Archive for April, 2007

Opinionated guide to lunch gear & cookbooks

A couple of weeks ago I started putting together a blog entry on commonly available containers doing double duty as bento boxes or sauce containers, but the list of products quickly grew extremely long and difficult to organize. Instead of putting all of the information into a normal entry, I’ve created the Lunch in a Box Amazon aStore with opinionated notes on the products, suggested cheaper alternatives or stores, and references to equipment reviews from respected sources like Cook’s Illustrated magazine (accepts no advertising).

I’d like to emphasize that you do not need a lot of fancy, expensive equipment to pack your own lunch!!! But if you’re looking for something in particular, these links may give you ideas or point to low-cost alternatives that you can purchase locally. If you will be buying from Amazon.com anyway, using these links to get to Amazon will help support Lunch in a Box, even if you wind up purchasing different products. Orders are fulfilled by Amazon. Thank you!

Lunch containers (Tupperware, thermal lunch jars, non-plastic containers, containers with built-in ice packs, etc.)

Lunch bags & ice packs
Drink containers
Condiment containers
Packing accessories
Utensils & napkins

Kitchen equipment (mini pans/pots, reasonable rice cookers, fish roaster, toaster oven, etc.)

Speedy prep tools
Shaping & decorating

Cookbooks

Japanese
My favorites
For kids
Food reference

Magazines

Grocery

Japanese
Other international (under construction)

Picnic gear (under construction)

Feel free to comment with any ingenious products or how-to’s you’ve stumbled upon that you’d like to share with readers. I’ll continue to add and delete products accordingly.

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Published by Biggie on April 30th, 2007 tagged equipment | 25 Comments »

Pasta salad lunches & frozen fruit cocktail

Morning prep time: 5 minutes. This was all leftovers, nothing made just for this meal. We had leftover Greek chicken pasta salad from Costco that I had doctored (adding tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce), leftover peas and egg scramble, chicken salad, and an egg roll from a nearby dim sum takeout place. Tiny tomatoes and a wrapped cheese act as gap fillers to stabilize the lunch for transport.

It was the day of tiny Tupperware, though. I’ve used these tiny containers in lunches before to include mini-portions of leftover curry, but they can also be used to contain loose dishes that would roll all over the lunch (like the egg/peas), pack moist foods, or freeze individual servings of canned fruit (see below).

My lunch (above) also added a little container of frozen Thai fruit cocktail with pineapple, papaya, guava and nata de coco (Butterfly brand) for a variation on regular fruit cocktail. Frozen in tiny plastic containers as a waste-free alternative to packaged fruit cocktail cups, this also acted as a freezy pack to keep the other two lunches cool and safe. A tip for successful freezing: don’t add much liquid to the fruit, as 1) overfilling will crack your plastic containers when the liquid freezes and expands, and 2) the liquid may leak out if the seal on your container is not 100% secure. A 20-ounce can yielded about seven little frozen servings that can be thrown into a lunch on busy mornings.

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Published by Biggie on April 27th, 2007 tagged bento, eggs, for kids, freezing, pasta or noodles, poultry, tips, tutorial or how to | 12 Comments »

Lamb and hummus wrap lunches & egg slicer

Morning prep time: 7 minutes. In another minor Leftover Remake, I used grilled Moroccan lamb left over from dinner a few nights ago, and put it into a wrap sandwich with homemade hummus, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, cumin and flour tortillas. Grilled asparagus was left over from dinner as well, and a wrapped cheese, boiled quail eggs, and a strawberry round out Bug’s lunch. I tried some Taiwanese canned quail eggs (Dragonfly brand, packed in water) to see if they would be a fast substitute for freshly boiled quail eggs, but they were so bad that even Bug and his friend spit them out (they usually devour quail eggs). Very rubbery, unpleasant texture — it’s too bad, it would have been nice to have a quick stash of quail eggs.

