Tiffin Tuesday - Recovery lunch

Hello again!

I'm back from travelling across Europe just in time for another Bento at Tiffin Tuesday. Although it almost would not have been - I was not so sure that I would ever want to eat anything again after a nasty food poisoning in Italy last week!
Therefore, and as my contribution to the Safety & Care event on The Daily Tiffin this month, my bento is a get well soon bento - food poisoning aftercare and info included!

A light meal of rice, breaded yellow zucchini and breadcrumb patties with avocado paste to help my stomach recover and regain stability.
Since I usually avoid deep-fried food to begin with, and twice so with a sensitive stomach, the breading on those zucchini is oven baked! The recipe for this is really simple and works for many other vegetables as well, i.e. eggplant.
Cut the vegetables into about 1cm thick slices, salt on both sides and let them draw water on kitchen paper for 15-30 minutes. Then dry them, brush off excess salt and roll lightly in flour, then whisked egg with a dash of milk and finally the breadcrumbs, just like breading meat. Lay them out on a non-stick oven pan lightly brushed with olive oil and bake in a pre-heated oven until they are cooked and the breading is light brown all over. If they have drawn enough, the vegetables will not shed water anymore and breading will get crisp and nice on both sides!

As dessert there are mango pieces, frozen to act as ice pack thanks to Biggie's suggestion!

I must stress that it was not my bentos that made me sick! In fact, I read Biggie's wonderful article a while ago and took it to heart. Rather, it was my inability to make bento while working abroad and having to rely on cantina food that got me.
So since you can't ever be completely safe - what to do if food poisoning does strike?

Most so-called food poisonings are not caused by the food itself, but by contaminations introduced by bad hygiene. Wrong temperatures, dirty environments and sick handlers are the main cause of such infections. The poisonous substances are created by bacteria, virii or other microbes introduced in that way. Much rarer are cases of toxins in the food itself, i.e. bad mushrooms or cleaning agents.
Luckily for us (though anyone stricken may not think so at the moment), our body has a good system for getting rid of the poison: to get rid of the contents of stomach and bowels as quickly as possible. The symptoms are well known - nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that comes on suddenly. Not comfortable, but effective! In most cases, that will be enough to purge the body and allow a fast recovery within the next days. Most cases of food poisoning don't require any medication.

So if you (or somebody in your care) is the unlucky one,

• Don't Panic! It's embarrassing, uncomfortable and annoying, but most cases are over in 24-48 hours. Comfort yourself with the knowledge that it will be over soon. If you feel there is an emergency or that something else may be wrong, go to a doctor - read about signs of emergency below.
  
• Drink lots of water, ideally still mineral water or very diluted syrup/electrolytic sports drinks as that contains some of the electrolytes you also lose. Dehydration is one of the big dangers of food poisoning, especially to children! Even if you think you can't keep it down, it will help flush out your stomach.
  
• Don't eat or drink any caffeinated, sugary or sour substances. Those irritate your bowels and impair the stomach's self-healing abilities.
  
• Stay at home if you can, and give your body time to recover. Try to lie down. Get someone to check up on you periodically or in case you need to go to a doctor.
  
• Start eating again slowly after the nausea has stopped. Continue to drink lots of fluid.
  Don't force yourself to eat if you are still feeling nauseous. It won't help.
  Also, don't attempt to go back to your normal eating habits too quickly - eat as much as your stomach tells you it can tolerate, not as much as you think you should eat.
  Start with bland and safe foods (biscuits, day-old bread, water) to reboot your stomach. Safe vegetables are e.g. cooked squash and root vegetables. Avoid spicy/fat/sour food, food that is a contamination risk to begin with (chicken soup anyone?) or anything that may cause allergies. Avoid sugar, coffee and carbonated drinks for a while.
  
• Go to a doctor if you think there is an emergency.

Signs of emergency
GO SEE A DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY if:

• You find blood or a coffee-ground like substance in the vomit.
  
• Vomiting/Diarrhea that goes on for longer than 48 hours, or more than half a day in a kid. Kids under 3 years should always be checked out by a doctor!
  
• Fever, vision or motoric problems or loss of conscience.
  
• Strong pain that does not go away.
  
