let it roll

We're all about games in our family. Here's a simple lunch for the easy to please. The sandwich happens to be one of the kids' cousins' faves...which to them makes it even cooler.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
peanut
butter
& agave
nectar
sand-
wich
squares;
carrots;
cucu-
mber
slices;
grapes.

Cutting
carrots
into
shapes
takes
only a
minute,
and
punching out a few nori
dots with a hole punches
is almost too easy. But it
makes what would otherwise
be a very boring looking
meal into a fun kid-friendly
lunch perfect for an elementary
school lunchbox.


On to the preschool lunch...
Maia's lunch: mini pumpkin muffin; cucumber slices; red grapes; carrots; cherry tomato; pickle.

unintentional long weekend

When my husband travels I'm often less inclined to make an impressive meal. I end up skipping a lot of meals myself and just making simple food for the kids. Not great for VeganMofo, but what are you gonna do...he's away a lot this month. But he'll be back for a day and a half, so I made some sushi rice this morning--bento filling for the boys, an afternoon snack for my husband when he returns...and breakfast for me. :-)

Ryan & AJ's lunches: dried apricots for Ryan, raisins for AJ; cold sesame spinach; maki sushi: cucumber, green beans, & avocado; soy sauce; sesame tofu.

Now if you had any doubts about friday's absent sub-par lunches, here they are...

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
1/2 Amy's
rice &
bean
burrito;
apricots
for
Ryan,
raisins
for AJ;
soy
cheese
slices;
cucu-
mber
slices;
mini
pump-
kin
muffin;
cold spinach.

Don't Mess

...With Texas. It may have been a holiday, but Dada was off on back to back trips to Texas. So I made this snack for his flight.
Husband's snack: clementine on the side; spinach salad w/tomato slices, kalamata olives & chives w/Goddess dressing on the side; mini pumpkin muffin.

The tomatoes and chives are still from our CSA share last month! But there's only one more ripe tomato in the fruit bowl. Luckily the boys were happy to have more green tomato salsa with their lunch...
Top clockwise: sauteed Tofurky sausage & collard greens; pita chips; spinach & chive hummus; tortilla strips; green tomato salsa; waffle pretzels; baby carrots & cucumber slices.

a new low

Not only are my lunch pics more horrible than the badest worstest pics ever thanks to another soggy morning and an iPhone, but I let the boys leave for school wearing a Mario mustache and spiked hair. I'm awesome, hahahaha.Ryan & AJ's lunches: pickles; carrots; Tofurky slice; cinnamon apples; leftover mushroom spinach black olive pizza.
And here are the dudes...

Terrific Tuesday

I had lunches all but ready to go by 6:45am this morning. Then I took off to north central Mass for some hiking in the Pioneer Valley.

Ryan
& AJ's
lunches:
tofu
salad
on
wheat
buns;
straw-
berry
gel
cup;
green
beans;
carrot
rounds;
pickle.

Appar-
ently
Ryan's
friends
think
the little gel cups are really cool and ask him when he'll bring them again. Who woulda thought.

Maia's lunch: pickles; carrots; green beans; soy cheese; Tofurky; pea shoot.

I hiked from 9am-4pm
and the rain held off
pretty much the entire
time which was great.
I saw NO ONE on the
trails, and only two
people around the state
forest headquarters.
Very quiet day in the
woods! Of course I was
looking at a nice view
wondering what peak I
was seeing in the distance and what an idiot I feel like now, realizing I should've been using my Peak.ar app on my phone. But I'm guessing it was Monadnock.
I eat sooo much less when I'm off hiking all day...just a clementine, a banana, and a Luna bar. For dinner I had a cold package of Tasty Bite curry. It's amazing the habitual eating that occurs around the kids, sigh. Of course they bribed Dada to order pizza for dinner, LOL.

worst picture award

Wow. All my pics were terrible this morning! Maybe it had something to do with the sleet and rain and dark clouds? And no flash? And the iPhone camera? Possibly. No recipes either today. Such is life...Ryan & AJ's lunches: clementines; rice & beans garnished w/carrot flower & steamed broccoli; vegan rice krispie square; pickle; peanuts & smoked almonds; baby carrot; checkered apple.

That's all I got! Tomorrow I'll be off hiking, so I'll be packing up most of the lunches tonight before bed.

green tomatoes

There were a lot of nice looking green tomatoes left over at the farm, and most likely many of them wouldn't ripen before they rotted. So I brought home a flat of them and now I have to use them.

Tonight I made my rice cooker rice & beans, picked up a couple of bags of chips, and made salsa.

Green Tomato Salsa

6 small-medium green tomatoes, chopped (about 2-3 cups)
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 small hot pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon or lime juice
2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Let sit for 20 minutes before serving.

This
salsa
was so
good
I am
tempt-
ed to
make
and
eat
nothing
else
but
this
for a
week...
well,
along
with
a marg
arita!
But I
supp-
ose that's too many chips, so I'd better come up with some other ideas too. But this is one of my favourite salsas ever. I love chunky crunchy salsa that isn't a bowl of homogeneous mush. Even the older boys loved it.