Book Review: Lunch Boxes and Snacks

When I was looking for more simple yet delicious lunchbox ideas to pack into bentos in the future, I discovered this neat little hardcover book by Annabel Karmel, who is a food author specializing in cooking with and for children.

Lunch Boxes and Snacks: Over 120 healthy recipes from delicious sandwiches and salads to hot soups and sweet treats

The book is dedicated to

all those parents who can't face making yet another peanut butter sandwich, myself included.

She had me grinning there, I admit :-)

In most parts of the world the new school year is starting or already in full swing, and many parents are desperate for quick and simple foods their children will eat, not only for lunches but also for dinner, and this 128-page book comes in handy for both purposes. It is on sale for (used) less than two dollars, I bought mine in Europe for about 5 Euros, and these are wisely invested bucks by any means.

The six sections of the book are

• the creative lunch box
• special sandwiches
• savory specialties
• crunchy salads
• super soups
• sweet sensations

Karmel offers a wide range of foods, from classics such as BLT or coronation chicken, to more funky items like ramen noodle salad, or spinach salad with mango and strawberries. You'll find simple tomato soup and alphabet minestrone, homemade real-fruit popsicles, trail mix bars, muffins, cookies, Chinese rice salad or chicken chunks on a stick. The blend of well-known favorites with a new and fresh approach, and simplified fusion cooking, is very convincing.

What is even more appealing is the simplicity - you can cook all those dishes in short time and even with your kids, because the preparations are simple, and easily adaptable to your needs and tastes. Any of the handful of recipes I have tried so far (the ramen noodle salad named "mummy's ramen noodles" was an instant fave at a picknick recently) lent itself to easy adaptation and was as tasty as rapidly prepared.

I will make many more of the recipes in this book, without doubt, although most of them will probaby not end up in a lunch box. And if you are looking for great sandwich ideas, the sandwich chapter will bring new zing to your palate.

The initial chapter about packing lunches and how to bring your kids to eat new foods (directly related to Dharms article on raising picky eaters) is full of great tips and insights - can you imagine, that 84 % of all lunches contain potato chips and other salty snacks, and 94% feature sandwiches? It is high time to bring more variety to the palate by packing luscious lunches, and this little book is a great helper for that goal.

There's one thing I don't like about the book, though: it relies heavily on carbohydrates and grains, and if you need to watch your carb intake, or if you react to grains as I do, most of the offered ideas are not for you, unfortunately.

Still, I love the variety of new and traditional food ideas offered in the more than 120 recipes in Lunch Boxes and Snacks. Back to school? You and your children will at least be enjoying your meals.

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

This Post was written by Petra from FoodFreak in Hamburg

Tiffin Tuesday - Not quite Japanese

Whenever I have to explain the concept of bento boxes to people who have never heard of them, the obvious explanation is: it is a Japanese lunchbox. And the next question, inevitably, is: isn't Japanese cuisine terribly complicated for Westerners? Well, not quite... and most of my lunchboxes are anything but filled with Japanese foods. However, I adapted a few (easy) Japanese ideas for this lunch:



As Biggie pointed out last week, a lunch box doesn't have to be filled with the equivalent of a buffet-style meal to be satisfying, but nonetheless some variety adds to the fun as much as to the nutritional value. So let me delve a little into bento philosophy.



In an ideal world, a bento should employ the principle of goshiki (five colors - typically red/orange, black/purple/brown, white, yellow and green), and even better, goho, or five cooking methods - such as grilling, frying, simmering, steaming, pickling and boiling (I've added "raw" to my personal list of choices). By doing this, you will vary the textures throughout your meal, too. You don't have to pack Japanese foods to do this, though.

So in my not quite Japanese lunch above, I packed

• not quite zaru soba - about half a bundle of soba noodles (available as 100% buckwheat or with a little wheat flour added. The wheat soba can be boiled, the buckwheat-only variety nees to be steamed). I boiled the soba the night before packing the lunch. The dipping sauce in the Winnie-the-Pooh container consists of equal parts of mirin, soy, black bean garlic sauce and sesame paste - a little goes a long way. In the morning while packing I added a few scallion slivers to the soba.
• not quite tonkatsu - one of the dishes I call "double duty cooking". We had sesame fried pork chops for dinner, so I used one of the boneless chops, cut it into thin strips, and breaded them with a sesame crust (flour, egg, and half panko crumbs half sesame seeds) . They were fried at the same time as our dinner pork chops - this works nicely with chicken tenders, too, probably even with tofu.
  

