? 2007 October | Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento

Archive for October, 2007

Oshibori: We don’t need no stinking wet wipes!

Oshibori wet hand towel sets for packed lunchesWhen I lived in Japan, I loved getting a damp oshibori hand towel in restaurants to wash up with before a meal. Women would wipe their hands with them, and men would even wipe their faces, especially during the hot, humid summer. Here in San Francisco, having a baby meant carrying around a stash of wet wipes for diaper changes, which I found to be convenient for myself as well. Table dirty? Hands sticky or dirty? Drop your silverware? No problem! A wipe would take care of the job. But now that Bug is potty trained, wipes are no longer as essential and I find myself reaching for an oshibori instead.

DIY oshibori and cases for bento lunches

Japanese oshibori cases for bento lunches

Essentially just a damp washcloth in a carrying case, oshibori are great on picnics, cleaning up after a meal with finger food, or even just tidying up your utensils or eating space. After I pick up Bug from preschool, I often use his lunch oshibori to clean him up after he grubs around at a playground. Drop the now-filthy washcloth into the laundry when you get home, restock with a clean washcloth, and you’ve got an environmentally friendly alternative to paper napkins or disposable wet wipes for lunchtime. Although there are cute Japanese-made oshibori and cases out there on places like eBay, you can also make your own on the cheap with commonly available items.

Because Japanese travel oshibori are essentially just small, damp washcloths in plastic cases, I looked around and found that the ordinary baby washcloths we used when Bug was a baby were just the right size. A quick trip to Target turned up US$1 travel cases for bar soap or a toothbrush. This particular toothbrush holder was on the skinny side, so it only holds the thinnest of washcloths, but if you have a wider one you’ll be able to fit a thicker washcloth inside. The soap case was larger and more forgiving, fitting the largest child’s washcloth inside (shown at left in the photo above, click any photo for a larger view). You can find washcloths and cases in different colors, sizes and designs — experiment to find your favorite combination. Jazz up the case with stickers or markers, or leave it plain for a more adult style. Regular-sized adult washcloths are generally too big for a soap case.

Thomas the Tank Engine oshibori hand towel

If you’re sending one along with a child’s lunch, be sure that they’re able to open the case by themselves. The yellow case above is cute, but three-year-old Bug isn’t able to open it on his own yet. The soap case is beyond him too, as are the tube oshibori cases that Daiso sells at the moment. The lid of the Thomas the Tank Engine oshibori case unscrews easily and is quite compact, so that’s well designed for small children. (Bought at Moritaya in San Francisco’s Japantown. I got a three-pack of the Shinkansen washcloths in the first photo for US$2.99 at Belonging Gifts at 23rd & Irving — they also had Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Snoopy, and others.)

Disposable oshibori

I’ve heard of people tucking a damp washcloth into a freezer bag, which definitely gets the job done albeit with one disposable element. Last year I picked up individually wrapped disposable oshibori from Ichiban Kan (10 for US$1, also available at Daiso internationally), but have been hoarding them for times when I won’t get them back (i.e. with my in-laws’ disposable bento lunches for an airplane trip home, etc.). For an added touch, these can be chilled in the refrigerator in the summer, or warmed in the microwave during the winter.

Many other everyday containers can be used as oshibori cases, and they needn’t be food-grade plastic as they won’t be holding food. Long, skinny tubes that hold candy came to mind, but I’m interested in what you think! Do you have the perfect case repurposed from something else? Let us know in comments; feel free to include links.

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Published by Biggie on October 30th, 2007 tagged SF Bay Area local, equipment, for kids, parenthacks, tips | 45 Comments »

Spinach tamagoyaki lunch

I first heard the phrase “refrigerator velcro” from Alton Brown, describing dishes like potatoes and eggs that bind together all kinds of leftovers from the refrigerator. Frittatas, fried rice, and potato gratin are like that for me, accepting whatever is available. Tamagoyaki, or Japanese rolled egg omelette, can also incorporate fillings like sauteed vegetables, nori, kamaboko, fake crab, meat, etc. Just start your first layer of egg normally, and put a strip of filling down on the egg just before flipping the egg into that first roll. Build subsequent layers of egg as usual, and you’ll wind up with stuffed tamagoyaki (an easy vegetable delivery vehicle for children). If you have leftover food scraps from making bento decorations, they can easily go into this kind of egg dish. What’s your favorite refrigerator velcro dish?