• More than one person has the same symptoms ("outbreak")
  
• Risk of dehydration (you can't keep any liquid down)
  
• Jaundice (Skin or eyes turn yellow)
  
• You need a medicine but can't keep it down.

I hope you will never get in the situation at all, but if you do, this article may help or at least comfort you. And if so, get well soon!

Sources and additional information:
1) eMedicineHealth article on Food Poisoning: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/food_poisoning/article_em.htm
2) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_poisoning

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This Post was written by jokergirl from Wererabbits.

Cassava and wild salmon lunches

I'm gearing up for preschool to start in September, when I won't be right there to help my son with frustrating food in his meals. This means putting myself in his shoes when I'm packing his lunch, trying to imagine what'd give him problems if he were eating solo. Kids this age are still perfecting utensil use, so it's important to either cut things small or pack finger food. This month I'm going to try to pack his lunches as if he were already eating on his own, to get both of us into the swing of things.


We did have an eating milestone today, though: Bug successfully used real chopsticks for the first time! I'd packed both fork and chopsticks for him and figured he'd go for the fork, but last week he saw his little friend Maya using little chopsticks and wanted to be like her. He polished off all but a couple pieces of salmon using only chopsticks -- I was floored. I guess I should enjoy positive peer pressure while it lasts, right?

Contents of preschooler lunch: Mango and romaine lettuce with homemade vinaigrette, grilled wild salmon with a mustard seed glaze, and boiled cassava root (a.k.a. yuca, manioc or casava) with salsa Criolla (Creole sauce: a vinegary fresh salsa often served with grilled meats or vegetables). My husband and I had some outstanding roasted cassava and salsa Criolla last month at a local Peruvian restaurant, so I made a note to duplicate it at home. I took a shortcut by boiling the cassava instead of roasting or grilling it, but the vinegary salsa complemented the potato-like cassava nicely.

Morning prep time: 8 minutes, using all leftovers from dinner.

Packing: Bug isn't a fan of mixed salads, so I separated out the lettuce from the mango and put his dressing in a cute sauce container. I cut the salmon and cassava into bite-size pieces and removed the salmon skin to head off eating frustration. There's a tough little stringy bit that runs through the very center of the cassava, so I removed that as well. Packed in a single 350ml container from a Lock & Lock lunch set.

Cookbook: I found the Creole salsa recipe in award-winning cookbook The Book of Latin American Cooking by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz. From the book jacket: She "describes how the Spanish, Portuguese, African, and Middle Eastern influences have combined with the indiginous cooking of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations." An interesting read with extensive commentary on each recipe.

My lunch: Contents are the same as Bug's, but the grilled salmon is intact, the salad is mixed up, and the cassava is in larger pieces. Because I didn't have to cut things up, I was able to pack this in 5 minutes.

Packing: I rotated the cassava chunks in the box to create gaps in the corners for the fresh salsa. This saved me from using sauce containers or condiment cups, and the salsa was dry enough that it didn't leak sauce onto the salad. But if it had leaked, the vinegar of the salsa would have complemented the vinaigrette for the salad, so I didn't worry too much about it. Of course, after I packed this up, I shoved it unceremoniously into the diaper bag sideways, cassava-side first. Yes, I know Japanese books say you should carry your bento flat, but that's just not practical for our lifestyle. So our lunches are packed to survive rough treatment. Packed in a 500ml Leaflet bento box, which is actually a little small for an adult woman my height, according to the bento box size guidelines.

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This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento, recently featured in Boing Boing.

Tarako spaghetti lunches

Pre-packing some or all of the next day's lunch is a practical way of speeding up daily lunch packing and making hectic mornings more manageable. Here I pre-packed leftover pasta the night before and stored it in the refrigerator overnight, briefly warming it in the microwave the next morning to restore the texture of the pasta.

Contents of my lunch: Tarako spaghetti with onions, red bell peppers and kaiware (daikon sprouts). The top tier holds a section of corn on the cob, plum tomatoes, broccoli with red wine vinaigrette, black Mission fig, and grapes. Tarako is salted cod roe, but I often use jarred Greek tarama for this dish instead.