To add a little crunch and freshness (and color), I packed a few (organic) cucumber strips to munch on. Cutting the scallions and cucumber (and removing the stone from the red plums in the second tier) takes about 2 minutes, if you did the cooking the night before, so this is done and packed easily even in a hurry.

The "snack" tier features an instant coffee drink (I never buy these, they somehow appear in my life via promotion teams strolling the city, or via mail) and an organic chocolate biscuit bar, plus a handful of almonds as a quick protein-and-fat snack, two red plums and a few mini chocolates. Apple optional :-)

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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 Petra from Foodfreak

Blender Carrot Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes, it can be made in almost no time at all, and is perfect to go into lunchboxes, as you can cut it into any shape desired (aka the leftover space in the bento).



The recipe was given to me by a friend who received it from her guest mother in Brazil, and it has become a family favorite ever since. In Brazil it is called bolo de cenoura.

You can prepare the batter in a blender or in a food processor.

Ingredients:

• 2 large carrots
  
• 150 ml vegetable oil
  
• 240 g sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• a pinch of salt
  
• 240 g flour
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder

Combine carrots, eggs, oil, sugar and salt in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth. Add the (sifted) flour and baking powder, process until a batter forms. Pour into a baking dish (I used my new IKEA reactangular baking pan, which was perfect) and bake in a medium hot oven until done (test with a toothpick).



Of course you could add any frosting you like with carrot cake, but we prefer this plain.

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This post was written by Petra from Foodfreak

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

Tiffin Tuesday - Pizza Day

The bentos I pack are for a very hungry husband, so they have to be nutritious, not about calorie-counting. If you are like me, you have a pizza night every now and then, preparing homemade pizza (I have to admit, sometimes I use a ciabatta baking mix for the dough). The perfect time to plan ahead for your next lunch box! Prepare a little more dough, have your favorite toppings at hand, and get prepared. My hubby has the opportunity to reheat part of his lunch in a microwave/taoster oven, but cold pizza is a nice treat, too :-) Think pizza crackers... and go wild with the toppings!

Pizza is such a comfort food and satisfying, and it does also go well in a bento - for this Mr. Bento-style lunchbox I chose a glass of the size of the tuna can as a cutter. You can cut off the lid and bottom of a tuna can or whatever fits your bento. Make sure you choose the cutter a tad smaller than the box because the dough will rise inevitably.

The topping is simply tomato paste (of course you can use your basic pizza sauce, but tomato paste gets less soggy), Italian herb blend and your extras of choice - here it is salami and mushrooms and tuna/capers, plus a little mozzarella cheese. You can prebake these miniature pizzas until the cheese just melts, and then freeze them on a tray, pack into bags when frozen. Warm them in a toaster oven right before packing your lunch box, or use yesterdays leftovers.

The menu is rounded out by a fresh zucchini salad with homemade Caesar dressing - prep time, including grating, about 2 minutes, if you make the dressing the day before - and in this case, an apple, a few walnuts, two cookies and some chocolates.

Happy Pizza night day!

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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 Petra from FoodFreak

A New Year with or without resolutions

Happy New Year to all of our lovely readers. We hope you have a truly wonderful 2008.

As it's the New Year no doubt lots of people will have made New Years resolutions. I used to make them without fail every single year but by mid January I'd usually failed in most, if not all of them. I wonder how many of you have made resolutions this year, if you'll keep them and for how long. I find it fascinating.

There are the usual resolutions that so many people make, including...

Lose weight
Get fit, start an exercise regime, get healthy
Quit a bad habit like smoking, or drinking to excess, biting your nails?
Get ahead, change jobs, get a promotion
Go on holiday
Move house
Spend more time with loved ones
Learn something new, do a course, get some training
Get organized
Spend less money or get out of debt

I've heard so many resolutions from people over the years. Some weird and wonderful, some sad, like the friend who announced just after midnight that she'd be getting a divorce that year, at her instigation. I've also heard some totally awesome ones, inspiring and inspirational including raising money for charities, training for and running a marathon, taking a year out with the family to go traveling for a year, .

So if you're in the camp that makes resolutions, I hope you manage to stick to them and if you didn't but you still want to make changes in your life then perhaps try and change things gradually. Give yourself smaller goals that are more realistic to attain.

