Moroccan Yumminess

Arrrgh!  No matter where I positioned the butterfly or what angle the photo was from, this butterfly just looked awkward to me.  It's still a nice butterfly and A-chan liked it a lot, so why am I worrying about it?!  I shouldn't, right?  Today I made myself a bento too.  It was yummy!  Have you ever been to a Moroccan restaurant?  If you haven't, drop everything and go now.  Yes, I mean it - now!  Both of our bentos have leftovers from the Moroccan feast that I cooked the other night.  Not only is Moroccan food delicious it makes a ton of leftovers which just tickles pink the freezer stash lover in me.

In A-chan's bento:  Garlic and Basil couscous, Moroccan chickpeas, carrot butterfly, strawberries, steamed broccoli, carrot hearts, veggie hotdog flowers with green pea centers, and a container of feta cheese.

In my bento: Garlic and basil couscous, Moroccan vegetable stew, pan seared tofu and a perilla leaf.

The sweet Julie Moore got me thinking about couscous recently, making me realize how long it had been since I'd made Moroccan food.  I am grateful - I love this stuff! Go have a peek at the post I just made with the couscous, stew and tofu recipes.

Unfortunately A-chan does not share my relish in Moroccan cuisine and totally refused to eat the Vegetable stew.  That's why her bento has only the chickpeas, each one individually picked out of the stew to go into her bento.  Yep, that's how much I love my girl :)

Pastitsio Bento

Ahhh, Monday.  The sun is shining but it is as cold as all get out!  I've never been exactly sure what that phrase meant.  My grandparents used it a lot as I was growing up and it is now part of my brain function whether I understand it or not.  Might as well use it, right?  Today's bento of leftover vegetarian Pastitsio is perfect for this weather and it's all for me.  Happy Meatless Monday!

The package of sesame leaves that I picked up last night is the excuse for making myself a bento today.  They looked so pretty and it's been a long time since I've done anything experimental food-wise.  These are actually Perilla leaves which are related to Basil and Mint, but are often marketed under the name Sesame leaves.  Since I'm allergic to Mint, today's experiment is very cautious.  If I have no reactions today I will be more adventurous later in the week.  I love how the leaf looks in the bento - can't wait to actually try tasting it!

A-chan chose Starfruit as her food experiment.  So far she hasn't liked it, but I am so proud of her for trying it!  And since she doesn't like it that just means more for me...

In the bento:  Vegetarian Pastitsio, Perilla leaf, an almond, baby carrots, a huge cherry tomato, blackberries, steamed broccoli, a slice of starfruit and an orange slice.

Pastitsio is a Greek meat and pasta casserole.  I adapted a recipe to be made with Morningstar Farms recipe crumbles.  The recipe is posted on my other blog so if you're interested, go check it out.  It makes a huge amount!  (And you can substitute real meat for the fake meat if you happen to be a carnivore.  Just sayin')

Mama's Bento

There wasn't a need for a bento today.  A-chan was home from school yesterday and today for MLK.  So I made up an excuse to make a bento for myself.  It got eaten at home and satisfied a creative need.  As a bonus I made myself some quick pickles which I adore!

In the bento: Two lozenge shaped onigiri with nori wraps and eggsheet flowers, quick cucumber pickles, leftover Mongolian suegai from the Chinese restaurant, Moro orange slices, a small bunch of tiny grapes and a couple of chunks of Dubliner cheese.

The onigiri weren't quite large enough to stretch to both sides of the box so I placed them inside a large lettuce leaf to hold them in place and add to the prettiness.  The eggsheet flowers were held onto the nori with sriracha as 'glue' and sriracha dots grace the middles of the flowers as well.

We ate at local Chinese restaurant the other night where I got one of my fav dishes - Mongolian suegai.  Yum! There wasn't a lot of it leftover so I had the perfect amount for a bento.  It was a delicious lunch and a quick bento.

I had promised a while back to write up my vegetarian Spaghetti recipe that has been seen in several bentos here and there.  Technically it's my grandmother's recipe that I hijacked into going vegetarian.  But the recipe is now up on my other blog!  Woohoo!  Here is the link: http://incaseofasparagus.blogspot.com/2012/01/make-spaghetti-vegetarian-style.html

Recipe - Sweet Love Broccoli

I was trying to make Thai Firecracker Broccoli, but I didn't have all the ingredients. So some experimentation happened and this is the result. Very sweet with a good tang at the end. My entire family likes it and I'm keeping the recipe! It had to be renamed, though and Sweet Love was what came to mind, corny as it may be.

Sweet Love Sauce: (more sweet than hot)
½ cup water
1 cup sugar
½ cup rice vinegar
1 TB garlic pwd
1 ts salt
1 TB chili oil
1 ts cayenne pwd (more if you like things hot)

1. Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil, lower heat and simmer 20 minutes.
2. Add chili oil & cayenne to mixture, cook 2 mins, pour into container to keep refrigerated.

Sweet Love Broccoli:
1 large head of broccoli, already steamed
6-8 TB of Sweet Love sauce
½ cup vegetable broth
2 TB oil

1. Heat oil in skillet. Add broccoli and cook for a few minutes until it begins to wilt.
2. Add vegetable broth and simmer for several minutes on high.
3. Pour pre-made SL sauce over the broccoli and continue to cook on high for 5 more minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Drain if necessary and eat either hot or cold.

Recipe - Bridies!

A few Forfar Bridies hanging out together. One regular sized one chaperones the minis.

Vegetarian Bridies are one of the true pleasures of the world to me. They are easy and wholesome and yummy and a fantastic HP sauce delivery device. The fact that my toddler loves the miniature ones is a great bonus. Here is my recipe.

Scottish Forfar Bridies (makes about 6): Don’t forget to buy HP Sauce!!
some butter
2 batches of your favorite pastry or pie crust (when I'm in a time crunch I use Pillsbury pie crusts)
1 pkg morningstar farms crumbles
1 onion, chopped extra fine
1 cup mushroom broth
dry ground mustard
garlic powder
dried parsley
salt & pepper

1. Melt some butter in a pan, if you like lots of butter then add 4 TB, if you're health concious just add 2 TB. Cook crumbles and onion in the butter.

2. Add the mushroom broth, 3 shakes of ground mustard, 5 shakes of garlic powder and 4 shakes of dried parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

3. Reduce until very little liquid is left. Set aside to cool.

4. Prepare pastry dough, cut as many 6 inch rounds as possible. (Or 3 inch rounds for miniature bridies) Put a large spoonful of the crumble mixture in the center of the pastry rounds. Wet edges with water and fold over, crimp edges with miniature fork.

5. If desired, cut cute smiley faces into the tops. These freeze well and if you want to freeze them now is the best time...they will be ready to cook straight from the freezer, just lengthen the cooking time about 5 minutes.

6. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, checking near the end to make sure they don't get too browned around the edges.

7. Can be eaten at room temperature or just out of the oven!