I had put this on hold for the longest time, thinking that it was going to be quite a hassle just like my other blogs (it was a nightmare when I upgraded them from WP 2.5 to WP 2.7). In actual fact, all it took was a couple of clicks and it’s done!

If you are still procrastinating like me, don’t worry about upgrading as long as you have at least WP 2.8 installed. I did it in a breeze and am glad that I have finally got rid of the yellow irritating reminder. Haha.

This is what you would probably see:

Step 1: Click the yellow reminder at the top of your dashboard.

Step 2:  Click Upgrade Automatically.  You can backup your database and files first beforehand as a good practice.  But I was too lazy to do so. 

Step 3:  In just a few seconds, it is done and you can now update your plugins too.

How much time did that take me?  ONE minute.

Yes, unbelievable huh?  I love WP 2.8!

Yeah, although it’s only a teeny-weeny PR1,  LOL,  but it’s a big mile-stone for my dear blog after a few months’ of writing.

I would like to apologize for the lapse in posts recently though.  It’s because I have not been able to spend as much time blogging like before when I first started out as I am currently very busy with a course.  I don’t cook as often right now, but yesterday, I made steamed egg cakes and they tasted great!  Will be posting the recipe right after this.  Stay tuned.

Actually, it is like a fruit salad too if you notice!

Ingredients of our Fruit Yu Sheng (Serves about 10-12 adults):

• 1/4 honeydew
• 1/4 rockmelon
• 2 chinese pears
• 8-10 strawberries
• 1 mango
• 1/4 pomelo (or 1 orange)

Ingredients for sauce marinade and garnishing:

• Juice from 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons lemon sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• A pack of Chinese shrimp crackers (or 1 cup of plain cornflakes)
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, preferably toasted
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped finely

Preparations:

Step 1:  Peel and cut the fruits into thin strips about 3 inches long.  For pomelo (or orange), peel and divide them into smaller sacs.  Place each type of shredded fruit on a round shallow plate side by side to make a nice colorful platter.

Step 2:  Sprinkle the crackers, chopped peanuts and toasted sesame seeds on the fruits.

Step 3:  Mix lemon sauce, lemon juice and honey in a small bowl.  Taste.  If you like it sweeter, add more honey.

Step 4:  Drizzle this sauce marinade from Step 3 evenly over the platter.  This is how it should look (or close enough).

Before eating, just toss the ingredients evenly.

Basically this Yu Sheng recipe is made up of fruits, so you can add any type of fruits to the list, but I will advise choosing fruits that are not too soft yet sweet to make the dish taste better.

I hope you like it!

You know why?  I have been eating non-stop for the past three days.

On Friday, we had a buffet dinner at our holiday chalet.  I think it was 8 courses, including drinks.

On Saturday, we had a BBQ feast at the chalet too.  We had crabs, satay, kebabs, fish, sotong, prawns, sausages, etc.  BURP…Can you imagine how much I ate?  Haha.

On Sunday, my cousin hosted a buffet lunch at her house.  Another 8 course meal to stomach.

I think it’s time I detox a bit this week.  Perhaps I will think of some light meals to make.  But before that, I have a prawn recipe to share.  It’s really late now though, maybe tomorrow!

I have been really busy since yesterday’s night reunion dinner and it’s 2 am now.  Dozing off soon…

So this post is going to be  short and sweet.  Just want to show you how proud we are of our home-made Yu Sheng (Lo Hei) last night.  In fact, we are going to make it again tomorrow when my aunties and uncles come to visit.  Hehe.

This Yu Sheng is really special as it is made up totally from fruits instead of the usual ingredients.  My mum learnt it from a TV program and I have yet to find out she does it.  If you are keen to know, I’ll ask her for the recipe.  I’m sure she will be glad to share.

Well, for my other friends who don’t understand what Yu Sheng is all about, this is a short explanation I got from Wikipedia.

This dish is served as an appetizer to raise ‘good luck’ for Chinese New Year.  In a celebration known as “lo hei” (families and friends gather around the table and, on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying auspicious words out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year and it’s customary that the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes!

Typical ingredients include: fresh salmon, daikon (white radish), carrot, red pepper (capsicum), ginger, daun limau nipis (lime tree leaves), Chinese parsley, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, Chinese shrimp crackers (or fried dried shrimp), five spice powder. The dressing is made primarily from plum sauce.

We have to toss it really high before we can eat it.  Hehe.  Does it look fun to you?

I am trying to keep up with the spring-cleaning.  And I have so far completed only 10% of it.  Haha.

I am trying to keep up with the cooking.  But who feels like cooking when my body “screams” of resting after all that spring-cleaning?

I am trying to keep up with the posts for this blog.  But I may run out of photos to share if I stop cooking for a while.

Hmm.  I wished I was a super woman!  But I don’t have 48 hours to spare, so I can only make the best out of what I have.  LOL.

Sorry, I would like to apologise first  if you see me lesser next week as I try to juggle my work.

Actually I still have two recipes pending and I hope to share them with you really soon.

Catch ya!

Well, I realized I have been MIA-ed (missing in action, LOL) for a couple of days, sorry!

For the last three days, we were often not at home, thus I could not find the time to write, although I have a few recipes waiting to be shared on this blog.

I have also been thinking lately about my directions for this blog in 2009.  Would you like to hear them?  Well, I hope this blog will continue to grow in content.  I hope this blog can become a good source of reference to my readers who are on the lookout for more lunchbox recipe ideas to cook for their loved ones.  I would also like to achieve my target of writing a post every alternate day.  I also hope that this blog can reach an Alexa rank below one million and probably get some page rank love from Google by summer time.  Hmm.  Do you think it is possible?

