Book Review: Vegan Lunch Box
Submitted by An Animal-Friendly Life
You know, it’s bad enough that I wasn’t raised vegan. But now Jennifer McCann comes along with Vegan Lunch Box to rub it in. Vegan Lunch Box is delicious proof that vegan kids can actually have more exciting (and healthier!) lunches than all the other kids their age, so long as their parents are willing to pick up this book and follow its easy recipes (and maybe pack one of these delightful lunches for themselves while they’re at it).
Considering how far veganism and vegan cookbooks have come in just the past decade, moms and dads from a generation ago may be forgiven for foisting Oscar Meyer on us, I suppoooose. Even then I can only let that slide because veganism was practically unheard of by most American parents until relatively recently, and of course this book did not exist back then. However, today’s parents have no excuse to send their kids off to school with mediocre lunches (or worse, to eat cafeteria food), so Vegan Lunch Box should be considered a required parenting text.
All 130 enclosed recipes were vetted by McCann’s son, James, who rated every meal she packed up for him to take to school in clever, bento-inspired lunch boxes. Only five-star meals made the final cut, so you and your kids are in for the very best of the many recipes McCann concocted to keep James eating healthy and, remarkably, to make him the envy of other kids at school. No scorned, deprived vegan here! It’s nice to have a parent that cares so much, isn’t it?
Vegan Lunch Box offers up full lunch menus, as well as the recipes to make these menus a reality (included in back is a thoughtful allergen-free index). Meals range from those designed to be quick and easy to creative inspiration for special occasions. Along the way, McCann has included lots of little tips and bits of advice on topics such as keeping sandwiches interesting, vegan cheese, and getting kids to eat salads, as well as a collection of full-color vegan lunch photos.
I don’t have any kids myself, but I can certainly remember being at that age where I suffered through school lunches and unimaginative packed lunches. If you are raising kids, I highly recommend buying this book and putting it to good use. I’m sure your children will be much happier exploring these options than settling for what is typically available to them–the deprived kids will be the ones eating the same few lunches over and over again–and they will be learning to eat healthier at a younger age, too. It certainly speaks well of veganism to have such fun, tempting lunches out there in front of all the other kids at school. Maybe they’ll want to ask their own parents for a vegan lunch box, too. Lunch box advocacy, anyone?
Even if you don’t have or don’t plan on having children of your own, you now have a perfect gift to give to people who do, vegan or not. Frankly, I’m looking forward to trying some of these recipes for myself. I think they’ll be fun for picnics, lunch breaks on a weekend hike, or even for those occasions when I’m traveling long distances without a healthy vegan meal to be had anywhere along the way (I’m glaring at you, airports of America).
Do you have kids? Are they vegan? What do you feed them? Have you made any recipes from Vegan Lunch Box? If so, how’d it go? Comment below or email me.
Enjoy AAFL? Use the permalink icon to share this entry with your friends or to link it from your blog, submit to a service using the share button below, and consider making a small donation to support this site and my work. Thanks!
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
