My Bento Journey

If you’ve never encountered the art of Bento Boxes, you really must take a quick peek over here at Anna the Red’s amazing art. Her “My Neighbor Totoro”-inspired series is the best. I’ve loved that movie since I first saw it in Japanese at a friend’s house around 1989 or so. Our VHS copy is among those few that remain since converting most of our other movies to DVD.

One of my favorite Anna the Red creations.

So I’ve decided that this is the next food project I want to tackle… And I’ve made a few tentative forays so far. A few nights ago, I designed little pictures on my boys plates for dinner and, between the two of them, they ate every crumb on both plates. (Sure, there was a little food-swapping going on, but hey, whatever!)

I didn’t get any pictures of those two plates, but I did another for my little guy this evening and, while it certainly wasn’t any kind of proper Bento, I really liked the way it looked.

Hummus, Goldfish, Cheese, Blueberries and Edamame - Yum!

He gobbled up the crackers, hummus, cheese and blueberries but made a face at the edamame (though he did try it twice and didn’t throw any on the floor – yay!).

Inspired by my meager “success”, I decided I could do a little box of tuna-egg salad for my lunch for tomorrow. Here’s what was born:

My very first Bento - A Baby Bento, if you will.

This feels like the beginning of a very enjoyable creative endeavor… As if I needed another hobby! However, this one, at least, did not require any investment in special equipment. Thankfully. Certainly, I could have spent oodles and oodles on the amazing variety of beautiful Bento boxes and assorted paraphernalia. But my collection of plastic storage boxes is epic (thanks, in part, to my dear spouse who’s probably the most prolific lunch-packer I’ve ever known… Save maybe my mom…) so I’ll be using those for now and getting crazy creative later.

Wish me luck!!

Chia: It’s What’s for Dessert

Right out of the gate I will warn you: I’m a chia novice, but playing with this stuff makes for some serious, “test kitchen” fun.

I do wish I had some pictures for this post. However, hydrated chia looks more than a bit sketchy (mucilaginous is how some other sites describe it – Ew!), so until I have this recipe perfected, I’ll hold off on the photo shoot. It’s just that I can’t wait that long to at least share the basics.

To start off, I added 1/3 cup of chia seed to 2 cups of water. This is just a proportion I stole from a random website; I’m pretty sure you could use just about any proportions you need to get a “gel” consistency that you like. It seems like a 1:3 ratio of seed to water is about the minimum, but, hey, have fun trying out different things!

I stirred the chia in the water pretty continuously for several minutes, playing with it, watching the gel begin to form. What my [15-minute, Google-based] research told me was that I could use this gel after about 10 minutes or put any remaining gel in the fridge in a sealed container for a long time. Suffice it to say, they suggested times far longer than I would be willing to attempt at this stage of the game.

My original idea was to do a “pudding” of some sort and as I began hunting around the kitchen for likely victims ingredients, I found my bottle of Barlean’s Total Omega Vegan Swirl. It’s fruity (blueberry and pomegranate) and a vegan source of Omega 3-6-9… And it cost a small fortune so it behooves me to use it up prior to its “Best By” date.

Mind you, this was just a test run, so I mixed 1T of Barlean’s with 4T of the chia gel because it seemed about right. The mixture is very runny and I suspect (after more reading) that I probably could have just put the chia seed straight into the Barlean’s. But that’s not how I roll. Er… Actually, I just didn’t think of it until after I’d started hydrating the seed in water.

Since it wasn’t yet a consistency I could convince my 2-year-old to try, I scanned around the kitchen again and my gaze fell on… Bananas! They mush up nicely, right? Yup, that’ll do.

So I mashed a banana, mixed in the chia-Barlean’s mixture and gave some to the munchkin. He “mmmmm’d” through the first couple bites then decided “not so much” and just played with it instead. I suspect texture was a culprit here because I wasn’t so keen on it (though I did try a bite, too). What to do, what to do?

A-ha – FREEZE IT!

This step, I approached with some trepidation. I don’t actually have a proper source saying, absolutely yes, you may freeze this without unintended side effects.* So I gave it a shot. I know, it doesn’t sound like me – too risky, right?

Well, after about 20 minutes or so, the edges had frozen into a nice, almost fro-yo texture. The chill on the gel made it less slimy, which was also nice. I put it back in the freezer for a while longer, more of it began to freeze over and I liked it even better.

