Ramen and chickpeas

Groceries were running a bit low so I went with some packaged things today. Ramen, canned chickpeas with tomatoes, carrot, and parsley, and a few more cookies.

Seeing as Monday is Yom Kippur I have no school and I obviously won't be eating lunch. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday.

Chik'n patty, pita, carrot oat cookies

Sliced banana, strawberry soy yogurt whole wheat pita with hummus, ketchup with Boca chik'n patty. I miss the Morningstar Farm ones from my lacto-ovo days, they were way better. Carrot oat cookies that I made last night. I used this recipe but I added another flax egg to make them softer. They worked out great but in the future I might use a bit less salt.

Pasta Salad

I took the leftover pasta from yesterday and made pasta salad. It has pasta, tomatoes (from the garden), fresh basil, oregano, salt, pepper, carrot, an Israeli pickle, a little garlic, and olive oil. I would have used more veggies but there aren't many in the house. Had I been eating at home I would have added some nutritional yeast but I think the stuff smells terrible so I held off.

Packed alongside the pasta is a pear and a mix of sunflower seeds, raw cashews, chocolate chips, and Craisins. I was going to take a soy yogurt buy I decided against it at the last minute since I had some things to do during lunch.


Question: I've seen lots of things online about people eating raw nuts. Is there some reason why you aren't supposed to eat them raw? My mom is convinced that it will make me sick but I'm far too lazy to toast them and we have a big bag of raw almonds and another of cashews. I've never experienced any ill side effects.


I baked some carrot oat cookies tonight, expect to see them in tomorrow's lunch.

Pasta

Leftover pasta, green grapes, a plum (hiding under the peaches), and peaches.

Waffles and soy yogurt

Another quick lunch today. Oatmeal raisin waffles from the freezer (recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance), an apple, raw almonds, and a Silk blueberry soy yogurt. Every few weekends I make a big batch of waffles and freeze most of them so that I have quick breakfasts (or in this case, lunches) during the week.

In addition to my lunch box, I carry my trusty Nalgene bottle every day. I even have a nifty little lid to stop me from spilling water all over myself.

Sick

I'm home sick from school so no lunch from yesterday or today. With my trusty box of tissues by my side I will hopefully return in full force on Monday.

Veggie burger with guacamole

I was feeling terrible this morning but I ended up dragging myself into school a little late. For lunch I had an apple (with some OJ on it to keep it from browning) and a Dr. Prager's veggie burger with cucumber and guacamole in a pita. The guacamole got a little brown on top from being made the night before but it tasted fine.

For now I'm drinking some tea with lemon and hoping I'll feel better tomorrow.

Baked ziti

Yummy leftover lunch today. I made baked ziti last night by mixing cooked ziti with tofu ricotta (crumbled tofu plus garlic, oregano, basil, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper). I covered the bottom of the pan with tomato sauce, then layered on the pasta/tofu mixture with the sauce. I cooked it until it was all hot and a little crunchy on top, probably about 25 minutes on 350°.



On the side I packed green grapes and 2 small cucumbers with hummus. A small plastic shot glass is the perfect container for my hummus. It held just the right amount (1 oz, which is coincidentally 1 serving) and traveled beautifully with a tiny piece of plastic wrap on top. Two thumbs up.

Pita and hummus

Today was a last minute lunch thrown together right before running out the door. In my laziness last night, I didn't pack anything which I knew I would regret. I realized my lack of lunch at precisely 6:46 this morning, ran around like crazy, sprinted to get the camera, took a picture, and was out of the door, reheated oatmeal raisin waffle in hand (recipe courtesy of Vegan with a Vengeance) by 6:47:48. Fairly impressive for a sleep deprived teenager. I wish my school started at at least 8 instead of 7:20.

Pita bread, Sabra brand hummus, raw almonds, and a delicious local apple.

Crispy tofu sticks

Freeze and then defrost tofu. Cut into pieces. Put each piece in plain soymilk and then coat in seasoned breadcrumbs. Broil on the top shelf of the oven about 5 minutes per side or until they are brown and crispy. Eat with ketchup. Delicious.

