What are you Eating?!?

I hear that way too often when someone’s in the kitchen when I go to nuke parts of my lunch…

Here are some of the lunches I’ve packed in my new laptop lunchbox set. :3
I apologize for the horrid cell phone pictures.

Leftovers from Plum Garden.
Teriyaki steak with broccoli, mushroom and potato over rice.
Tenpura veggies.
Cheddar biscuit (not from Plum Garden).
Wonka fruit jelly cube things, grapefruit taste.

Bones!

BBQ Ribs, cornbread and muscats.

Bourbon fried chicken.
Rice & broccoli with soy sauce.
Banana bread.
Muscats.

Macaroni & Cheese with hotdog tentacles.
Cottage cheese with ham and green onions.
Grapes and Kumquats.

Lovely grilled steak.
Strawberries.
tomatoes and bell peppers (tzatziki not pictured)
muscats.

spaghetti with stuffed meatballs.
extra stuffed meatballs.
mini roast beef sandwich on homemade focaccia.
muscats.

Well, I finally did it. I finally gave in to the laptop lunchbox. And I’m REALLY GLAD I did.

First of all, let me say that I do not work for them. I am not affiliated with them. I get no monetary gain for posting about them. I am merely blogging about this to share my experiences because I enjoy the product. Now with that out of the way…

After going through a million and a half different types of bento boxes, (and spending so much money on them thru ebay, online stores, etc) I feel like I’ve finally found the right kit that works perfectly for both my boyfriend and myself.

I labored over the decision for nearly a month before making the purchase, weighing my options, because these aren’t cheap sets. In the end I decided to get two of the power lunch sets – one red, for Tom, and one blue, for myself. Each set comes, as pictured, with a nice bag, a water bottle (16oz), the outer container, 5 inner containers, really sturdy stainless fork and spoon, and the user guide.

I also ordered a set of the bento buddies (in red) that comes with a large box and some extra of the other sizes, all covered. The large box takes the place of the two medium sized boxes on one side, leaving space for two of the small boxes for side dishes. I’ve used this box most often for Tom or when I wanted to take a nice sized salad for lunch.

A week after receiving these, I went back and ordered an additional set of buddies, as well as two sets of inner containers in different colors. It’s fun to mix and match the boxes.

After having these for a month, these are the points I most want to share about the whole system.

* If the food is wet, cover it! I haven’t really had any problems with leakage or shifting with this box. I normally don’t photograph my lunches until I’m about to eat them at lunch time, after they’ve been jogged around in the bag on the way to work.

*This particular bag, when carried, the box is on end. I was concerned about food shifting, but for the most part, I really haven’t had any problem with that. They are selling a new set now that has a bag where the box will lay flat (and it’s cute and purple and I really want one!), which I think is a better design. Only available in one color/style right now, but I’m hoping they offer other colors in the future.

*You WILL need extra boxes. It’s been really convenient to pack leftovers into the boxes for lunches for a couple of days out. Really saves time in the mornings to have little boxes of goodies all ready to go. I generally will add a fruit or veggie option to the lunch and I’m done! (Well, and fill the water bottle, but that’s so fast.)

*I wouldn’t say no to an extra outer container.

*The water bottle has a really small mouth opening (when you take off the sports bippie). Sometimes it’s hard to pour juice into… and difficult to clean without a bottle brush. So if you put something other than water in it, PLEASE rinse it out when it’s empty and set it upside down to dry. It will save you a lot of hassle.

*Versatile box configuration. In my next post I will post some of the lunches I have made so far using this set. Some of the pictures are crappy, because I’ve been using my phone again. *sigh* But I love that you can use these boxes in a lot of different configurations, depending on your needs for the day.

*Great customer service. Ok, this isn’t about the boxes, but I have dealt with some places where the customer service was less than savory. These people seem pretty durn cool. Shipping was fast (fedex), and my stuff got to me in a timely fashion. And it wasn’t a first time fluke, because I’ve ordered from them since and the service was just as fast. Quick tip: if you can, have items shipped to you at work. Somehow the shipping is a bit cheaper if it’s sent to a business. Don’t ask me why.

One thing’s for sure: since I got these sets, I haven’t been using any of my other boxes. Well… I’ve been using them to house leftovers, but I have been using the LL sets to carry lunches. Well worth the investment.

Another winner from the Bread Machine Cookbook!

This loaf came out crusty on the outside, like a good french loaf should, but fluffy on the inside. Really fluffy. Almost too fluffy. But it sliced nicely. Probably wouldn’t hold up to really moist applications.

The loaf came out a lot taller than most of my other loaves have, as you can see, it goes above my slicer/holder.

I expected it to taste sweet, but there wasn’t really a sense of that. It was very tasty, however. I made a lovely turkey and swiss sandwich on it.

