Lunchboxes for the Pre-Schooler, Part 2

Entering second month of my lunchbox making for the kiddo, some how have new inspirations this round and created more varieties. I am going simpler and making more meals that can pre-make, such as origini (rice balls) and sandwiches, and still healthy none-the-less.

You may refer to the previous post for more idea & tricks to prepare quick and healthy lunchbox ;) Lunch box under 30 minutes - for the busy moms

Rice, Onigiri & Congee

Sandwiches, Burgers & Nuggets

On the lighter side, some simple bites.

My little boy really loves the mommy-made bento, I guess his happy face and healthy growth are the key motivations for me. 

Hope you get some inspirations from this post too, please do feel free to share with me and the rest of the readers your bento ideas too! ;-)

Cheers,

PH 

Lunch Box under 30 minutes, Busy Mom's Survival Guide..

As E entered primary school, he spends long hour in school everyday from 7am to after 3pm (that's a good 8 hours!). After observing and trying out at what the school's cafeteria offers (not the healthiest kind of food choice, unfortunately), I decided to make him healthy lunchboxes so he will be fueled with good food and better nutrition to meet the daily challenges.

Here are the lunchboxes I've been packing for the little siblings for the past weeks. Updated: You may check out lunchbox idea here!

Sandwiches..

Noodles, Pasta & Rices

Being a working mom who reaches home after 8pm daily, making fresh food daily is really quite a challenge (I've no helper at home neither). So I have constantly explored methods or tricks that work for me and make this sustainable in the long run. 

I'm sharing the tricks and tips that allowed me to have those meals prepared within 15-30 minutes. As much as possible I use real food over processed food (one reason why I hardly used sausages or luncheon meat in my cooking), less salt, less sugar and no MSG used.

Note: the lunchbox I prepared are nothing fancy and pretty like most Japanese bento, don't set high expectation :) My priority is to be practical, delicious, nutrition, and must take no more than 30 min! After all E has all grown up now that he doesn't need his "happy meal" to lure him into eating anymore. Lol.

Here's my survival guide.

1. Pre-prepare the meat in single serving size. 

I clean and cut the chicken / meat to cube or slices or minced (when they are fresh from market), keep them into individual pack of 1 serving size each & freeze them in the chiller. The night before cooking, I'll move one packet to refrigerator section, by the next morning I just have to marinate them and use them for cooking right away. They are ideal to be used for making nuggets, making meatball, stir fry or making soup.

2. Multitask. Maximize usage of your utensil. 

When I boil the meatballs / fish balls and vegetables in the wok, I use the heat to steam the white rice that was cooked the previous night. This makes it super fast, and I will just close the lid and get myself changed, the food is ready when I'm done. ;) 

3. Prepare all ingredients the night before. 

After the kids had gone to bed, I'll then wash and cut the veggies, soak to soften the noodles / spaghetti the night before then store them in air tight containers in the fridge. This drastically shorten the cooking time the next morning - generally only takes me 15 min.

These were the BPA container I used to store baby food when they were little, how convenient. :)

4. Sandwich is the fastest when you have absolutely no time.

I have prepared a variety of sandwiches for the duo - Eggs, ham, tuna, cucumber, cheese, grilled chicken breast (leftover), all these can be ready in like 5 minutes. Coupled them with some healthy sides and you have quite a complete and awesome meal!

Some of the sandwiches I've made for the kiddos...

5. Prepare healthy snacks that can be added to lunchbox. 

Cereal bars, mixed nuts, crackers, cookies & fruits that can be served whole (grapes, blueberries, strawberries, banana, cherry tomatoes). All these add some variety of colors & nutrition to the lunchbox.

Somehow my duo have pretty good appetite so having extra snacks allow them to fill the tummies instantly, conveniently instead of eating junks. ;-)

6. Use an Insulated Bag to store all food in one bag, nothing goes missing!

The food container, drink packets, foldable fork & spoon are all kept in the same bag, and the insulated functions allow the food to keep warm and stay spill proof at the same time. You can easily find them from Daiso for RM5.30, or just get one from the departmental stores.

This also takes the weight away from E's already heavy school bag...

Some of the insulated bags I used. Fuel  is one of my favorite brands, especially the foldable forks and spoons, been using them for 5 years and counting. 

7. Use a good flask to keep the food fresh & warm

I have tried putting fried noodles directly into the container and it turned sour by afternoon (effort wasted!), tried some plastic flask too and only keep warm for about an hour or so. Finally I dug out the Thermos  food flask which I used to store baby porridge when they were little. Still good as new!

I rinse the Thermos with hot water before using, then keep the soup / rice / fried noodle/porridge in there, it can keep warm up to noon time (6-8hours) without problem.

* reminder: must train little ones to handle hot liquid with flask with care.

8. Keep small containers for titbits

I used normal BPA free lunchboxes that comes with standard 1 or 2 compartment, so having some small containers allow the flexibility of having the cut fruits, veggie or snacks arranged neatly instead of having everything mixed up. Best of all, these are things I can prepare the night before.

Most of these items are available from Daiso, except the Fuel foldable fork & spoon which we bought during our trip in Australia. You can find this brand in most major departmental stores nowadays. Those silicon cupcake holders are meant for baking but well, find them ideal for storage too.

  

9. Last but not least, plan the weekend grocery list.

I do my grocery shopping once a week, this ensure I have supplies for cooking variety for the kiddos throughout the week and any leftovers are used up for weekends cooking. What I usually have on the list...

Note: I have free supply of fresh herbs from my garden, so I can just toss in some fresh herbs when cooking for natural flavoring.

That's all folks...

