Day 36 - Smoked Salmon

Lunch Box Menu
- Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese on Rye Wasa Bread
- Cheesy Kale Chips
- Vegan Blueberry Scones
- Apple

We have a smoker which we use maybe twice a year.  My husband is the king of the smoker (and the grill, for that matter) - I don't enter these domains!  He smoked some lovely salmon a couple of weeks ago which we enjoy mostly as little appetizers, but it served me well with my bare fridge today.  I just took out some whole grain wasa bread, spread a little cream cheese on it and then the smoked salmon.  Kids did eat it after a bit of coaching - there sense of smell was leaning a little too much on the smoked side! 

Smoked Salmon on Wasa

The Kale chips were made in the dehydrator - a favorite among raw foodists.  The "cheesy" is the vegan substitute - soaked raw cashews and nutritional yeast.  Got my daughter to eat them and my son tried them, but only ate a couple.  I guess I shouldn't complain!

Cheesy Kale Chips

Lastly, the vegan, low gluten (made with spelt flour) blueberry scones.  Delectible!

Vegan Blueberry Scones

Day 28 - Vietnamese Spring Rolls

We had a very productive weekend, from a cooking standpoint, so a few items ready to go into lunches.

Today:
- Vietnamese Spring Rolls
- Korean Chestnut/Coconut Bread
- Kiwi
- Dried fruit

The spring rolls are thanks to my husband - he seems to enjoy making these delicious "pockets" as my son calls them. Shrimp, scallion, mung sprouts and cilantro in a rice paper wrap.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Found this gorgeous bread in a Korean market we just discovered, thanks to a good friend.  It is full of coconut, dates and chestnuts.  "Gorgeous" I had never heard of as a food descriptor, but visiting friends from the UK a couple of years ago used it, and I find it quite fitting for this bread.  It is really more of a dessert than a bread per say, but on occasion, why not?!

Korean Bread

Sliced Korean Bread - See all the Yummies?

Kiwi

We tried mango, banana and apple this weekend.  Probably could have used a couple more hours in the dehydrator (a bit chewy for the mango and the banana), but tasty none-the-less.

Dried Fruit

Day 25 - Corn Salsa Pizzettes

Goodness gracious.  What a morning.  Late, late, late.  Confession - I tend to get addicted to certain 'specialty shows' - Lost, The Tudors, Rome, etc.  The latest - Fringe.  Am of course seasons behind, so we get the shows through Netflix, but that means we can watch 4 episodes, commercial-free, into the wee hours of the morning.  Last night - fell asleep during the show.  To top it off, got adventurous with the new dehydrator - made raw goddess kale chips last night. Of course this morning on top of being late, had to get all the chips into air tight packages with a couple not quite done the dehydration process.  So, I was a bit of a crazy woman running around this morning and of course, the kids were late for school.  The good part about this morning - the kids stole a kale chip before I could pack some in their lunch - the LOVED it!  Yeah!  Kids loving kale.  From my nutrition persona - I couldn't be more delighted!

Today's Lunch
- Corn Salsa Pizzettes
- Baby Cukes
- Goddess Kale Chips
- Apple Chips
- Water (as always, I just don't always put it in the blog).

Here are the before and after dehydrator kale chips:

Kale Chips Mixed in Goddess Marinade

Raw Goddess Kale Chips - All Done!

Note - the kale chips are raw as they were dehydrated at 105 degrees (F).  Anything below 118 degrees is considered raw cooking.  Raw foodies, as they are called, believe that if you cook food higher than 118, that you kill off all the good nutrients and enzymes.  Dehydrators are a raw foodie's best friend!  (Along with raw cacao, but we'll save that for another conversation.)

Corn Salsa Pizzettes

Full disclosure here.  My husband put the corn salsa on the pita bread a couple of nights ago for us to snack on - we never did.  So, they were sitting in the fridge and with my lack of time this morning, I just sprinkled some cheese on top and broiled for a couple of minutes.

Baby Cukes

Apple Chips

Day 23 - Black Bean & Sweet Pepper Stir Fry

I go away for a week, and my husband buys a dehydrator!!!  Now, some of you may not be too excited about that, but I was going to start dropping hints for next birthday (many months away) to get one.  Turns out, all you need is a daughter who is ga-ga over dried fruit and a Daddy who's daughter is the 'apple of his eye' (sorry, couldn't resist the pun).

So, we enter a new dimension.  Not only are we able to dehydrate a whack (that's a lot) of fresh, in-season fruit but we can now make raw crackers and breads, and a multitude of other great things.

Today, it's all about the fruit.

Menu:
Brown Rice, Black Bean & Sweet Pepper Stir Fry
Baby Cukes
Dried Apples & Pineapple
Banana

First, the EXCALIBUR!!!

Excalibur - Dehydrator Extraordinaire

Almost Done (Pineapple & Apple)

Dried Apples Ready to Go

Now the rest.  I sifted through the weekend's left-overs and found the brown rice and black beans.  Put some olive oil in a pan, with a shallot (caramelized), then sweet peppers.  Med-high heat until softened.  Then added in the rice and beans to reheat.  Simple, quick and tasty.

Brown Rice, Black Bean & Sweet Pepper Stirfry

Baby Cukes & Banana