Angelica Inspired

Today’s Bento:

Salad with Angelica’s Soba Sensation Sauce

Barley

Tofu

Vegan Chili

Today’s Bento:

Vegan Chili

Oranges

Blanched Spinach and Seasoned Carrots

Coconut Macaroons

Here’s another delicious recipe from the Angelica Kitchen Cookbook: Vegan Chili. The special ingredient is sun-dried tomatoes. This is the first chili recipe I’ve made that didn’t call for canned tomatoes, and you can really taste the difference. The beans are also from dry, not canned. It’s really delicious!
On another note: today I’m going to heat up the macaroons. Why didn’t I think of this earlier? H-e-a-v-e-n

Asian mix - 'n - match

Today’s Bento:

Vegetable dumplings with Rich Dipping Sauce

Blanched Spinach with Sesame

Seasoned Carrots

Edamame

Kimchee

Tofu

This was a fun bento to make. I made vats of all of these dishes this weekend, and many of them have disappeared already! But it makes good bento-fare. I will probably heat up the dumplings, but everything else will be just fine and yummy at room temperature. The Kimchee recipe is from Angelica Home Kitchen Cookbook. It’s fresh and delicious, and you don’t need to dig a hole in your backyard and let it ferment for a few months. I think next week I’ll try making Ruby Kraut. Any other suggestions?

Creamy salad dressings

Today’s Bento:

Fresh spring salad with creamy lemon-tahini dressing

Falafel

Coconut Macaroons!!!

Do you love coconut? These coconut macaroons from Whole Foods are out-of-this-world! Crispy on the outside and soft and moist coconutty goodness on the inside…. Let’s see, I’m also excited about this simple lemon-tahini dressing. Lemon, tahini, salt, olive oil. It’s so good. Watch next week for some salad dressing experiments. I’m going to try some new recipes!

Vegan Enchiladas

Today’s Bento:

Vegan Enchiladas

Spring Greens with Annie’s Raspberry Vinegrette

Pineapple

Chocolate Coconut LaraBar

Yum, more vegan enchiladas (from Veganomicon). Again, I altered the recipe, using butternut squash and parsnips instead of potatoes. Also, instead of frying the tortillas and rolling them, I just make them lasagna style – it is much less work and tastes just as good! And, it’s been awhile since I had a LaraBar, looking forward to this chocolaty-coconutty goodness.

Today’s Bento:

Spring greens with cukes and avocado

Lemon tahini dressing

Falafel balls

Dried apricots

A very green salad – happy Earth Day! I finally found some frozen falafel balls (duh, the Kosher food aisle!). I love this salad. I take all the components out of the bento box, then dump in the greens, broken up falafel, and dressing, close the bento, shake, and – voila! – the perfectly tossed salad!

Mango with coconut flakes

Salad with avocado and Annie’s Raspberry Vinnegrette

Annie’s burger

Mmmmmmmmmm…. coconut! I went to get shredded coconut, but all I could find was this bag of coconut flakes. Initially I was disappointed, but now I love them better than shredded coconut. These nice flakes are very coco-nutty- the give a nice satisfying crunch plus a nice juicy coconut flavor (they don’t dry out as much as shredded coconut). I love them on my cereal and so I thought I’d try them with some fruit for lunch. So, if you love coconut, try the flakes!

Pasta Salad

Salad with Annie’s Goddess Dressing

Prunes

Chocolate covered marshmallow

Ok, I’m becoming much more aware of how much food we have now that I’m planning so carefully! I threw together this salad with some purple cabbage I’m trying to use up (I bought it two weeks ago). But it is perfectly good and tastes great! And another random add-in: prunes. I have a tub of prunes in my cupboard. I actually really love them, and my two-year-old does too.

Today’s Bento:

Salad, cukes, avocado with Annie’s Goddess Dressing.

Orange

Pasta Salad

Chocolate covered marshmallow

This past week I’ve watched four episodes of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and the documentary No Impact Man. I love Jamie Oliver just for being so passionate about good food and trying to share that with other people, especially children. (I can’t wait to see how this all turns out!) No Impact Man, a film about a young family in NYC who try to leave no carbon footprint for a year, was also very thoughtful. These people really made some drastic changes to their lives and ended up being all the happier for it (local diet, no carbon fueled transportation, no electricity, laundry in the bathtub, etc.). I’ve also been reading about the One Dollar Diet Project, one couple’s attempts to feed themselves on a dollar a day each. All of this combined plus just moving and being stressed about finances equals very good incentive to make some big changes. This past week I worked hard to plan every single meal, make a list and stick to the plan all week. Result? We spent half of what we usually would on food this week! And we didn’t suffer at all. In fact there will be plenty of food for the rest of the week! It is a very satisfying feeling, and now when I get home from work I don’t have to think about what to make for dinner, I just look at my notes. And bento boxes are great, even leftover pasta salad looks pretty snazzy with a salad and an orange.

I won a $25 Gift Card from Whole Foods for my Easter Brunch Bento! The had a contest posted on their Facebook page. I think I was the only person who entered, but, hey, $25 is $25! The bento includes:

Mini Spring Fritattas (asparagus & leek)

Sliced Strawberries and Kiwis

Sauteed Collard Greens with Pine Nuts, Cherry Tomatoes and Feta Cheese

and…dark chocolate covered cherry flavored marshmallows (*blush*)