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Online coupons for lunch gear

I’ve got some coupons for discounts at Michael’s and Reusable Bags, just in time for the back-to-school season. Do you know of any other good, relevant coupons for bento and lunch-packing gear? Let us know in comments.

1. 20% off at Reusable Bags (also sells Laptop Lunchboxes)

Laptop LunchboxUse coupon code f70838 (case sensitive) for 20% off all purchases from Reusable Bags until April 2009, or code FREEACME (case sensitive) for a free Acme reusable bag on purchases over US$50. They ship internationally, so if you can’t get this sort of thing locally, check out their lead-free lunch gear, lunch kits, lunchboxes, reusable bottles, lunch bags (for kids and insulated), and the lead-free Laptop Lunchbox. I found their FAQ on health and safety issues to be helpful in learning about lead and plastic concerns. (UPDATE: The company e-mailed me to say that the 20%-off coupon was created for another organization, so you should not use it for 20% off. Check the Reusable Bags listing on coupon website Retail Me Not for updated coupon codes.)

The name of the store reminds me of an area where I’ve made some changes to my habits recently: reusable bags. Because I’m absent-minded, even though I have all kinds of large reusable bags stashed in the trunk of our car, I often forget to bring them into the store with me when I’m shopping. To solve that problem, I recently bought a couple of ultra-compact reusable bags: one for US$1 from Ichiban Kan, and a $5 ChicoBag from Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco. They fold compactly into themselves, and I stash in the mesh side pocket of my messenger bag so that they’re always on me when I’m out. This has made a huge difference in reducing my use of store bags. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my mom threaded my mittens onto a string and put them through the arms of my winter jacket so I didn’t lose them — very convenient! (Click for the Michael’s 40%-off coupon, and info on Bug’s new pimped-out Sigg metal water bottle.)

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Published by Biggie on August 25th, 2008 tagged equipment, for kids, review, shopping | 21 Comments »

Kettle Race: Electric vs. stovetop

Battle: Regular vs. electric kettle

I’m always on the lookout for ways to save time cooking for packed lunches, but never gave much thought to a real basic: boiling water. Whether I’m boiling frozen dumplings, fast-cook pasta, or multi-cooking several different things together to save time, the slowest part of the equation seems to be bringing the water to a boil in the first place. Was there a way to speed this up?

I’d heard that electric kettles were a good way to boil water faster, but I was a little dubious as to exactly how much time they’d save. Was it a marginal amount of time, or substantial enough to justify buying something that would take up more counter space in the kitchen? I bit the bullet and bought a Hamilton Beach 1.7-liter cordless model at Costco, and pitted it in a head-to-head race against a regular kettle on our gas stove. I think I’ve been watching too much of the Olympics lately! (Click for the test results.)

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Published by Biggie on August 22nd, 2008 tagged equipment, review, tips | 84 Comments »

Banana carrier & microwave ripening

Carrying case for banana (closed)

No, this isn’t a toy gun or someone who’s happy to see you. It’s a cheap banana carrier that’s designed to carry a single banana in your bag without bruising.

Carrying case for banana (open)I’d love to pack bananas more often as an after-school snack for my son, but I’m so rough with my bag that they tend to get mangled when I throw them in unprotected. The problem is solved with a US$1.50 case from the Daiso discount store in Daly City, CA (branches internationally), where it’s cheaper than similar products I’ve seen like the Banana Guard or the Banana Bunker. (Read on for the full review and my test results from ripening bananas in the microwave.)

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Published by Biggie on August 4th, 2008 tagged SF Bay Area local, equipment, parenthacks, review, shopping | 35 Comments »

Book Review: The Manga Cookbook

Manga Cookbook cover There aren’t that many English-language bento cookbooks out there, so when I saw that The Manga Cookbook (available now) was going to be sold bundled with an Urara bento box set in September 2008 I was curious. Was it a cookbook with bento how-to tips and recipes, or a straightforward Japanese cookbook in manga style? As with my review of the coffee table book Face Food, what’s important here is for people buying this book to know what it is and what is not.