I think I will try making a denser style of loaf next time. I’m really in the mood to make a hearty bread for sandwiches. Something you can really chew on! Maybe a focaccia or a peasant bread… Although, I think peasant bread is better suited to serving with soups and stews.

Click here for the recipe…

*sigh*

I really need to take a Wilton course.

For Valentine’s this year, I decided to make Tom a layer cake. Now, I’ve made this cake before with less disastrous results, but I can’t exactly remember what I did last time to prevent this horror from happening.

The cake is a two layer chocolate cake with raspberry jam in the middle. Sounds tasty, right? It is tasty. But things went horribly wrong…

I baked the cake on Sunday morning and let it cool completely. That part was fine. The cake smelled wonderful.

Then, I broke out the seedless raspberry jam and stirred it a bit so it would be more spreadable. I spread it from the center of the cake outward, but not to the edges. However, I think I must’ve put a bit too much on because when I put the second layer on, the cake began to bleed from its seam. The top layer also tried to slide off. Oh crap!

Now, if I had been smart… and had space in my freezer, which I don’t… I would have frozen the cake overnight before continuing. I did not. I thought that maybe if I put the frosting on that the cake would stay together… and that did help… somewhat.

I got out the frosting and spread it on the top at first, and then worked my way around the edges, trying to keep the top layer on. However, the jammy blood mixed with the frosting turning it pink in places. That would have been fine… except that it also continued to bleed down onto the plate. And the cake kept slipping. It’s really hard to keep the layer on… and frost… and turn the plate… and make it not look like holy hell.

I didn’t really have enough frosting to do a second layer, which, in hindsight, would have been a better idea… But there you go.

I also don’t have a proper frosting spreader, so I was using a butter knife… which is kind of difficult to get even strokes off of a cake as tall as this one was. The cake was looking more and more like a crime scene as I went on. There were streaks of jam on the top of the cake, and streaks on the side, and the damn thing had bled all over the plate.

*sigh*

This is the worst food massacre I’ve ever committed.

To add insult to injury, I decided to scrawl a bloody heart on top with the blade of my knife, scraping up some of the jammy blood from the plate and using it on top.

Severely dissatisfied with the results, I covered the thing and walked away, cleaning up the mess I had made on the table. I tried to forget about this until Tom mentioned that he wanted to try some of the cake I had made. I warned him of the massacre that had occured… and then I unveiled the horror that lie beneath the opaque container’s top.

“Awww, you drew a heart on top!”

*sweatdrop* And this, dear friends, is why I have the best boyfriend ever. He ate this monstrosity and proclaimed it very tasty! I have to admit, it was rather good on the taste scale… But I’m still haunted by the process.

On a related note: why is seedless jam so damned expensive? I paid over 3 bux for a small jar of the stuff. Grr.

We haven’t bought bread in over a month now and I feel really good about this!  I don’t feel as bad sending Tom with sandwiches for lunch when the bread his sandwiches are made with is from a loaf that I made myself. With love!

Since I started using my bread maker, I’ve been on the lookout for a recipe that made for a good sandwich bread. It would have to be dense, but not too dense – a good sandwich should be soft, yet toothsome. I wanted it to slice nicely and not crumble and crumb all over the place. And of course it would have to taste good.

I got a new bread maker cookbook from paperback swap and it is full of so many delicious sounding recipes for sandwiches and other types of loaves that I didn’t know where to begin. I started, logically, by looking at the ingredient lists to the several that popped out at me at once, to see what I had in the house at the time. I decided to make the buttermilk loaf because I had a pint of buttermilk in the fridge that really needed to get used up!

Once the ingredients were in the bread machine, I went about my business for a few hours. Imagine my surprise when I pulled out the loaf and it was all spiky on top! I laughed for a moment and then pulled the loaf out of the pan and set it on my new bread slicing stand to cool for a bit and take pictures.

When it was cool enough, I sliced into it. I really need a bread knife. I’ve just been using a serrated chef’s knife to cut my bread. Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right. When I get my new knife set, in the near future, I will make sure it has a bread knife, as well as a cleaver. I’ve been wanting to cleave as well. I also want a meat hammer, but that’s a story for another time.

Getting back to the bread… it slices quite nicely and the inside texture is pretty close to your usual white bread you buy at the store, though it is a little more dense than your average wonder loaf. It tastes a bit like a french loaf, but a little bit tangier thanks to the buttermilk. The flavor is not overpowering, making for an excellent platform for your favorite kind of sandwich. Tom’s been rockin the salami and colby jack with romaine and mayonnaise.

Last night, I tried making grilled cheese with this bread and found myself really wishing that I had a panini press. I guess that’s going on my wishlist. I had to slice the bread a bit thinner and I didn’t have the right kind of cheese for pan fried grilled cheese, so I didn’t feel it tasted as good as perhaps it would have had it been pressed. Perhaps I should have added a touch of mustard as well. Oh well.

This bread. It’s good. Want the recipe?