Spinach tamagoyaki bento lunch for preschooler

Contents of preschooler’s lunch: Japchae Korean noodles (transparent potato starch noodles, carrots, onions and bell peppers), sweet potato simmered in mirin and soy sauce, cocktail sausages, and tamagoyaki Japanese rolled egg with sauteed spinach and onion in the middle (see my tutorials for traditional tamagoyaki and shortcut tamagoyaki). The smaller container holds frozen Thai fruit cocktail, with papaya, pineapple, guava and nata de coco. To make the spinach tamagoyaki, I quickly sauteed some bagged, chopped spinach and leftover grated onion in the tamagoyaki pan, then added the first bit of egg directly to the pan with sauteed vegetables in it to form the first inner layer.

Morning prep time: 10 minutes, using leftover sweet potatoes and deli noodles, and pre-frozen fruit cocktail. In the morning I quickly made the two-layer spinach tamagoyaki. Frozen fruit and jellies for packed lunches

Packing: The frozen fruit cocktail acts as an edible ice pack that thawed by lunchtime and kept the rest of the lunch cool. Packed in a 270ml Thomas the Tank Engine bento box, with a 100ml side dish container and two little four-pronged cat picks from Daiso that my son picked out in the morning.

Verdict: Good, over time. Bug ate everything but the noodles at preschool, saying that he ran out of time. He inhaled the noodles in the car afterwards, though, picking the carrots strips out.

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Published by Biggie on October 29th, 2007 tagged bento, eggs, for kids, lactose free, meat, pasta or noodles, potatoes | 17 Comments »

Curry and lamb stew lunches

This was the first time I sent Bug to preschool with the insulated bento set on his own, which is able to keep hot curry hot and cold veggies cold in the same lunch. The full set has a 240ml thermal food jar and two 160ml side dishes that fit into a larger insulated bag, but that’s just too much food for a three-year-old (see bento box size guidelines). Instead, I left out one of the side dish containers and used the extra space to pack a deep spoon in a plastic baggie and a cute oshibori (wet hand towel) in its case. The thermal bento set is handy in that the lid of the thermos lifts off instead of unscrewing, so it’s easy for little hands to open (i.e. Bug can’t open the food jar that I used for my lunch below). Although similar sets sell here and here for about US$43 (ouch), you can duplicate this setup on the cheap by using a thermal food jar and separate bento box packed in an insulated lunch bag to take both hot and cold foods at the same time.

Curry rice lunch for preschooler

Contents of preschooler lunch: Japanese curry (Vermont brand) with chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms. Rice, grapes, tangerine, cucumber, and red bell pepper with ranch dressing for dipping.

Morning prep time: 6 minutes, using leftover curry and rice from dinner. In the morning I preheated the thermal food jar with hot tap water while I microwaved the curry and rice, and sliced the vegetables.

Insulated bento setPacking: I used the “rice lid” technique described in this post to pack both hot curry and rice together in the same thermal container — after taking the photo I covered the rest of the curry with a layer of rice. This kept both warm without getting the rice all soggy, as it would be if it were packed underneath the curry. Packed in the insulated bento set described above.

Curry rice bento lunch

Verdict: Thumbs up. Bug ate all of the curry, cucumber and tangerine. After I picked him up he ate the grapes but passed on the bell pepper. I probably could have packed twice as much curry rice and he would have inhaled it — he’s got a bottomless pit for this kind of dish (hot curry or stew with rice).

My lunch: The contents are the same as Bug’s lunch, but the curry is packed under a layer of rice in a larger 300ml food jar by Nissan Stainless. The fruits and vegetables are packed in a 240ml bento box by Asvel, and the ranch dressing is in a little Clickety Clack mayonnaise cup from Ichiban Kan.

Lamb stew & bulgur pilaf bento lunch for preschooler

Contents of preschooler lunch: Bulgur pilaf with toasted noodles, packed in a layer over autumn lamb stew with squash, lemon, and mint (bulgur pilaf and Turkish Gaziantep stew recipes from Paula Wolfert’s award-winning cookbook The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, click for my lamb stew recipe adaptation). Side dish holds a tiny Lady apple, tangerine slice and raspberries. (Click on any photo for a larger view.)

Morning prep time: 5 minutes, using leftover stew and pilaf. In the morning I just preheated the thermal food jar with hot tap water while I microwaved the stew and pilaf.

Lamb stew with squash, lemon and mint

Packing: Packed in two containers of the insulated bento set described above, with the lamb stew packed underneath a layer of bulgur pilaf with vermicelli. Continue reading for the lamb stew recipe…

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Published by Biggie on October 26th, 2007 tagged curry, food jar, for kids, glutenfree, lactose free, meat, poultry, recipe, rice, soup or stew | 6 Comments »

Spanakopita lunches

We had a homeowners’ association meeting at our house last night, so today’s lunches consist of leftovers from what I put out for that meeting. Today was also the day that I went on an outing with my son’s preschool to a nearby pumpkin patch; there were quite a few parents accompanying the class, and we all brought bento lunches for ourselves as well as our children. It’s always interesting to see what others bring for lunch, especially Japanese parents in the San Francisco Bay Area who have the same products available to them that I do.

