Archive for the 'food jar' Category

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Corned beef bento lunches

I made corned beef and cabbage for our St. Patrick’s Day dinner, so leftovers made their appearance in my three-year-old’s packed lunches last week. Surprisingly, he was a big fan of the cabbage and carrots, not so much the meat and potatoes.

Packing Tip: When packing moist foods in a standard bento box, be sure to drain them of excess moisture first. This helps prevent spoilage if the food hits room temperature before lunchtime.

Contents of preschooler bento lunch: Cabbage and carrots in broth, corned beef, boiled potatoes, and orange segments.

Morning prep time: 5 minutes, using dinner leftovers. In the morning I pre-warmed the thermal food jar with hot tap water while I microwaved the vegetables, and cut up the beef, potatoes and orange into bite-size pieces for easy preschooler eating. (Read on for packing details and an additional preschooler lunch.)

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Published by Biggie on March 27th, 2008 tagged bento, food jar, for kids, glutenfree, lactose free, meat, sandwich or wrap, soup or stew | 8 Comments »

Spam musubi bento lunches

I first heard of the Hawaiian classic Spam musubi when I was in college a long time ago, and I have to admit I was pretty skeptical. Come on, Spam? In sushi? Hmm… So when some of my Hawaiian friends decided to hold a proper luau here in California about seven years ago, I volunteered to make a party-sized batch of Spam musubi, almost as a joke. Funny thing, though. Once I started cooking (frying the Spam, flavoring it with homemade teriyaki sauce, putting wasabi furikake on sushi rice for some kick), it started to smell amazing and I tried some. Wow! I’ve been a convert ever since, and I’m never looking back. I’m putting the finishing touches on a recipe and tutorial, so stay tuned for that.

Contents of preschooler bento lunch: Mini spam musubi (teriyaki-sauced fried spam sushi), steamed carrots, shrimp, mushrooms and romanesco broccoli from a local farmers’ market. Romanesco is a wild, alien-looking form of broccoli with spiral florets in a fractal pattern. While it’s tender enough to eat raw, you can also cook it in dishes where you’d use broccoli or cauliflower.

Morning prep time: 14 minutes, using leftover Thai curry, frozen rice, leftover carrot that I’d steamed with rice in my rice cooker, leftover teriyaki spam and nori seaweed that I pre-cut for speed. I had made a spicy Thai curry the night before with shrimp, mushrooms and Romanesco (master recipe here), so to make it palatable for my three-year-old I plucked out the good parts and rinsed off the spicy curry sauce in a sieve, and resauced with a mild vinaigrette. (Read on for lunch details and equipment notes.)

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Published by Biggie on March 11th, 2008 tagged bento, curry, equipment, food jar, for kids, lactose free, meat, onigiri or sushi | 41 Comments »

Curry gyoza bento lunches

Gyoza potstickers are a handy finger food for kids, delivering protein and veggies in a neat little package. I like to keep a bag on hand in the freezer for mornings when I don’t have the time or imagination to make something more elaborate. Store-bought or homemade, these flavorful dumplings are a lunchtime favorite even at room temperature.

Contents of preschooler bento lunch: Pan-fried curry gyoza (details and tutorial here, spinach wrappers filled with leftover Japanese curry), roasted asparagus (recipe here), blueberries, cherry tomatoes and cheese cubes.

Morning prep time: 15 minutes, using leftover roasted asparagus from dinner. In the morning I actually made the three gyoza fresh using leftover curry, but you can freeze the assembled curry gyoza and have them ready to cook on time-pressed mornings. (Read on for lunch details and an additional preschooler lunch…)

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Published by Biggie on March 3rd, 2008 tagged bento, dumplings or buns, fish or seafood, food jar, for kids, meat, soup or stew | 18 Comments »

Mac & cheese lunches: Hot vs. cold

I’ve used thermal food jars before to pack curries, stew, oden, chili, hotpot, and even rice — keeping everything warm and soft until lunchtime. Given how stiff macaroni and cheese can get once it cools, I wondered if it would benefit from being packed in a food jar. My three-year-old doesn’t complain about cold pasta (yet), but I tried some of Bug’s leftover pasta after picking him up from school, and it was still soft and warm in the jar. Success! Think outside of the box if you’ve got a thermal food jar and no access to a microwave at lunchtime; what else would be good warm?

Contents of preschooler bento lunch: Organic shells & cheese with sauteed zucchini, onions and diced bulgogi (Korean marinated, grilled beef) with a little leftover Japanese curry stirred in at the end. Steamed broccoli with Korean barbecue sauce, carnitas braised pork, cherry tomatoes, blueberries and homemade apple crisp (recipe is from Cooks’ Illustrated’s The New Best Recipe, but online subscribers can find it on their website).

Morning prep time: 10 minutes, using leftover mac & cheese, apple crisp, and Del Real carnitas from Costco. In the morning I pre-warmed the food jar with hot tap water while I microwaved the mac & cheese with a splash of water to restore the texture. I also nuked the carnitas to take the chill off, and cooked the broccoli in my microwave mini steamer.

Cooking: As an aside, I recently saw Alton Brown’s new Good Eats show on broccoli, which mentioned that “a study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that microwaving broccoli reduced its antioxidant compounds by 74-97%.” Ack! I’m having double thoughts about microwaving broccoli now; it looks like steaming or pan-frying are much better. I’m going to all this effort to make sure Bug gets his vegetables, I don’t want them to be nutritionally crippled… (Click for packing info and an additional preschooler lunch with panda bento band.)

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Published by Biggie on February 26th, 2008 tagged bento, equipment, food jar, for kids, leftover remake, meat, pasta or noodles, poultry, sandwich or wrap | 16 Comments »

How to care for your bento gear

Because I like shortcuts and can get bento gear cheaply in San Francisco, I’m tough on my equipment and push the envelope when caring for it. I experiment with putting everything in the dishwasher for speed even when the care instructions say not to. As a result I’ve lost or damaged some equipment, but I’ve also figured out what can take a little more abuse than the manufacturer recommends.

Dishwashers are uncommon in Japan (I didn’t have one until my last year there), so a lot of bento boxes and accessories are made with hand washing in mind. If you have time and the inclination, hand washing all of your bento gear with regular dish soap will make it last the longest, but I wanted to put together bento care guidelines for people either looking for a shortcut or wanting to know what the Japanese care instructions say. At the end of this post I’ve included translations of common Japanese-language care instructions if you’re trying to decode what’s in your cupboard.

Do you have a clever bento care or cleaning tip? Share it with us in comments! (Click here for the full post…)

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