Some observations:

–  It thaws rather quickly when it’s not fully frozen
–  As it thaws, it get slimy
–  Slimy is not a texture I prefer
–  The next batch will be frozen MUCH longer
–  I think I may skip the water in a future batch and just hydrate with the Barlean’s to increase the thickness
–  Whatever the hydrating medium, I will soak the seeds longer before freezing to get most of the “crunchy” of the seeds out
–  I will also try adding soaked, ground almonds in a future batch, just because that sounds good to me

There you have it. I’ll revisit the infamous chia forthwith once, betwixt the twain of us, we have had many more adventures!

*In the several hours that it’s taken me to write this post amidst bedtime for my boys and TV show clips my husband had DVR’d that he just HAD to show me so he can get them “cleaned off”, I had the lovely raw chef Victoria Moon, proprietor of Permission to Heal, verify for me that, yes, “chia is sturdy” and can be frozen. Yay!! Thank you.

Heirloom Tomato & Corn Salsa

Mmm... So fresh and tasty!

Since it’s summertime and that’s the time for T-O-M-A-T-O-E-S, I have a fully summer dish, almost entirely prepared from purchases I made this morning at our local Suwanee Farmers Market. (Some extra virgin Australian olive oil is the only ingredient I acquired elsewhere.)

Colorful and Lovely

First, I had to refrain from eating all the tomatoes. Seriously. They are so perfectly ripe and delicious, I almost couldn’t help myself. I think I did eat close to a third of these plain before I was finished with the salsa!

I have culled you, my pretties!

I decided to go with the larger, green tomatoes and the medium-sized dark purplish tomatoes because they seemed to jump out at me. The other little ones are easy to pop in my mouth, but these larger ones? Not so much. Too much of a squirty-texture issue for me, if you’ll kindly forgive my oddities.

The ingredients, gathered and ready to go.

 The onion was just a small, sweet, white one that I diced then halved – part for the processor, the other to give the final product chunkiness. I’d never tried these lovely peppers before but went on the advice of the growers that they are mild. At only $2 for a dozen or so, I knew I couldn’t go wrong at least giving them a try. The garlic is from last week’s market trip – a luscious variety so very different from grocery store commodities as to be an almost wholly other species.

They're so green, they look like little melons.

 These just made me smile – practically perfect, bright green – I might be in love.

Sure wish I knew what variety these are...

 So very juicy I had to slice them carefully over top of the food processor’s bowl so I didn’t lose even a drop of their goodness.

Think I diced it finely enough?

 Not wanting to take a chance that I’d get this salsa hotter than I could handle, I removed the seeds and diced the little green pepper finely.

Almost ready for go-time!

 Full food processor – time to add a splash of olive oil (probably about 2 tablespoons or so) and fire that puppy up!

Hmm... Doesn't look terribly appetizing, does it?

 There really wouldn’t have been anything wrong with leaving the salsa like this. After I processed it, I mixed in the diced onions that I’d reserved, but it was just so watery that it didn’t seem “finished”. What else did I buy today, what else could fill this out? Hmm…

FRESH, RAW SWEET CORN – YES!!!

Salsa finished - ready to hang out in the fridge and "mingle".

 So much better and perfectly acceptable to eat as-is. So I did. Eat some. Then tried to figure out what else I could slather it over. Then remembered that I’d only finished breakfast about 30 minutes earlier. Not to mention the half pint or so of tomatoes I ate while I was fixing it. Yeah.

So it’s hanging out in my refrigerator, flavors getting good and matured together. I’m still not sure what I’ll do with it, but guaranteed I’ll enjoy the fool out of it!

For the Love of a Quickie

I just can’t resist – I have at least three recipes hanging out in the wings, replete with photos, but summer seems to hold a premium on my time that just won’t allow for sit-down-and-type-a-proper-blog-post. A shrug of the shoulders follows and I figure I’ll catch up over the winter.

HOW.E.VER

I can’t resist throwing out a teaser of things to come, like a Zucchini Raw Pasta that was tested and found more-than-passable by raw foodies and those not so into that lifestyle alike. I’m also scheming an alternate version of my friend’s luscious mac and cheese recipe, probably with black beans because my littlest child loves his “bees” (we’re working on getting the “n” in there).

