Vegan Bento

I decided to bake bread today.

Mom told me once that she doesn’t like it because it’s a lot of work and makes a big mess but I disagree. I don’t think it takes so much work,  and as for the mess, I just do it all in my largest bowl and always have.

I’m on my third set of Sterilite mixing bowls. It’s less than $5 for the whole set at most Walmarts/Target and this time I got them in aqua. The set I had at my townhouse was white, and the set I had at my first flat was blue. I like these mixing bowls because the come with lids so when I make too much food they pinch hit for storing leftodors.

But I digress. The largest bowl of the set of four is the best one for bread making.  

I slung in:

• 1 envelope of yeast
• 1/4 cup unsulkphered molasses
•  1 cup Edensoy vanilla soy milk
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup gluten flour 
•  2 cups whole wheat flour

Mixed it all up with a spatula and took a picture before covering it with the top and leaving it on the counter before I took Julia preschool. 

It’s not terribly hot at home so I left it on the counter but in horrible weather I’ll let it rise in the fridge. Takes a lot longer that way though.

When I came back from school I punched it down and added…

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 3 cups whole wheat flour with another 1/2 cup measured out and set aside

I kneaded it all inside the bowl for 3-5 minutes and I slung in the last 1/2 cup of flour. The last 1/2 cup doesn’t get all absorbed so when I could lift the mass in one hand and judged it had absorbed most of it, I set the dough on the lid and dumped out the remaining flour from the bowl into the trash.

Washed the bowl out, oiled it with a paper towel, returned the dough and oiled the lid before snapping it shut. Then I took a nap with the kid.

When I woke up, I punched it down, divided it in half, and set one aside for 30 min to rise in my glass loaf pan.

(I have to buy another one — then I could get two loaves done at once.) Then I went to play online for a while until my timer went off. I turned on the oven to preheat to 375 and set the timer for another 15 min.

Once it beeped again, I threw the loaf pan in there and set it once more for 45 min.  Took a shower and played with the kid and came back to a nice loaf.

That blurry part in the middle? The steam still coming out of it.  Yum!

The crust is crisp and the middle has a fine texture and is really light. 

For kicks, a day of eating.

Breakfast is never exciting. I’ve been eating the same cereal -fruit-toast variations for more than 20 years. In this case, 1 cup soy milk, 1 bread with tofu cream cheese, 1/2 a banana sliced on to 1 cup of cereal.  I don’t really eat my breakfast served this way, but so it would match the other pictures I used the same dish.

Lunch was better. An organic apple, 1 cup three-can chili, 1 oz of tomato and 1 oz red lettuce leaves with 1 tbs ginger dressing. A fast fix, but respectable. 

Dinner was tasty leftovers. 2 honey tangerines, 1 cup green velvet soup, 1 cup arroz sin pollo, and 2 veggie sausage patties.

No pix of snacks,  though I’m pretty sure I had a Luna bar since today was preschool and I generally have one of those when I go to work.

This is an old favorite "fast fix for when I want to eat something decentbut am pressed for time.

It couldn’t be easier:

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained and rinsed
• 1 can italian or mexican stewed tomato

 Combine in a bowl and microwave.

The italian I’ll eat alone, and the mexican I’ll roll into a tortilla or stuff into a pita. Julia eats it fine, and most of the time, I’m lucky enough to get Publix organic canned goods for at least the beans and corn. Yay.

Nutrition Per Cup

Calories: 186
Fat: 1 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Carbohydrate: 40 g
Fiber: 10 g
Protein: 9 g

I’m a big fan of the Lock & Lock brand for containers. Stuff in there stays put and doesn’t leak. The only thing is that I can’t find any place online other than ebay where you might find the lunch sets.

So I when I found someone auctioning three of these….

…I snapped them up!

It’s not as nice as the Zojirushi lunch jars, of course, but at $10 each, a steal and perfect for the working lunch swap we do. Just a lunch bag is going to be close to $10 without all the cool containers!

So now I don’t have to have my food storage containers out on loan and then be struggling til I get them back, and I can approximate what other people are feeding me on my food log. I hope the gals like them when I take them to work on Sunday.

 I already love them and am plotting what to put in there when it’s my turn again to make work lunch. The drink one holds 10 oz, the main one holds 1.5 cups, and the divided holds 1/2 cup in each of the small compartments so you get 3 cups of food + drink.

(For comparison, the Tupperware Crystal Wave Bowl I like so much does 4 cups.)

The only things wrong with it is that the bag doesn’t have room to stick an icepack in and the drink container is #7 plastic. The other containers are #5.

Old entry, new photo.

I always loved arroz con pollo as a child so finding a vegan version of some kind of Spanish rice or paella was always hard.

Here’s my adaptation of a Vegetarian Times Vegetarian Paella recipe that’s become my new "arroz sin pollo."