Hope this helps all the busy moms or dads or grannies or caretakers out there. There's no secret really, but just need pre-planning and determination to provide the kiddos good food. 

However, on days I'm busy or tired I would take a day off from cooking and inform E to purchase food at the school cafeteria. I think it's important to stay flexible and don't be so hard on ourselves. :-)

Thanks for reading. Do feel free to send your questions or suggestions, I shall attempt my best to respond. If you like this post and think it would be useful for your friends, colleagues, family or simply anyone you know, feel free to share it, like my Facebook page   and shout about it ok? ;-)

Note..

Many have concerns if the food can stay warm for such long hours without turning bad, I too had the same concern. So what I've practiced is that for all the new recipe I attempted, I'll cook extra and bring to office in a separate flask, so I know if the food taste and smell alright or not. 

Xoxo,

PH

Double Style Sesame Chicken Nuggets

This is a fast and easy dish that is crunchlicious and suitable for any occasion, be it family dinner, friends gathering or even picnic. The white sesame coating over the nuggets adds a subtle aroma and adds to the crunchiness. 

Why double style? I made a non spicy version (sesame) and a spicy version (sesame + paprika), everyone can just pick their favorites, or have both. ;)

Served the Sesame Chicken Nuggets with 3 different sauces, so there's at least a flavor that suits everyone :- hot Sambal, Sesame sauce and mayonnaise.

I had it served as part of our family's CNY luncheon. The whole big plate was emptied before the lunch was over.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serving for: approximate 40-50 nuggets

Ingredients:

• 800gm chicken fillets, cut into cubes

For Seasoning:

• salt and pepper  

• few drops of sesame oil

• 1 tablespoon of Shao Xin wine (skip if serving for young kids)

For Coating:

• 4 tablespoon of flour + 1 tablespoon of cornflour

• 2 egg whites

• 1/2 cup of white sesame seeds

For Hot version:

• few dash of paprika powder 

 

The Making:

1. Marinate the chicken nuggets with the salt, sesame oil and Shao Xin wine. Set aside for about 30minutes.

2. Coat the chicken nuggets with the following in sequence: 1) mixed flour 2) egg white 3) white sesame seeds. 

For the hot version, add few dash of Paprika powder into the flour and mix well.

3. Heat up few spoonful of cooking oil in a frying pan. Once the oil in heated, using a pair of long chopsticks or thong, slowly place the chicken nuggets into the pan; you may cook few nuggets at the same time, just make sure they do not overlap.

4. Cook each nuggets for about 1 minute on each side or until golden brown. Dish out and put over a piece of kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil.

Serve alongside your favorite sauce (tomato ketchup, chili sauce, Sambal chili, mayonnaise, peanut sauce, sesame sauce). Enjoy!

{CNY Special} Prosperous Abalone dish with Mushrooms 鲍螺万象迎新年

It's the 7th day of Chinese New Year, which also coincide with the Valentine's Day. We had a simple family gathering where my siblings and dad came over for a family luncheon. It's potluck style and as the hostess, I decided to make an auspicious dish to celebrate the Lunar new year.   

Managed to cook this dish in under 30 minutes and it's emptied almost immediately when we started dining. 

The topshell was arranged into a rose shape, it was spontaneous but I though their appearance was rather beautiful. *smile* My late mom would approved this if she's around.

The platter of food.. Recipe for the sesame chicken cubes (the center piece) will be shared separately.

Note: I did not serve the abalone nor top shells to my little ones (I prefer serving them unprocessed food), however they enjoyed the broccoli and other dishes to the max.

 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes 

Ingredients:

• 1 can of abalone in brine 高汤炖鲍鱼一罐*

• 1 can of sliced topshell 鲍鱼汁螺片一罐*

• 300gm of broccoli, cut into florets 西兰花一颗约三百克

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed 蒜头三颗，切细

• 8 King Eryngii Mushroom, roughly shredded 杏鲍菇八颗，捌段

• 100g Enoki mushroom, washed, 金针菇一百克，洗净

*Note: I used the Soon Thye Hang (顺泰行海味） canned abalone and topshell, you can choose other brand or flavor too but their brine sauce is my favorite.

The Making 做法:

1. Blanch the broccoli florets with hot water, drain the excess water and place aside. 用热水把西兰花烫熟，让多余的水流掉，西兰花放一旁待用。

2. Heat up 2 tablespoon of cooking oil in the wok, toss in the garlic and sautée for a minute till turns golden color. 在热锅烧热两汤匙油，加入蒜头炒至金黄色。

3. Add the mushrooms and broccoli, quick fry on high heat for about 2 minutes, add a tablespoon of the abalone sauce to flavor. Scope out and put into the serving dish. 

* you may add some sliced ham too for richer flavor

把杏鲍菇，金针菇加入锅中混入两汤匙的红烧鲍鱼菇汁快炒，再加入烫熟的西兰花大火炒约两分钟即可离锅，放在一个空碟上。

* 也可加入切片火腿添味

4. In the same wok, heat up the abalone with sauce, once the sauce starts to boil (should be around a min) turn off the heat. Arrange the abalone nicely over the broccoli and pour the sauce all over them. Repeat the same for the topshell but only add few spoonful of sauce over the topshell will do. 把罐头鲍鱼连汁倒入锅中，滚后即可熄火（约一分钟左右）把鲍鱼排在西兰花上方，然后把剩余的汁倒入碟中。罐头螺片也如法炮制，但只需要加几汤匙的螺汁在螺片上，不用太多。

That's it, your CNY dish is ready to serve. it's really just that simple! *wink* 

一道”鲍螺万象”轻轻松松上桌啦，趁热吃吧！

祝各位，新年快乐，心想事成！