Don't be too hard on yourself - January is a hard time to start making major changes, especially if you live in the Northern Hemisphere when it's cold and we all need a bit of comfort.

Maybe it's best to try and make changes, incorporating the good and positive things as an ongoing process throughout the year, and not try to suddenly change everything immediately just because it is the start of a new year.

For me personally, I gave up making resolutions for a few years, but this year with a spinal injury I decided that I needed to make some changes in my life. I thought the New Year was as good a time as any to begin making these changes. I'm going to get my back better and then as soon as it is, work on my core strength so that it stays okay. I've heard pilates is good? This way hopefully avoiding surgery. I'm also going to lose weight, I call it 'the baby weight', which is ridiculous as my youngest will be four this year, however I didn't carry any excess weight until I had children so to me it's 'the baby weight'. Not fair to keep blaming them so time to do something about it and I'm sure it can all be incorporated into my lifestyle changes which are all going to help my back. I'm not going to be too hard on myself, things take time and if any changes are to be lifelong changes they will take time to implement and time to become a habit.

Happy New Near everybody. I wish you all an awesome 2008!

News:
We'd like you all to help us welcome a few new members to our ever growing team. We are totally excited to have Petra of the fantastic FoodFreak join our Tiffin Tuesday series. Petra creates a few gorgeous looking bento boxes and lunch boxes, filled with health goodness.

Here's Petra:
I used to work the IT business, but now I am a freelance writer,
cookbook author and novelist, living in Hamburg, Germany.
I am a foodie, as reflected in my blog Foodfreak, active in the slowfood movement, and I have a passion for Asian cuisines as well as
local ingredients. Two years ago I started packing bento boxes for my husband to provide him with fresh, healthy and nutritious foods, and this has turned into a passion for bentos, too. I learned that bentos are widely unknown in Germany. When I find the time, I love to paint, take photographs or stroll across one of the various markets of my hometown

Another person who will be adding plenty of exciting healthy posts to our blog is VeggieGirl from the very interesting vegan blog VeggieGirl. She will be writing about a vegan lifestyle and giving all of us a few tips.

Here is VeggieGirl:

I am a nineteen-year-old, health-conscious vegan who has a passion for nutrition, cooking (especially baking!), food photography, animals, traveling, fitness, and writing (I'm a journalism major). On my blog, entitled VeggieGirl, I frequently post about my latest cooking & baking adventures, family get-togethers, and other topics.

Look forward to their posts coming soon.

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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 Amanda from Little Foodies

Cookbook Review: Raghavan Iyer - 660 Curries

Indian was my first love - when it comes to foreign cuisines - for a German girl, Indian food was as exotic as it gets. Yes, I've had my share of pasta and of Spanish and Austrian cooking, but when I started to cook seriously - and was a teenage and later twen vegetarian - I fell deeply in love with Indian food. Head over heels, to be honest. It started with Julie Sahni's terrific Classic Indian Vegetarian Cookery, and the love intensified later, watching Madhur Jaffrey on the BBC traveling through India an showing regional cuisine in the Flavors of India series.

A love that never faded, although I have left the world of vegetarian eating a decade ago (for health reasons, actually, but that's another story.)

So, when my husband handed me a review from Slashfood in the Cookbook of the Day column, I didn't hesitate a second to order

Raghavan Iyer - 660 Curries

The back cover quotes Madhur Jaffrey with "This book is nothing short of a treasure chest, containing an endless supply of very authentic Indian recipes, each bursting with the true flavors of Indias many regions." - and who am I to dispute Indian cooking with her?

The sections of the book:

• Poultry, Game and Egg Curries
• Beef, Lamb and Pork Curries
• Fish & Seafood Curries
• Paneer Curries
• Legume Curries
• Vegetable Curries
• Contemporary Curries
• Biryani Curries
• Curry Cohorts

cover about everything you'll need to know about Indian curries (and cooking) in a lifetime. From traditional to modern and fusion cuisine, from makkaroni & paneer to bitter melon with onion and tomato, a myriad of fresh and classic tastes awaits the adventurous cook. The Curry Cohorts section adds rice dishes and breads as well as pickles and chutneys to the menu.

The part about vegetable and legume aka vegetarian curries is enormous, as is the variety of dishes offered in this book. I have made 18 dishes from the book so far - spice blends are a part of it, and I enjoyed Punjabi Garam Masala, one of the recipes, tremendously. Each and every one of the recipes I've tried was good, which is quite the quota for me, when it comes to cookbooks. But not only were they good - most of them were plain terrific, stunningly delicious.

