Zeno's Bar & Grill

Are we the only ones who think that the Vegan Lunchbox site is kinda crazy? Apparently we are, since Google and Technorati searches on “Vegan Lunchbox Insane” and “Vegan Lunchbox Nuts” didn’t really turn up many kindred spirits.

Sure, the lunches are fabulous, but for heaven’s sake this kid’s mom must spend a tremendous amount of time tracking down ingredients, baking fresh chapatis and making her own string “cheese” and faux Go-Gurt (all real examples), not to mention taking the photos and writing a detailed post every day complete with recipes. It’s a full-time job in itself. We guess everyone finds their own passion, but good golly, putting this on the web is setting the bar awfully high for the rest of us poor moms out there. We’re afraid to let our husbands and kids see this site.

We hereby nominate Jennifer the Vegan Lunch Box lady as school lunch czar, charged with improving school lunches for the rest of us lazy slobs. Apparently, she has a cookbook coming out that will help other highly motivated moms brown bagging it, but we need more. It’s a big job, as illustrated by the new TLC show, Jamie’s School Lunch Project--about the Naked Chef Jamie Oliver’s attempts to take out the processed foods from British schools and put in fresh. Someone with the Vegan Lunch Box lady’s passion would be perfect to bring this job to America.

On the other hand, vegan meals often use processed substitutes for animal products like meat and cheese. Hmmm, maybe we need Nina Planck, the author of “Real Food” instead, who urges us to eat simply and naturally—butter not margarine, real eggs not egg whites. In the meantime, we’ll keep feeling guilty about the mysterious orange sauces on taco day. Actually, only one of us will. Kelly is actually starting a committee to improve lunches at her school.

--Melanie & Kelly