Morning prep time: 7 minutes, using leftover pasta and corn. I pre-packed the pasta when cleaning up from dinner. In the morning I briefly microwaved the pasta to restore texture, garnished with fresh kaiware, steamed the broccoli in my microwave mini steamer (speeding up cooking time by 50%), and arranged food in the the top tier.

Packing: I used tongs to twist the spaghetti into two large loose nests, making the pasta tier a little nicer looking. Nothing in the top tier was particularly wet, so I didn't use food dividers (edible or otherwise). Packed in a 580ml two-tier Urara Dragonfly box.

Cooking: Here’s a tarako spaghetti recipe with good notes. I start by sauteing an onion and bell pepper if I have some on hand for color contrast. When I lived in Osaka, I often had it with a little Kewpie mayonnaise stirred into it. Other variations omit the cream in favor of sauteing in butter and tossing in mirin/tarako/mayo (that's what I did here). However you vary it, it’s bound to be good — just get the sauce loose enough to lightly coat the noodles.

Preschooler lunch: Contents are the same as mine. For packing, I used kitchen scissors to cut up the spaghetti into smaller bits (right in the box) that are easier for little hands to manage. Packed in a 270ml one-tier Thomas the Tank Engine box with one hard plastic sub-container removed to fit more pasta, and a 150ml Anpanman side dish container for the fruit. After taking the photo I tucked in a little Anpanman pick for the fruit. Verdict: 5 stars. Bug ate all of this at preschool, nothing left over. Success!

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This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento.

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 arrive at 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"), 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 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, tiffin, 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 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. Additionally, ready-made foods don't have to be store-bought: many dishes can be made in advance, batch frozen in individual portions (spaghetti cups, 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 for a fast flavor boost
Stock your pantry or refrigerator with a few flavorful sauces that can be add to simply sliced vegetables or sauteed protein/vegetable dishes. 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 energy and time; 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 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 easily cleaned. A mini microwave steamer reduces cook time by 50%, quickly cooking vegetables or frozen dumplings.

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.
This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box.

Leftover Remake: Curry pasta lunches

I had some leftover chicken curry from dinner and some frozen unsauced pasta, so today's lunches are a Leftover Remake: curry pasta.

Contents of my lunch: Japanese curry pasta (gemelli) with chicken, carrots, onions, potatoes and added broccoli. The fruit layer has fresh figs, half an apricot, blackberries and mango nectarine. The mango nectarine is a pale nectarine reminiscent of both mango and nectarine in flavor and texture -- delicious although delicate and easily bruised. I packed mango nectarines in last summer and liked the flavor, so when I saw them again this year I picked some up. Good thing, as evidently their season is very short (just two to three weeks in the summer).



Morning prep time: 6 minutes, using frozen unsauced pasta and leftover curry. I quickly cooked some broccoli florets in my microwave mini steamer for one minute, and added them to the leftover curry and frozen pasta that I microwaved to revive the texture before packing. Sliced some fruit and we're ready to go.


Packing: Much of the fruit here is very delicate and ill-suited to rough treatment or tight packing (see gap fillers). As blackberries are especially fragile, I put them in a reusable plastic food cup to ensure they didn't turn into mush in transit. I like these little cups as they're reusable like silicone cupcake liners, but sturdy enough to actually protect the food inside from damage. I bought some of these at Daiso, others from eBay (click the photo for details). I did forget to reserve some extra curry sauce to pack on the side, though, so unfortunately the pasta was a big dry by the time we ate it (live and learn). The lunch was packed in my 580ml Urara dragonfly box.

I packed my husband's meal in stainless steel containers (review here) for a masculine touch.

My two-year-old's meal was lightly packed into a 600ml two-tier box with built-in food cup. The meal would have been too big for him according to the bento box size guidelines, but he decided he didn't like this shape of pasta (go figure!) and just ate the meat and veggies out of the curry pasta. The curry was a big hit with him at dinner (Curry no Ohji-sama from S&B -- a Japanese curry roux for kids), just not this particular pasta. Oh well!

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This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento.