It was a lazy night. I also had beans (seen in the background) which was just a can of kidney beans with veggie crumbles, some frozen veggies, and some spices. Took about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Sandwich and strawberries

Friday's lunch consisted of two carrots, strawberries, pretzels, and a sandwich with peanut butter, chocolate chips, and raisins. The bread is 8-grain bread from the ever-loved Costco. A woman at my summer job calls raisins "nature's little candy". The term makes me cringe but they are really good. The carrots ended up being really bitter and a disappointment.


I've been seeing a lot more deer lately. Besides almost hitting one with the car, I kind of like seeing them. While I was eating dinner I saw four with huge antlers in the backyard. I went out to get my camera but they got scared and ran away. Since I have a crappy camera with only a digital zoom, I wasn't able to get their picture. As I was walking back inside I saw two babies and two mother deer in the middle of the street. One of the babies was suckling from it's mother. I scared them out of the street so that they wouldn't get hit by a car. Ahh, suburbia, how I love thee.

Couscous and banana bread

Leftover whole wheat couscous with frozen vegetables, homemade banana bread, more grapes, and salted peanuts. My mom is awesome. As she's making banana bread she yells up to me, "Michelle, what should I do? There are eggs in this recipe!". As any hungry vegan good daughter would do, I went down and helped out.

Banana Nut Bread
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 flax eggs (2 T ground flax + 6 T water)
1 cup mashed banana (about two ripe bananas)
1 3/4 cup flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix together the sugar and flax eggs. Mix the mashed bananas, oil and nuts into the sugar mixture. At the flour mixture and combine. Pour into a 9x5 greased pan and bake at 325°F for one hour.

Modified from "Banana Nut Loaf", page 166 of Mother Earth's Hassle-Free Vegetable Cookbook by Joel Rapp

Fruits and Veggie

Apologies for the delay, life is hectic. Yesterday's lunch, pictured below, includes black grapes, most of a yellow bell pepper, an apple, and some pretzels/almonds/chocolate/Craisins.


Today's lunch was thoroughly unexciting and completely not photogenic. It should therefore not be a huge disappointment to you to know that I didn't manage to get a picture. I had 2 rice cakes with natural peanut butter, a plum, dried apricots, and some almonds.

Veggie Burger and whatnot

Tomorrow's lunch is all packed and ready to go. I have a mini whole wheat pita with a Dr. Prager's Italian burger (the only variety of Prager burgers worth eating). I also have baby carrots, black grapes, and a mixture of pretzels, almonds, chocolate chips, and Craisins. I've discovered that my half cup containers fit really nicely inside my lunch box and work well to create another section. As an added bonus, they have lids, meaning that I can take something that is moist or wet without making my whole lunch soggy. I can fit two of these lidded containers in the large section and if need be, they also fit in the smaller sections. Here's to a happy Monday.

Packing my lunches the night before adds a challenge to my lunch making. Not only does my lunch need to survive from 7:20AM - 12:10 PM, but it also has to last the night in the refrigerator. I'm not sure whether or not the pitas will get soggy, but I guess I'll find out. Sometimes I wish I was a morning person.

Pita sandwiches, cantaloupe, curry roasted vegetables

Day two of school lunches. Today I packed one mini pita with natural peanut butter and another half a pita with hummus. I also packed baby carrots, raw almonds, a cute little Italian plum, and pretzels mixed with Craisins and chocolate chips (the store brand is vegan!). I also stuck a granola bar in my bag but never got around to eating it.

My only complaint about this container is that the sections don't reach all the way up to the lid. I store my lunch sideways in my bag and when I open it some of the contents always seem to have migrated. Today all of my almonds ended up in the container with the pretzels and a couple pretzels ended up in the carrots (gross, soggy pretzels). I really have no other place to store my food for the almost six hours before my lunch, so I guess I'll just have to be careful with what I pack.