The recipes are explained thoroughly, substitution hints are given for not-so-common ingredients, and although (aside from the front and back flap) there are no pictures you'll start drooling the very moment you read the first recipe.

This is without doubt the best cookbook buy of 2008 in my shelves. I can highly recommend it to anyone who loves Indian cooking (and I've collected a few Indian cookbooks and then some over the years). With Iyers big book of Indian curries you'll be equipped with tons of ideas to choose from in your cooking life - and I bet your family will love it as much as I do.

(if you do read German, there is a list of recipes from the book - with links - in my blog at the German review, recipes which my friend Chili & Ciabatta and I have tried and blogged, so go ahead and have a look). Iyer's recipe for (great) Mulligatawny can be found here (accompanying text in German, but recipe in English) - and to make your mouth water I've decided to tease you with his version of Bharela Baingan.

Cashew-8tuffed Baby Eggplant with Tomatoes and Spices - Bharela Baingan

Baby eggplants are not bitter at all, as the gargantuan ones (the Italian variety), widely available in American supermarkets, can be. These bell-shaped, light purple varieties, roughly 2 to 3 inches long, are easy to find in Asian grocery stores. They can also be found at neighborhood farmers' markets at the tail end of summer, especially in areas where there are concentrations of Asian immigrants. If they are unavailable, however, you can use the standard large variety.

1/2 cup raw cashew nuts, ground
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
I tablespoon mango powder, or fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, ground
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea solt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (ground red pepper)
1/2 teaspoon Punjabi garam masola (recipe is in the book, or use regular Garam Masala)
8 to 10 small purpIe Indian (or 1 medium-size Italian) eggplants (about 1 pound total)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup conned crushed tomotoes
1 teaspoon white granulated sugar

1 . Combine the ground cashews, 2 tablespoons of the cilantro, the mango powder, cumin, salt, cayenne, and garam masala in a small bowl. Stir together thoroughly.

2. If you are using small eggplants, wash them well but do not remove the sterns. Slit each eggplant threequarters of the way through by making two crosswise slits, forming an X. (Make sure you do not accidentally cut through the entire length. This keeps them held together and makes the pan-frying a bit easier.) If you are using one large eggplant, rinse it well and remove the stem. Slice the eggplant crosswise into 2-inch-thick rounds. Slit each piece three-quarters of the way through by making two crosswise slits, forming an X. Make sure you do not accidentally cut through the skin. You can use kitchen twine to tie them closed after you stuff them.

3. Stuff each eggplant with the spice-nut mixture (as much as you can push into the slits). Don't worry if some of the filling falls out; most of it will remain inside.

4. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the stuffed eggplants, arranging them in a single layer, and sear them on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle any remaining filling over the eggplants, reduce the heat to low, and cover the skillet. Roast the eggplants, turning them occasionally (gently) with a pair of tongs, until they are fork-tender, about 30 minutes. As much as you are tempted, do not raise the heat to expedite the roasting; you will burn the spices and make the eggplant unpalatable.

5. Carefully lift the eggplants out of the skillet and transfer them to a serving platter.

6. Pour the crushed tomatoes and the sugar into the pan, and scrape the bottom of the skillet to incorporate all those wonderful pan drippings left behind after roasting the eggplant. Turn up the heat to medium-high and bring the sauce to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.

7. Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon cilantro, pour the sauce over the eggplant, and serve.

Enjoy!

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This post was written by Petra from Foodfreak

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

Tiffin Tuesday - Adding Color

Need to make your lunches visually more interesting? Try playing with colors.

The green in this lunch comes from wasabi coated peanuts, the red are small long red peppers, cut into rounds, stuffed, and studded with a dried chili. Aside from the canned mango juice (a special treat for DH) and baby bananas on the side, there is a cashew and a black sesame bar (from the Asian grocery store) as well as dried mango and papaya to snack on.

Since no meal would be perfect without real veggies, I added steamed cauliflower colored with turmeric.

