lunch box: sandwich sushi

contents:

carrot, sprout and hummus rolls
cucumber and tofu cream cheese rolls
rainbow goldfish (yes, they taste the same)
grapefruit slices

My friend Debbie has this adorable habit of giving presents 4-6 months after the actual holiday in question. I love it becuase it's like you get a second holiday out of nowhere, and you can never predict when it's going to happen. She recently gave me this great bento cookbook as a Christmas present. There are a few of these little wrap "sushi" rolls in there, usually with lunch meat and slices of cheese, and so I thought I'd give a vegan version a try. The rolling is tricky, I have to admit. I think it would have been easier if I had one of those little bamboo sushi rollers, but I managed alright by hand. Check out these sushi instructions to get the basic idea.

ingredients:

whole wheat wraps
carrots
sprouts
hummus
cucumber
tofu cream cheese

Cut rounded corners off opposite edges of the wrap so that you have a longer straight edge to roll from.

Spread thin layer of hummus or tofu cream cheese filling across entire wrap

Slice the carrots and cucumbers into long thin pieces

Leaving a small amount of plain wrap to one side lay your ingredients in straight line at one edge of your wrap

Fold wrap over ingredients and begin rolling tightly until you've used up the whole wrap

Cut into sushi sized rolls. You will probably need to discard (snack on) the rolls at the far edges since they will be pretty loose and hard to keep together. If there is a gap in the center of a roll you can always cheat in some extra filling to make it rounder. I had to do this for a couple of them.

herb butter

I had a dinner party last week and surprisingly this turned out to be the star of the meal. Well I guess it's not that surprising since it is butter. Who doesn't love butter? Don't answer that Vegans.

This was one of the first simple recipes that caught my eye when I was given my Alice Waters cookbook, but for some reason I never got around to making it until now. We polished off almost all of it over the course of one night, but the herb butter can keep for up to a week in the fridge and according to Alice up to a month in the freezer (although that kind of thing makes me nervous). You can use any fresh herbs you want for flavor. I'm looking forward to trying out some different versions, sage particularly.

ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped herbs (I used a mix parsley and chives)
pepper, salt and lemon juice to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper


Let the butter soften in a medium sized mixing bowl. You can cut it up into smaller pieces to make this go faster, but no matter what you'll have to wait awhile.

Once butter is soft and mashable, stir in chopped herbs and spices. I think I used about half a lemon's worth of juice.

Serve at room temperature so the butter is spreadable.