The Vegan Lunchbox
Posted by sparkle_j on Mar 05, 2007 · Member since Jan 2002 · 85 posts
I'm sure many of you are already familiar with that website, since I heard about it through you lovely folks. The author of that blog has authored a cookbook. I haven't tried it yet, but plan on it.
I recently purchased my very own "Laptop Lunch" set from the website of the same name. I can't wait until it arrives, so I can make super cute lunches. Right now I pack my leftovers into tupperwares and then throw them in a canvas tote bag. Then that bag goes into my BIG tote bag. The new system is much sleeker and streamlined.
Do any of you own the laptop lunch system? Anyone review the Vegan Lunchbox cookbook, yet?
http://www.laptoplunches.com/
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/
We have 2 laptop lunch systems. I really like them. At first it seems small. My husband thought he was goign to have to take 2 to work to be full. But he found has a hard time getting through the one each day at lunch! The key is to pack to right things.
I had a defective lid on one of the containers and the company replaced it right away. I have since noticed that one of the other lids has a kind of a cut in it as well. We use them everyday (gently though) and have only had them for about 2 months so I was a bit disappointed about the lids, but I can always use plastic wrap if i neeeed to on something juicy.
I have found that the Vegan Lunch Box cookbook is our most used cookbook! We do pack somewhat 'elaborate' lunches at our house. (Even if it's just leftovers from dinner it LOOKS elaborate in the laptop lunch system LOL) Back to the book... Jennifer McCann has great pie crust recipes and things that aren't 'lunch' in the book. All the recipes are sooooooo simple and every one that I have tried comes out perfect! Unlike VwaV... which I love, but sometimes have to adjust things like spices, or amounts of water to get it the way I want it the next time.
Anyhow you will be happy with both your purchases!
I also love the Vegan Lunch Box cookbook (and blog, for that matter). Somehow, the recipes just seem so manageable. Hers is the sushi recipe I use and I took one of her "simple sauces," adapted it, and make it quite often. On another thread here a while back I mentioned her sweet, cakelike cornbread recipe. Very tasty.
I don't use the laptop lunch system but I have created my own version of that calling it my Bento Box. It's not really one of those, either, but an old hard plastic Coleman lunchbox that I've had forever. The containers I use are the As Seen on TV ones that are on the spinner--three sizes of containers with blue lids. Anyway, I make fairly elaborate lunches, too, and to make them even more "civilized" I include a cloth napkin in my box. It feels almost decadent, in a good way. When I unpack my lunch at work, it just about takes over one of the round tables in the staff room. Crazy. :D There are people, however, who are always interested in what I'm eating. (It's distressing to see what they're eating--usually a t.v. dinner-type thing from a box. Yuk)
I've been thinking about getting one of those. I blog on a nursing site, and it turns out a reader and fellow blogger who is a nursing student is the cousin of the author of that site. Small world.
I'm such a slob, I'll probably lose all the cool pieces of the bento box! ;D
I'd be left with only the "laptop" box! Haha!
Seriously though, I LOVE the photographs on the Vegan Lunchbox! Everything looks SO tasty and fresh..
Your pal,
Martha in Buda, TX!!!
But I always wondered: those pictures were taken at home, shortly after the food was prepared. What does it look like by noon after spending the morning in a laptop luchbox ina little kid's backpack? Shouldn't we have gotten a picture of that too?
But I always wondered: those pictures were taken at home, shortly after the food was prepared. What does it look like by noon after spending the morning in a laptop luchbox ina little kid's backpack? Shouldn't we have gotten a picture of that too?
Hahaha! I never thought of that...top came off the salsa container, salsa everywhere...black bean-filled dough pasties smashed to bits! Ack!
Martha in Buda, TX
Actually, the really great thing about the laptop lunch box is that can't possibly happen. I think you could play catch (food pack inside) with it and it'd be fine. It's a crazy good system. :)
Thanks for your replies! I can't wait to get mine in the post.
I don't have the cookbook yet, though I'm seriously considering purchasing it. I love her creative ideas.
There's a flickr photo group of laptop lunches, if you want to look at fun pictures of food.
There's also a vegan bento photogroup.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/laptop_lunches/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/veganbento/pool/