Arrroz Sin Pollo

• 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes
• 4 cups water
• 2 vegetable bouillion cubes
• 2 cups long grain brown rice or long grain white basmati
• 1 tsp. saffron threads
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme

In separate pot or pan…

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium green bell pepper, diced

• 14-oz. can artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained, chopped
• 1 1/2 cup of frozen peas and carrots mix
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat parsley
• 1/4 cup green  onion, minced
• 2 generous tbs of capers, drained

OPTIONAL ADD INS:

• 1 can pinto beans or black beans, rinsed and drained
• chopped up, cooked veggie "sausage"

I like it best with brown rice, but Paul likes the yellow color to show so sometimes I use the white rice when making it instead so it’s brighter from the saffron. Taste-wise the brown rice is a bit firmer.

Forgot to to measure how many cups total before we started eating it so nutrition will have to be the next time I make it.  That’s the only thing it needs — a nutritional profile.

I’m still trying to veganize mom’s butter soaked banana bread. Every once in a while we don’t eat up all the bananas in time and they go brown so every once in a while I try yet ANOTHER recipe. Mom even gave me the recipe she used once but I lost it. But none come out right to me.

Here’s my whirl at adapting this recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen site into something tasting close to what my mom used to make in my childhood. Even veganized, this guy packs on the calories though.

I liked it and it was actually a very nice banana bread. But since mom’s leaned toward the bread pudding-y end most of the time, I think next time I need to ditch the applesauce and fling in another banana.  Maybe scale back the margaraine to 2 tbs instead of 4.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cups Sucanat
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup dark raisins
• 1/3 cup walnuts 
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine, at room temp (ex: Earth Natural Buttery Sticks)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 4 very ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Oil a loaf pan with a dab of oil on a paper towel or oil spray.

Mix all the dry stuff together up to but not including vegan margarine.

Mash the margarine and bananas with all the other wet stuff and once well blended, dump into the dry stuff.

Mix the whole thing with a spatula. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 60 min or until toothpick in center comes out clean.

 NUTRITION PER SLICE

Calories: 345
Fat: 9 g
Saturated Fat: 3 g
Carbohydrate: 62 g
Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 5 g

Long day at church so we took along lunches today. It was a nice Easter service and we all had a good time. Just tired. I’m glad I packed lunch last night. I used the new tote I got at Target and it fits both sets.

Holds Mr Bento, Ms Bento, and both our Sigg bottles. Just wish it had space for my chunky wallet and two training pants.

Mr Bento caried steamed organic broccoli, organic pears, mock tuna tempeh salad and whole wheat mini pitas. 

Ms Bento has the same broccoli and pears, but pasta twists with peas and carrots with a bit of vegan "butter" on it. I don’t like that it makes everything all buttery when she eats with her hands.  So I have to remember to have naked pasta for travel.

Pears didn’t do well doused in OJ — they were brown by morning. Edible, but browning. So try lemon juice next time or go with apples.

Saturday lunch after errands. Last night I was poking around in the fridge and knew I needed to use up lettuce and tomato (salad with ginger dressing, duh) and then these mini pitas that were hiding in the door. But I didn’t want to make any hummus type stuff to go on the pitas so I settled on trying to make mock tuna salad from tempeh I had that I forgot why I bought.

 (It wasn’t until the tuna salad was made that I remembered I’d bought tempeh to try this new collard and tempeh recipe but ah, well. Will just have to get more tempeh later or do the collards a different way.)

 After errands this morning I ate my lunch. Not pictured is the 6 oz OJ I drank with it, but I include it in the nutrition.

NUTRITION FOR ENTIRE BOWL PLUS OJ

(48% carb | 16 % protein | 30% fat) 

Calories: 392
Fat: 13 g
Saturated Fat: 2 g
Carbohydrate: 56 g
Fiber: 9 g
Protein: 16 g

This is based on the recipe for "Tempeh Tuna Salad" from Vegan Deli by Joanne Stepaniak. I made it as suggested only I skipped the dill because I hate dill.

It wasn’t my idea of a mock tuna salad though… so I kept on going by adding sweet relish (which I always put in tuna salad when I was nonvegetarian). I also added 1 nori sheet for a briny "ocean" flavor. I’d blendered into smithereens before adding it. That I decided it needed a wee bit of lemon juice to make it a wee bit tart and the end result I was quite pleased with.

It makes four 1/2 cup servings for a total of 2 cups. I just don’t know if I like it better warm or cold.

•  8 oz package of tempeh
•  1 nori sheet, crumbled (blender it dry or crumble by hand)
• 1/3 cup vegan mayo (ex: Nasoya Nayonaise)
• 2 tbs minced red onion
• 2 tbs minced celery
• 2 tbs minced parsley
• 2 tbs sweet pickle relish
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 2 tsp spicy brown mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt 
•  pepper to taste
• 1-2 tbs water 

 1) Steam the tempeh for 20 min.

2) While that is happening, crumble up the nori sheet by hand or in a dry blender 

3) Mix the nori with all the rest of the ingredients except water in a bowl. Add tempeh when done and mash it with a fork to break it up into chunks. Add water a little at a time if mixture looks too dry.  Chill and serve.

 NUTRITION PER 1/2 CUP SERVING

Calories: 177
Fat: 9 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Carbohydrate: 14 g
Fiber: 7 g
Protein: 10 g