Adieu Irene

Hurricane Irene was

only a tropical storm

by the time it arrived

in Massachusetts last

week, but it was enough

to knock out power to

most of the state. We

were without electricity

for about 48 hours,

which was fine, except

for the refrigerator

situation! I was crossing

my fingers that we would have power back by tuesday for the first day of school so I could pack decent bentos of course! And luckily, the night before, shortly after 6pm, we were up and running again...just in time for my husband to arrive home from Seattle with no real idea of what we'd all endured over the past few days.

I managed to salvage quite a lot of the food. Since it's all vegan, and largely produce, most of it was fine without refrigeration. The hardest part was breaking the kids' habit of randomly opening the fridge to look for snacks throughout the day!

Ryan & AJ's 1st day of school lunches: pinwheel tofu salad sandwiches w/cucumber letters; cantaloupe balls; green beans.

Here are Ryan & AJ off to third and second grades, and Nate ready to head off to his first day of kindergarten! His teacher has asked that I leave a selection of non-perishable snack items in his classroom, so no bentos for him until next year! Sigh.

For the second day of school, Ryan requested he help to make strawberry cream cheese. He chopped up some berries and mixed it with Tofutti cream cheese for bagels.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: cucumber slices; fresh pineapple; roasted chick peas; steamed broccoli; mini bagels with strawberry cream cheese.

Time for some sushi! Ryan and I recently went to the new Wasabi sushi train at the local mall. It was very impressive and had him in a sushi sort of mood.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: sesame tofu & vegetable maki sushi w/side of soy sauce; tiny square of Lake Champlain dark chocolate w/almonds; apple slices; carrots; steamed broccoli; a strawberry; edamame.

I was in the mood for smoked tempeh, so I sauteed some Lightlife Fakin' Bacon. I don't buy it often because Whole Foods has increased the price to just shy of ludicrous, but sometimes I just have to treat myself.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: tempeh, lettuce & tomatoes sandwiches on toasted french bread; mini zucchini muffin; dried apricots; pickles; Tofurky & soy cheese clover garnish; carrots; cucumber slices.

Now, for the reason I

REALLY bought the

smoked tempeh strips!

I dreamed this, and I

just HAD to try it:

smoked tempeh &

artichoke heart maki.

Yes, really.

I sauteed the artichoke hearts in Earth Balance and garlic powder until lightly browned. It was

delicious. But...

...I had to fulfill the dream meal and tempura batter and fry more of them, topped with Sriracha laced Vegenaise. O.M.G. Worth every friggin' calorie. These would have made wonderful additions to a bento, but I could barely bring myself to share them at all, and they disappeared quicker than Harry under his invisibility cloak.

For a quicker look at daily bentos, vegan goodies, and environmental news, follow "veganf" on Twitter.

Elm Bank

From time to time we've ventured down to Wellesley to Elm Bank, a 36 acre garden and grounds of the Massachusetts Horticultural Center. It really is a beautiful place when everything is in bloom, and this time it was host to the Massachusetts Marketplace Festival.

Teeming with enough vendors to empty your wallet and tempt every sweettooth, the festival celebrated New England's farmers, specialty food producers & artisans. Our personal favourite was Vision's Sown, bakers of delicious cookies made with minimally processed and ancient grains; I hope they make their way to our local farmer's market or Whole Foods soon!

I was a little disappointed after cheerfully shelling out admission for myself and four kids, that I then had to pay for separate tickets for almost every activity the kids wanted to do--I must have missed this somehow in their online advertising. I understand there was fundraising to be done, but I don't normally carry a lot of cash, even for bouncy houses and face painting.

But really, we couldn't pass up the expertise of the face painter...
























Other activities included glitter tattoos, hayride, & butterfly crafts (which were free, yay!). There were ample shaded picnic tables available for our picnic lunch...






















Butterflies seemed to be the theme of our day, with Maia choosing a butterfly design for her face, and all of the kids colouring a butterfly puppet. Right behind the butterfly table was a purple butterfly bush--and as if on cue, a beautiful one descended to the flowers for the occasion...