Well, the most recent milestone I have taken for this blog is to join Foodbuzz.  See that badge on the top right corner of this blog?  This is in recognition that easylunchboxrecipes.com has been accepted as a Foodbuzz featured publisher!  I have heard great things about Foodbuzz from other foodie bloggers and I am excited at the thought of making more foodie friends there.  Connecting with others of the same interest can also widen my pool of ideas and provide me with more inspiration in the dishes I continue to whip up for this blog.

The second milestone is the opening of my Lunch Box Store.  See the “Lunch Box Store” tab at the very top of the blog, beside the “Home” and “About” tab?  This is where I showcase the most popular lunch box merchandise, be it bento boxes, lunch jars, thermos jars, lunch bags and everything else related to lunch boxes.

Personally, I favour Japanese brands for their lunch boxes, so if you are looking for a good thermos food jar, I do highly recommend the Zojirushi Stainless Steel ones.  These are really worth every cent that you pay.

Alright, I will be back with the next recipe “Stir-Fried Black Pepper Udon Noodles” very soon.  This recipe got a big thumbs up from everyone who tried it, so do stay with me if you are keen to cook some udon!

I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas!  May abundant blessings be with you and your family.

How’s the partying so far for you?

I am feeling a little lazy to blog these two days.  Hehe.

It must be all the food that I am binging on that’s making me so sluggish.  Zzzz.

But I thought I would pop by and write this really short post before I go out for a walk to freshen myself up and try to lose those extra flab I have gained this week.  LOL.  Can’t bear to see myself in the mirror anymore these days.

Hope you have fun this holidays!  I’ll be back to share more recipes here very soon.

Enjoy!

Initially, I created categories according to cuisine types, like asian, french, korean, etc, for my first WordPress theme.  But after settling for this theme, I don’t think it will fit nicely in the category tab I have at my header if I were to expand my ever-growing list of cuisines in the long run.

Thus, I have now classified them according to meal types.  I hope to explain a bit more in this post on what they will usually include so that you will find it easier to navigate.

Light Meals:  Most probably I will include recipes for meals like sandwiches, bread, toasts, crepes, pancakes, pitas, muffins, etc.  Anything that looks light enough.

All-In-One Meals:  The recipes I will add here will be those like fried rice, fried noodles, spaghetti, etc.  These are mainly cooked with their ingredients together and served all on the same dish.  So if you are a lazy cook, I will recommend you checking out this category more often.  Haha.

Main Course:  This category will feature recipes of different cuisines that can be taken as a single main course.  These dishes are usually served on their own with another staple, like rice.

Soup:  This is for all soup recipes, from Chinese double boiled soups, to creamy tomato soups.  Somtimes, these soups can also serve as all-in-one dishes, where all you need is just bread or rice to go along with it.

Food Containers:  Every now and then, I may share about different food containers you can use for your lunch box.  There may also be interesting product showcases from time to time.

Chit Chat:  This is where I talk about anything under the sun.  Basically a place to rant and chit-chat with you!

These are the categories I will be adding at the moment.  I am trying to keep them at a maximum of eight so that my header will not look so cluttered.

I hope this change makes it easier for you to read my blog.  If you have problems finding anything, just let me know and I will work on your feedback if possible.

Thank you.  Feel free to subscribe to my feeds for easy updates!

Lunch boxes, to me, do mean three things…

1)  Lunch boxes are meals of love, especially if they are prepared by someone whom you love too

When I was in my first year of school, my mum will prepare peanut butter sandwiches for me daily.  She was worried that I may not know how to get the food from the canteen as I was still very young and new to the school.  Sometimes I even protested bringing my lunch box when I saw my friends having the choice to buy what they like to eat everyday.  Of course as I got older, I had more freedom but it was also then that I understand that it is because she was greatly concerned about me going hungry.  Isn’t that a form of love?

Sometimes, I do see male colleagues bringing their own food for lunch.  We will jokingly tease each other “So, eating a meal filled with love today?”  Well, it is true in a certain way.  Their wives have taken the effort to prepare these meals, cooking and packing the food nicely in the lunchbox.  Isn’t that a display of affections too?

2)  Lunch boxes are often healthier than food you buy outside

You have a say in what goes into your lunch box as compared to what you get when you dine outside.  If you do not like MSG (monosodium glutamate) in your food, you can substitute it with natural flavouring.  If you do not like too much oil, you can control the amount you put while cooking.  It’s up to you to create variety in your lunch box.  Beats eating the same food outside everyday right?

3)  Lunch boxes = you spend less during lunch = more $$ at the end of the month

Not everyone thinks this way though.  Most people see lunch as a time where they can socialize and mingle with their co-workers, so they feel that spending on a $10 lunch is worth the money as compared to bringing a lunch box which may only cost them a third.  Sometimes bringing a lunch box might also give others the wrong idea that you are being anti-social.

Well, you don’t have to do it everyday, probably two days out of five days is sufficient to save you some money that can go to the groceries or bills.  A penny saved goes a long way, especially in times like this, where a global recession is looming in the skies.  If the whole family brings their own lunch boxes to work, the potential savings could actually look quite substantial!

So are you a lunch box lover or hater?  There are people who think it is lame to bring lunch boxes and they will never want to be seen with it.  But you will be amazed that there are people who can’t do without their lunch boxes as well!

Where do you stand?