work for 1/2 the day,
I had to make dinner
easy on myself: ramen
noodles w/ frozen
broccoli; almonds;
cucumber salad;
orange slices.

Star Wars bento challenge

Sunday:
Tempeh is easy and healthy.
I just bake it straight out of
the package in the oven for
half an hour. Then I let it
cool and cut into strips and
make various tasty meals.
Here's a tempeh salad.

Monday was a lazy Memorial Day, and Tuesday Ryan brought a cupcake to school for a friend's birthday. Here's goofy Nate wearing 2 pairs of sunglasses...upside down:












With such gorgeous weather lately, everyone has been spending most of the days outside. AJ exhausted himself and took a nap on the couch one afternoon.

Wednesday:
Ryan had a field trip to go on a hike in the woods; the kids were each given a new box of crayons and had a sketchbook to draw what they saw on their walk. But I still packed him a cool snack in his backpack for the trip...
This week I decided to try the Star Wars bento challenge over at kawaiikiki's Bento Challenge.
My first attempt was Yoda on Dagoba: mashed potatoes, spinach, peas, green soy paper (for Yoda's head), nori and wheat bread (for Yoda's clothing). And the edible food coloring markers for Yoda's face.











I kept AJ's snack simple though: mashed potatoes, spinach, slices of wheat bread.
Ryan (wearing a Star Wars t-shirt of course) built a Star Wars Lego spaceship at home.

AJ's preschool "greenhouse" project
is ready to be planted. His teacher
was amazed last year that Ryan's
greenhouse worked so well and had
produced handfuls of string beans
by the end of the summer. AJ's
seems to be doing equally well, though
only 2 out of 3 beans germinated.

This week Ryan went to work at the
farm with Dada. He pruned an entire
row of new strawberry plants himself.

Friday:
Not as intricate as wednesday's, but still fun: rice with black sesame seeds, nori letters, cucumber and tomato "lightsabers", a cantaloupe ball, green beans, sesame tofu.

Again, AJ's snack remains
simple: cantaloupe balls,
crackers, green beans,
sesame tofu.

No Luck for the Irish!

Nothing went right on Monday! After fixing all green bentos for the boys St. Patrick's Day snack, my husband left them in the car so the boys were stuck with school pretzels...and I can't even show them off because my camera seems to have lost 2 days worth of photos!

Tuesday's photos were also lost. My husband was the parent helper in Ryan's class and brought strawberries and homemade oatmeal raisin cookies.

Wednesday:On wednesday my husband was parent helper in AJ's class. I made his favourite mini pumpkin muffins. Ten kids gobbled up 2 dozen of these in no time, along with some banana halves.

AJ has this funny thing he does--he'll come up to you and poke your cheek gently and call you a "pumpkin muffin". For preschool I make sure these are nut-free. Just leave out all the "optional" ingredients for nut-free muffins or bread.
Another thing...while I do sometimes use canned pumpkin, or leftover steamed Halloween pumpkin, any squash will do. My favourites are red kuri squash or butternut squash--they give a bright orange color to the muffins. I cut a red kuri squash in half and bake it open sides down on a foil-lined baking sheet for 40 minutes or so, then remove the seeds and rind. For butternut squash I peel, seed, cut into chunks, and steam for 20-30 minutes until soft and mashable.

AJ's Pumpkin Muffins

1/3 cup margarine or butter (I use Earth Balance Buttery Sticks)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 to 1.5 cups pureed pumpkin or other winter squash
3 T. milk (any kind) or water
1 t. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. ground allspice (optional)
1/4 t. ground nutmeg (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 T. raw cane juice crystals
1/4 cup pecan halves (optional)

Melt or soften margarine in a large bowl. Add brown sugar and mix until creamy.
Mix in mashed pumpkin, milk, & vanilla.
Add the next 6 dry ingredients. Mix well.
Add walnuts and stir.
Pour into greased muffins tins or loaf pan (I spray with olive oil). Sprinkle tops with sugar crystals. Sprinkle or decorate tops with pecan halves.

Cooking times:
mini muffins - 20-25 minutes - makes 3 dozen
regular muffins - 30-35 minutes - makes 12.
loaf - 45-50 minutes - makes 1 loaf...may need a few extra minutes if omitting nuts.

Ryan's snack: 2 mini pumpkin muffins, a strawberry, cucumber slices.

Thursday:
TLT sandwiches and grapes made a wonderful "picnic" lunch. Fakin' Bakin smoked tempeh strips replace traditional bacon. The rest of the sandwich imitates the BLTs at a Brooklyn, NY diner that my father loved:
Toast the bread. Spread your favourite mayonnaise on one side, spread the other side very lightly with peanut butter and sprinkle on a tiny bit of garlic powder. Then add the tempeh, tomato slices, and crisp lettuce (I used romaine). These are sooo good, Ryan even made up a song about them during his lunch.

Dinner: "Asian Cucumber Salad" from The Accidental Vegan (with half the dressing and mirin in place of honey), rice, spicy baked tofu, bok choy cooked in the style of "Snow Peas with a Hint of Pork" from Seductions of Rice, and a vegetable gyoza. Seductions of Rice has some really fantastic authentic tasting recipes. The boys went back for thirds or more of this dinner.

After dinner I went out to buy jellybeans and socks at Target. Who would have thought I'd bring home these goodies! Spiral picks, flexible Easter picks, some cute cupcake liners, & a Dyno Bytes sandwich cutter. They also had some pastel silicon baking cups and mini heart-shaped silicon baking cups.
No school on Good Friday. I almost forgot! Last year we showed up anyway, wondering why it was closed.