Veganmofo15: Vegan Bento!

Today's Bento/Packed lunched is quick and easy to wip up before work (and even post about!) Udon Veggie Stir Fry and Veggie Pot Stickers w/ dipping sauce.

Might not be the healthiest lunch but damn does it taste good hot or cold and you can make it in minutes without feeling sad when you later have to eat it at work. Most of the time I find it hard to get inspired in the morning to make lunches and often struggle with the lack of microwave at work and the long hours skipping over 2 meals means I am often super hungry.

For me its been easiest to grab frozen foods that will keep well when cold, so when I saw the potstickers that happened to be vegan (MIRACLE) on 2/8$ they became a bit more reasonable. Although with enough prep time you could make and freeze your own, which is ultimately my goal since pre-coffee mornings are not kind to me.

I also find I am most often less disappointed with what I pack if it is tasty, different from yesterdays and looks pretty. So bento and Japanese food often become staples for me. But you could build a vegan lunch box around just about anything, as long as you include a variety of options everyone wins. This is another reason I like the frozen 'snack' or pre made side options because I could eat dumplings or kulcha  until I die (yay fried bread/noodle!). Plus having the frozen options makes last minute changes easy if someone wakes up and no longer wants the sloppy joe leftovers they were supposed to take over noodles.

On to the food!

Potstickers were just fried/steamed and I made a quick dipping sauce with soy sauce, mirin, sesame and sugar. The sauce ads a nice balance of umami, sour and sweet to compliment the veggies inside. these guys are filled with greens and tofu, so despite their appearance I am going to pretend they are super good for me.






The stir fry was chopped carrot, broccoli, radish greens and sesame with a single pack of fresh made udon which are pretty great for portion sizes and also speedy dishes. I added some sesame seeds to bump the nutrients and give some different texture to the pan, then added more on top because why not.

Stir fried in the same pot as the potstickers with extra sesame oil and the pan was de-glazed with mirin and soy. These guys are flavor powerhouses and make throwing together dishes/sauces a breeze. All in all, throwing this together from start to finish was only 20-30 mins, so I still haven't had coffee or breakfast but lunch is packed! So I am calling it a success.

I will likely toss a few yellow plums into my bag and maybe an apple, because of the long hours and needing to eat some fruit. I also bring along a jar of almond milk although to be honest I just drink it in coffee and not by itself. But it gets consumed and makes the lunch feel more well rounded. I also have my travel mug with World Tea House's Earl Grey Creme. Which is a great tea to drink all day and acts almost like dessert!

So happy Mofo! And Bento-on folks!

Veganmofo: Lunches!

Lunch is an often neglected when it comes to the food enthusiest. Dinner is the main show, brunch has it's fans, breafkast can be impressive and lunch is mandatory.

Well I figured it might be neat to have some lunch worth braggin about.

Today's Lunch is brought to you by YRR and the ever fantastic lunch buddy leftovers!

A few years ago I began toying with the idea of Cooking my way through a cookbook, the book I choose was Yellow Rose Recipes by the Lovely Joanna Vaught. After all it was a kick ass book, with good old fashion belly pleasers. As always life got in the way, and a year later I'm still working on it.

 So here is YRR's Delightful Cajun tofu in bento format

This one was pretty simple, wild rice in the rice cooker, produce box veggies in the steamer and leftover YRR Cajun Tofu.

For storage sakes and added flavour, I went with BBQ dipping sauce kicked up with Blair's Hot sauce (review to come). Simple and Tasty

Veganmofo: Vegan Iron Chef: Mashed Potatoes: Jyagatama

This weeks Vegan Iron Chef Challenge (posted on fridays by the lovely Katie @Don't Eat off the Sidewalk will keep the posts and possible round ups (?) going.

This weeks challenge was :drumroll: Mashed Potatoes!

I cannot express how much I am looking forward to the results. I had a few different ideas, potato pancakes, cupcakes, burgers, mashed potato frosting for 'neat' loaves. So many possibilities with one of my favourite foods, even the Veganmofo round up of Sweet potato Gnocchi.

Then I remembered one of my Bento cookbooks and a recipe I'd been eyeing for a while for the adorable Jyagatamas. Which are basically like a potato salad dough ball. Cute, small, fast, adroable, simple and used everything I already had on hand!

Another tip, for a more traditional feel a potato ricer or food processor will give a smoother mash and lead to nicer balls. Mine are a tad 'rustic' due to the fork based mashing.
Plus they would make an adorable addition to lunches for the week.

Here's the basic recipe:

Edit: mine were a bit to moist and almost hummusy in parts. Traditionally they are fairly dry and starchy. The flour edition kinda helped but next time I would cut the veganaise down to 1/4 cup to test the waters.

4 cups mashed potatoes (or a pot full of potatoes choppped and boiled)
3 carrots matchsticked, these only need to blanch for 2 minutes, I added them to the potatoes just before they were done
1/2 cup veganaise**
2 tps stone ground spicy or dijon mustard
4 pickle slices chopped, extra picked onions all diced (I had some great homemade stuff form my dad's girlfriend)
dash of lemon juice
celery seed
pepper
chopped parsely
minced garlic

One the potatoes and carrots are cooking, dice your pickles and combine with everything else in a bowl. Whip together and wait until potatoes/carrots cool. Once cool mashed the potatoes with the dressing in the bowl the toss in carrots and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning.

chill in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow flavours to combine. One the mixture is cool roll into little balls and serve immediately or chill for future use!

Traditionally they tend to contain peas and other cooked veggies but I only had carrots on hand. These were also a little wet so I experimented with adding a bit of WW flour to some.