Packing notes: Because Bug doesn’t like to eat large pieces of food with different textures in the same bite, I cut everything into smaller pieces for his wrap (below). I also covered the green container with Glad Press’n Seal wrap to keep the blueberries from rolling everywhere during transport. A tiny fork was for the (rejected) eggs, and little plastic dividers kept the wraps away from the moist asparagus and cut strawberry.

Bug has a bad habit of taking huge bites of fruit and then nearly choking on them. Japanese cookbooks for children’s bentos recommend slicing strawberries halfway through with a sharp knife or egg slicer to avoid this problem. I recently upgraded my egg slicer from a US$1 model because the wires loosened on the cheap one, making it difficult to neatly cut through anything (let alone mushrooms). I don’t anticipate having to replace this one any time soon — it’s a workhorse.

My lunch is the same, except the wrap fillings aren’t cut up and the strawberries are whole.

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Published by Biggie on April 26th, 2007 tagged bento, equipment, for kids, lactose free, leftover remake, meat, sandwich or wrap | 16 Comments »

Peas and egg scramble lunches

Morning prep time: 8 minutes. Last night we had yakisoba (Japanese fried noodles with meat and veggies), so after dinner I pre-packed our boxes with the leftover noodles. This morning all I had to do was slice some fruit, and make a quick egg scramble with frozen peas to round out our lunches. Here’s Bug’s lunch, with the orange slices cut next to the rind to make it easy for little hands to eat.

Because the finished dish is going to sit at room temperature until lunch, Japanese bento cookbooks advise stirring the eggs with chopsticks like this until they’re broken up and thoroughly heated through for optimum food safety. This presents some packing complications, however. If you pack this loose egg dish with other food in a non-divided container where the lid doesn’t touch the food, the eggs/peas will roll all over everything else. My divided Lock & Lock container (below) was perfect for this, but I wound up needing to put a little “surprise animal cap” over Bug’s eggs after I took the photo. Wrapping the smaller sub-container in plastic wrap would provide the same stabilizing effect, just not as much fun.

Another tip I picked up from a Japanese bento cookbook was to use little individual servings of coffee creamer (or half & half) when making a small amount of eggs for a packed lunch. It gives a nicer flavor to the eggs than plain milk, but I don’t usually have cream or half & half in the house. It seems like a waste to buy a large container of cream just for a few eggs, so I pocketed a couple of these from a restaurant where they came with my coffee.

My lunch is the same, with a couple of strawberries. In a minor Leftover Remake, the fried noodles also incorporate Moroccan grilled lamb from dinner the other night, as well as bacon, zucchini, carrots, cabbage, onion, red bell pepper, green onions and beni shoga (pickled red ginger). Packed in a 350ml container, this was too small for me according to the bento box size guidelines , but I packed light as I knew we’d be shopping at Costco after lunch, where Bug and I snack on samples.

Quick speed equipment note: a nonstick mini fry pan and mini spatula are very convenient for cooking small amounts of lunch food (saves on cleanup too). Years ago I received a little 8″ frying pan in a cookware set as a wedding present, but I’ve started looking at it in a new light since working through a Japanese cookbook about making your child’s entire bento in just one mini frying pan (”Mini Fry Pan Hitotsu de Mainichi Tsukaeru Enji no Obento“, full review in my write-up of children’s bento books). Very handy.

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Published by Biggie on April 25th, 2007 tagged beans, bento, equipment, for kids, leftover remake, meat, pasta or noodles, recipe, tips | 24 Comments »

Need for speed: A mommy’s lunch manifesto

I’m a mom who packs lunch. What’s important to a mom? Nutrition and speed: I want to feed my family nutritious food, but spending a lot of time on every meal isn’t feasible. I strive to achieve balance between the two — losing this battle would either have me waking up hours before everyone else to cook lunch, or reaching for a Lunchable processed lunch (the face of the enemy, pictured above).

Spending an hour preparing a weekday lunch is only going to happen in my house if it’s a special occasion like a birthday or holiday — I spend my morning getting myself and a preschooler ready to go out. Although ornate lunches shaped like cartoon characters and whimsical shapes are artistic and intriguing, I know my limits. I would burn out if I tried to do that every day. For me it’s got to be sustainable over the long run, which is why I make speed bentos.

