A Vegan Treat!

Me and my husband had dinner with some friends on Sat.  The woman that was cooking had a big challenge on her hands as I'm vegan, my husband isn't big on veggies, and her boyfriend is gluten intolerant! But she did an amazing job. It was such a treat to have a vegan meal cooked for me. WOW! And she even let us bring home leftovers. So this a bento from her great cooking. So hence not much effort on my part except for arranging it in the box. 

This is one of my favorite bento boxes as the white really displays color so well and it even has a clear lid so you food always looks nice.

The meat like substance is seitan cooked in a lovely sauce along with some potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and peppers. I added a banana, raisins, and a sesame candy for dessert.

HOT FRESH NOW - no more

Well yesterday at about 2am I had some Krispy Kream Doughnuts. Im not sure why I assumed they were vegan. Probably because I have no idea how doughnuts are made and becasue I thought since they are so artificial that there just couldn't be any real ingredients in them. But alas today I looked them up and boo. I love how they say "the ONLY animal byproducts" and then list 7 animal ingredients. Its not like I ate them that often. (we do happen to live super close to one but its quite infrequent that we go) Bye bye hot fresh now. But now I am on the search for a vegan doughnut. Again I'm not a big doughnut fan but I love finding the vegan substitutes.

INGREDIENT INFORMATION
The only animal byproducts used in our doughnut are eggs (whites and yolks) and dairy products (including milk, butter, yogurt, whey, nonfat milk and nonfat whey). Our doughnuts are cooked in 100% vegetable oil shortening (partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil). All monoglycerides, diglycerides and enzymes are vegetable based. The lecithin we use is soy based. We also use wheat in our doughnuts, including bran, germ, gluten, starch and flour. Our products may contain allergens. To get further information about our products call us at 1800 4KRISPY.

Busy but in the mean time Organizing for the future

Its been a crazy hetic few weeks hence no posts. I've barely been getting sleep and that has precedence over blog wiring. But don't worry the blog will return. I have been working on a better system to organize the stash of goodies (aka bento madness) and I'm happy to report that its almost done. I'm also trying to figure out how to post phone photos to flicker with no luck so far. I've still been packing bentos but they have been mostly leftovers and nothing worth posting about. Here's a mini preview of the new storage system. An explination of what and where will come later.

Strictly Leftover Bento

Again it seems the fridge has become a mess and sadly this bento is blurry =(

I may order a light to help with the photos. As its frustrating to spend time on a bento and then have it look fuzzy. 

Anywhoo the above was seriously what was left in my fridge. The back bento was full of fun Korean pickled items that I got at a great restaurant called Tofu 88. They ironically only had 2 vegetarian options but they were yummie. I ended up getting a mushroom tofu soup that was quite spicy. They packed in rice and a mini tray full of Korean veggie items. They were cutely wrapped up in tinfoil cups. I filled up on the soup so here they are. I believe its kimchi, some type of sweetened potato, a really yummie bean sprout concoction, and then a spicier kimchi sort of thing. (I really need a Korean cookbook)

In the front bento is leftover turnip cake. And some frozen rice with asparagus. I heat up the rice so it isn't thawing when I go to eat it. 

Its good to be back on track and eating healthy and it honestly took me less then 10 min to make this bento. Its usually the mulling around of the idea of making lunch that takes longer.

Green Tea Latte

OK even if your not a huge green tea fan this drink is amazing!! Well I think so.

And it even got me off of Coffee (iced coffee die hard fan) and is much healthier for you.

Super simple Green Tea Latte Recipe

Get yourself some Green Tea Powder (Machata)

There are so many kinds ranging in price. Green tea can be super cheep, or very expensive depending on the grade. I just get plain ole powder tea. The farmers market by me has it for about 6 dollars and that lasts me a good bit.

Add about a teaspoon of the powder to a large glass (or thermos if its microwavable, but if I'm taking this to work with me I make it in the glass first and then transfer to my thermal mug)

Then add about an inch of water (you can add more if you don't like your latte's so milky. I like mine very milky (soy milk of course so I only add a little water) The key is to dissolve the green tea completely so you don't have any lumps of powder (eww).

Now microwave your glass for 30 seconds. This should be enough for it to dissolve and mix completely.
Add your favorite sweetener (or don't if your watching sweets, its still good with no sugar). I use Agave Nectar and about a teaspoon of it.

Now is the time to stir up your mini mixture as its warm and the sweetener will dissolve nicely.

Then add about half of your cup with ice. I prefer crushed ice as I hate it when I'm down to the bottom and an ice cube falls on my face. But big chunky ice does just fine.

Now add your soy milk (you can substitute any no dairy milk such as nut milks, rice milks.) I prefer the Silk unsweetened kind so I'm not adding yet more sugar.

Now stir and enjoy.

A straw makes it nice to sip (but don't waste it one time and just throw it away, rinse and use over and over!! As long as you rinse them out good they last a long time.)

yummmmmm.

Benefits

-Some caffeine but not as much as coffee.

-Green tea has great antioxidants

-Not high in calories especially if you use only a tiny bit of sweetener or no sweetener.

-If you use Agave nectar it doesn't cause the spike in your sugar levels (which is a bad thing)

-Super cheep (just the initial investment in the tea at about 6 dollars and some soy milk)

-Save money on that coffee fix you get every morning!!

This also makes a killer bubble/boba tea when you have the time to make the tapioca pearls (I'll show you another recipe for that down the road)

Hope you enjoy!!

Where I think this blog is going. Where do you want it to go?

Its been a long couple weeks hence no bentos. I've really been eating bad too. And yes vegan's can eat bad. Believe me there's tons of junkfood that has no animal products in it. But in that time I haven't forgot the blog. I've really been thinking of what I want this to be and my conclusion is more of a jumping off point for those trying to go vegan. Not that more senior vegans can't get anything out of it but last months poll really clued me in to things.

I may not have tons of readers but those of you who voted were either 

A: allready vegans

or 

B: Had considered veganism but though it was too complicated.

So I'd like to gear this blog toward showing others how its really simple!

So the jist is that its not only going to be bentos. I don't know if it would be better to change the name of the blog or not. Maybe I should not worry about that. I still want to show lots of fun bentos but know that if your not into bentos you still will find lots of good info in here to get you on your way to becoming vegan. If there are things that you are curious about please feel free to drop me a comment and maybe I can feature something to help you out.

So since time is tight I will show you an easy (yet ultra yummie) recipe that I can't live without these days in my next post.

Happy monday everyone!