The Farmer’s Market near my home has yielded some wonderful food, including my first ever brush with garlic from somewhere other than the grocery store. W-O-W!! I couldn’t believe the difference – the soft, velvety texture and gentler aroma of the fresh garlic was just another reminder of why I’m trying to learn more about fresh, whole foods. Exquisite!

So. Teaser for you, my Dear Reader, and motivation for me to follow-up later! Happy Eating!!

Sprout-a-Bean

Have window sill, can grow.

This could possibly be the most exciting thing I’ve ever done. No, really. I think it might even beat out the time when I was 18 and talked two elderly, retired gentlemen I’d never met before to motor me around Lake Lanier (in North Georgia) to find some friends who were out on a sailboat I’d never seen before and that had no working radio on board.

I. Am. Growing. Something. Edible.

Beans + Water + Time = Sprouts

Purposely. For the very first time. Ever.

They were shrivelled before they went into the cold water. I promise.

So, yeah, you can get technical with me if you really must and point out that I’m only sprouting them, not actually growing them into full and proper plants that will produce more of the same.

Bah, I say – These suckers are G-R-O-W-I-N-G!

Look at these lovely little sprouts!

Admittedly, I’m a little nervous about actually eating them once they’re grown. Especially since I missed a rinse cycle this morning. The instructions for sprouting all have a ring of absolute authority to them and I have no previous experience, even as a bystander, so I’m wary. I’ve rinsed them well to try and get the slightly slippery feeling mostly gone. There’s also a portion of the batch that’s grown more than the rest so I’ve separated them out. The “less grown” have gone back into my sprouting jar and the “more grown” (I’m tempted to call them “horny”) are in the process of drying out so I can seal them and refrigerate them until tomorrow.

It's horny... Like a unicorn!

Upcoming: Sprouted Raw Almond Hummus – Because I’m soaking some almonds now, too. Wheee!

Can I Call It Chicken Salad?

Wow... Now I want ANOTHER!

There’s a lot of stuff in this one besides chicken, so I’m tempted to come up with another name for it. Honestly, though? I’m doing well enough as it is to be sitting at the computer writing a blog post. Not that I haven’t been at the computer enough already today (read: “real” work from 6:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) (yes, those times are correct) (no, I don’t intend to repeat that again tomorrow as I have already logged similar hours the first three days this week), it’s just that I really liked my thrown-together version and wanted to share it. Immediately. As in, without waiting for the Creativity Genie to show up and give me a good name for this concoction.

For the record, I categorized this as “Convenient & Conscious”, but truth be told, it’s closer to the former and rather far from the latter in most respects. Still, I made it myself which meant I had control of the constituent elements. Always a good thing in my book!

I started with a lemon pepper rotisserie chicken from our friendly, neighborhood Publix. I’d had a thought that I might just pick up some pre-made chicken salad from their deli but what I found in the case was far too “wet” for my preference. Yuck-o to mayo! Okay, most mayo, most of the time, the way most people wield it.

The chicken contributed the better part of one breast. Yes, I could have picked the carcass clean, but I had been hungry when I left work, driven to Publix, navigated the after-work crowds, and finished my drive home. I diced it up pretty small because I’m opposed to getting a huge chunk in my mouth. Textural issues, mm-hm.

Then I diced two celery ribs into small cubes, about the same size as the chicken. Good for crunch! Next I added about half a bag of – don’t shoot me – SunMaid Fruit Bits. I liked the variety: apples, raisins, peaches, prunes, apricots. Who could resist?

I contemplated adding nuts and settled on pinenuts. I don’t think they’re real nuts (seeds, maybe?) but they’re the sort of crunchy I was hoping to get. A sprinkle of pepitas (a.k.a. hulled, roasted, salted pumkin seeds) followed, then a very obnoxious generous helping of hempseeds. At the end of it all, I mixed in some Smart Balance mayo – the smallest amount I felt like I could get by with and have it seem close enough to something I could reasonably call “chicken salad”. I don’t know why it needed to fit under that umbrella, it just did. Deal.

It stinks that my husband is probably going to finish off the rest of it that I didn’t have for dinner but I suppose he’s entitled to eat, too. Drat!