Wine bag holds lunch jar innards

Although I like my thermal lunch jars, the bulk and weight of the jars themselves keep me from using them as often as regular bento boxes. But when searching for the right container to hold today's meal, I realized that there's no reason not to use the internal containers on their own as little round bento boxes, and pack them stacked inside a wine carrying bag. This lunch didn't necessarily call for extended chilling or warming, so...

Contents: Nests of spinach zarusoba noodles with kizami-nori (cut seaweed garnish), green onions, wasabi and dipping sauce in the soup container. Bottom containers hold cherries, grapes, and a tinga of Salvadorean chorizo, fresh corn, yellow bell peppers, pinto beans and chili sauce. To eat the zarusoba, mix the green onions and wasabi into the dipping sauce, dip a bundle of noodles and a little nori into the sauce to flavor and loosen the noodles, and eat. Great hot weather dish.

Morning prep time: 15 minutes. The chorizo tinga was leftover from dinner, the zarusoba dipping sauce for the noodles was store-bought, and the nori was sold already cut up. The only thing I made fresh was boiling the noodles and chopping the green onions -- it just takes a certain amount of time to bring water to a boil. During that time I was able to prepare and pack everything else for the three lunches. Once the noodles were cooked, rinsed and drained, I curled them into bite-sized nests on chopsticks for easy eating. This also works well with somen and any other noodles for dipping. To make looser nests, twirl the noodles around your fingers instead of chopsticks.

Packing: Since I'd decided not to use the thermal jar itself, just the internal containers, I was free to substitute a smaller metal container for the fruit instead of using the large rice container. I was drawn to the thermal jar containers because of the excellent watertight soup container with screw-on lid, which holds the dipping sauce in this meal. I stacked both this and my husband's meal (packed in take-and-toss Gladware, below) in a single wine bottle gift bag, with chopsticks and a spoon tucked down the side. This was inspired by Japanese-language bento book "Watashitachi no Obento" (私たちのお弁当), which showed a stack of little round tupperware-type containers in a fabric wine bag. Clever! You could even use an insulated bottle bag and slip an ice pack down the side if you like.

Contents: Same as mine, with the addition of kaiware (daikon sprouts) for the noodles, cherry tomatoes and a mini pudding cup (Kiku brand Petit Pudding, sold in Asian & Japanese markets).

Packing: As proof of concept that bento meals don't necessarily need to be packed in expensive boxes, I packed my husband's meal in disposable Gladware plastic containers and stacked them with my lunch inside of a wine bag. The containers nested inside of each other when empty, saving space on the way home. I used reusable silicone mini-muffin cups to hold the noodle garnishes, and the mini spoon for the pudding also acted as a divider to hold back the cherries and grapes.

Bug's lunch has the same contents, with orange slices, noodle dipping sauce in a sauce container, and an animal surprise cap on top of the chorizo tinga to keep it from shifting around during transport. Packed in a 350ml Asvel box (Bug also wound up eating my grapes).

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This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box

Microwave mixed rice & fried chicken

Preschooler's lunch: Quick mixed brown and white rice with asparagus, kamaboko fish cake, and green onions (recipe below). Strawberries, green grapes and Ajinomoto-brand Japanese-style fried chicken ("kara-age"). Pre-cooked frozen fried chicken was great in theory, but not very good in practice as it turned out soggy and greasy -- yuck. It was moist and the flavor was good, but the breading was unappetizing. Didn't bother my son Bug (my son), though, as he devoured the chicken but left the rice untouched for reasons yet unknown...

Morning prep time: 8 minutes, using frozen fried chicken and microwave faux "fried rice" using leftover cold rice.

Packing: For the fried chicken, I used paper-lined cups specially designed to absorb the oil from fried food (bought at Daiso dollar store for US$1.50 -- look for the cartoon shrimp on the package). I was pleased with these as they absorbed a lot of oil from the chicken. This was too large for Bug, but the leftovers didn't go to waste...

My lunch was the same as Bug's, with bigger pieces of chicken and halved strawberries instead of quartered.

I used a shortcut to make cheater's 5-minute "fried rice" in the microwave that I adapted from Japanese bento cookbook 園児のおべんとう　("Kindergartner Bentos" from Kodansha), a variation on this version that I made a while back.