We picked the one on the left from the garden, the one on the right came from the store. Our cantaloupe wasn't quite ripe but the plant died so we had no choice but to pick it. Oh well, the plant was actually a stray one that sprouted up from compost that obviously wasn't composted enough.

I made some really yummy curry roasted veggies tonight and posted the recipe over at Veggieboards. Happy Friday, everyone!

First day of school

And so I return from my first day of school with many textbooks and little inspiration for making good lunches. At least I can leave the books at home the rest of the year.


That being said, I'm starting off a new year of school lunches without much of a bang. Brown rice, an apple, soy pudding, and half a PB sandwich. Pretzels to be added later. I'm quite pleased that my container is just the right size to hold both my apple and my pudding cup

Carrot Cookies and Cross Stitch

Since I finished all my summer work from school today (a whopping 4 days before school starts) I decided to make cookies to celebrate. I veganized these out of a cookbook we had lying around the house.



Carrot Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 flax egg (3 TBSP water + 1 TBSP ground flax seeds) or other egg replacer equivalent to one egg
2 cups sifted whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups oats, uncooked
1 cup diced dried fruit (raisins or dried cranberries are good)
1 cup shredded (not too finely) carrots
1 cup chopped nuts


Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat margarine and sugars until well mixed. Add egg substitute and mix well. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to margarine mixture and mix well. Stir in oats, dried fruit, carrots, and nuts. The dough will be a little crumbly so this is easiest to do with your hands. Just make sure you wash them well before you start.

Roll balls of dough in your hands (about a tablespoon full) and flatten slightly. Place on ungreased cookie sheets (the cookies won't spread much so they can be fairly close together) and bake in the preheated over for 25 minutes. They will brown slightly. Transfer to racks to cool.

Makes about 32 cookies.

These cookies are great, especially when they are still warm. They are a little crisp on the outside but perfect and chewy on the inside.

Modified from Carrot Cookies on page 19 of Cookies: Food Writers' Favorites edited by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane Baker



I was cleaning up my room today and I found this cross stitch from I have no idea how long ago. I think I'll finish it just to give me something to do since I really don't want a Tigger cross stitch.

Pizza, Costco, and an epic tale of a search for the perfect lunch box

After much deliberation, I decided on purchasing this container for my lunches once school starts (ahh, less than a week from now). I looked at a ton of different options online. At first I wanted a laptop lunch box, but they are kind of pricey and I saw some bad reviews. For that kind of money I don't want containers that crack and leak. I then investigated bento boxes on eBay and Amazon but I wasn't too thrilled with any of them. I was looking for something relatively flat (2 1/2 inches or shorter) that would seal well and had at least 3 sections. I ended up getting this container at Kmart for a grand total of $6.99. I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, but it looks good to me. It's from the Martha Stewart collection and is microwave and freezer safe. I'll check back with a review once school starts.


Tonight I made pizza for dinner. Only problem: I made the dough before I realized that we really had nothing to top it with. I ended up running to the garden to get an eggplant and slicing a potato on the mandolin. I even found a little bit of bell pepper in the back of the refrigerator. Add jarred tomato sauce and you get pizza! I really wanted the tempeh sausage crumbles from Vegan with a Vengeance, but I didn't really have the time to make them since I was going to celebrate a friend's birthday at TGI Friday's right afterwards (where incidentally, I just ordered a big salad with no cheese and no croutons).


Ironically, as soon as the pizza went in the oven my parents got home from Costco with lots of things I could have put on my pizza. They bought a ton of awesome things including craisins, salad greens, grapes, strawberries, vine tomatoes, and the biggest tub of hummus that I've ever seen. I'm not really sure how three people are going to finish that much hummus before it goes bad, but we can worry about that later.

I'm a real blogger now!

I have now been vegan for almost six months, and I've enjoyed [almost] every minute of it. This blog will soon include lots of yummy food photos (hopefully lots of packed lunches) and crafty endeavours. Here's to blogging!