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

This Post was written by Petra from FoodFreak in Hamburg, Germany

Tiffin Tuesday: Summer Rolls

One of my favorite finger foods and hot weather foods are Vietnamese summer rolls, and - although they are, unfortunately, not really a quick fix - they are perfect for a bento box:




I made Mango Shrimp Summer Rolls for dinner last night, so I had some leftovers tucked away under a damp towel in the fridge, which does make prep a snap. But even if you have to do all the chopping it is worth the hassle, because summer rolls are one of the most versatile leftover using recipes ever. As long as you have a few fresh herbs and rice paper rounds on stock, go wild and chop up veggies, protein, even fruit as in the mango rolls (a sweet version with mango and coconut-milk soaked rice noodles may be worth a try). Yes, they are better eaten fresh, but they withhold travel in a lunch box easily and with a dipping sauce in a container on a side they make a full meal in a wrap.

In addition to the shrimp-and-mango-noodle-rolls we made leftover-beef and carrot/cucumber rolls, with a little chile powder on top to add spicyness. Without noodles they do not wrap as beautifully, but look nice and taste very good. The radishes add color and crunch.

This is the whole box for today - the other compartment features cape gooseberries and an organic chocolate bar, plus the dipping sauce in a small bottle:

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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 Petra from FoodFreak

Tiffin Tuesday - Small Pasta, Big Taste

While noodles make a great addition to your lunchbox, the choices seem to be somewhat limited - from spaghetti nests to farfalle, from soba to ravioli on a stick. But the noodles used in pasta salads were too massive for my bento purposes.

Lately I discovered small pasta shapes like mini farfalle, quadrucci, ditali - and in this case sorpresine noodles from DeCecco. They unfold to tiny little flower shapes and have the size of a small pea, which makes them just about perfect for pasta salad to be stuffed into veggies.




And with a colorful and tasty shell like roma tomatoes you'll add zing and nutritional value, too.

This pasta salad consists of sorpresine egg noodles, peas, some diced mortadella sausage, and mayo. For crunch and munch I've added a red radish and some cucumber on the side. Second tier: a peach, an organic kiwi, a handful of organic walnuts and an orange pudding from the Asian market.

Since I made the pasta salad the night before, all I had to do in the morning was scoop the seeds out of the tomato halves, fill in the pasta salad, and pack the fresh fruit - packing time 5 minutes, including peeling the kiwifruit.

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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 Petra from FoodFreak

Tiffin Tuesday - Stir-Fry Salad

I've just discovered a new way of adding healthy veggies (and color and crunch) to my lunchbox:




One of the great time-savers on those all-too-busy days for me are frozen bagged vegetables, especially when it comes to Asian stir-fries. (For those who live in Germany, my preferred brand is Frosta - 100 % taste, with a zero-tolerance policy to additives, even non-declarable additives are off-list in their production process). But until I read on the bag that you could use these vegetables for a salad, the thought never crossed my mind.

This is, essentially, a real quick-fix meal. I used half a bag (or about 8 oz) of the wok veggies, gave them a quick stir-fry in my steel wok until everything was thawed and started to soften, added some grated fresh ginger and a splash of rice vinegar, and drained everything. You can do this ahead the night before. When cooled, add a little chopped scallion and your favorite dressing (I used olive oil, fish sauce, a dash of rice vinegar, pepper and a pinch of chili powder), and your lunch ist ready to be packed.

The other goodies are fresh fruit and sesame pretzels (sesame in the dough) - I made a large batch of sesame grissini and pretzels recently, and popped the pretzels into the freezer, grabbed what I needed from a bag the night before packing the bento. Now that's what I call frozen assets :-)

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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 Petra from Foodfreak

Tiffin Tuesday - Sausage on a stick

One of the German staples for a quick-fix meal is potato salad and Wiener sausage. And since they don't need much cooking, if you have your potato salad ready, they make for a great and speedy bento, too, as long as the sausage is high-quality and will taste good even when cold.





A full-length sausage, though, is somewhat hard to handle (and pack) so I opted for a skewered version here, adding cornichon gherkins in between the sausage, and some carrot to add color. Armed with a fork or spork, the (in this case home-made) salad is a nice and filling addition, and you might even pack a pouch of mustard.

The other tray features a few munchies - a homemade sugar cookie and fruit jelly stars, damson plums and a rice cracker.

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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 Petra from FoodFreak

Tiffin Tuesday - Getting Back Into The Habit

It's been a long time since I've posted a bento here - or on my blog. It is not that I don't pack lunches any more, but... most days I just grab some leftovers, and an apple or banana, and a cereal bar, and I'm done.