Loose Recipe for Mixed Rice

• 1.5 cups leftover cooked rice (white or brown, refrigerated, frozen or fresh)
• a few slices of kamaboko fish cake (or any protein, such as roast pork or chicken)
• a green onion (scallion)
  
• a vegetable (asparagus, frozen green peas or corn, etc.)
• sesame oil
• soy sauce
• salt
• roasted, ground sesame seeds (optional)

1. Chop up a handful each of protein (kamaboko), green onion and vegetable (if cutting is necessary).
2. Put the leftover cold white rice in a microwave-safe bowl, and top it with the protein, green onions, and vegetables. Cover with plastic wrap and heat for one minute in a 1100W microwave (times will vary depending upon how much food you're nuking and the power of your microwave). If you have fresh rice made up, just nuke the protein and veggies on their own, and mix them together with the hot rice afterwards.
3. When hot, add a couple teaspoons or so of soy sauce, a dash of salt and a drizzle of sesame oil to taste, and mix it all up.

NOTE: I keep a cheap sesame seed grinder filled with roasted sesame seeds for freshly ground sesame. If you don't have a sesame seed roaster, you can use a frying pan covered with a splatter screen to toast your own sesame seeds (cheaper and fresher than buying them pre-roasted, but slower).

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This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box

Meatball "rice bomb" lunch

Bento lunches don't have to be filled with a multitude of different dishes in order to be appealing; focus on packing a balance of food groups and contrasting natural colors in your meal and you'll find that a simple lunch can be just as attractive and satisfying as an ornate one.

This lunch revisits the meatball-stuffed onigiri rice "bombs" that I packed in an adult lunch last year after spying them in a Japanese-language onigiri cookbook. Making them is pretty straightforward: with your hands or ball-shaped onigiri mold (photo below), cover a meatball with warm short- or medium-grain rice, then completely cover that with moistened scraps of nori seaweed. I used pre-made teriyaki meatballs that I picked up at Costco and seasoned Korean seaweed for flavor, but regular Japanese nori is easier to work with and keeps its shape better afterwards as it's less delicate.

Contents of preschooler lunch: Onigiri rice "bombs" stuffed with teriyaki pineapple chicken meatballs (my favorite, Aidells brand), grape tomatoes and steamed bell pepper with Korean barbecue sauce. I keep a bottle of Korean barbecue sauce in my fridge to quickly flavor any number of protein or vegetable dishes; having a few premade sauces on hand (store-bought or homemade, any of your favorite flavors) is an easy way to speed up your lunch prep.

Morning prep time: 10 minutes, using leftover refrigerated rice, store-bought meatballs, and leftover bell pepper. In the morning I microwaved the rice to restore its soft texture so I could work with it, and microwaved the meatballs to kill off any surface bacteria (see my Daily Tiffin post on packed lunch food safety). I made these without the molds above, wetting my hands when I put the pieces of seaweed on in order to get them to stick. Honestly, it was just too much effort to dig the mold out from under my stove -- I need to revisit my bento gear organization system to make the larger accessories more accessible.

Packing: Initially I just plopped the rice bombs down into the plain, unlined box, but they looked sad and lonely with the bare box bottom staring back up at me. So I grabbed a piece of lettuce from the refrigerator and lined the box with it for some nice color contrast (I'm guilty of unnecessary garnish here -- my son totally ignored the lettuce). Much better. The bell pepper went into a hard plastic food cup (yellow, to amplify the yellow of the bell pepper), and the grape tomatoes acted as gap fillers to stabilize the lunch in transit. The lunch is packed in one 350ml box from a Lock & Lock lunch set.

Verdict: A qualified thumbs up. My three-year-old ate both of the rice bombs at preschool, and the rest afterwards as a snack. His preschool teacher said that the he had a little trouble eating the rice bombs as they were a little crumbly; this was my fault as I'd let the rice sit too long in the rice cooker before refrigerating it, and it dried out a little. For best results, either use fresh rice or be sure to freeze/refrigerate your leftover rice soon after cooking it, while it's still at its most moist.

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This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box.

Tarako spaghetti lunches

My son's lunch consisted of tarako spaghetti (salted cod roe) with onions and aonori (cooking notes below), Latin American ham croquette and chipotle cream dipping sauce, cheese triangle, steamed zucchini (courgette) with ponzu, and a strawberry.

