Almost Potato Week

I'm a huge Vampire Diaries fan. And the season 3 premiere is coming up this week. I had some grand plans, only one of which has made it to reality thus far. This bento is MINE.
I created the ribbon and blood drop out of blanched red pepper. And I added baked some Sophie's Kitchen vegan breaded shrimp (frighteningly realistic actually).
It was almost too cool to eat! TVD bento: pineapple, orange cherry tomato "vampire" (with the closest thing I had to Ian Somerhalder's signature hat), blanched spinach, steamed broccoli, edamame, vegan breaded shrimp, rice.
Ryan & AJ's lunches: brown rice w/veggies; vegan breaded shrimp; edamame; steamed broccoli; pineapple; lemon cookie; potato leek kale soup (w/side of smoked salt).

The
boys

deci-

ded

that

this

week

would

be

"potato

week"

because

we'd

gotten

lots of

local

potatoes

from

our

CSA.

Soup

yester-

day, Alton Brown potato salad today.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: potato salad; Gardein crisp tenders; green beans.

But potato week didn't quite go as planned. I pulled out these yummy spinach tofu quiches from the oven and popped in a baking sheet full of sweet potatoes wedges. Half way through, the oven promptly turned off and displayed an error code. Now, I love my new oven to bits, but according to the GE website, all error codes are proceeded by the letter "F", and all mine as showing was a red "5". Go figure. So I abandoned the sweet potato fries (yuck, half-cooked sweet potatoes? Hopefully the squirrels enjoyed them from the compost). Luckily I still had some rice in the rice cooker from the night before...
Ryan & AJ's lunches: garlic broccoli stir-fry; spinach tofu quiche w/cheddar Daiya cheese; rice.

By the next morning we'd solved the oven malfunction...by turning off the circuit breaker for the entire house (yes, we tried the individual ones for the kitchen first, but it was unsuccessful).

Ryan & AJ's lunches: mashed purple potatoes; blanched spinach w/peanut sauce; simmered shiitake mushrooms; edamame.

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.

Family Food

This summer the kids don't have any activities where they are away from home during mealtimes. There have been very few bento-making opportunities. So I thought I'd share a bit of our lunch & dinner fare...When I'm not going to be home for a meal with the kids, or if I'm not eating with them for some other reason, sometimes I just put a big plate of food on the table (or picnic table, or floor, whatever!) and they choose what they want.

Other times I'll put out a muffin tin meal. Having a meal of all finger foods is fun for the kids (you know, I bet it would be fun for adults too!).

Summer is full of local veggies from Stearns Farm, so they are the centerpiece of most meals. Often it's easiest to just roast a variety in the oven.













Sit down lunches & dinners at the table are usually family-style now that everyone is old enough. It takes a lot of food to feed everyone nowadays!












Camping can be challenging. I need to bring along more reuasables and fewer disposables. We create a bag of recycling every day, but I need to learn how to create less waste when outdoors for multiple days.

One of my favourite
camping foods is Tasty
Bite meals. Most of
them are vegan, and
I love a spicy meal
when outdoors. The
packaging is actually
pretty minimal compared
to most other shelf-stable
food items. When I'm
alone I eat them right
out the package.

A quick food for camping
or at home is cous cous.
This tiny pasta is effort-
less to prepare, and it
goes with just about
anything.







Oh, and let's not
forget...Maia turned
3! Happy birthday!

Restaurant Review: Grasshopper

Grasshopper
Allston, MA

So funny, I think
VeggieBean and I
were shadowing one
another at various
Boston area restaurants
this past spring. We
visited Grasshopper on
Mother's Day, and
clearly Sarah had just been there too since a review of the restaurant popped up on her blog just the week before. And of course we both gave a nod to the ubiquitous veggie "chicken" fingers that most everyone loves--the pinnacle of battered deep-fried junk, but oh you just must find a way to rationalize them once or twice a year. So scrumptious.

If you haven't guessed,
Grasshopper is a vegan
asian restaurant. There
are a few around Boston,
but my kids have really
taken a liking to
Grasshopper. The menu
has all the Chinese
restaurant standard
fixtures: spring rolls,
wonton soup, lo mein. Plus
they have many unique
items, even desserts--can you say vegan strawberry cheesecake?!

The menu is ginormous,
and then they always
have delicious specials
every day on top of the
usual selection. It's
hard to choose! Luckily
we have a big family so
we can order a lot to
share. This time I tried
a kale, mushroom, seitan
& veggie stir-fry that
was excellent.

So is there anything NOT
good about Grasshopper??
Well, yes, actually there is:
They don't deliver! You can
eat in, or take out, but they
don't deliver AT ALL. But
it's worth the trip to eat in,
and they have great hours:

11am-10pm daily, except
noon-10pm on sundays.

So if you haven't already,
get yourself over to the
Boston borough of Allston
and have a good meal.

Grasshopper is located
at 1 N. Beacon Street.

617-254-8883

And check out their website,
because you can order online!

burnt out

Could you tell? The end of the school year had me burned out from lunches, cooking, eating...too many end of the year this & thats, the internationally traveling husband, and new activities for the kids.

Before I move along more interesting posts, I have to catch up, so here goes... longest post EVER...

Lunches & snack: Good Dog rounds; steamed broccoli; Ian's Alphatots; side of ketchup.













