Your Vegan Mom

BLT

The BLT is a sandwich I feel strongly about.  There is a right way to do it.  And while many would insist that way involves bacon, according to Paul, the B stands for beer, which is absolutely what you should serve this sandwich with.

Apart from beer, you need good crusty bread.  A soft crusted sandwich loaf will absolutely not work here.  There is a deli near my house that sells prepackaged vegetarian BLTs on whole wheat sandwich bread with yellow mustard and cheddar cheese.  Despite its proximity to my house and even its other reputable vegan offerings, I cannot patronize this establishment.  

Just before serving, you slather two slices of that good bread (lightly toasted if not super fresh) with your favorite vegan mayonnaise (which is vegenaise, of course).  The act of slathering is important here.  Your finished BLT should ooze and drip.  This is not a polite sandwich.

On top of one slice of slathered bread you place several slices of beautiful ripe tomato.  This is a summer sandwich.  Make it now while tomatoes are juicy and sweet.  You should be eating a BLT at least once a week until the tomatoes run out.

On top of the tomato you will arrange your slices of smoky braised tempeh.  The order matters.  The mingling of tomato juice, mayonnaise, and then the sweet, smoky, saltiness of the tempeh forms a sort of essential dressing within the sandwich.

Now on the other half of bread mash a quarter of a soft, ripe, oily avocado.  You can, of course, make a BLT without avocado, but it's always better with.  Take one big billowy leaf of lettuce - the sort with a nice little crisp rib near one edge - and fold it in half.  (I know an even more reputable sandwich shop that once used a handful of soft, peppery mixed baby greens for the L.  I don't eat there anymore either.  The pliable crunch and mild fresh flavor of leaf lettuce is a supporting, though essential, element of the BLT.) Gently press the lettuce into the avocado. 

Place the lettuce and avocado half on top of the tempeh and tomato half and devour.  Often.   

[A quick note on the kid-friendliness of this sandwich - the five year old will not touch it, but the two year old is a sandwich-stealing super fan.]  

One Kid's Meal To Go

That's plain pasta (it never occurred to me that pasta could be a finger food until I had a two-year-old), grilled tofu, and slices of peach.  "The red part is beautiful and tastes sweet," said Desmond as we made the hour drive to Grandma's house during dinner time after a late afternoon swim lesson.  

Then the rest of the drive was pretty much quiet as the boys ate.  No desperate family sing-alongs teetering on the edge of hysteria.  No I Spy.  No crying.  Pretty much just quiet eating while we drove.*  

And ever since, I've been thinking a lot about travel meals for chubby little fingers.  I like this captive eating thing.  We're taking a road trip towards the end of the summer and I'm planning on inverting the traditional drive - stop to eat - drive model for a new drive and eat - stop and play - drive and eat model that will hopefully be friendlier to the abilities of the almost two- and five-year-olds.   

So, help me out.  What's your favorite relatively tidy kid's meal to go?

*Okay, except for the part of the trip where I tried to coach Desmond from the driver's seat in the left lane of the 710 Freeway on how to - no, nevermind, if this blog is still here in 8 years, I cannot tell the Internet this story.  But then, after, there was a cup.  And I said, "Is the cup stable?  Or can it spill?"  And he replied, "No, the cup can't spill.  It's stable."  And I thought, "That's awesome.  He just fluently used his context clues to figure out what that word meant, and then immediately used it correctly.  The almost five-year-old brain is amazing!"  And then we got to Grandma's house, and it turns out that the cup was not in fact stable and all the car books needed to be wiped down or thrown out.  So, we still have that skill to perfect before our road trip.  But there will be two adults in the car to help through such emergencies.