Soup soup soup.

I didn’t think to take a picture of the soup I made yesterday, but I though I could write a few words anyway. I have a rice cooker now, and I really like making soup in it. I generally just throw ingredients into it and let them simmer until it stops, and so far, it’s gone very well. I use the measure that comes with it, not sure how much that actually is. So this isn’t a recipe, really, but more of an idea.

Coconut curry lentil soup

• Chop half an onion, two cloves of garlic, and some ginger.
• Sauté in rice cooker with some oil, curry powder, a sprinkling of nutmeg and cinnamon
• add a sliced carrot
• add a measure of red lentils and stir
• add a small can of coconut milk (one of those mini ones)
• add a stock cube, try to break it apart
• add 2-3 measures of water
• stir now and then
• let simmer until it seems done/the rice cooker turns off, check seasoning and add more curry/salt/pepper/cayenne if necessary.

It turns into a creamy, yellow/orange fragrant and thick soup. Zero effort. And it’s very forgiving in terms of measurements etc. Just add more water if it seems to dry/thick.

From-the-freezer bento

There is a spinach feta muffin of my own invention which mostly contains chopped spinach to the one side. It turned out so so, not nearly as tasty as the Mediterranean zucchini muffins. On the other side there are two leek dumplings.
In the muffin liner in the middle I have some cubes of fresh papaya and some blueberries, aren’t the colors nice?

Rice and beans bento.

I teach from 3 pm on Wednesdays and don’t get home until 8.30, so I need something to snack on around dinnertime. This is rice and beans left over from last night, along with some sauteed spinach, all sprinkled with gomashio. In the cupcake liner, some papaya. We bought papaya on sale the other day in the chinese supermarket.

Savory Mediterranean Everything Muffins.

I don’t usually bake using recipes, rather I tend to just make stuff up and hope for the best, vaguely inspired by recipes I have previously used or read. This is one of these inventions, inspired by my friend Rita’s excellent blog post about savory muffins. The philosophy here is “mix together a bunch of good things and hope they turn into good muffins”. And they did!

“Norwegian” measurements, for once (paradoxically!) — I only have IKEA measuring equipment and it gives me desilitres (1 dl=100 ml) instead of cups. 2 dl is about 1 smallish cup.

Savory Mediterranean Everything Muffins

• 2 dl ap flour (store was sold out of whole wheat)
• 1 dl chickpea flour (because it’s healthy and full of fibre!)
• 1 dl wheat germ (same)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• herbes de provence
• some cayenne
• 2 dl finely grated zucchini
• 1/2 dl oil
• just under 1 dl milk
• 1/2 dl feta chunks (I used reduced fat ready made feta crumbs)
• scant 1/2 dl chopped sundried tomato (these were in oil, otherwise they must first be reconstituted in water)
• scant 1/2 dl chopped green olives

Mix dry ingredients, then add the wet ones. Combine. Spoon into muffin tins and bake for about 15 mins at 180C. Yum! Looking forward to sticking these in a lunch box!

Ochazuke lunch.

The easiest soup ever is probably Japanese ochazuke. Ochazuke means “soaked in tea” or something very close, and that is exactly what it is.

You take your rice left overs, in this case a mix of rice, beans and peas, and put in a bowl. Then you sprinkle with whatever you have lying around, in this case an actual ochazuke mix from the Korean supermarket with seaweed and little crunchy rice balls, plus shelled hempseed. My favorite topping is smoked salmon, but it’s expensive around here. Add some chili powder if you like. Pour green tea over it! My favorite is genmaicha.
Voilà soup!

Saturday brunch.

I had amazing brunch on Saturday at a place in Leslieville called Lady Marmalade. This dish was truly sublime!

Cheddar and spinach waffles with roasted tomato, bacon and a smokey orange-tomato cream sauce, with a side salad dressed with a sesame vinaigrette. Best brunch ever!

Working-at-home lunch.

I made this colorful salad today to eat on my break from reading Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work.

It has spring mix, red bell pepper, avocado, olives, littles cubes of comté cheese and a basil/balsamic vinaigrette, and is sprinkled with shelled hemp seeds. Yum!

Quickie snack box

I’ve been bad with both making and posting bentos lately.. I made this one today to bring with me to eat between going to the gym and the lecture for the class I am TAing. It’s taught from 6-8 pm – dinner time – so it really helps to have something on hand.

There is a small tin of tomato and onion flavored tuna, healthy sesame poppyseed crackers, a babybel cheese and some dried mango and apricot. I also have a little plastic utensil that’s half spoon half knife. I got it from a stand promoting New Zealand and kiwis at the vegetarian food fair down at the Harborfront. Works well for tuna too, though, not just kiwis!

I try not to eat too much tuna – the Canadian health agency discourages women from eating much of it. Too bad, as these portion size tins are so convenient.. I figure one every few weeks can’t hurt, and I avoid tuna sushi.

Snack bento

This is a snack bento for little munchies inbetween. Particularly useful in the late afternoon… It should last a few days in my purse I imagine. Better than picking up a muffin at Starbucks when the hunger sets in, which I am really trying not to do, but then I get so hungry!

There are dried apricots and mango pieces, healthy multigrain crackers and dryroasted salty edamame.

The box is from my new Lock&Lock set.

Toronto edition

This is a transitional time for both myself and for the blog. I am going from working 8-3 and having lots of time, to starting a PhD – a never ending project that will mean a completely different life and schedule. I also moved to Canada, leaving behind the excellent SLR camera that has allowed me to take so many lovely pictures food.

However, I really would like to keep making bentos and I really enjoy working on the blog. I also moved into the Korean neighborhood in Toronto, so bento friendly food abounds. In fact I succumbed to temptation yesterday and bought a Lock&Lock lunch set… It has two boxes, one of which has three separate compartments, and comes with a little waterbottle and a chopstick set. All in a little pouch. So cool!

So anyway, I’m gettig carried away. In a week or two, when I am settled and I actually have Internet at home, I’ll try to get back to thr blog properly!