BrambleStitches

A couple friends have asked recently if I’m still packing Erik’s lunches. Yes! Since I started packing a bento box for him in January, I’ve missed only about 10 days (compared to the previous six years when I had only packed about 10 lunches total). The financial impact? We’re saving about $200 a month, since he doesn’t have to buy lunch any more. Really.

The health impact? It benefits all of us. I know he’s eating meals that are good for him, rather than fast food junk, and that taste good, rather than chow hall. I’m cooking a greater variety of food every evening, so I’ll have something different to put in each container. It is also helping me to branch out and try new recipes, so he won’t have to eat the same things over and over.

In turn, it exposes the kids to new foods, teaches them about portions, a balanced diet, food handling safety (they’re not too young to learn… ask any little kid what happens when they leave a glass of milk out over night), and home economy.

Today’s lunch is made of leftovers from last night and the night before. Fried pork chops, cut up for easy eating (and so I don’t have to pack a knife), sauteed apples, and underneath them mashed baked sweet potato (both naturally sweet, so no need to add sugar), pretty salad with healthy vinegar-based dressing, and grapes.

The bento box has a plastic lid, but unlike plastic containers we’re used to that snap on, the lid is held on with an elastic band. (A quick note: you should always let the lunch cool before you put the lid on so condensation doesn’t form inside the box. I opened this box up again after I took the picture when I noticed the chops were still steaming.) Then the whole box is tied up in a furoshiki, or Japanese wrapping cloth. We have quite a collection of furoshiki now, thanks to my mom who finds them in thrift stores in Utah, of all places. This one is Erik’s favorite.

Food bento, furoshiki, lunch

A couple weeks ago I gave you my recipe for really good pork ribs in the crock pot. The other night I adapted a recipe for beef ribs (Hi, Lenie!), and they turned out really wonderful. The basic recipe is below (again, another gem from my old BH&G cookbook). To turn this into a crock pot recipe, just fling everything into the pot and cook on low for 10-12 hours. Depending on the size of your crock pot, you’ll need to double or even triple the recipe for the marinade in order to prevent the liquid from cooking away. There’s no need to marinate the ribs ahead of time, because they’ll soak up the spices all day long.

Food

I’ve never been particularly excited about cooking, or grocery shopping, or even eating, really. I would go to the store with a list, but never really a plan, buy what looked good, then spend the next few days trying to figure out what to make with all those random ingredients. Dinner was a chore to be avoided until the last possible second (usually when I saw The Manly Man’s car pull into the driveway). We always seemed to suffer from the-fridge-is-full-but-there’s-nothing-to-eat syndrome.

Recently, something is different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’ve been enjoying the whole plan/shop/ingredient/prep/cook/serve/eat process for several weeks, now. (Okay, I don’t enjoy the shopping trip, but I do enjoy selecting fresh veggies, meats, etcetera while at the store. That’s a start, right?) For me, it was a matter of confidence in the kitchen. I don’t know what the catalyst was, but some how *bang* there it was. But then everything in my life seems to be so great right now, that maybe it’s all just a state of mind.

Below is the recipe I used to cook the best meal I’ve ever made. I checked my receipt and spent less than $8.00 for all of the fresh ingredients (I had everything else on hand, and you probably do, too), and there was easily enough to feed two more adults or several more kids.

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Beef Pot Roast (from BH&G New Cook Book, 1989 edition)

1 beef chuck pot roast (mine was about 2.5 lbs, and it was the biggest I could fit in my pan)
oil to brown meat (use Canola, it’s better for you than corn oil)
3/4 cup water, dry wine, or tomato juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon or one cube instant beef bouillon
1 teaspoon dried basil
12 ounces whole tiny new potatoes (you could use larger potatoes or sweet potatoes, cubed)
8 small carrots or parsnips (I used two large carrots and one parsnip, but I was running out of room)
2 small onions, cut into wedges (I didn’t have room to add any this time, whoops)
2 stalks celery, bias-sliced into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Trim fat from roast, and brown meat in hot oil. Drain fat. Combine water, Worcestershire, bouillon, and basil. Pour over roast, bring to boiling, then simmer, covered, for an hour. Add vegetables to pot and simmer for another 45-60 minutes (I found that the celery and parsnip didn’t need that much time–put them in for the last 20 minutes or so). When done, remove meat and veggies from pan.

For pan gravy, measure juices, skim fat. Add enough cold water to equal 1 1/2 cups. Combine flour and 1/2 cup cold water, whisk together thoroughly, then add back to the juices. Mix well and return to pan. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly, season to taste, serve.