Morning prep time: 10 minutes. The spaghetti was leftover from the previous night's dinner, so I packed that up directly into the lunch container after dinner. I cooked two things in the morning: teamed the zucchini quickly in my microwave steamer (then tossed with my favorite ponzu sauce), and fried the frozen Goya-brand croquettes in a tiny pot. In Japan many lunch-packers have a tiny little pot for boiling or frying small amounts of food. The pot on the left is only about 4 inches in diameter (1 quart at max), so it was a good size to deep fry just three croquettes without using much cooking oil. Any small pot would work as well -- it saves on oil use and cleanup to work in miniature when frying.

Packing: I used an egg slicer to partially slice the strawberry for easy preschooler eating, packed the fried croquette in a lined food cup to absorb remaining oil, and drained the sauced zucchini on paper towels to reduce the possibility of leakage. The frozen fruit cocktail pack in my lunch kept the cream dipping sauce cool and safe inside an insulated lunch bag. Packed in the two middle tiers of a 4-tier nesting Thomas the Tank Engine box.

Cooking: Here's a tarako spaghetti recipe with good notes. My variation omits the cream, instead sauteing an onion (and maybe some bell pepper), mix in some butter, toss the pasta with tarako, mirin and a little mayonnaise, then garnish with nori and kaiware daikon sprouts if I happen to have some on hand. However you make it, it's bound to be good -- just get the sauce loose enough to lightly coat the noodles like pesto. If you can't find fresh cod roe sacs, you can use "tarama" that is often sold in refrigerated jars in Mediterranean markets.

Contents: Ham croquettes with chipotle cream dipping sauce, zucchini with ponzu, cherry tomato, and rice mixed with yellow Thai curry sauce. A small container of frozen Thai fruit cocktail (pineapple, papaya, guava and nata de coco) acts as a delicious ice pack to keep both bentos cool (see directions and cautions when freezing little containers of canned fruit).

Morning prep time: 10 minutes. In the morning I fried the frozen croquettes and microwave-steamed the zucchini. I also had leftover cold white rice and a couple tablespoons of yellow Thai curry sauce from dinner a few nights back, so I combined these in a microwave-safe dish and heated for less than a minute until the rice regained a nice texture. I now find myself saving even tiny amounts of food (like the curry) because there's usually some way it can be used to jazz up an otherwise boring bento lunch.

Packing: I packed the fried croquettes in an oil-absorbent food cup from Daiso to cut the grease, and allowed both croquette and curry rice to cool before closing the lid on the lunch. This cuts down on condensation in the box, improving packed lunch food safety and making it easier to open the box (a vacuum can form inside otherwise). The frozen fruit cocktail pack kept the cream dipping sauce cool and safe inside an insulated lunch bag. Packed in a 500ml bento box box, this plus the small fruit cocktail was just about right for an adult woman, according to the bento box size guidelines.

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box.

Tiffin Tuesday: Of Easter Egg Artwork and Egg Rolls

I am sure I do not need to tell any of you mummies out there at how much pride I was filled with when Soeren presented me with these eggs on Easter Sunday. He had made these creations at his KIGA with his group. Lovely delicate artwork on each egg blown out egg from a 4 year old. Yes, I just had to share this with you so you can share my joy and pride with me too.




Today's Tiffin idea is put together quickly as I use mostly leftovers.
Prep Time: 7 minutes
Fresh strawberries and kiwis cut up in bite sized pieces. Rich in vitamin C, E and fiber. Not to mention their potent antioxidant protection. My mum constantly sends me packets of cashews, almonds and raisins from Dubai as she knows how much we enjoy them. Here I have made a little dried fruit and nut mix with a few cashews, almonds, raisins, hazelnuts and dried cherries. My mother calls this "brain food."
The cake is a almond and vanilla cream sponge cake, made very easily using pre-prepared sponge bases and whipping up a pastry cream of your choice. Sprinkle with roasted almonds to top it off. Finally two slices of a wonderful fluffy egg roll I made for our Easter Brunch. The roll is filled with wasabi flavored cream cheese and smoked salmon. You will find the recipe here.

