Your Vegan Mom

The Rice Plate, or Sharing Lunch with a Four-Year-Old

While Paul was working out of town (for 6 weeks!  Did we talk about this?), this was the go-to lunch for Felix and me.  I would make a big pot of rice at the beginning of the week, and then I could stick all this on a plate for us to share when he came home from school.  It's totally conducive to the addition of leftovers - in particular slivers of fried tofu.  You grab a piece of seaweed, spread it with some gochujang (unless you're four), pinch up some rice, top with avocado, dip the sticky rice ends in toasted sesame seeds and eat.  Or eat it any way you like.  It's finger food or fork food - the perfect sort of meal to keep a kid interested while you chat about his day at preschool.  And it's totally simple and delicious to boot.  

On the topic of rice, the insert for my beloved wedding present rice cooker is looking a bit scratched up after 10 years of constant use, so I've been employing this method of rice cooking with good results, though I prefer it cooked for 5 minutes longer here where soft and sticky is preferable to light and fluffy.

And related to nothing at all, but I want to talk about it anyway, Wheeler del Torro's new cookbook just showed up in the mail, (along with a copy to share with one of you guys) and I had to force myself to put it down so that I can savor it like a novel this weekend.  It looks really good.  We'll discuss further.  

What's for lunch at your house?  

Weekend Lunch: Smoky Tempeh and Brussels Sprouts Sandwich

crusty bread + mayo + dijon + smoky tempeh + shredded brussels sprouts = weekend lunch

For the brussels sprouts: Cut them in half and then shred them fine with a big, sharp knife.  If you have a few shallots, sliced those up too.  Heat a skillet over high heat.  Add a bit of the oil of your choosing.  Throw the shredded greens (and shallots) in the hot pan with a big pinch of salt.  Give them a stir and let them really brown.  Add a glug of apple juice, turn the heat down to low, and braise them in the juice until they're soft and sweet, about 15 minutes.  When the apple juice has cooked off, and your brussels sprouts are tender, season them with a splash of apple cider vinegar, a few cracks of black pepper, and a pinch more salt if it needs it.  

As per usual, this Saturday sandwich is totally designed to go with a beer.  

Happy Weekend!  

Preschool Lunch

Remember this baby?  I was sitting across the lunch table from him today, and I thought maybe you'd let me just pop back in here without a lengthy explanation of where I've been for the last 6 months.  What do think?  Maybe we can just catch up slowly? 

Felix was eating a super simple lunch, but eating it with such pleasure, and lack of complaining, that it reminded me that I write a food blog.  Remember?  I grabbed my camera.  We talked about his day at preschool, about the cave he had made for the snake because the snake was poisonous and he had to protect his friends, and about the goblin that came during writers workshop.  We talked about snack.  (Sunflower seed butter, celery, apples, raisins.  He ate the raisins.  And he made ants on a log.  But the log was made of apple.)  

There were no leftovers from dinner last night which comprise his usual lunch, so I cut a smallish red potato into chunks, and put them into a bowl with a splash of water and stuck it in the microwave for 3 minutes until it was soft and warm.  I cut a few florets of broccoli into small bite size pieces and steamed them in the same way - for 2 minutes until bright green and tender.  I cut super firm tofu into sticks and squirted some ketchup onto a  plate.  And that was lunch.  Not perfect.  Some good fat would have rounded it out nicely - this should really be the part of the blog post where I give you the recipe for the simple and luxurious creamy sauce made of pureed nuts and seeds that makes steamed broccoli and potatoes and plain tofu so good, but sadly it's not.  

This is the part where I realize that I just wrote about 3 florets of steamed brocolli on a food blog, and promise you the precise opposite of that next time.  I've been making something so luxurious and decadent and perhaps even totally wrong with broccoli, that I have to tell you about it.  Next time.  Say next week?  As opposed to 6 months hence?  Let's catch up slowly.  How have you been?  What's for lunch?   

A Simple Summer Sandwich in My New Kitchen

Paul painted the kitchen for my birthday.  My birthday was three months ago, but I hemmed and hawed over colors and how daunting the job seemed (the silly-putty-hued paint on the trim and cabinets was peeling off in sheets like that nail polish popular in the eighties).  

And then last weekend I just couldn't take it any more - the silly putty and the peeling - and so I ran to the hardware store.  We sanded and slapped up some paint.  It's not perfect, but it's so much lighter and brighter.  Three days later with the paint dry and everything put away, I was just so excited by the light on my easy sandwich, that despite the fact that I had accidentally skipped breakfast and was absolutely famished, I ran and grabbed my camera.  Here's what's in there - 

good bun + aioli + slab of fried tofu drizzled with Bragg's (a la my friend Alana) + huge slice of beautiful yellow tomato + a few leaves of basil 

So simple and so good.  

Thanks for the kitchen, Paul.  I love it.  

Do you have an easy lunch you're digging right now?  

The Vegan Quesadilla

Tomato, Avocado, and Sweet Onion Quesadilla

A long time ago, before any of us had kids, Paul and I went to Mexico City for twelve hours with our friend, Levi.  He worked for an airline at the time and did extragavagantly spontaneous things like take his friends to Mexico City for twelve hours.

We arrived just before dawn and wandered along the cobblestone streets of the old quarter, stumbling upon churches and coffee and murals and narrow arcades and grand piazzas.  As the day got hot, we stopped in the blue-tarp shade of a quesadilla vendor at an open air market.  She was patting out masa next to a big burnished hot iron grill surrounded by dozens of quesadilla fillings.  I remember squash blossoms and mushrooms and rajas and potatoes and some sort of greens, but there were more.  We pulled up stools and worked our way through every possible vegetable combination.