How did I get to this point? I lived in Japan as an expat for nine years and am fluent in Japanese, but didn’t pay much attention to the whole lunch-packing (”bento”) culture there until my husband was misdiagnosed with a food intolerance that ruled out restaurant meals. Back in San Francisco, I decided to send him to work with delicious lunches that would make him feel like he was eating better than his colleagues who were going out to eat. A trip to the local Japanese-language bookstore turned up bento cookbooks that I started studying, especially the creative packing tips and techniques that could be adapted to our normal diet. My husband has since been “undiagnosed” with the food intolerance, but then I found myself carting around a diaper bag stuffed full of little Tupperware containers for my toddler son (”Bug”), or leaving the playground early to go get lunch. Time to pull out those bento boxes again so we can spend more fun time out and about!

So now I’m learning to think on my feet when I look at the refrigerator in the morning. Where I used to see either uninspiring food or time-consuming meals, I can now see quick lunches taking shape. I have fast lunch items in the freezer and fridge, and speedy prep techniques at my fingertips. Let me tell you about some of the speed techniques I’ve picked up from reading Japanese packed lunch cookbooks.

Use your leftovers!
Don’t hesitate to pack food left over from dinner! Leftovers can be your weapons against boring lunches — maximize payout for the time you already put into dinner by making a little extra food. Granted, eating the same thing again can get boring, so look at your leftovers creatively and find ways to give them a makeover. Potato salad can become potato pancakes or faux Scotch eggs, leftover curry can become the base for a curry noodle dish or the stuffing for dumplings.

Pre-pack lunches when possible
If you find yourself with dinner leftovers, get a head start on the next day’s lunch by packing up some of the meal directly into your lunch container (Tupperware, Laptop Lunchbox, bento box, thermos, etc.) when cleaning up the evening meal. This way you have most of the next morning’s work done already, and lunch will be ready with only minimal preparation like cutting up some fruit.

Ready-made foods
You don’t have to make everything for lunch the same day. Make full use of frozen foods and canned foods to speed things up. Frozen vegetables can go into quick sautes or little frittatas, canned beans can become quick salads. Ready-made deli foods such as hummus or tabbouleh are quick lunch additions. Also, ready-made foods don’t have to be store-bought: many dishes can be made in advance, batch frozen in individual portions (spaghetti cups, unsauced pasta, sandwiches, rice balls), and either defrosted naturally or in the microwave. A well-stocked freezer can save the day on time-pressed mornings.

Pre-made sauces give fast flavor
Stock your pantry or refrigerator with a few flavorful sauces that can be added to simple sliced vegetables or sauteed protein/vegetables. These sauces (homemade or store-bought) can be varied to suit your family’s dietary preferences; think black bean sauce, barbeque sauce, teriyaki sauce, cooked salsas, curry sauces, noodle dipping sauce, vinaigrettes or Italian dressing, Korean barbeque sauce, etc.

Make full use of the microwave and toaster oven (or broiler)!
Japanese bento cookbooks often tout the time-saving technique of cooking multiple items simultaneously: in the microwave, toaster oven, frying pan, etc. This saves time and energy; the trick is to select foods that will cook well with the same method and to check doneness periodically (don’t assume all dishes will be done at the same time). Click on any of the photos below for full details.

Time-saving kitchen tools
Lastly, a couple of tools are particularly useful in speeding up lunch prep. A quick slicer (mini mandoline) makes short work of slicing vegetables and is easy to clean. A microwave mini steamer reduces cook time by 50%, quickly cooking vegetables or frozen dumplings.

Cross-posted to The Daily Tiffin family and lifestyle blog, where I will be contributing to the Tiffin Tuesday column every other week. Lunch in a Box is nominated for Best Food Blog in the Blogger’s Choice Awards. If you’d like to cast your vote for speedy lunch packing, click here (you can vote for multiple blogs in the same category).

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