Oh! And the wrap was a brand I’d never tried before but really enjoyed: La Tortilla Factory’s Smart & Delicious Whole Grain White Soft Wraps made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Each tortilla wrap is only 100 calories and has 13 grams of FIBER – that’s 52% of the RDA. Wheeee! They’re just a little stretchy rather than the dry, brittle standard flour tortillas you get grocery-marketing. I’m not brave enough to try making my own tortillas – okay, well, I really just don’t want to get the whole counter all flour-y – so these will do just fine.

What do you put in YOUR chicken salad?

Tuna Salad Afresh

Scrumptious!

Wondering how to make your tuna salad better than the slop they serve at the diner on the corner? There are lots of simple ways to improve on the standard tuna-mayo-relish-bread that many of us grew up eating. I must confess, though; I never ate tuna salad before I met my husband. It’s true: Never. I don’t like mayonnaise, fish has never been a favorite, and eating COLD fish always just seemed so ew!

Nevertheless, the hubby convinced me [shocker] to try it out. On Ritz crackers, of course. And I really enjoyed his version! Pretty standard alternate combo: tuna-hard boiled egg-mayo-salt-pepper. I’d never eaten egg salad before either so it was a totally new thing altogether.

There are several small ways to turn this into a conscious, while still convenient, meal that’s delicious to boot. Encorporate them all together for the most impact or simply choose the ones that you are most comfortable using.

Tuna: go for a wild-caught tuna that has a low mercury content, like Oregon’s Choice.

Eggs: Locally-sourced, organic, pastured chicken eggs provide the highest quality but may not be readily available in your area. Check your local supermarket, farmers market or CSAs to find ethically produced eggs.

Mayonnaise: If you’re feeling particularly motivated, you can certainly make your own. Or there are plenty of organic, vegetarian and vegan options in the average grocery store. We usually have one made with canola or olive oil hanging around our refrigerator.

Celery: Since you’ll be eating all of the stalk (i.e. there’s no peel to remove), it’s best to go for organic to minimize your exposure to unwanted pesticide residue. If that’s not an option, wash well with a fruit & vegetable wash. I like to diced mine into small squares to maximize their CRUNCH potential!

Salt: A good quality celtic sea salt or other salt that hasn’t been stripped of its naturally occuring minerals, like Himalayan pink sea salt really enhances both the flavor and the nutrient profile. Conventional table salt that’s been treated with caustic chemicals is a wholly different, non-nutritional additive that can contribute to a host of maladies, including high blood pressure. Not. Good.

Pepper: Get out your grinders! Use any variety of whole peppercorn you prefer, grinding it fresh into your tuna salad as the final ingredient. Such a wonderful flavor that really contributes depth to the taste profile of the whole dish.

Finally, get creative with your presentation. Sure, you can always dig out some stale crackers, but why not give it a gorgeous green gown? I piled mine on crisp green leaf lettuce and baby spinach leaves then sprinkled hempseeds on top. Roll into a wrap and voila!

Patience Required to Photograph before Enjoying

Our Potluck Family

Borrowed from Atlanta Rawks

Even the best of cooks draw inspiration from other lovers of cuisine. Personally, I am perpetually in need of a food muse. Oftentimes, food itself arouses my creativity, getting my juices flowing when their, erm, juices start flowing.

One of my favorite, newfound sources of influence is an Atlanta-based group of vegan and raw food enthusiasts who organize weekly potlucks. These dinners provide true “soul food”; they invite you to push yourself to find the purest ingredients and draw out the foods’ natural flavors. It’s exciting to try new foods when you know that they were created with a genuine sense of integrity and open-minded exploration, utilizing unconventional means, innovative techniques and sometimes ancient methods.

Blogger (and all-around groovy chick) Sarah Ku posted this entry about our adventure a couple weekends ago. She graciously linked to my recipe for Raw Asparagus Quinoa that I whipped up (read: spent several hours creating) special for the event. It was the first fully raw vegan dish I had ever created with the intent of making a nutritious, raw, vegan main course. Sure, I’ve made fruit salads before or regular veggie salads and those would certainly abide by the spirit of the gatherings, but I really wanted to get outside my comfort zone, stretch my ever-expanding abilities and really present the group something I was proud to share. It was received enthusiastically and has given me a much-needed boost of confidence.

