DIY: Seafood Vegetable Fried Rice & Eggrolls

I have been fond of cooking lately at home.  I believe that this is the only way to healthy eating coz you eat anything you like, and you control what gets into your system.  This is so true since you have the freedom to choose the right ingredients for your family.

We love Asian cuisines.  All of them.  And we love to eat as well.  We hop from one resto to another to try out new dishes.  Anything we love, we try to make them home-made next time.  Google is a huge place to find the perfect recipe for any food.  Then customize  ingredients according to what works best for you.

As you already know, I'm training my kids to eat meals we already eat at home to school.  That way, planning for school lunches would be a breeze and economical in a way. Imagine sending leftover dinners to school the next day. Let's re-phrase that. What about a re-purpose leftover dinner?  That might sound a little better, right?

Eggroll Recipe: Combine ground meat, minced shrimp, minced onion and garlic, carrots,
salt and pepper together. Roll them up with the use of a shumai or gyoza wrappers for a mini roll, perfect for school lunches.

Say, you had eggrolls for dinner. Do you think your picky eaters would eat them again the next day? Would it be better if it goes with another new dish? Or a repurpose dish?

I repurposed rice for that matter. I made a Seafood-Vegetable Fried Rice which has almost everything on it.  I made use of medium grain brown rice, instead of just white, to take care of fibers and grains. You can never go wrong with corn kernels.  They always add a sweet taste to any cuisine. It's not anything like sugar.  It's whole grain and it's a healthy additive to any cuisine. Add some greens with the use of sweet peas or edamame, carrots, if you wish, and some shredded crabsticks.  Season with Asian seasoning (1 part soysauce, 1 part sesame oil). YUM!!

I would absolutely say, the kids had a hearty meal.  They love it!  I hope you consider to re-purpose your dinner leftover sometime.  It makes our mornings simpler.

All bento accessories are available through Bento USA,

the cheapest and most complete online bento products in the USA.

Other bento gears are also available thru My Amazon Affiliate Link.
EasyLunchboxes can also be purchased here.
Thank you for your support!

Bento At Work: Shanghai Eggrolls & Bean Sprout

I know that this does not come regularly, but there are days that I just have to do it, especially by special request.  I got one today by HUB.  And so I complied. But cute lunches aren't allowed. So I just have to pack whatever I could.

He normally wants his lunches on a glass dish with a rubberized lid. He dislikes plastic especially when reheating stuffs on the microwave. For some reason, he agreed when I offered the Easy Lunchboxes.  My guess?  He must have seen it in his work place too.

Gotta find out who's packing on ELBs. 

For today's lunch, I packed home-made Shanghai Eggrolls cut into halves, brown rice, and bean sprouts. For your information, my eggroll is packed with grated vegetables. I hid it on ground meat & shrimp so no one would even detect it.  And they're crunchy and yummy as ever.

Bon appetit!

~Marie

Last 2 Days: Eggrolls & Pears

It's the last 2 days in school. And the kids can't wait till school is finally over.  My boy woke up a tad late today and didn't feel like going to school at all.  But he didn't want to miss the last week's fun events, so he went anyways.

 I packed one of his favorite meals, eggroll. It's home-made and it's my last batch of what I've made for the month. This is the time that I try to finish up what's left on my pantry/freezer (bento-related) just to make sure nothing would go to waste.  He also had roasted seaweeds, and pears which I took the time to cut it with one of my flower vegetable cutters. 

If you need recipe for my eggroll, you can find it here.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

~Marie~

Chicken Vegetable Eggrolls

Bento Weekly - Round-Up 2

Oct 24 (Monday)

It's the second week of my Bento Weekly.  I thought I would be sending my son to school today with cafeteria meals.  We were so busy with a lot of kids' performances and parties during the weekend, that we failed to shop for this week's pantry supplies.  Anyway, this was what I came up with for Monday.

