Archive for June, 2007

Fried shrimp lunches & mini cooling rack

Contents: Fried shrimp with tonkatsu sauce in a pig container, mixed brown rice with cilantro and sweet crispy ume plum (details below), tomatoes and cucumbers marinated in sanbaizu, steamed broccoli, whole apricot, strawberry and grapes.

Morning prep time: 15 minutes, using leftovers and store-bought frozen food. The marinated tomato/cucumbers and plain brown rice were leftover from dinner. So this morning I chopped some crispy ume (details below) and cilantro, and mixed it with the rice (still in the rice cooker) and sanbaizu. I deep-fried the shrimp (store-bought, already breaded and frozen) in a small pot, and cooked the broccoli in a microwave steamer for 40 seconds.

Packing: I used a pre-filled sauce container with tonkatsu sauce (labelled on the wing!), and put a long piece of sushi grass on top of the mixed rice to keep the crispy shrimp from getting soggy. To keep the liquid from the tomatoes/cucumbers from leaking into the lunch, I drained them in a mini strainer and bowl before packing (and then dunked the steamed broccoli into the sanbaizu for a little flavor). The little grapes acted as gap fillers to stabilize the lunch for transport. I packed a separate spoon for the rice and chopsticks for the shrimp and veggies.

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Published by Biggie on June 6th, 2007 tagged bento, equipment, fish or seafood, for kids, lactose free, rice | 6 Comments »

Mac and cheese lunch

Contents of Bug’s lunch: Grapes, blueberries, chicken salad, and shells and cheese doctored with sauteed asparagus, onions, hot dogs and tomatoes.

Morning prep time: 4 minutes, using leftovers and store-bought deli items (chicken salad from Costco). The leftover shells and cheese had been in the refrigerator in a microwave-safe container and had a gummy texture, so before packing I added a splash of milk and microwaved it for 20 seconds to bring the texture back to normal.

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Published by Biggie on June 5th, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, meat, pasta or noodles, poultry | 4 Comments »

Website help?

Okay, the feedback I’m hearing on the new website is that it’s very functional, but the look is a little boring and generic. I’d love to pretty it up, but don’t know how to alter a theme (or fix the comments.php file to increase font size once comments are threaded and show avatars like LiveJournal). If anyone out there is a web design wiz with a couple of extra hours to donate, I would really appreciate any help you could give (we can credit you on the site and provide a link). E-mail me at lunchinabox (AT) gmail (DOT) com if you can help a lady out. Thank you for helping make this a nice place for all of us!

Published by Biggie on June 5th, 2007 tagged admin | 2 Comments »

Speed tip: Pre-fill sauce containers

Pre-filling sauce containers with your most commonly used sauces saves time when you’re packing lunch. I keep shelf-stable sauces (like Tabasco, soy sauce, tonkatsu sauce, Lizano sauce and Worcestershire sauce) in a magnetic spice tin on the kitchen wall for easy access when I’m packing lunch (see photo below). Perishable sauces (like salad dressings, sanbaizu, and dumpling dipping sauce) go in little containers in the refrigerator. That way I can just grab one and quickly throw it into the bento box or lunch bag, instead of taking the time in the morning to fill just one for each individual lunch. I started doing this during our nine months of gluten-free eating (my husband had been misdiagnosed with celiac disease), to be able to throw little plastic fish full of gluten-free soy sauce into my husband’s work bag in case he picked up sushi. Some of the containers (like the little pig above) are labelled with the kind of sauce they contain. (To fill containers like these, squeeze the container, submerge the mouth into a small dish of sauce and release. Repeat until enough sauce has been sucked into the container — no need for a funnel.)

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Published by Biggie on June 4th, 2007 tagged equipment, glutenfree, organize, tips | 39 Comments »

Welcome to the new site!

I’ve finally created my own website, and have moved the content of my old LiveJournal blog here. This move will help me present information in a more organized fashion, helping you all find what you’re looking for. Highlights include:

Top Speed Tips page with an organized overview of my top speed bento tips (not just the ones in the LJ sidebar)
Search box in the upper right hand corner
Sub-categories that sort entries by container type, dietary type, post type and main ingredient
Easier ways for non-LJ users to subscribe to my RSS feed and bookmark the site
Expandable archives for an at-a-glance view of past posts
Ability of all users to add their website info in the comments without needing to create an account on LJ or WordPress
The shopping page with links to multiple stores with lunch packing gear and my opinionated shopping guide

This is a work in progress, though. I’m still working on:

Comments formatting. One thing I like about the LiveJournal platform is the community-like feel of the threaded comments with avatars/icons. I’m experiencing temporary issues with font size on threaded comments and avatars on the new site, though, so I’ve reverted to non-threaded comments until this can be fixed. Stay tuned. I exported all comments on the old posts to the new site, but wasn’t able to get them to thread. This affects only old comments, not new.
A speedy lunch prep FAQ, organized packing tips and additional resources

I’ll continue to keep my LiveJournal blog up for past entries, but you’ll want to update your links to point to the new site for my new blog entries and full resources. I’ll post regular summaries to the LJ blog with links back to lunchinabox.net, but LJ users can also keep up with my entries via your Friends Page by friending my syndicated feed here: lunch_in_a_box Other readers can subscribe to my feed by clicking the Subscribe button at the top of the middle column. I’m continuing to use the WordPress equivalent of an LJ-cut (”Read More”), though, so you may need to click through to read the entire entry.

What do you think? Is there something about the new site that’s a deal breaker for you? Do you wish there were something else, or is it too cluttered? I’d love to hear your thoughts, complaints and wishes as we start this transition!

Best,
Biggie