Although it is not quite 2010 right now, I think it is time to start over and make 'New Year's resolutions', to set up new goals, and get back to packing lunches which are not only nutritious, but also fun to look at. Even if you don't pack meals for a child but for an adult, enjoying your lunch visually is a great part of the food with love theme, I think.

And it doesn't have to be elaborated, fancy food, or decorating stunning anime images on a rice bed (which I could never do, anyway):



Here I packed tiny tomato halves with a tuna salad stuffing, tiny cucumber and carrot bites for crunch and color, a slice of buttered wholegrain bread (wrapped in cling film to prevent it from turning soggy), 3 mini chocolate muffins, dried mango, banana chips, the last of the plum harvest, and an apple. Basically a pantry raid, but looks so much better than just a sandwich or a box with noodle salad :-)

So, when do you get back in the habit?

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This post was written by Petra

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

Tiffin Tuesday - The Grain-Free Bento

Whenever I read (quite useful) instructions on packing bentos, I stumble upon tipps like this one:

Plan your meal. Bento lunches traditionally consist of 4 parts rice, 3 parts protein, 2 parts vegetables and 1 part dessert or pickles. Even easier-- mentally divide the box in half. Half for rice, then 1/3 of the other half for protein, 1/3 for veggies and the final 1/3 for condiments and dessert.

While this is great advice, I sometimes feel at a loss. What are people on special diets supposed to do? E.g. my body doesn't respond too well to grains, to put it mildly - rice is one of the few things I can digest in small amounts, and I'd rather keep that portion for other occasions. If you are on a low-carb diet, or suffer from type 2 diabetes, having to control carbs, or are restricted in your food choices for one reason or another, especially when it comes to carbohydrates, you'll have to find alternatives.

On the other hand, this is one reason for me - and I bet many of you - to pack my own lunches, aside from better value for money: being able to control what is in my foods, catering for the needs of allergic children or spouses.

Still, rice, or noodles, bread, potatoes, are the obvious fillers in a bento - so we are in need of fresh ideas.




Here I packed feta cheese cubes, with a sprinkling of pepper, and halved grape tomatoes (actually the pepper came in a small paper sachet I had saved on an airplane trip last year, and waited under the lid until lunch time), cucumber pieces, an egg, and a tuna dipp.

In the spirit of getting back into the habit of packing bentos, here are just a few ideas for (not only) grain-free bentos:

• grilled chicken pieces
• leftover grilled steak, sliced
• tiny brochettes (saté) with shrimp or meats or fish
• paneer cubes
• mini cheeses
• cubed feta
• eggs (think quail eggs!)
• tamagoyaki, of course
• omelette
• konnyaku noodles (shirataki)
• cooked chickpeas
• tiny amounts of curry (any kind) to be eaten with torn romaine leaves
• chicken or tuna salad, in muffin cups, or in cucumber cups or tomato halves
• dips - guacamole, tuna dip, herbed quark or cream cheese, tsatsiki, hummus, Mexican bean dip, blue cheese dip, peanut dip, salsa
• cooked beans
• edamame
• green beans
• cherry tomatoes
• kohlrabi sticks
• celery sticks
• carrot sticks
• cucumbers
• radishes
• bell pepper strips
• pickles
• mini salamis
• nuts
• dried fruit
• steamed cauliflower or broccoli
• olives
• yogurt (any type)
• berries
• mango pieces, to name just some fruit (because some are rather evil on the glycemic load)

To replace flour, instead of using gluten-free mixes, you might coat chicken pieces with sesame before frying them - the sesame adds great nutrients, too!

If your diet allows them, potatoes and sweet potatoes make great fillers, from potato salad to braised sweet potato, as do jerusalem artichokes - I like to eat these raw, they have a great crunch and nutty taste.


Do you have allergies you need to consider when packing lunches? Please feel free to share your ideas for special diet bentos - we'd love to hear / read from you.

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This post was written by Petra

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

Tiffin Tuesday - A Snack Box

Would you believe you can have a complete bento box full of snack foods and still eat healthy?



You can!


One of the harder parts of packing a bento is: how do I make my loved ones eat their veggies?

The answer: dip dip hooray! From guacamole to hummus to - in this case - peanut sauce - a tasty dip makes veggies even more attractive! I had some leftover peanut sauce in the fridge (you can find a recipe here - the surrounding text is German but the actual recipe in English - this makes a lot and I usually scale it down using a 250 g jar of organic peanut butter).

