I’ve gotten back into the habit of taking my Laptop Lunchbox to work a few times a week, and I’ve been enjoying it. To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to prepare a few of the menus from Vegan Lunch Box Around the World, which I purchased a while ago but hadn’t cooked from yet. I picked the menus to use what I had received in my CSA delivery.
First up was Thailand #1: Pad Thai, Red Curry Vegetables, Thai Cucumber Salad and an Asian Pear
For being so simple, the red curry vegetables were really good. The cucumber salad was your standard asian cucumber salad, light and fresh. The pad thai component was supposed to be from a boxed pad thai, but my grocery store didn’t have a vegan brand, so I chose peanut noodles instead and added some tofu. The noodles weren’t very good, but that wasn’t the cookbook’s fault.
Next up, Germany: Cabbage Rolls, Beet Salad, Applesauce and Spitzbuben cookies. Except I didn’t feel like I needed cookies, so I subbed some pretzels and chocolate. Pretzels and chocolate are German, right?
I was super happy with this lunch. The beet salad was really simple to make and really tasty. The cabbage rolls, with a filling of walnuts, chickpeas and brown rice, were surprisingly good. I thought the recipe was a little simple, but was really pleased with how the flavors came together. And, the filling held together nicely without any crazy binders.
Nummy cabbage rolls!
For my last themed lunch, New England: New England Chowder, Fish Crackers, Boston Brown Bread Muffins with Vegan Cream Cheese and a Pear. I thought the meal was a little carb heavy and protein light, so I cut out the crackers and added some fishy tempeh – tempeh marinated in vegetarian fish sauce.
I also added some cherries to fill the fourth position because, well, cherries are fantastic! The chowder was good but maybe a little bland. I felt like it could’ve used some flavor of the sea, say, from seaweed, but I guess that wouldn’t be very kid friendly. The brown bread muffins had fantastic flavor, but were undercooked in the middle, which was probably my fault.
Here are a few more lunches.
shirataki noodles with sugar snap peas and mushrooms, baked tofu, celery
sourdough bread, Amy’s lentil vegetable soup, carrot sticks, soy nuggets with barbecue sauce, pecan cranberry clusters
roasted cauliflower, springtime risotto with asparagus and fresh peas, salad with french dressing, prunes and dried apricots
One day when I didn’t have a whole lot of food to take, I packed this cute little bento box which I had never used.
Bottom layer: kiwi with radish flowers, carrots and celery, mixed nuts and mini chocolate chips. Top layer: steamed broccoli with mustard-apricot sauce, brown rice and chickpeas with gomasio. This was tasty and fun, but really small! I don’t know how people eat this tiny amount of food and aren’t still hungry!
babette said
Your lunches look fabulous!
Megan said
Your baby bento is ADORABLE!
And pretzels and chocolate are TOTES German. 🙂
veganhomemade said
From the German expert herself! Excellent.
amey said
you are such a cutie with your fancy little laptop lunches! I’m so impressed with all the effort and tidyness that you put into them. And, your baby bento box is super super cute, but I agree with you about small lunches … I gotta eat, man!!
vegandeliciousness said
Yay! I missed your laptop lunch posts!
Aimee said
I thought pretzels and beer were German? Your lunches look fabulous!
mihl said
Yes chocolate and pretzels are German (don’t tell the Swiss)!
BroccoliHut said
Beautiful bentos!
chow vegan said
Awesome looking lunches! and really cute bento box! I think bento boxes come in different sizes, maybe you have the one for kids. 🙂
JennShaggy said
Thank you so much! I’m really glad I found your blog…all of this food looks unreal!
carissa said
I love all your bento boxes! I’ve been telling my husband that I need some bento boxes. Those cabbage rolls look great! Hawaii has these pork roll things that look like that, so now I finally have an idea of what I can do that is similar to that! Thanks! Stop by my blog when you get the chance 🙂