A salad full of Romaine lettuce, corn kernels, shrimp,
crab flakes & raisins. With a side dish of baked chicken
nuggets and diced plums. I don't know why my shrimps
turned out to be so washed out here, when they
 appear so pink.

I was dreaming about Monday's brown-bag last night.  I have to recall them when I woke up this morning. Ha! That was a nightmare.  But it turned out okay I guess, since I saw a smile on his face when he saw me packed his lunchbox.  I'm glad I still have Mc Donald's BBQ sauce in my fridge.  I sent it with his oven-baked chicken nuggets.

Oct 25 (Tuesday) Picnic Lunch Bento

Herbed beef balls with diced tomatoes,
 carrots with ranch, sliced oranges.

It's this time of the year for the school's picnic lunch again. They will be eating all together on the grass-grounds at exactly noontime.  I thought of sending in something new and satisfying on cold fall weathers like today.  I thought of sending soup, but I'd rather not to avoid spill-accidents.  They're sitting on the ground today, not on chairs.  So I made him herbed beef balls with diced tomatoes on the side.  I covered that diced tomatoes with press & seal, so its juice would stay where it should be.  I did the same thing with the ranch. I also sent him an extra small apple for snack, juice pouch & water.  Then I think I forgot to send him utensils to use.  I guess I would have to drive back just before lunch to make it to him.  That's the life of brown-bagging.  It happens.

Oct 26 (Wednesday)

Chicken Teriyaki strips over steamed rice, strawberry hearts
and banana-cinn muffin for dessert.

I like it when I get special requests coz that saves me the trouble of formulating lunch menus for the following day.  This was our dinner leftover last night.  I guess he really loved it to even repeat it for school lunch.  I forgot to send in ketchup though.  He loves it with ketchup.  Don't ask me why.

Oct 27 (Thursday)

Vege-meat Sushi rolls, egg rolls, red grapes, roasted edamame.
An ideal finger-food bento.

Let's try on that roasted edamame again.  Last time I sent it, it went back almost untouched.  He said he was having a difficult time to shell it.  But after I explained to him that there was neither shelling nor skinning required on my lunch meals, he was determined to try again.  SO I'm keeping my fingers crossed that those edamame would be all gone by the time he's home.

Oct 28 (Friday)

Edamame, meatballs, orange wedges and plums.

This was a combination of bento items of what he had for this entire week.  I also sent in apple slices which I packed it in a Ziploc eliminating as much air as I could to prevent it from browning.  I didn't have a ginger ale or lemon lime soda to soak the apples, so I have to find a way to keep it looking fresh.  So far the week went pretty well.  And I was glad to survive another week of lunch packing.

See you next week!

c",)

Day 2: Vegetable & Shrimp Eggrolls & Corn Kernels

We're teaming up with fellow food bloggers to host a Brown-Bag Challenge, a month-long initiative to eat consciously and save money by packing a lunch each weekday instead of eating out. Join us here and share what you're eating on Facebook andTwitter with the hashtag #brownbag.

What's in your brown bag today?  I was feeling a little bit adventurous on the second day of challenge.  So I tried a different set of meal for my son to school today.  I know that eggrolls with ketchup rice are his absolute favorite, but hasn't tried eating it in school yet.  I know what you're thinking, but it's what makes him eat, so I let him have it.  But he didn't want that to bring it in school. He said it's quite messy to squirt ketchup packets on his rice.  Considering the fact that his classmates might stare at him while he's busy preparing his yummy lunch. So I thought of an alternative to rice.  And I thought of corn kernels. It's perfect because it fills you just the way rice does.   And I'm glad I have 3 bags of it in my freezer. I fried the eggrolls, blotted the excess oil before I even packed it.  I lined the container with paper towels to ensure that the eggrolls stay crunchy, and not soggy. If you have waxpaper, use that instead.  Then I gave him about half a cup of corn kernels with a dash of salt, and a plum for dessert.  Then I stowed a juice pouch and a bottled water in his lunch bag.  Perfect!