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.

Lunchbox

Here is another one of my lunchboxes for a change. I take a lunchbox to work daily and am keen keeping it variable. I normally just have the previous day's leftovers, but also keep adding different snacking things and veg to the box. The lunchbox is something that can definitely lift my spirits in the middle of a hectic work day.

This box included:

• apple slices
• giant corn
• tomato and mozzarella arancini
• pasta with tomato sauce, soft cheese and rocket

Simple, yet good! Have further a nice week!

Your VegHog

Favourite kind of work lunch

I get very excited at work when it's finally lunch time. I look for a quiet corner somewhere to have my packed lunch in peace. When it comes to lunching I'm not the most social, I just want to concentrate on my packed goodies and refresh my mind for the rest of the day. I often also go for a walk outside. Lunch time is almost as good as getting to leave work in the afternoon.

I take my homemade lunch with me every day. I'm not too keen on our cantine food, as it tends to be more on the unhealthier side, chips etc. I guess that's quite typical for the British canteens, or have you made different experiences? And don't even get me started about the office cake culture!

My lunches vary quite a bit from day to day. Most of the time part of it is previous night's dinner, which I then normally eat cold the next day. That usually takes the dish to a different level and it doesn't feel boring eating the same thing again. Then there can be sandwiches or homebaked rolls. Salads are also a popular choice, as I always prefer a lighter lunch. I often add fruit, berries, crackers or pieces of cheese to complete the lunch box.

This time my lunch box contains some fresh vegetables, hummus, croutons and nuts, and in my opinion it's just the perfect mix for the lunch time. What's your favourite work lunch like?

Lunchbox – Rice and beans and homemade spelt rolls

Here is another lunchbox post to show you one of my quite typical lunchboxes for a day. I spend quite a long time commuting and then finally working, so I want to have a well organised lunchbox, which will fill me for the day.

This box from last week contained homemade spelt rolls with cheese for breakfast. I was more than happy to scoff them both in one go. I also pressed some blood orange juice with added fresh ginger and that certainly woke me up!

For lunch I had rice with black beans and sweetcorn, nicely seasoned with fresh coriander, ground cumin, ground coriander and smoked paprika, also containing fried onions and garlic – a perfect weekday meal as far as I am concerned. There was a small container with additional smoked chilli paste as well.

This was quite a big lunchbox, normally one roll should be enough for me, but since I had baked more rolls the previous day, I thought I'd take more with me.

Have a good week!

Your VegHog

Just another lunchbox

I wanted to post another lunchbox of mine and this one is actually quite typical for me when it comes to the gnocchi, as gnocchi or pasta are so quick to throw together the previous night with just some small additions. It's also nice to get creative with these dishes. I manage to make something like this for next day's lunch even when I go out for the evening on a weekday and have to get up at 6 am as usual.

I'm also glad that there are actually some fruits in this, as I have been neglecting them too much for the recent breakfasts and lunches. I'm sure that this will change again towards the summer.

This lunchbox contains:

Blood orange slices

Apple slices

Pumpkin gnocchi with red pepper and sundried tomato pesto and cheese on the top

Your VegHog

Lunchbox

It's already mid January and the holidays have been long forgotten, replaced by work stress. No, just kidding, it's not quite that bad for me. However I need to be thinking about filling two lunchboxes again every day and I would like to be more inventive with them. Today's example is not the most innovative, but it was nice.

I had pasta with roasted tomatoes, vegetarian pasta cheese, pine nuts and garlic and half of a pretzel roll and piece of a seedy baguette, both of them filled with cheese. I could have added more fresh fruits or vegetables here, but sometimes I just want a filling breakfast-lunch combination.

What have you been packing for lunch in early January?

I'll try to make more of these posts again.

Your VegHog

From dinner to lunch

I'm always happy when I can use absolutely everything in the cupboard and nothing goes to waste. This can be very challenging with a varying appetite like mine and fondness to fresh produce. Sometimes really creative and even odd dishes are created through this method. This one wasn't quite as adventurous, I just happened to have a couple of tortilla wraps in an open packet that had to come away, so I decided to wrap Monday's dinner, Harlequin squash spelt risotto with halloumi, into it and bake in the oven until the tortilla was crispy. This was indeed a nice tasting lunch for the next day. Otherwise I packed into my lunchbox for that day a few apple slices, salty potato rings and a Leicester cheese stick. I was very happy eating these things.

How do you like recycling food and creating new dishes from left-overs?

Have a nice Friday everyone!

Your VegHog

New lunch box

My partner and I spontaneously purchased new lunch boxes for our household, when we saw these Joseph Joseph ones in the shop. The system of these boxes is quite cunning with two stackable and variable compartments divided by a silicone cover. The upper one also has two smaller sections perfect for some fresh veg and hummus for example! So finally I could find some stylish and functional lunchboxes. I have also been looking for nice transportable cutlery for a long time, and when I saw that there was a matching spoon/fork/knife set in a silicone cover held together by the magnetic knife, I knew I had to have them as well. I thought that the green colour is very suitable for veggies like us, and my partner already got compliments for his box at his workplace.

What I have noticed about these boxes after a couple of days of use, is that liquids might sometimes escape their compartments. I would therefore recommend this model for a bit “drier” dishes. They also have soup containers in the same range, so I might at some point invest in those too.

Yesterday's lunch, which is depicted here, included: Lebanese rice with vermicelli (recipe here), roasted cauliflower with tahini (recipe here), smoked paprika dusted chickpeas, Emmental pieces, grapes and rye crisps. This lunch was particularly lavish, but I normally want that kind of thing on Mondays. 

What kind of lunch gear are you typically using and what has been in your lunchboxes lately?

Have further a good week!

Your VegHog

Midweek lunch

Lebanese dirty rice has become a real favourite of mine, and I actually cook a batch almost once a week. Lately I've been cooking other Lebanese recipes as well, which I hope to post here soon.

This lunch contains Lebanese dirty rice with roasted onions, fresh mini plum tomatoes and a packet of punchy protein nuts by Graze. This lunch should be quite nutritious for a work day.

What has been in your lunch boxes lately?

Tuesday Lunchbox

So it's September. I'm more than fine with autumn coming, even though it came around once again so quickly and almost surprisingly. I have high hopes for this autumn. Maybe I'll manage a big change in my life, or maybe just several small ones. We shall see, I'm full of energy and very much looking forward to the dark cosy evenings with lovely autumnal comfort food!

Today however I'm only going to post the content of my lunchbox. I had Greek yogurt with fresh blueberries for breakfast, pattypan squash spelt risotto for lunch and a blueberry muffin and a Pätkis chocolate bar as treats with me. This box offered me more than comfort at work and was quite balanced. I normally don't have this much sweet stuff in my lunchbox, but now it just somehow happened.

I will be posting the recipes for the pattypan squash spelt risotto and the blueberry muffins here soon, so stay tuned, if you like the look of them.

What did you have in your lunchbox today?

Have a great week and September!

Your VegHog