another 5 in a row

Another plain old week around here!
Ryan's lunch on Monday: 4 bean salad; cucumber slices; strawberry pear applesauce; vegetable crackers w/Tofutti cream cheese; strawberries.

AJ's kindergarten class is planning a "garbage garden" next week, so we've begun to save seeds from things like melons to bring in to contribute...
Ryan's lunch on Tuesday: watermelon; 1/2 a macadamia white chocolate Luna bar; corn thins; PBJ sandwich half circles; baby carrots; gherkin pickles; steamed broccoli; smoked Tofurky slice.

Leftovers almost always look better the second day when arranged nicely in a bento...
Ryan's lunch on Wednesday: honeydew melon; simmered shiitake mushrooms; rice w/green beans & asparagus; spicy baked tofu.

AJ asked for a "bigger" snack "like Ryan". He chose this over a chocolate chip ZBar!
AJ's snack: corn thins; honeydew melon; a baby carrot; a Tofurky slice.

A little breakfast for lunch...plus a token vegetable...I never count potato as a vegetable because it invariably gets topped or cooked with something junky...
Ryan's lunch on Thursday: home fries w/ketchup; honeydew melon; a pickle; a carrot; wheat toast w/strawberry jam; a zucchini brownie.

Some nice strawberries to go along with Ryan's special treat tonight. He finished reading the first Harry Potter book so we're going to make sundaes and watch the film...
Ryan's lunch on Friday: ramen noodles w/green beans & asparagus; cucumber slices; peanuts; baby carrots; strawberries.

Today was Nate's
preschool teacher's
birthday, so he made
her a card and brought
along a cupcake to
join in the celebration.

better than...

Remember this plant that
I finally identified as a
garlic mustard plant? Well...
look out basil, this is our
new favourite pesto maker!
And it's free for the taking,
tons of it. Actually, it's an
invasive weed. The nearby
town of Lincoln has an
annual garlic mustard pull,
collecting hundreds of
trash bags full of the stuff.
But what do they do with it once they've pulled it all? I'm sure some people realize what good culinary potential it has.

Using the upper leaves and the clump of flower buds before they'd bloomed, I whipped up this pesto that got raves from my husband...

Garlic Mustard Pesto

1 cup garlic mustard
1/2 cup walnuts
3 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 T. vegan parmesan
(optional)
1/4 cup olive oil

Wash the garlic mustard.
Drain and place in a food
processor with remaining
ingredients, adding the olive
oil last as it purees.

I serve it with chopped
tomato over whole grain pasta. It's also great with fresh bread.

Garlic mustard is ridiculously easy to find, but my favourite mushrooms are not. In fact I have not found them since moving to this area. I was super excited to find a log full of them last week, but of course I only had my camera phone and I don't have those pics to show yet. But I got some pics while prepping them at home that evening...

Here they are, washed and
trimmed, ready to be sliced
and then cooked. They are
commonly known as "chicken
mushrooms" or "sulphur
mushrooms" or even "chicken
of the woods". Laetiporus is
an easy to identify edible
shelf mushroom, often found on rotting oak trees growing in large shelf-like clumps or "brackets". This was a very fresh batch, as it had just stopped raining for 2-3 days the day before, and it was a nice warm humid spring day. I picked about what I knew we could eat right away, but I have frozen the raw mushrooms in the past with good results.

Here's how I prepared them...great for eating with a dollop of sour creme and/or avocado, or using as a fajita filling.

Shelf Mushroom Saute

2 T. olive oil
1 large onion, quartered
and sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bell peppers, sliced
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of salt
2-3 cups sliced mushrooms
1 tsp. lime juice
1 T. chopped cilantro

In a large non-stick pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, saute for a few minutes until they begin to soften, stirring often. Add garlic, saute for another couple of minutes. Add bell peppers, cayenne, salt, & mushrooms. When mushrooms are cooked through (about 5 minutes), add lime juice. Remove from heat, stir in cilantro, serve.