In Japan, as in France, comics aren’t just for kids: There are interesting and popular comics (manga) for adults, and even product manuals for complex consumer electronics often feature playful drawings and cartoon characters to illustrate directions in a fun manner. As a result, it’s not immediately clear that The Manga Cookbook is intended to be a cookbook for children, not adults. In fact, I too had assumed it was for adults until the book’s editor e-mailed me describing it as a book for kids, which put it into context. (Read on for the full review.)

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Published by Biggie on July 2nd, 2008 tagged for kids, review | 29 Comments »

Inarizushi with toppings

A couple of highlights today. Inarizushi is basically sushi rice stuffed into seasoned abura-age fried tofu wrappers. If you have a Japanese or Korean market nearby, you can often find preseasoned wrappers in the refrigerated section (shaped like rectangles or triangles). Just gently open them up and fill with seasoned sushi rice (cooking tips below). A fun variation on normal inarizushi is to fold down the top edge, stuff with seasoned rice, and top with anything you like. Toppings can be really creative: I’ve seen shrimp, cucumber, ornate food art that makes little characters sitting in the inari “boats”, soboro (fried and seasoned ground meat — think dry Sloppy Joe filling), etc. Think outside the box with this kid favorite!

You can speed up morning sushi or rice ball prep by freezing cooked rice; below I review a couple of Japanese food containers specially designed for freezing and reheating rice in the microwave oven.

Stuffed inarizushi bento lunch for preschooler

Contents of preschooler lunch: Inarizushi stuffed sushi topped with pink sakura denbu and sauteed ground pork and barbecue sauce. Steamed broccoli with vinaigrette, plum tomatoes and grapes round out the meal. Sakura denbu is a sweet powder of ground codfish that’s often used in chirashizushi and children’s bento lunches. Adds a nice shot of pink when you’re packing by color.

Trick for freezing ground meat in small portionsMorning prep time: 13 minutes, using frozen rice, pre-packaged abura-age seasoned tofu wrappers, an individual-sized portion of frozen ground pork, and premade barbecue sauce. In the morning I microwaved a small portion of frozen rice, flavored it with seasoned rice vinegar, and made a couple of inarizushi with the lip turned down to leave the rice exposed at the top. (Read on for packing details, cooking tips, a review of rice containers for freezing, and an additional pizza bento lunch.)

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Published by Biggie on June 20th, 2008 tagged bento, equipment, for kids, freezing, lactose free, meat, onigiri or sushi, review | 22 Comments »

Ravioli & spray pancake bento lunches

I’m definitely not above using convenience products for speedy lunches. Convenience foods come in many different forms: frozen foods (homemade or store-bought, like appetizers, potstickers, rice, rice balls, waffles), canned foods (baked beans, regular beans, dolmas), store-bought deli foods, etc. Today’s lunches use different kinds of convenience food. First off is frozen ravioli, a fast-cooking pasta option. The second is pancakes made with terrifying but surprisingly acceptable batter from a spray can. Read on for a full product review of Batter Blaster spray pancake and waffle batter.

Ravioli bento lunch for preschooler

One danger of packing pasta with tomato sauce is that the pasta tends to soak up moisture in the sauce while sitting in the container, making the pasta mushy and the sauce dry. You can work around this a few different ways. Sticking with oil-based pasta sauces gets around the problem, but is limiting. Another way is to use a donburi bento box or equivalent (i.e. a small thermal food jar or watertight container for the sauce and a larger bento box or food container big enough to hold both pasta and sauce when combined), toss the al dente pasta with olive oil or butter to keep it from sticking together, and pack the sauce totally separate from the pasta. Combine the two just before eating, and warm in the microwave if available.

Today I used a different packing method to minimize texture damage: toss the cooked pasta with a little olive oil or butter to create a moisture barrier between the sauce and the pasta, lightly sauce the pasta and pack in the lunch container, and pack extra sauce (just spooned in gaps around the edges, but you can also pack it in lidded condiment cups).

Contents of preschooler bento lunch: Spinach and mozzarella raviolis with roasted garlic tomato sauce, blueberries, strawberry, and broccoli with Thai oyster sauce. (Read on for lunch packing details, and an additional preschooler lunch with review of Batter Blaster spray pancake batter.)

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Published by Biggie on June 15th, 2008 tagged bento, for kids, meat, pasta or noodles, phyllo or pancake or other, review, vegetarian | 51 Comments »

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