Under the sea

I'm back from my holiday to Finland, well actually already since Tuesday evening. I just haven't had time to write anything here since, as it was straight back to work for me. The holiday was nice. It was great to see my family again and also some snow (yes it happened, and I have photos to prove it). I will write a quick holiday post soon, but now I have a busy weekend ahead again, so it will probably be later.

I now want to share this under the sea themed bento box with you that I made recently as mine and my partner's work lunches. So this box just contained two onigiris, a fish shaped with seaweed flakes and a star shaped plain one, and both had an umeboshi paste filling and nori strips around them. I added some fresh veggies to the box: carrots, kale, spinach, sprouts and tomatoes, and served a soya-chilli sauce on the side. It was a really nice lunch.

What has been in your lunch boxes lately?

Your VegHog

Bento Italiano

You may have noticed that ever since I got my lovely sushi rice moulds, I've been very keen on bento box lunches. This time I gave the box a little bit of a twist by using typical Italian ingredients in it.

I made sure at work that neither my Italian nor Japanese colleagues would see this lunch, in case this fusion would've been too much for them. I avoid these subjects with one of my Italian colleagues anyway, as she wasn't very pleased to hear that I like pineapple on a pizza...

I thought that this was a really good lunch and I would make it anytime again.

So this is what I made:

• onigiri from sushi rice cooked with vegetable stock powder and a rind of vegetarian pasta cheese, with an olive and sundried tomato filling, and basil facial features
• mini pizzas using halves of whole wheat pittas as a base, with semi-dried tomato, basil, oregano and vegetarian pasta cheese on top
• roasted red pepper and garlic sauce with some olive oil and pine nuts (basically a red pesto)
• balsamic jelly
• pulled mozzarella
• olives
• roasted red peppers
• lambs lettuce
• tomatoes
• pine nuts
• basil

How did you find this fusion bento? Was I crossing a line there?

I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Your VegHog

Vegan Valentine

Will you be my vegan Valentine? Haha, I'm just having a bit of fun, I'm not really one for Valentine's Day. In Finland it's known as friends' day, Ystävänpäivä, which I find somewhat better. So I want to wish all my readers a very happy friends' day!

Somehow the season gripped me anyway, and I made some “romantic” lunchboxes for my partner and me containing beetroot coloured onigiri hearts made from sushi rice and some fresh vegetables and a spicy chilli-soy-sesameoil-dip. It was all presented in the style of a bento box. I cooked the sushi rice with a few beetroot bits in the pot in order to colour it red. I also added a umeboshi paste centre to the hearts, just a little bit, in order to have a spicy zing inside.

How are you spending Valentine's Day? Do you have any food traditions for it?

Your VegHog

Bento boxes

I really admire the art of bento boxes. People make such an effort making the cutest lunches and I wish I would have such vegetable cutting skills. I bought some rice moulds in animal and other shapes, and wanted to make a nice lunch for my partner and I. This is my first attempt using the moulds, but I'm sure there will be many more as it was a lot of fun.

I served the rice onigiri with fresh vegetables and a soy-chilli-mirin-sesameseed oil sauce. It was a tasty and filling lunch and brought a smile to my face in the middle of a hectic working day.