Healthy Resources: Nuts

Latest News:
As of now Tiffin Tuesday is going to be a regular weekly session here at the Dailly Tiffin. Every week we will present you with a variety of different lunch box ideas. For this purpose we have invited two lovely ladies to join us on our team.
Biggie has joined us as a co-admin and will be bringing you exciting and useful tips on lunches she packs for herself and her two-and-a-half year old son. On April 23rd catch her first article right here on the Daily Tiffin.

A bit more about Biggie in her own words:

I've been living in San Francisco since 1999 (after living in Japan for nine+ years), my son is two and a half, and I'm now a stay-at-home mom since the arrival of my son (after a career in high-tech PR both in Japan and San Francisco).
Biggie's blog: Lunch In A Box

On the other Tuesdays you will be getting more lunches boxes, bentos and packed lunch ideas from a new regular contributor to the Daily Tiffin. Joker Girl who packs the most healthy nutritious vegetarian bentos will be sharing a few of her secrets with us. Next week she will be premiering with a detailed look into a Bento Box.

JG says about herself:
I'm a 24- year old software engineer from Austria who lives in Sweden and likes to play with her food. International cuisine and photography are probably the most feminine of my hobbies, which combine well in making cute lunchboxes!

Makes you wonder what her non-feminine hobbies are LOL!
JG's bento community blog: Bento Lunches

We are really glad to have these brilliant new additions to the Daily Tiffin.

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Reminder!
Our first event on the Daily Tiffin this month is Show Us Your Lunchbox. Hope you will join us and allow us to peak into your lunch. Deadline April 20th.

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.
This Post was written by Meeta from What's For Lunch, Honey?

Silicone baking cups, and salmon box lunches

Silicone cupcake liners work well as removable food cups in packed lunches, separating foods to keep different textures and flavors from mingling. Because the cups are made of silicone, they're flexible and fit into odd spaces, with the added benefit of being reusable. They come in all sorts of fun shapes, sizes and colors to fit a variety of food and containers (click for a representative sample of silicone baking cups). Housewares, kitchen, and crafts stores such as Michael's often sell them -- if you find a coupon you can bring down the initial cost as well as save on the cost of disposable paper cups down the line. I finally found the large ones for a good price at Bed Bath & Beyond and used a 20% off coupon. Hooray, I'm finally a little greener!


Contents of husband's lunch: Slow-cooked salmon with a container of sweet-hot Nonya sambal sauce, chicken fried rice, blueberries, and salad with mango, strawberry tree fruit (a.k.a. arbutus berries) and poppy seed dressing.

Morning prep time: 7 minutes, using leftover salmon, fried rice, torn lettuce, and a pre-filled sauce container with salad dressing to save time. In the morning I just cut the mango and arbutus berries, briefly microwaved the fried rice to restore the texture, and packed everything together.

Packing: The silicone baking cup kept the fried rice away from the salad and blueberries, and was tough enough to stand up to salad dressing once the salad was dressed (more durable than a paper cupcake liner). There are two layers of salmon, one on top of the other. Packed in a 650ml Leaflet box with movable divider, and both sauces in small containers.

Equipment: The standard-size silicon baking cups (Wilton brand) were 12 for US$6 at Bed Bath & Beyond (use their omnipresent 20% off coupon and it gets even more reasonable). I got the four pastel mini cups as a set for US$1.50 at Daiso in Daly City (Japanese dollar store with branches internationally).


Contents of my lunch: Same as my husband's, but with pesto sauce instead of sambal, and no salad.

Morning prep time: 5 minutes.

Packing: A little Clickety Clack sauce container holds the pesto sauce, and the lunch is packed in a 500ml Leaflet box with movable divider.


Contents of preschooler lunch: Roast chicken drumstick, chicken breast, strawberry tree fruit, mango, blueberries, and fried rice. I wrapped the end of the drumstick in decorative aluminum foil to create a clean "handle" (similar lunch and foil details are here).

Morning prep time: 5 minutes.

Packing: I included a small Anpanman pick for the chicken breast and mangos, and packed a spoon on the side for the rice. The silicone cup squished nicely into the available space to hold the fruit without touching the chicken. Packed in two tiers (280ml and 180ml) of a four-tier nesting Thomas the Tank Engine bento box set.

