Vegan Lunch Box

School cafeterias are enemy territory to vegetarian and vegan kids. Nearly all these cafeterias serve as the dumping grounds for the commodity meat and dairy products purchased by the USDA's price support program. What's worse, meat industry lobbyists have succeeded in shaping the National School Lunch Program's nutritional guidelines, so that protein requirements and saturated fat allowances are kept unreasonably high. In consequence, most school cafeterias serve meals that resemble some Frankensteinian mishmash of all the worst foods McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Long John Silver's have to offer. Breaded nuggets and french fries, anyone?

This insanely unhealthy system seems destined to crumble within the next generation, but that's little comfort to vegan mothers whose children are starting school today. It was in exactly this situation that Jennifer McCann found herself back in 2005. Her seven-year-old son, James, was starting the first grade. Soon, every afternoon, he would find himself in the school cafeteria watching his friends and classmates devour cheeseburgers, pizza, and fried chicken. What could Jennifer send her son to school with each day that would ensure he wouldn't feel tempted to eat like the other kids?

The answer: give James a lunch that is better—much better—than anything served to his classmates. And by better, I don't simply mean healthier—I mean better in every respect. Every school day, Jennifer cooks up a miniature four-course meal that trumps the cafeteria's offerings in terms of flavor, color, texture, creativity, and especially love. She packages these meals in snazzy, Japanese-style bento lunch-boxes and also frequently relies on a Thermos for soups, sauces, and cold drinks.

Every mother must worry that, by not eating like other kids, their children will be isolated and even ridiculed for their diet. But James's lunches have made him anything but a pariah. His classmates know great-looking food when they see it, and so his lunches have made James the envy of his school.

Appreciation for James's lunches extends well beyond the walls of his cafeteria. In 2005, Jennifer started her blog at veganlunchbox .com. And with that, James has become not just the envy of his fellow first graders but the poster boy for an international audience of thousands of kids, parents, and other lovers of great food. Each school day, Jennifer posts a photo of her latest offering, complete with write-up, cooking summary, and notes on what James ate, didn't eat, loved, hated, or merely tolerated. Based on James's evaluations, Jennifer awards each meal from one to five stars. Every recipe in this book has been rated five stars—certification of absolute James approval.

If it sounds like, over the course of each school year, James samples hundreds of different foods, well, that's absolutely correct. Where a typical seven-year-old might think a corn dog exemplifies gourmet creativity, little James has already experienced vastly more foods than a typical American eats in an entire lifetime. He's dined on Mexican flautas, Japanese vegan sushi, Irish stew, and a seemingly unending variety of other foods. As you can see, James has absolutely no cause to feel left out when the lunch bell rings each day—rather, it's his classmates who are envious.

James's lunches help to illustrate exactly what's gone wrong with the National School Lunch Program, and how this dire situation could quickly be remedied. We would never tolerate an elementary school that failed to teach its students to read, to add and subtract, and to know something of history and geography. But in most American schools, the learning stops when the lunch bell rings. Upon shuffling into the cafeteria, students are expected to eat a limited selection of unimaginative foods day after day after day. Probably the most pernicious aspect of the National School Lunch Program isn't the myriad shortcomings of the food, but rather its uncanny knack for pushing even the brightest and most curious students into accepting, and then expecting, repetitive and uncreative meals.

By the time I finished high school, there were scarcely two dozen foods I regularly ate—and nearly all these foods were loaded with meat and dairy products. Jennifer was not going to let this happen to her son, and the daily lunches she fixes have made all the difference. Say words like "falafel," "roti," "penne," or "pad thai" to most seven-year-olds, and you'll be asked what language you're speaking. But to James, foods like these are all in a day's eating.

If you're a regular visitor to veganlunchbox.com, you know what it's like to continually wish you could reach into your computer display and pull out the day's featured meal. This book goes a step further, giving you the keys to James's lunchtime kingdom—complete recipes for dozens of his very favorite five-star meals. Make any one of these meals and you're bound to agree that these are all recipes worth going to school for.

After carefully studying their nutrition guidelines, I transformed myself from a teenager whose idea of a good lunch was a package of chocolate cupcakes and a jumbo cola (really), into someone who begged mom for special trips to the health food store. I tried my hand in the kitchen with mixed results (my first experience with tofu was less than stellar). I started baking 100 percent whole wheat bread—wrinkled, fragrant loaves that had the density and heft of wholegrain bricks.

But now that I was a vegetarian, I had to start packing my own lunch. Into my brown paper bag went a peanut butter and honey sandwich on inch-thick slices of extremely heavy whole wheat, an apple, and some carrot sticks. That was it—my lunch every afternoon for an entire school year.

Sure, it was a bit monotonous, even a bit grim at times. But I was determined that if this was what I had to do to save the animals, I would do it. I chewed away stoically on my sandwich, unaware of the world of bright and exciting vegetarian foods that awaited me in the future.

Over the years, I moved gradually from vegetarian to vegan. My love of the kitchen grew stronger and more passionate, and my cooking repertoire expanded considerably. Happily, my baking skills also improved (see page 220 for the bread that won me the coveted "Superintendent's Choice" award at our local county fair).

The summer my son turned seven and started preparing for first grade, I revisited the idea of packed lunches. I looked back on those peanut butter, carrot, and apple lunch bags, then down at my young son's head. There was no way he was going to put up with nothing but PB&J every afternoon for the next twelve years! There had to be more out there for vegan school kids.

I looked in every kid-friendly cookbook I could get my hands on. Some of the suggestions were great, but most of the "healthy" lunch ideas involved meat, cheese sticks, and hard-boiled eggs. That wasn't going to cut it for us.

Running out of inspiration there, I turned to the expert. "What do you want in your lunch on the first day of school?" I asked my son.

"Sushi!" he said.

I was both startled and thrilled. Sushi!?! How cool! It was light-years ahead of my own ideas.

From then on, I started keeping notes on various well-balanced lunch menus as they occurred to me. Soon I realized that not only did I have enough ideas to keep his meals healthy, well-balanced, and fun, but perhaps other vegan parents (or anyone trying to pack interesting, healthy lunches for themselves and their families) would also benefit from exploring these possibilities with me.

Thus, Vegan Lunch Box was born!

It is my hope that this book will inspire you to create fabulous, healthy, well-balanced meals for your children. These menus are the perfect place to start building your own repertoire of school lunches your kids love. Knowing that you have packed them a lunch filled with the best in nutrition and with foods that they really enjoy will give you peace of mind during those long hours while they are away from home.

All the foods you will find in this book are 100 percent vegan. That means they contain no animal products of any kind—no meat, no dairy, no fish, no eggs, and no honey. This makes every lunch suitable for vegans and vegetarians, and for those with food allergies to fish, shellfish, dairy, or eggs. Many of the recipes are also free of other common allergens, such as soy, wheat, gluten, peanuts, and tree nuts (see the Allergen-Free Index on page 265).

Finally, don't forget the grown-ups in your life, including you! These menus are perfect for any adult who must eat away from home each day. Most parents also work outside the home, and dining out each afternoon can be expensive. When packing your child's lunch, make another one for yourself. You'll be saving money and time while eating a wonderful meal and will share a special connection to your child during the workday, when you both pull out your amazing vegan lunch boxes.

Happy eating!