Not to mention a solid helping of inspiration!

*This post has been entered into the category of Confessions for two reasons: 1) it was one of the only ones that made sense to put it in and 2) it’s challenging to remain conscious enough to acknowledge your source material and, as such, revealing the source of my inspiration is a “confession” of sorts.

Good Golly It’s Green!

I do so adore the color green.

Whenever the kitchen beckons to me all the way home from work, even forcing a $30 sidetrip to Kroger for specific ingredients, it’s a call I must heed. It’s also probably not the time to be nearby unless you don’t mind being a guinea pig trying out my sometimes-unusual creations. If your palette is limited (as mine was for the first three decades of my life), you’d better high-tail it before I harangue you – in a congenial way, of course – about being “a picky wuss”. Or something more colorful if I know you well enough.

Even the Smallest

What's in this little dish?

 

A small post about a small meal for a very small, little person. Sometimes it’s easy to take forgranted that these little people in our lives (alternately known as children, kids, offspring, monsters munchkins or wee bebes) get good nutrition when they’re good eaters like my two-year-old is. He loves him some ‘nanas, grapes (a.k.a. “Ball, ball!”), pears, pineapple, melon, tomatoes, sweet potato, rice, beans and pepitas. He’s not so keen on meat, which doesn’t bother me in the least… most of the time.

Occasionally, though, I’ll be trying to cobble together a small meal for said small fellow and what do I have on hand? Some leftover grass-fed ground beef crumbles from Friday night’s dinner. The Dad, The Big Brother and The Mom all had some in their quesadillas (wheat tortillas, thank you) but that’s a meal the little one just doesn’t care for in the least. Enter steamed sushi rice. Okay, so now I have something to mix the meat into but that seems kind of… dull.

What else, what else? Ah! Extra virgin coconut oil (which, I find when I extract it from the pantry, is already liquified due to ridiculously warm Spring days in Georgia and therefore perfect for drizzling). Good, that’s good for its health and sensory benefits. Oh! And hempseed because what CAN’T you sprinkle hempseed on?!? One more thing, I think… Cashews! We are blessedly free of nut allergies (Yay!) so this adds a brilliant, softish crunch.

It only required a little time, a little thought, some little additions but the result is a mindful dish fit for my lil’ bit!

Raw Asparagus Quinoa

I Heart Asparagus

Decided get creative in the kitchen in anticipation of a Vegan Raw Food Potluck at a friend’s home this evening. I consulted some online sources for raw asparagus and sprouted quinoa suggestions, but beyond that, this is my own mélange. And so it was that I found myself chopping asparagus, onions and garlic at 11:30 yesterday evening…

Mama Hummus

Heavenly Hummus - Absolutely Divine

In our household, hummus is king. It’s the one and only legitimately “healthy” food that my picky child will eat. Our other munchkin doesn’t care much for the stuff – sometimes he’ll eat it and sometimes he won’t but he’s an otherwise excellent eater so I don’t fuss myself much over his food consumption. I’ve even been known to try and “hide” stuff from my picky eater but I must not be very good at it because he almost always sorts out my attempts at subterfuge.

Curried Cauliflower Puree

For the Love of Garlic

So, experimenting with foods is fun, right? And incorporating techniques from other cultures is a must, correct? Okay, well, that’s the basis for this somewhat intricate “Slow Food” recipe. There is a recommended variant at the end that un-Vegan-izes it, but you’re free to leave that step off if you’re preparing with those guidelines in mind.

Kiwi Pear Zinger

Oh, that there were always a photograph to display! Confession: I have no image to share because I was wrangling a squidgy toddler into a highchair, cleaning up after a muddy First-grader, letting the bossy cat out of the house, letting same cat back into the house… You get, or rather DON’T get, the picture.

This juice recipe came about through the “on-hand” rule: these were the ingredients I happened to have on-hand when I got an itch to use my Juiceman Juicer.

Not So Complicated

Looks pretty simple, huh?

So, I was in the kitchen, looking through the pantry, trying to decide what to do with my pound of ground beef. There are some pretty standard options available for making use of ground beef. Burgers with canned corn and frozen fries. A childhood favorite: ground beef crumbles in instant mashed potatoes. Burritos. Quesadillas. Meatball sandwiches.

Hmm…