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento.

Brazilian salgadinhos lunch

I went to a Japanese-Brazilian friend's party where there was a gorgeous array of Brazilian savory appetizers called salgadinhos. Salgadinhos encompass a variety of different savory bites, including inverted cone-shaped stuffed "coxinhas" whose dough is made with yucca and chicken broth, "bolinhos de peixe" fish balls, "risole" thick fried half-moons stuffed with fillings, "empada" pies baked in mini muffin tins, and Middle Eastern stuffed meat kibbeh (ground meat & bulgur wheat) that reflects the immigrant influence in Brazil.

Often eaten with hot sauce, evidently salgadinhos are popular snacks at bars and parties in Brazil. They were definitely a hit with the three-year-old birthday party crowd, who staged repeated strikes on the finger food table. Also popular were brigadeiro chocolate fudge candy and beijinho de coco coconut kisses, little Portuguese-influenced sweets made from condensed milk and rolled in either chocolate jimmies or shredded coconut. We finally had to move the plate out of reach of the children, who took up positions nearby to snatch up the chocolate balls.


I was so taken with the salgadinhos that I asked the hostess if I could take a few home to feature in a bento lunch, and she was gracious enough to give the green light and fill me in on the details. They may seem unusual for a packed lunch, but they're in keeping with other ready-made appetizers that lend themselves nicely to the small scale of bentos, such as puff pastry appetizers, spanakopita, mini crab cakes, meatballs, etc.

Contents of preschooler's bento lunch: Brazilian salgadinhos appetizers (ham rizoli, chicken coxinha de frango, chicken-thigh empada with olives), mandarin orange segments, steamed broccoli with mayonnaise and aonori seaweed (recipe below), steamed red and yellow bell pepper with soy sauce and dashi, and beijinho de coco coconut kisses.

Morning prep time: 10 minutes, using leftover salgadinhos. In the morning I popped the appetizers into my convection toaster oven for 5 minutes to re-crisp the exterior. While those were warming, I cooked both the broccoli and bell peppers in my microwave mini steamer and sauced them.

Cooking: I was looking for a different way to flavor steamed broccoli, and found a quick sauce in Papatto 15-fun! Oishii Obentou, one of my Japanese-language speed bento cookbooks. I put some trimmed broccoli florets in a microwave mini steamer with a tablespoon of water and heated them on high heat (1200W) for 50 seconds (you could also heat the broccoli in a covered microwave-safe bowl with a splash of water). Remove the broccoli from the steamer and pat with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Let cool while you stir together a quick sauce of 2 tsp mayonnaise, 1/2 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp aonori seaweed flakes. Either dip the cooled broccoli florets into the sauce or smear a little of the sauce into each floret with a spoon. This added a surprising amount of flavor to the broccoli, and Bug gave it a big thumbs up.

Packing: To make sure the appetizers stayed crisp, I let them cool after coming out of the toaster oven before packing them in the box. This kept condensation from forming in the box that would have made it more difficult to open the box and increased the odds of the food going bad before lunchtime. The peppers went into a reusable silicone baking cup, and the broccoli went into a disposable plastic baking cup from Daiso that was easier to compact into a small space than a silicone cup. The lunch is packed in a 360ml Disney Cars bento box with both subdividers removed to fit the larger salgadinhos, and the box went into an insulated Shinkansen lunch bag with a wide base designed to carry bento boxes flat, not tipped over on their side. Little ice packs cut from a larger flexible ice blanket went inside the lunch bag to keep things cool. If Bug were hungrier, I could have frozen a little treat in a separate container and thrown that in his bag as an edible ice pack.

Verdict: Not great. Bug downed the two fried salgadinhos, the broccoli and the orange segments at preschool, but left the rest. After school he ate a little of the bell peppers and the brigadeiro, but totally rejected the baked chicken empada even though its filling was similar to the coxinha that he downed. Oh well, at least he ate the broccoli!

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Are you interested in contributing to The Daily Tiffin? Drop us an email: blogmeeta@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

This Post was written by Biggie from Lunch in a Box.