Sunshine Burger Breakfast rice

I like rice for breakfast. There was one variety of Sunshine Burger that I'd never used before, which was the Breakfast style. I nuked one for 30 seconds, broke off a bite, and immediately knew what I'd be having for breakfast and serving Ryan for his lunch. There was leftover rice in the rice cooker from the night before, just the right amount for fried rice.
I heated a tablespoon of both olive oil & Earth Balance in a pan, diced about 2 tablespoons of onion, and crumbled in the burger. After sauteing for a minute or so, I added the leftover rice, sprinkled on a bit of salt and a pinch of garlic powder, and stir fried for another minute or two. Voila. Super yumminess. Ryan had requested a repeat of yesterday's Sunshine Burger falafel wraps because he loved them so much (actually fell down on the floor in bliss describing their deliciousness), but when he saw and SMELLED what was in the pan he was very excited.

Ryan's lunch: peanuts; honeydew melon; raspberries; broccoli; Sunshine Burger Breakfast rice.
Sunshine Burger Breakfast Rice

1 T. Earth Balance (opt.)
1 T. olive oil
2-3 T. diced onion
1 Sunshine Burger
Breakfast pattie
2 cups cooked rice
1/4-1/2 tsp. salt
1/8-1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Heat Earth Balance & olive oil over medium heat. Add onion & crumble in the Sunshine Burger. Saute for a minute or so. Add rice & remaining ingredients, raising heat slightly if necessary. Stir almost constantly for another minute or two. Done! Feel free to add in some diced veggies with the burger to round out the meal.

On to AJ's lunch...I am going to refrain from introducing new dishes to him in his school lunches. He responds best to new things while assisting me in the kitchen or eating them in the company of his siblings. So for him I took two rice balls out of the freezer, a handy thing to have ready to speed up lunch prep...they just need to be nuked briefly and they're ready to go.

AJ's lunch: rice balls with goma shio & rice cheese stars w/nori faces; broccoli; honeydew melon; raspberries; peanuts, cashews & raisins.

food fit for the weekend

I've been picking lots of hot
peppers and tomatillos at the
farm each week, but not
using them. They were really
starting to mount up, so it
was time to get my hands
burning and cook up some
salsa, hot sauce, and tomatillo
salsa. Salsa is pretty self-
explanatory, and hot sauce
hardly qualifies as a recipe. But I find many people wonder what to do with tomatillos. A salsa verde is simple and quick, and is great with chips, over burritos, even on some rice.

Smooth Salsa Verde

8 large tomatillos
2-3 green or yellow hot
peppers
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups water
2 T. cilantro

Remove husks from toma-
tillos and give them a quick
rinse. Quarter them and
place in a pot. Add the salt.

Halve the hot peppers and
remove the seeds and ribs.
Slice and put in pot. Roughly
chop the garlic and add to pot. Add the water, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 15-20 minutes. Cool a bit, then move all ingredients minus half the liquid to a blender or food processor (I use a large slotted spoon, then pour in half the remained liquid). Add the cilantro. Puree until no more chunks remain.

More grownup food...amazing mushrooms on toast, vegan version of Jamie Oliver's Mushroom Bruschetta. Sooooo goooooood...
It really pays to get a good variety of mushrooms. I bought these, until like Jamie, because I can only identify one kind of wild mushrooms reliably. I really want to learn more, and there was an awesome "wild edibles" hike at our CSA last summer, but unfortunately I had just given birth and missed it. I hope they do it again one of these years.

Sometimes on the weekends I like to make feeding the kids breakfast easy on myself. So I just make up a serving platter of items and they take what they like...
Above: banana; bread with peanut butter; bread with Earth Balance; apple slices; roasted almonds.

Below: bread with raspberry jam; husked ground cherries; raisins; mini zucchini muffins; banana slices; dried apricots; peanuts.

Alphabet Breakfast

Ryan's lunch pbj sandwich w/"ABC" soy cheese; green beans; cherries; soy cheese cubes.

AJ's snack: green
beans; soy cheese
cubes; pretzel
nuggets; a cherry;
raisins; mini
waffles.



Nate's lunch: mini
waffles; green beans;
cherries; soy cheese
cubes.

I unloaded the camera
before taking a pic of
Nate's cupcake--tomorrow!

The kindergarten classes at Ryan's school had alphabet breakfasts this morning. Ryan picked out the letter "W", so we brought mini waffles. Luckily we live close to the school so we could toast them 5 minutes before the breakfast and they were still warm.

