New school year, new school lunches

Jacqui started kindergarten today.  It's an all-day affair here in New York, five days a week. So that means that I have lunches to make six days a week for two kids now.  Last year was four days a week, three days of playgroup and one day of Chinese school. This year five days of school and one day of Chinese school.  I'm going to try to post a few days a week the lunches I make them.  Wish me luck!


Lunches so far this week

Wednesday 
trip to the aquarium
Spinach linguini with soy vinaigrette
Green olives
Veggie spring rolls
Honest Kids juices for both girls

Thursday 
Jacqui's first day of kindergarten
Cold soba noodles (with ponzu sauce for Jacqui)
Cucumber half moons
Cherries
Green olives
Tofu cats (tofu coated in my mix and fried in safflower oil -- see below)
Reusable container of vanilla soy yogurt for Jacqui
Honest kids apple juice drink for Jacqui 

Coating mix
Spelt flour
Organic cornstarch
Whole wheat pastry flour
Sea salt
Nutritional yeast
Black sesame seeds
White sesame seeds

Method for Tofu Cats (or other shapes)

I slice a block of extra firm tofu into four equal slices and then use cookie cutters to make shapes for the girls.  We have a huge assortment of shapes (thanks, Mom!.  The girls' favorites are the cat and papillon (butterfly).  Hearts and stars are big hits too.  After cutting out the shapes, I coat the tofu in my coating mix (front and back) and then fry the tofu on both sides in organic safflower or canola oil.  I generally also make standard rectangles out of the tofu and fry those up for the girls' lunches, but today I decided to give them each two tofu cats and I kept the rectangles for my own lunch.

Strawberry Muffins

Sunday morning, Aji asked to make cupcakes.  But cupcakes are too sweet, and my kids never actually eat more than a bite of them.  Muffins, on the other hand, have all the benefits of cupcakes (small size, muffin pan, liners!) without all that unnecessary sweetness that makes my kids not eat them.  Saturday night I bought one of those HUGE containers of strawberries, which I had cut up after the girls went to bed and stocked in the fridge.  (This is one of my recently-set goals: cut up fruits and veggies when I buy them to increase the likelihood that they will be eaten before going bad.)  So, strawberry muffins were born (based on a strawberry cupcake recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking):

Ingredients

3/8 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup vegan sugar

~1 cup fresh strawberry puree

1/2 cup canola oil

1 T white distilled vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

What To Do

Preheat the oven to 350F.  

Line the muffin pan.  (The girls did this while I went out for a cup of coffee and the oven heated up)

Mix up the dry ingredients.  (Jacqui's task)

Puree the strawberries in a 2 cup glass container.  (immersion blender!)

Add the oil, vinegar, and vanilla to the strawberry puree and whisk to combine.  (Aji's task with my help)

Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients (Jacqui) and pour the wet into the dry (Aji).  

Mix thoroughly, but not too much.  (All of us!)

Spoon batter into the lined muffin pan.  Note that this is a sticky dough.  I used two spoons to get the batter into the pan.  

I may have overfilled my individual muffin holes, but this amount of batter filled only 9 of my 12.  So I added water to the other three (to keep everything moist) and put the pan into the oven.

30 minutes and a sweet smelling apartment later, we had soft, moist, strawberry-scented muffins.  

Thoughts

These muffins make a great snack -- the girls had them before we went to Coney Island yesterday -- and a lovely breakfast -- this morning, fact!  We are down to just two left though, so we will have to make these again.  

Baked Rice and Lentils

from many months ago...written but never remember to hit publish...
 
Taking inspiration from the Mothering November/December issue's potluck article, I made baked rice. I mostly used the recipe provided there, but made a few changes, mostly to veganize it. :)

Ingredients
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup brown long-grain rice
3/4 cup dry French lentils
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cups vegetable broth
15 oz diced tomatoes with juices
1-2 cups frozen greens, defrosted and chopped
1/2 cup Daiya (mozzarella style)

What to do
Preheat the oven to 350.
Warm your Dutch oven over medium heat. While it is warming, chop the onion. When the pot is warm, add the olive oil. When the oil is warm, add the onion and saute for five minutes. Mince the garlic and chop the carrot and celery. Add them to the onion and saute for another five minutes. (Add a little water if everything starts to stick.)
Add the rice, lentils, and cumin and stir and cook for approximately one minute.
Add the broth and tomatoes with juice. Stir well.
Remove from heat and place in oven, uncovered. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Defrost and chop the greens (or use fresh).
Add the greens and Daiya to the casserole, stirring well to combine.
Place back in the oven and bake for another 20-30 minutes, uncovered.

Hot! Pink! Noodles!

Hot Pink Noodles
(or Noodles with Beet Greens and Tofu or Garbanzos)

Ingredients
1 package of noodles (quick cooking Asian noodles are best for this recipe)
1 bunch beet greens (2 cups chopped) [any greens will work, but the beet greens will make the noodles PINK!]
1/2 - 2 cups cooked garbanzos or 1 package of tofu
canola oil
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
2 T organic sugar

1/3 cup lime juice

1/4 cup Bragg's or other soy sauce

pinch red pepper flakes

To make

Fill a large pot with water, and place it over high heat to boil.  Wash, then chop or tear the beet greens into bite-sized pieces. 

