Potato Salad

I suppose I could call this "Official Salad Week". Basically it's too warm to eat anything else.
We have a salad with boiled potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber and pumpkin seeds. My snacks for the day are a smoothie with grapes, an apple and an orange plus tofu sausages, mini cheeses and cherry tomatoes.

Ethiopian Cabbage and Quesadillas

My main dish today was the delicious Ethiopian cabbage dish that I make from time to time, the dessert was a coconut pudding with agar agar. I had some leftover quesadillas from a Mexican restaurant and added homemade ones for a bigger midmorning snack.

Mittwochsbox 9th of April 2014 - French Toast (and Pumpkin Gnocchi)

Today I'm participating again in the Wednesday blog-event by Mone from http://leckerbox.com/
This week's theme is breakfast, or more precisely a breakfast for celebrating the Easter days. I have to admit that I don't do anything related to religion on Easter, but I just love breakfasts in any form, so I still wanted to participate.
I made French toast, which interestingly is called "Arme Ritter" ("Poor knights") in German.
I wasn't familiar with this dish in my childhood and first heard of it when I watched the beautiful film "Kramer vs. Kramer" which I highly recommend to everybody, and in which father and son bond over preparing breakfast together (among other things).
French toast is usually made with eggs, but I substituted them by a mixture of ground hazelnuts and soy milk, an idea based on a vegan French Toast recipe from the wonderful German website
http://www.regenbogenkombuese.de/
I also prefer my French toast with salt and pepper instead of the sweet version.
And of course I also had lunch this day, this time there were homemade pumpkin gnocchi with blue cheese-sauce and a tomato salad.

Pasta with Broccoli Sauce

This simple lunch consisted in a container with pasta plus a creamy broccoli sauce. As a snack I brought along some pieces of apple and little skewers with gouda cheese and cherry tomatoes.

Japanese Box, Italian Lunch

So, I bought myself a bento box! This is a three tiered model by Unit Colors.
I had been tempted by this line ever since I saw it first on the internet, because of its beautiful colours.
I actually did not think these boxes would be superpractical for my style of life, but then I found one with a 50% discount in a fancy-schmancy shop just around the corner from my office and succumbed.
It has one big container and two slightly smaller ones. I like the fact that you can pack things that are going to be reheated and those that are eaten cold separately, and that I can transport everything vertically.
But although the box has a total volume of nearly one liter, which is a lot, I feel kind of restricted by the form of the containers.
Here is what I packed into the bento box on its first outing:

In the middle we have my lunch, which consisted of gnocci with a vegan mushroom-sauce,
on the left a skewer with cherry tomatoes and pieces of marinated mozzarella and on the right puff pastry with a filling of fresh spinach.

White lunch

I suppose this could be considered a thematic lunch, as this day everything I brought was white/whitish.
My main dish was a pasta salad that brings lots of childhood memories. My parents and I  don't have the same taste when it comes to food, but this is one of my mother's recipes that I make regularly.
It couldn't be easier, just mix cooked and cooled pasta with mayonnaise, cooked peas and pieces of tangerine. Salt and pepper, ready! Whereas usually it's recommendable to use fresh vegetables and fruit, this salad is best made with both peas and tangerines from the can. I find it quite retro. Or is it vintage, if my mother has been making it regularly since the seventies? ;-)
My second breakfast were sandwich bread rolls with cheese, mustard and gherkins, accompanied by raw cauliflower.

Mexican Lunch

For this thematic lunch I made chili sin carne, quesadillas and mini tomatoes filled with guacamole.
The quesadillas are really easy to make, I learned it the other day on the internet: Place a tortilla in a hot pan without oil, sprinkle some grated cheese on it and put another tortilla on top. When the first tortilla starts to brown slightly,flip the whole thing and wait until the other side is slighty brown, too. Serve cut into quarters.

Pasta and Cheese

For this day I brought just some pasta with an improvised, very colourful vegetable sauce. As a midmorning snack I brought carrot sticks and  pieces of gouda.