The kids were enthralled, and played along with their puppets...






















Much of our time at Elm Bank was spent in Weezie's Children's Garden. We have come here before to meet up with friends--it's a wonderful creatively landscaped children's play area.

If you're in the area, Elm Bank is worth a visit, festival or no!

April showers & some flowers

We've been spending lots of time outside enjoying the spring weather. Time for picnics at the park! After watching the Boston Marathon pass through our town, we walked to a nearby playground for lunch and some fun.I brought along a picnic bento of finger foods for everyone to share.

And here are some lunches from April:
Ryan & AJ's lunches: peanuts; cucumber slices; stir-fried broccoli over rice.

Maia's lunch was
similar: a strawberry;
a pickle; cucumber slices;
stir-fried broccoli over
rice.

It's trickier making a
complete lunch without
nuts for preschool.


Ryan & AJ's lunches:
cupcakes; sandwiches;
pickle; carrots.






Ryan & AJ's lunches:
Thermos' of tofu-herb
ravioli; pickle; carrots;
grapes; strawberries.





You can always tell when
the spring rains arrive--
my pics get dark & gloomy.
Ryan & AJ's lunches: somen
noodles with sesame tofu &
steamed broccoli; carrots;
grapes; apricots/raisins;
mini banana muffins.Maia's lunch: apricots; grapes; steamed broccoli; somen noodles w/sesame tofu; carrot; pickle; snap peas.
























Happy spring!

volcanoes & pajamas

Ryan had a volcano in his lunch on monday, because that night he would be presenting his volcano project at the district's iNight for gifted students. His lunch was made of: steamed broccoli; his favourite Tofurky, lettuce, soy cheese sandwich with Tofurky volcano, ketchup lava, & rice cheese letters; and a chocolate chip cookie.

Here are Maia and Nate watching Ryan do an experiment with yeast and hydrogen peroxide to illustrate pressure inside a volcano.

AJ had a similar
lunch, with his
name in the center
of his sandwich.





Tuesday
lunch:
pasta
salad;
banana
walnut
mini
muffin;
sesame
tofu;
carrot;
canta-
loupe.










Wednesday's lunches: Thermos of artichoke olive ravioli w/sauce; 1/2 an apple; green grapes; carrots; cucumber slices; snap peas.

Thursday I decided
to start looking ahead
to easter: tomato
couscous decorated
with rice cheese
"eggs"; green beans;
cantaloupe & purple
grapes.

I thought the grapes looked rather like jelly beans because they were so small and dark. For the couscous, I substituted a tomato-basil pasta sauce for 1/4 of the cooking liquid to give it a new flavour.

Friday:
pickle
slices;
carrots;
canta-
loupe;
mini
onion
broc-
coli
tofu
quiche;
toast.










Nate's class was having
its annual pajama
breakfast. In place of
scrambled eggs, I made
tofu quiche. I forgot to
buy bagels, so I cut a
piece of toast into a
circle and spread it with
Tofutti cream cheese;
and I sent pancakes along with real maple syrup. Nate loved everything. His class also had bananas, strawberries & grapes, and they squeezed their own orange juice.

a hike & lunch

On saturday Ryan & I went on a guided hike along the Bay Circuit Trail in Andover, MA sponsored by L.L. Bean, with the Bay Circuit Alliance chairman Alan French. It was great to learn some of the history of the trail, and plans for the future.

We began with a walk up Holt Hill with views to Boston and its suburbs.

























Ryan's lunch: cucumber salad; blanched spinach; edamame; simmered shiitake mushrooms; rice.

My lunch was essentially
the same, minus the
rice, with added orange
slices. It was nice to
finally have weather
warm enough to be
able to enjoy lunch
outside.




After lunch Ryan still wanted to hike a bit more. We took the bog trail at Ward Reservation, which is basically a floating boardwalk down to a pond. We spent a lot of time watching a snake make it's way through the bog beside us.