Spanakopita bento lunch

Contents of my lunch: Spanakopita (Greek spinach turnovers in phyllo), crisp Fuyu persimmons, teriyaki pineapple chicken meatballs (Aidells brand), hummus (Sabra brand) sprinkled with Aleppo pepper, and vegetable sticks of carrot, cucumber, red and yellow bell pepper, and snow peas to dip in the hummus.

Morning prep time: 4 minutes, using all leftovers except the persimmon.

Reusable ice blanket for packed lunchesPacking: I cut some of the meatballs in half to fit more into the section, and put the persimmon into a reusable plastic food cup to keep it away from the crispy spanakopita. Packed in two 350ml tiers of an insulated Lock & Lock lunch set, with water in the drink container and little ice packs (cut from a flexible ice blanket) tucked inside.

Product spotlight: I tried out some frozen spanakopita from my bulk shopping standby, Costco (they sent members a $3 off coupon for the spanakopita, good through Oct. 28). They were wonderful, light and tender after a 20-minute spin in the oven. If I were to make these fresh in the morning for a bento lunch, I’d want to make sure they cooled fully before packing in order to avoid condensation inside the box that would make the spanakopita soggy. Not impossible if I got an early start on making lunches (i.e. made lunch first and let it cool while I get Bug and myself ready for the day), but beyond me most mornings.

Spanakopita bento lunch for preschooler

Contents of preschooler lunch: Same as mine, with the addition of onigiri cubes (rice mixed with nori furikake, shaped with a rice cuber — tutorial here). (Click any photo for a larger view.)

Morning prep time: 6 minutes, using leftovers. In the morning I cut up the persimmon, nuked some leftover refrigerated rice, mixed it with furikake and made the onigiri cubes.

Packing: Hummus went into a Clickety Clack mayonnaise cup from Ichiban Kan, little Anpanman picks helped little hands eat the meatballs and persimmon, a plastic food divider kept the moist persimmon from touching the crispy spanakopita, and the veggie sticks stood up neatly in a reusable silicone mini baking cup from Daiso. Lunch packed in a 360ml Disney Cars bento box with sub-containers removed.

Verdict: I ate together with Bug at the pumpkin patch today, so he was able to eat most of his bento and then beg one of my spanakopita triangles and my remaining hummus. I should have made the square onigiri a little smaller (or warned Bug of the obvious — they’re too big for one bite); he stuffed an entire cube into his mouth and choked a little. The apple went uneaten, as did one of the onigiri cubes.

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Published by Biggie on October 24th, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, onigiri or sushi, phyllo or pancake or other, poultry | 4 Comments »

Frozen spaghetti cup lunch

Pineapple sausage bento lunch for preschooler

Contents of preschooler lunch: Frozen spaghetti cup, pineapple & pork sausage, mushrooms, unsauced broccoli, molded hard-boiled egg, and dried apricots.

Multi-boiling for a bento lunch

Morning prep time: 20 minutes, mostly inactive prep time to make a batch of molded eggs. I used the multi-boiling technique to cook the broccoli, mushrooms, and rinsed eggs all at once in the same pot, saving both time and energy. Had I made the eggs in advance I could have made this lunch in 5 minutes using a previously frozen spaghetti cup. If I didn’t have proper egg molds, I could have used commonly available ice cream sandwich molds instead (tutorial here). (Click any photo for a larger view.)

Packing: I had previously frozen spaghetti cups in paper baking cups set into Tupperware, so I was able to just grab one from the freezer and drop it into the lunch as is (pasta was cut up prior to freezing to make it easier for preschooler eating). I used paper cupcake liners for the pasta because I hadn’t yet bought silicone baking cups, but you can definitely freeze food directly in the silicone cups. (I confirmed this by freezing the silicone cups, then immediately squishing them in my hands when they came out of the freezer cold. No damage; they didn’t even get stiff.) I dropped the drained broccoli into a reusable silicone mini baking cup for purely aesthetic reasons (color contrast) — there’s no practical reason for the cup unless you or your child are sensitive about foods touching. Dried apricots fill the gap in the lunch to keep it from shifting during transport. Lunch is packed in a 350ml Power Rangers bento box with inner cups removed to accommodate the food.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Bug tore through everything except the apricots at preschool, and then finished them up in the car afterwards. Success!

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Published by Biggie on October 23rd, 2007 tagged bento, eggs, for kids, meat, pasta or noodles | 11 Comments »

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