5 days

I have 5 days worth of lunches to post, and really none of them were worth their own entry, so I waited until friday!

Ryan's lunch on Monday: spicy baked tofu; broccoli; brown & white rice; a Lake Champlain dark chocolate; mango pieces; baby carrots; a pickle.

Ryan's
lunch
on Tues-
day:
dried
apri-
cots;
apple
slices;
cucu-
mber
slices;
black
bean
burr-
ito.

That
night
Ryan
could-
n't
find
his "Giraffey" before bed. You may not think that this would be important to a 7 year old boy, but it is. Turns out he was hiding behind the bathroom door. So I made the next day's lunch full of giraffes...
Ryan's lunch on Wednesday: mini giraffe creme cheese & jelly sandwiches; yellow bell pepper; steamed broccoli; peas; cucumber slices; gherkin pickles; baby carrots.

Ryan's lunch on Thursday: steamed broccoli; meatless meatballs; dried apricots; striped apple slices; a pickle; Thermos of Toy Story pasta with Daiya cheese.

I really had to scrounge for lunch material on Friday. Immediately after the boys were all at school I went grocery shopping, we were in desperate need...
Ryan's lunch on Friday: wheat burger bun w/creme cheese & jelly; cucumber slices; baby carrots; a pickle; summer squash brownie.

Imperial shuttle

Half way through making this bento I realized I shouldn't have! Ryan has not seen Return of the Jedi yet...I'm making him wait until he's closer to the age I was when I saw it...because I'm mean and evil that way, hahaha. Oh well...
Ryan's lunch: Tofurky sandwich w/ lettuce & soy cheese; carrots; cucumber wontons; green mini gel cup (you can pretend it's the forest moon of Endor if you'd like).

I was running short on time and went to get out the food markers to finish the details on the shuttle...and I couldn't find my set with the black marker in it! Did I throw them away?? Who knows. So maybe it looks stupid with blue, but whatever.

Hey, do you wanna lower my odds of winning a cool bento cookbook? Of course you do! Go visit Happy Little Bento by tomorrow and you too can comment for a chance to will a copy of Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook (second course), by Susan Yuen of Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook: Bentos and More for Kids.

chewie soba

Chewbacca is camoflaged in a food jungle!
Ryan's
lunch:
white
rice (I
ran out
of brown,
usually
I mix
the two);
soba
noodles
(with a
face of
nori,
black
bean,
and
tomato);
meat-
less
meat-
balls;
steamed
broccoli; foraged chickweed.

cantina characters

So many great Star Wars characters to choose from! I think I like how Greedo turned out best...
Ryan's lunch: tofu salad
sandwich on wheat bun,
topped with 4 Mos Eisley
cantina characters; straw-
berries; steamed broccoli.

From left to right...the jawa:
flax wheat rollup, nori,
carrot...the green-eyed alien:
smoked Tofurky, cucumber, nori...big headed musician: corn muffin, black olive, nori...Greedo: gherkin pickle, black olive, nori. Everthing was adhered using either Marmite or agave nectar.
The drinks are soy cheese, nori & blue food marker...and carrot and nori. The little white ice cubes (or maybe money?) are just soy cheese.

moisture farm meal

If you're working all day on Tatooine, I'd imagine a boxed lunch would come in handy...
Ryan's lunch: baked sweet potato strips; brown & white rice; smoked Tofurky; soy cheese; carrot & nori embellishments.

Making a rather monochromatic lunch and keeping it balanced nutritionally can be challenging. It also has to be made with foods that go well together, and that will actually be eaten. Cute lunches are great, but in my opinion they are worthless if they're not delicious too. I try my best to stick with the Japanese approach to bentos with more or less proper ratios of grain, vegetable & protein, with fruit added as a bonus (in this case Ryan had a fruit & vegetable juice on the side today, more than enough simple sugars for one meal). Sometimes fruit just lends itself well to carving or colourful kyaraben art, but I never let it replace vegetables in a meal. After this lunch, I'll just make sure to load on the green veggies at dinnertime.