The Bento Box Snapshot: A Week of Pareve

Much like my summer internship last year, I really have had to focus on what I am able to eat for my job as the camp’s art specialist. As I mentioned before, the community center I work at is Jewish-oriented, as is the camp, so that meant following their dietary laws as well. In the beginning it was impossible to tell which meats the kids brought to camp were kosher, so all lunches are now required to be either dairy or pareve.

BBS 1: Carrot risotto, fresh veggies, mozzarella, and daily apple

Since I’m not Jewish, I was worried about offending people with the food I brought. Regardless of my food intolerances, I took on the challenge to make a week of bento lunches that:

1. Observed the dairy and/or pareve rule as written in Judaic law
2. Consisted of things I could and would eat
3. Were nutritionally balanced
4. Kept me full until dinner

Let’s just say that all my lunches were total successes.

BBS 2: Homemade hummus, rice, and dipping veggies (not shown)

For one thing, I learned that size does matter for a bento box. The one Daddy-O gave me last Saturday on our way back from the National Harbor is just perfect for my active lifestyle and appetite. It is two-tiered, which gave me the ability to either make two small meals, or one lunch with a variety of ingredients.

Much of what I packed were leftovers from dinners the night before, tons of veggies, and freshly made spreads like guacamole and hummus. Beans and rice were common, though I did enjoy tuna salad spring rolls and salmon cakes immensely. Cottage cheese and blueberries showed up twice on the top tier (the one that is split into two separate compartments) upon finding that I loved the combination.

BBS3: Salmon cakes, quinoa salad, cottage cheese & blueberries

I hope to have another week of Bento Box Snapshots this time next Sunday, along with: other recipes that may or may not end up in my lunch box, food from my family’s July 4th festivities (i.e., a Grill day), and the camp’s field trip picking blueberries.

Goodness, I love summer.

BBS 4: Tuna salad spring rolls, and cottage cheese with blueberries (not shown)

Inspiration from a Chocolaty Flop

Sometimes great ideas for recipes come to you just after another reveals itself to be a flop. I was inspired to make chocolate muffins, the ultimate breakfast indulgence, but without all the sugar. So I used applesauce and stevia, and let’s just say that applesauce and chocolate do not go together. I also attempted to make it dairy free, and the sunflower seed oil I used in place of butter turned out to be a big mistake.
 
So what did I get in my muffin tin? Well, it was: bitter and not at all sweet; crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside (neither one a compliment); and chocolaty, yes, but completely unbalanced in flavor.

It’s flops like these that I really wish baked goods were compostable.
 
Since it was still early in the day (I woke up early for a morning rock climbing session), I felt I could still make a recipe before my shift at the community center. I thought about remaking the muffins, but that looked to be a recipe for another day, so I thought about making something I planned on doing later in the week.

I know, I know… it’s completely random. How does one go from muffins to spring rolls (of all things) in a morning? I honestly have no idea, but this recipe worked with what I was craving at the moment. It was filling, clean (in the sense I could taste every ingredient), and filled with delicious vegetable goodness. That, and I think Meals with Morri needed a recipe that didn’t call for cooking or baking anything.

Spring rolls are something I’m surprised gluten-freers aren’t embracing more. The rice paper is relatively easy to find – not to mention inexpensive – and you can stuff it with practically anything. You can have sauce/dressing in the filling without fear of it dripping on your hands. It’s the perfect finger food on the go, and highly adaptable to your dietary lifestyle (save the grain-free crowd, sadly).

I made mine with tuna salad as I have done with lettuce wraps and socca in the past, but I added some Asian flavors to change it up a bit. For this recipe, you don’t have to use tuna. You can cook up some chicken, use another species of fish, or go completely veg with beans and/or quinoa.

Either way, I guarantee it will be delicious.

Tuna Salad Spring Roll Wraps

10 Rice paper sheets
5 Romaine lettuce leaves, halved and stemmed
2 cans 5 oz/142 g Albacore solid white tuna in olive oil, drained of excess oil
2 Small red onions (or shallots), finely diced
2 Carrots, grated
2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 Ginger chunks (garlic clove size), finely chopped
5 ml Unrefined apple cider vinegar
1 Small green bell pepper, thinly sliced
184 – 200 g English cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced

In a medium-sized bowl, thoroughly mix together the drained tuna, onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, and apple cider vinegar.
Take one piece of rice paper at a time, and dip it into warm (not hot!) water for 5 seconds in a shallow bowl or until it softens.
Place it on a flat surface and lay the pieces for one lettuce leaf down, followed by the tuna salad, and then the cucumber and pepper slivers.
Fold it into the shape of a roll like so, or however you wish to serve it (I left one end open for a “wrap” appearance.)
Garnish with black sesame seeds and serve with a dipping sauce containing coconut aminos, Penzeys wasabi, and white sesame seeds.

Makes 10 spring roll wraps. Serves 2 – 5 people depending on meal preference.