The Green Lunch

There was no lunchbox yesterday because baby girl "skipped out" of daycare for her ballet lessons.  She ended up having lunch with abuelo (grandpa).

Today's lunch colour is green. I was overwhelmed with green produce in my fridge, so there was no shortage of choices, but it was tricky trying to balance protein and carbohydrates.  I didn't just want to make a lunchbox full of salad.

So here we've got soba noodles, which baby girl pointed out are not green.  True, but it's got a pretty decent amount of protein and, hey, buckwheat is green at some point before it's harvested. Next is a mixture of peas and lima beans. I'm fairly certain that each and every lima bean will still be in the lunchbox when she comes home, but it's worth a shot.  Moving along, there's some cucumber slices tucked into the side compartment with a fun green turtle fork, kiwi fruit and an ancient grain quesadilla stuffed with daiya cheese and cilantro.

And to quote another article from livestrong.com, "Green foods also serve as a source of vitamins A, C and K, and iron and calcium. Green vegetables contribute to your daily fiber intake, which can help reduce your cholesterol levels"

It's day two of "colours" week at baby girl's daycare.  Today's lunchbox celebrates one of nature's most beautiful hues, orange. According to dietitian Julie Garden-Robinson on livestrong.com, "orange and yellow produce is rich in carotenoids, which help reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, can improve immune system function and aid healthy vision"

Beginning in the top left corner, there's Gardein's Mandarin Orange crispy chick'n piled on a bed of organic brown rice and sprinkled with sesame seeds, Pete's organic mango tofu, pumpkin pancakes (mini-container of maple syrup not pictured), and a blood orange.

Have a colourful day!

The Red Lunch

This week's theme at my daughter's daycare is colours.  So naturally, I was excited to incorporate the theme into her lunch box.  Each day this week I'll focus on a different colour.  Today I chose red.

The Roma tomato quesadilla is stuffed with refried beans and Daiya cheese. There's a red cabbage coleslaw (oops, I forgot the sunflower seeds!) strawberries sprinkled with ground flax, and an Ethiopian-style stew with red & white nugget potatoes, chickpeas, carrots and a dash of cayanne and other spices.

Although my little chica is too young to understand the health benefits of her brightly coloured lunch, I found myself intrigued and did a little bit of research. Lance Armstrong's website livestrong.com contains a wealth of information about the benefits of coloured food.

According to one of thier articles, "red fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes and beets, may help reduce the risk of several types of cancer, especially prostate cancer, and red berries may act as powerful antioxidants that protect cells from damage."

Vegan Mofo 2011

I just signed up for this year's Vegan MoFo, where vegan food bloggers from around the world blog their hearts out for an entire month (October 1-31).  And it's no random month - October 1st is World Vegetarian Day, and the entire month of October is World Vegetarian Month.

Deadline to sign up is Sept 28, so head over to veganmofo.com if you're interested in participating.


There's still a week left until the official kick off, so to reminisce about the good ol' Vegan Mofo days of yore, here's a few of my posts that I wrote in Vegan MoFo days past:

• Home made red pepper jelly
• Vegan french toast
• Scrambled Tofu breakfast wrap
• Maple Glazed Acorn Squash

The Green Experiment

I haven't made a smoothie for a while and lately I've been craving greens, so it seemed sensible to combine the two in a harmonious blended beverage.  Unfortunately my creation lacked a very important element - deliciousness.

Unsweetened vanilla almond milk, banana and kale do not make tastebuds dance.  At least not mine.  I attempted to save my green potion by adding blue agave nectar, but this stubborn smoothie was just not meant to be saved.

At this point, it was way past snack time so I set my sights on a lunch that could not be screwed up. A pita stacked with fresh veggies and a generous dollop of nayonaise & dill.

It's been a while since I posted a dinner meal.  Sometimes I'm exhausted after a long commute home and I just want to throw something easy together.  So here's one of those meals that takes very little preparation and allows me to unwind and relax while it's cooking.

Wild rice - it takes an hour to cook, but if I get it going the stove as soon as I walk in the door, it's ready when I'm ready.

Gardein Crispy Tenders -  delicious, packed with protein and easy to bake in the oven.  I mixed up some agave nectar with mustard for a dipping sauce. 

Veg spring rolls - one of my all time favourite foods in general.  Plus they are easy to pop in the oven and these mini spring rolls only take 12 minutes to cook.  By the time I toss them in the oven, I've already changed out of my work clothes into something comfy and had a chat with baby girl about how her day was.

Edamame - again, so easy to make, steamed and sprinkled with a bit of sea salt.

Hello Halo!

Another delightful discovery at the little grocery store that I mentioned before.  I usually skip past the shelves full of cookies and wafers because there's never anything vegan-friendly there.  Well, now I know why one should never say never.  These tasty treats called Halo are organic and made with vegan marshmallows. 

I bought two flavours: S'mores and Nutty Marshmallow, and packed them in a couple of my lunches.  The bars weren't quite what I was expecting - I kind of envisioned them to look like the pictures on the wrapper.  But they satisfied my sweet tooth :)