There is red bell pepper, cucumber and carrot in the box, a dollop of the peanut dip (well I admit: and a small Japanese banana-flavored candy). Plus rice crackers with seaweed, nuts, mango cubes, cherries, a French snacking salami for protein, and an (organic) apple. Napkin optional.

Prep time: 5 Mintes for cutting the vegetables into sticks, and packing.

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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 Petra from FoodFreak

Tiffin Tuesday - Let them eat cake

This is a lunchbox I packed recently.



The meatballs (you could use falafel or other veg patties) were made the night before. I saved the heart of a bibb lettuce, planning to use it in the salad bowl part of this lunch. Prep time: 5 minutes - fill leftover dressing in small bottle, quarter the salad heart, a tomato and chop a radih, add a few scallion greens.

After packing so much health food I have added one of my favorite lunchbox treats: a yogurt semolina cake, drizzled with lemon syrup. he beauty of this cake is that it keeps moist, doesn't crumble and can be cut into whatever space you have left in your lunchbox. Now all you need for a perfect break is a mug of coffee or hot chocolate on the side :-)

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This Post was written by Petra from FoodFreak

Use, don't waste

What do you do with your veggie scraps? If you don't have a chance to compost them (and thus have organic matter add to the fertility of your soil), don't throw it away!

I keep a huge plastic freezer bag in my freezer, where I collect and save the peel and top ends of carrot, onion tops, the hard outer leaves of fennel or tough celery bits, mushroom stems, cilantro stems, ginger peels, kohlrabi leaves, chicken carcasses, bones from chicken wings or roast duck... when the bag is full I pop all these ingredients into a huge stockpot, adding maybe a few spices and a lot of water - and simmer away, until I have the finest, tastiest leftovers stock you can imagine.

Or what about radish leaves? It didn't dawn upon me that the leaves of tiny red radishes are actually edible (and nutritious) until I found a lovely recipe for a

Potato and Radish Soup

You'll need

350 g potatoes, preferably floury potatoes
100 g carrots
1 yellow onion
1 clove of garlic
30 g butter
600 ml vegetable or chicken stock
250 ml single cream
1 bunch of red radishes, with the greens
2 containers garden cress, snipped
salt
pepper, white if you have
nutmeg, frshly grated

Wash and peel the potatoes, scrub the carrots, peel the onion. Chop the veggies and add the minced garlic.

Heat the butter in a saucepan. Sauté the veggies until the onions are translucent, then add cream and stock an dbring to a boil. Cook, covered, for 15 minutes.

Wash the radish greens and spin them dry. Put aside 5 leaves, chop the remaining greens. For the soup you'll need 6 medium-large radishes, just feed the remaining ones to your family fresh and raw :-) .

Cut the radishes and the 6 leaves into julienne.

Now is the time to blend the soup, either in a blender or better with an immersion blender. Add the chopped radish leaves and the cress from 1 of the 2 containers, blend again. Taste for salt and pepper and season with nutmeg.

Ladle soup into bowls, garnish with radish julienne and leaves and the remaining garden cress.

A handful of sourdough bread croutons, or a slice of your favorite wholegrain bread will round out this delicious meal.


I can tell you I wont be wasting perfectly fine organic radish leaves in the future! - Enjoy!

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

This Post was written by Petra from FoodFreak in Hamburg, Germany

Tiffin Tuesday: Keep it simple

I do love to look at themed bentos, character bentos, kawaii stuff - but given a choice between colored rice and nori, and simple yet nutritious food, I'll usually opt for the latter. Keep it simple is my credo when it comes to lunches - usually I won't spent half a day in the kitchen for a lunchbox, and the food chocis reflect this mantra:



Plain rice, pressed into a roll mold, sprinkled with black sesame, plus carrot flowers (a good metal cutter makes these a snap) steamed and seasoned with gingered butter. The chicken is a little more elaborate, but not fancy: chicken breast is pounded flat, and stuffed and rolled up (a little wasabi and a scallion just in the middle), wrapped in cling foil and aluminum foil to form a roll, and cooked in water until done. Something you can do together wih last nights pasta or potatos. Once cooled you can unwrap your chicken "maki" and slice it into rounds.

Below is a handful of fresh strawberries (I chose tiny ones to fit ino the box), a pice of carrot chocolat cake (wrappe din foil so it won't get soggy), a few cucumber pieces and a tiny bottle with (hmemade, but go for bottled) hot pepper sauce for the chicken.

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

This Post was written by Petra from FoodFreak in Hamburg