Upper left: cantaloupe; sandwich; cucumber slices; carrot; apricots/raisins.
Upper right: oyster crackers; cucumber slices; steamed broccoli; mashed potatoes; spicy baked tofu.
Lower left: carrot; steamed broccoli; pickle; apricot; chocolate chip cookie; smoked Tofurky, Vegan Gourmet monterey jack cheese, lettuce on flax lavash wrap bread.
Lower right (Maia's): cucumber slices; apricots; carrot; 1/4 sandwich; cantaloupe.













Maia's lunch: soy cheese slices; Tofurky slice; chocolate chip cookie; steamed broccoli; carrot; pickle; apricot.






















Upper left: pineapple; cucumber slices; leftover asian stirfry over rice.
Upper right: orange wedges; blanched spinach; hummus & cucumber sandwiches; chocolate chip cookie.
Lower left (Maia's): 1/2 english muffin sandwich; blueberries; grapes; carrot; pickle slices.
Lower right: english muffin sandwiches; carrots; grapes & blueberries; cucumber slices.

Ryan & AJ's lunches:
steamed broccoli;
Tofurky slices;
cucumber slices;
cantaloupe & grapes;
sandwiches.






Maia's lunch:
cantaloupe & grapes;
steamed broccoli;
Tofurky slices;
1/2 cinnamon
raisin bagel.





Lunch: cantaloupe; cucumber slices; broccoli cheddar crescent rolls; peanuts.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
water-
melon;
Tofurky
slices;
cuc-
mber
slices;
peanuts;
pickle;
carrots;
banana
blue-
berry
mini
muffins.





Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
spicy
sweet
potato
waffle
fries;
carrots;
green
beans;
side of
ketchup;
mini
banana
blue-
berry
muffins.





Maia's lunch: carrots; green beans; mini banana blueberry muffin spicy sweet potato fries; side of ketchup.

Ryan & AJ's lunches:
carrot; steamed broccoli;
cucumber slices; peanuts;
apricots/raisins;
sandwiches.







Maia's lunch: pizza rollup; steamed broccoli; carrots; tomato; pickle; watermelon.
Ryan & AJ's lunches: pizza rollups; watermelon; steamed broccoli; cashews; carrots.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: soy yogurts; dark chocolate square; carrots; english muffin sandwiches.

Ryan & AJ's lunches:
Sunshine Burgers on
buns; carrots; pickle;
blanched spinach;
pineapple.







Lunches: green grapes; Tofurky slices; steamed broccoli; blueberries; carrots; tofu spinach stuffed pasta shells.

Ryan & AJ's lunches:
cinnamon raisin bagels;
soy cheese cubes;
Tofurky slices; carrot;
pickle; watermelon.







Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
broc-
coli
onion
tofu
mini
quiches;
baked
sweet
potato
fries;
side of
ketchup;
water-
melon.






Maia's lunch:
watermelon;
mini broccoli onion
tofu quiche; baked
sweet potato fries;
side of ketchup.



Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
peanuts;
pickle;
carrots;
blanched
spinach;
water-
melon;
crack-
ers w/
soy
cheese
and
Tofurky
slices;
raisins
and
apricots.















Lunches: rice pilaf w/green beans; blueberries/mixed nuts; Tofurky slices; carrots.

Ryan & AJ's
lunches:
grapes;
sand-
wiches;
cucumber
slices;
peanuts.














Ryan & AJ's lunches:
banana blueberry mini
muffins; carrots; raisins;
grapes; steamed broccoli;
cucumber slices; peanuts.





Maia's lunch:
grapes; steamed
broccoli; carrot;
black olive; mini
banana blueberry
muffin; pickles;
cucumber slices;
cheddar soy
cheese;
snow peas.










Ryan's lunch: peanut butter & agave nectar rollups; steamed broccoli; carrots; pickle; black olive; mini banan blueberry muffin; pineapple mango salsa; cucumber slices.

Maia's lunch: blueberries; snow peas; pickle; Tofurky slice; rice cube with goma shio; blanched spinach; cucumber slices.













Upper left: rice cubes w/goma shio; blanched spinach; Tofurky slices; cucumber slices; grapes; mini muffin.
Upper right: grapes/strawberries; sandwiches; carrots; pickle.
Lower left: cantaloupe & grapes; kale & veggie sausage; carrot; pickle; brownie; mini muffin.
Lower right (Maia's): cantaloupe; blueberries; strawberries; kale & veggie sausage.













Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
1/2 an
apple;
steamed
broc-
coli:
english
muffin
pizza;
choc-
olate &
vanilla
soy
pudding.



















Lunches (left): baguette slices; steamed broccoli; chocolate chip cookie; apple slices; sesame tofu.
Lunches (right): english muffin pizzas; green beans; watermelon.

Ryan & AJ's lunches: cashews; carrots; orange slices; brocolini stem fried rice.













Lunches (left): sesame noodles w/spinach; strawberries/watermelon; edamame.
Lunches (right): english muffin sandwiches; apple rhubarb crumble; steamed broccoli; carrots.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
mini
banana
blue-
berry
muffins;
straw-
berries/
raisins;
pickle;
carrots;
eda-
mame;
cucu-
mber
slices.





So that's that for the school year! In a few months I'll have 3 boys in the same school in 3rd grade, 2nd grade, & kindergarten. And Maia will continue in preschool, but 3 morning a week.