Heat canola oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Dice the tofu and toss it into the pan.  Saute it until the pieces are golden and crispy.  If using garbanzos, just saute for a few minutes, then set aside.

To make the sauce, combine the peanut butter, sugar, lime juice, Bragg's, and red pepper flakes in a bowl.

By now your water should be boiling.  Add the noodles and greens -- you may need to stagger depending on the type of greens and noodles.  You want them to be finished cooking at the same time.  For the noodles I generally use, they take 5-6 minutes, which is about the same time that I use for the beet greens. 

Once they are cooked, drain the greens and noodles in a strainer, and return to the pot.  Add the sauce, and toss to coat the greens and noodles.  Add the tofu or garbanzos, and gently toss.  Serve the hot pink noodles immediately, and refrigerate any left-overs.

Enjoy!

Banana apple pecan muffins

Jacqui had been asking to make muffins for the past few weekends, but we just haven't had the time to. I promised her last night that we would make muffins this morning for breakfast. We are lacking in fruit and veggies at the apt right now, so I looked around and decided to make banana and apple muffins. The muffins were soft and delicious, a perfect breakfast. And the girls loved actually making the batter and the muffins. Feels like a long time since we've done that together. 

Ingredients 

2 large ripe bananas 

3/4 large golden delicious apple, finely chopped 

1/4 cup applesauce 

1/4 cup organic canola oil 

1/4 cup blackstrap molasses 

1/3 cup vegan sugar 

1 cup all purpose unbleached flour 

1/2 cup spelt flour 

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour 

3/4 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp sea salt 

1/2 cup chopped pecans 

What to do 

Preheat oven to 350. Gather ingredients and children. Have girls peel bananas into a large bowl. Given the forks and show them how to mash the bananas. Mash. Add the applesauce, oil, and molasses and mix well. Then add the sugar, flours, baking powder, and salt, and mix well. Mom or dad may have to help with this mixing to get everything combined. Add the chopped apples and chopped pecans. Have the girls put the liners in the muffin pan. Spoon the batter (after the girls have tasted it, of course) into the muffin pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Enjoy!

Asparagus risotto

Last night I made an asparagus risotto for the girls' dinner. 

Ingredients 

1 bunch fresh asparagus from the farmers' market, trimmed 

Olive oil 

Coarse sea salt 

Freshly ground pepper 

1/2 red onion, finely chopped 

2 T extra virgin olive oil 

1 1/2 cups arborio rice 

1/2 cup reisiling (also from farmers' market) 

3 cups organic vegetable broth 

Salt 

What to do 

Preheat oven to 425. Wash and trim the asparagus. Then toss with evoo, coarse sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. Roast for ten minutes. Let asparagus cool, then cut into one inch pieces. Meanwhile, in a heavy bottom pan, heat the 2 T evoo and cook the red onion. When it is soft, add the arborio rice and cook for two minutes. Then add the white wine (I used reisiling), stirring constantly. When the wine is cooked in, add the veggie broth, one or one-half cup at a time, constantly stirring. With last cup or half-cup, add the roasted and cut asparagus and salt to taste. Serve with salt And nutritional yeast. Relatively easy dinner, except for the constant stirring. Jacqui complained about the asparagus, but ate everything up. Aji ate a bit more than half her portion, but had gorged on coco bread right before, so she may have been legitimately full. I liked it too. Leftovers for lunch this week!

Mujadara

Ingredients
1 cup long grain brown rice
1 cup green lentils
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1-2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T nutritional yeast
1/4-1/2 cup cooked onions (1 medium to large size red onion, diced, cooked in olive or canola oil for 15-20 minutes, until reduced, slightly browned, and sweet)

Tools that you need
skillet/pan for cooking onions
sharp knife to cut onions
measuring spoons/cup
rice cooker with brown rice setting with rice paddle

What to do
Cook onions if not already prepared -- see directions above.
Rinse rice and lentils, if desired.
Put everything into the rice cooker, stir with rice paddle to combine, and set for brown rice cycle.
Enjoy!
You can top with additional fried onions, olives, etc. :)

Thoughts
I set this last night for delayed start to make for the girls for lunch today. It made 4 servings: 1 for Jacqui, 1 for Aji, 1 for me, and 1 for leftovers. I packed the girls' portions with an assortment of colored olives and sweet yellow pepper slices. I will report later with the girls' assessment of their Tuesday camp lunch. But, it had rice, lentils, and cooked onions, three of Jacqui's favorite foods, so hopefully she liked it! :D And they got to have their cool yellow sporknives with lunch today.

I ate mine as an early lunch (1130 today). I meant to have a few bites because I hadn't eaten much breakfast, but ended up eating the whole container. SO GOOD. I think I could add a bit more olive oil (some recipes I saw had A LOT more olive oil), but as this was my first time putting olive oil into my rice cooker, I didn't want to overdo it. Might try some more next time.