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I don’t have a dutch oven for stove top use, so I had to make due with my 10-inch cast iron skillet. It was a little small, so I couldn’t quite fit all the veggies. Next time I’ll use both skillets, and cut the roast in two, or maybe even only cook 1/2 of the roast and save the other half for later (we only finished half of it last night).

Food

Above is Erik’s lunch made from the leftovers of Tuesday night’s meal: Pork ribs (yellow) recipe below, salad (red), fried apples and homemade bread (green), balsamic vinegar and oil in jar for bread and salad, prunes, and raisins (purple).

I am convinced that the very best pork ribs are cooked in a crock pot. Tuesday night I tried a new recipe that called for baking them, and although the sauce was way better than my old recipe, the ribs weren’t nearly as tender and juicy. From now on I’ll be using the new sauce recipe with my handy dandy super-sized crock pot (I bought the biggest one I could find when we got married, and I never regretted it).

Use any pork ribs you like; I’ve used them all: loin back, country-style, spareribs. (P.S. Lenie, I think this would work okay with beef ribs too, but you might want to adjust the seasonings a bit. I like more of a pepper/herb/lemon beef rib, and less sweet.)

Cut up the ribs as needed to fit into your crock pot (this is where having a big one comes in handy, I can usually just cut a big slab in two), and remove the inner skin if desired (I usually do, it makes serving and eating much easier).

In a bowl mix together:
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
8 oz. tomato sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice (I just squeezed 1/2 a lemon)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup water

Pour this mixture over the ribs in the crock pot, and set on low all day. This needs to cook for at least 8 hours, so I get mine in around 9am. If it stays in the crock for a few extra hours, no harm will come to it.

Food

Last week was the Man’s birthday, and what he wanted more than anything else was… lunch. Packed from home. Every day.

Buying lunch every day is hard on our budget, and the stuff on base is crap. You either hit the chow hall along with a zillion other starving Marines, stand in line forever at one of the fast food joints and rack up your heart attack points, or settle for a pitiful pre-frozen some-kind-of-meat sandwich and bag of pretzels from the gas station.

Ever since the Man returned from his deployment to Japan, he’s talked about (and cooked a lot of) Japanese food. I remembered seeing an inspiring blog a few months back that was all about Japanese-style lunch boxes, called “Bento.” Since we have a wonderful Japanese market right down the street, I thought I’d check into it a bit more. I found this great hungry-man-sized bento box at the market for just under $10–I think that’s a great bargain compared to a lot of American-style lunch boxes. Each of the four colored containers is removable, dishwasher, freezer, and microwave safe. The outer yellow tray is rugged enough to be knocked around a bit, and the whole thing has a clear lid so you can see all of the yummies inside.

It’s easy to find leftovers from the fridge to fill each of the containers, and because there are four, it’s a little easier for me to remember to pack a balanced meal. (With a big, non-partitioned container, it’s sometimes easy to forget and go too heavy on the starches.) I also try to make some things ahead of time to keep in the freezer. When I make meatloaf, I always bake a few “mini” meatloafs in my muffin pan. They freeze really well (wrapped in aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn) and when packed frozen, are perfectly thawed by lunch time. I also keep a big bag of Gyoza (Chinese dumplings) in the freezer, along with shelf-stable puddings (they don’t need to be chilled, but make great ice-packs), and small packages of cooked rice (reheated frozen rice is WAY better than reheated refrigerated rice–it stays moist).

Packing a bento is like putting together a puzzle. I like trying to pack as much food as possible in there, but sometimes there is only a little space. Little boxes of raisins, individually wrapped prunes, and small cookies seem to work well, as well as snack-sized cheeses, cherry tomatoes, and shelf-stable condiment containers.

The Man tells me he’s very happy with his ongoing birthday gift, and that there’s the perfect amount of food for him. There’s never any food left when he comes home from work, so I must be doing something right!

What’s in the bentos pictured above?

First bento: meatloaf, hard-boiled eggs, raisins, rice topped with furikake (a flavored Japanese rice seasoning), spinach and cherry tomatoes, dressing, BabyBel cheese, instant miso soup mix (to be reconstituted in a separate container at work), and prunes.

Second bento: Pork gyoza (Chinese dumplings), spinach and carrot sticks, dressing, BabyBel cheese, raisins, prunes, and pineapple upside down birthday cake.

Third bento:  Cubed steak (pre-cut to fit, and so I don’t have to pack a knife), baked beans, grapefruit, wheat bread, butter, raisins, prune, snack-sized cheese, shelf-stable pudding (upside down), granola bar, and fig newtons.

Food