Ryan
chose
his
food:
grapes;
waffles;
rasp-
berries;
pine-
apple;
a lolli-
pop!

There
were
some
rather
unique
ideas
for 'breakfast foods' brought to class...I'll try to remember what was there...

A - apple cinnamon muffins
B - banana bread
C - cantaloupe
D - donuts
E - --
F - fruit salad
G - grapes
H - ham quiche
I - iced tea
J - Jaylin's Jacks (Apple
Jacks cereal with a kid's
name pasted over 'Apple')


K - --
L - Lucky Charms
M - milk
N - NutriGrain bars
O - lollipops (they're round??)
P - pineapple
Q - quiche
R - raspberries
S - strawberry yogurt
T - Triscuits
U - (pineapple) upsidedown cake
V - V8 Splash juice
W - waffles
X - --
Y - yogurt
Z - --

When we chose waffles to bring, we decided to an exercise with the kids listing all vegan foods we could bring for each letter. Here's our list for an imaginary kid-friendly vegan alphabet breakfast:

A - apples.
B - bananas; bagels; blueberries.
C - cantaloupe; cream cheez (for bagels).
D - doughnuts.
E - Earth Balance (margarine for toast).
F - figs; frittata (tofu).
G - grapes; graham crackers; granola.
H - home fries.
I - iced tea.
J - jam (for toast); juice.
K - ketchup (for the home fries).
L - lemonade.
M - maple syrup; mangoes; muffins.
N - nuts; nectarines.
O - oatmeal; oranges; orange juice.
P - pancakes; pineapple; peanut butter.
Q - quiche (tofu); quinoa.
R - raisins; raspberries.
S - strawberries; starfruit; smoothies.
T - toast; tea.
U - upsidedown cake; uglifruit.
V - vanilla almond granola; vanilla soy/coconut yogurt.
W - waffles; watermelon.
X - xigua (Chinese pronunciation of watermelon).
Y - yogurt (soy or coconut).
Z - zucchini tofu frittata; zucchini muffins/bread.

And don't forget to check out the awesome book Eating The Alphabet, by Lois Elhert that I included in my holiday kids vegan book review last year!

Teacher conferences in pajamas!

Yes, I wore my pajamas, Hello Kitty pajamas, to two parent-teacher conferences today. There was a reason--my 5 year old's pajama breakfast (or brunch really) at preschool--but ya' know I'd have probably done it anyway as I often don't get dressed til the afternoon anyhow, if at all. Four kids will do that to a person.

I sent vegan equivalents
of bagel w/cream cheese
(Tofutti cream cheese),
scrambled eggs (broccoli &
onion tofu quiche), pancakes
(just basic vegan pancakes
made with Vitasoy soymilk),
and real maple syrup versus
corn syrup sweetened fake
syrup. I tossed in some raisins too.
For the class we provided sliced oranges, and a bag of oranges so the kids could learn to squeeze their own juice. There were also banana slices & strawberries, cut by the kids. This was a huge amount of food, but AJ ate all but a few crumbs plus some of the class fruit, and a full size drink box of Rice Dream rice milk!
Instead of allowing the leftover fruit and class bagel pieces to be tossed in the trash, we brought them home and made fruit smoothies with coconut milk, and spread some peanut butter on the bagel pieces.

Just beforehand we met with
Nate's teacher for spring
parent-teacher conferences.
Maia came along and played on
the floor while we chatted with
his wonderful teacher. She is
just so great with the toddler
age. I wouldn't normally consider
sending a 2 year old to preschool,
but when we visited the school for
Ryan when he was 3 and found
out about the toddler class, we
just had to send AJ too. It's been a great experience for everyone. The boys have all loved going to school, never a complaint!

So this is AJ's third and
final year in preschool. I
think he will miss it!

Since he was having
breakfast for lunch, I
just gave the other boys
the same food in their
lunches...



Nate's lunch: pancakes w/maple syrup; sliced strawberries; piece of broccoli & onion tofu quiche; bagel w/Tofutti cream cheese.

Ryan's
lunch:
same
as his
brothers'
lunches,
with the
addition
of some
dried
apricots.

At Ryan's
parent-
teacher
conference
today,
one of the
assisant
teacher's who apparently ends up on cafeteria duty commented on his awesome lunches. And his teacher said he is "very ready for 1st grade" and is doing so well in all areas of school.