Besides prawn fritters, prawn omelette, you can also make a prawn stir-fry for your lunchbox!  This is cooked in a blend of Asian sauces, and it has a slightly sweet taste which goes really well with the onions.

Ingredients (Serves 3 adults):

• 10 medium prawns
• 1 red onion, sliced
• Cooking oil

Ingredients for Asian dark sauce:

• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/3 teaspoon pepper
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons water

Instructions:

Step 1:  Wash the prawns, trim off the feelers and legs, but keep the shell intact.  Pat dry with a paper towel and set aside.

Step 2:  Put all the ingredients for the Asian dark sauce in a separate bowl.  Blend well.  It is easier to prepare this in advance.

Step 3:  Heat up a wok or pan with oil to fry the prawns.  When cooked, remove them and set aside on another paper towel to drain the oil.

Step 4:  Leave about 2 tablespoons of oil in the wok or pan for the stir-fry.  Add in onion slices.  Saute them till they are soft.

Step 5:  Transfer the prawns back in the wok or pan and add in the blended Asian dark sauce.  Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes till the sauces are absorbed and coated evenly on each prawn.  If you think the sauce is too thick, add in 1-2 tablespoons of water.  It’s now ready to serve.

I kept a portion for Hubby’s lunchbox.  How does it look?  Try it if you have the time!

This is a no-frills recipe, and is very easy to follow.  If you like the aromatic blend of garlic and olive oil, you would probably enjoy the taste.  If you are cooking for your kids, you may want to add some sausages and ham to go along with the spaghetti in case they think it looks quite plain.

Instructions (Serves 3 adults):

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons garlic, chopped finely
• 300 g spaghetti
• 3 tablespoons fresh or dried english parsley flakes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• Juice from half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  Boil water in a stockpot enough to cook the spaghetti.  When water boils, add a pinch of salt and drizzle a teaspoon of olive oil.

Step 2:  Put in the spaghetti and cook for about 7 to 8 minutes till al dente.  You can taste a strand of spaghetti to check on it.  If you prefer them softer, leave it for another minute or so.

Step 3:  Remove the cooked spaghetti and place them in a colander to drain of excess water.

Step 4:  Heat up the rest of the olive oil in a pan.  When oil is hot, add the chopped garlic.  Stir fry till garlic is fragrant.

Step 5:  Transfer the cooked spaghetti back into the pan.  Toss spaghetti with garlic till well blended.

Step 6:  Add lemon juice, salt, parsley flakes and ground black pepper.  Mix well.  Serve.

This is my simple and satisfying lunch.

Another all-in-one lunch box idea for the lazy you (and me).  I hope you like it!

Well, for these bread rolls, you probably have to make them the day before as it will take a few hours to complete.  But it is a very fun activity that you can involve your kids as well.  Allow them to design the bread rolls the way they like them to be and I sure they will look forward having their own masterpiece in their lunch box the next day!

Even me, the “old” kid, had so much fun.  My mum and I moulded the dough into different shapes just to see how it would turn out after baking.  I even created one “uniquely shaped” bread roll (see it below) specially for Hubby.

Ingredients (for sweet bread dough):

Part A

• 480 g bread flour
• 120 g plain flour
• 110 g sugar
• 10 g fine salt
• 20 g milk powder (can be substituted with bread flour)
• 4 teaspoons instant yeast

Part B

• 1 egg
• 300 ml cold water

Part C

• 60 g butter

Ingredients (filling for sweet bread roll)

• About 400 g of luncheon meat, cut into smaller pieces

Instructions:

Step 1:  Mix Part A ingredients in a mixing bowl till they are well blended.

Step 2:  Add Part B ingredients and knead to form a dough.

Step 3:  Add Part C butter and continue to knead until the dough looks smooth and elastic.  Cover dough with a clear film.  Let it prove for 50-60 minutes or until it doubles its size.

To check if the dough is ready, test by pressing a finger on it lightly.  If the dough does not sink but shows a clear finger print mark, you can proceed to the next stage of separating them into individual portions.

Step 4:  Divide the dough into 60 g portions.  Shape them into balls and leave them to rest for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, you can prepare the luncheon meat filling.

Step 5:  Now the fun begins!  You can make the bread roll according to your liking.  The easiest way is to wrap the luncheon meat in the dough completely, or you can elongate the dough and coil them around the luncheon meat.

See what I did for the first tray?  I made a round one, an oval one, a “pillow” shaped one, and one that resembled a croissant.

Step 6:  Brush the surface of each bread roll with a little egg wash (egg yolk+water) and bake at 190 deg Celcius for 12 minutes.

Does my first tray of sweet bread rolls with luncheon meat look good?

I can’t describe to you in the picture, but the smell of freshly baked bread is just heavenly!

Besides luncheon meat, you can also vary the fillings for the bread roll.  Think of tuna?  Ham?  Raisins?  It’s up to your family’s preference!

For lunch box meals, just pack these sweet bread rolls in a normal bento box with a salad or some fruits at the side.  It’s a lighter meal, and an interesting alternative to noodles or rice.

Well, we made about 17 sweet bread rolls in total for this batch.  And this is the “masterpiece” I mentioned above that I gave to Hubby.  Can you make out what it resembles?  (Clue:  We usually call it a pile of …)

We both had a good laugh and he really ate it for breakfast next morning.  LOL.

Hope you like this recipe and have fun making your own home-made bread roll!

We introduced black pepper to this recipe as it adds a new taste to the dish.  If you have kids who cannot take the spiciness, just cut down on the pepper part.  With the rest of the seasoning, it is still delicious!

Ingredients (Serves 3 adults):

• 2 packets of (200 g) udon
• 4 imitation crab sticks, cut half and peeled into thin strips
• 2 small fish cake, cut into thin strips (optional, if it is not available)
• 1 small bok choy, washed and cut into smaller pieces
• 3 dried or fresh shitake mushroom, trimmed of caps and cut into strips
• 1 packet (100 g) enoki mushrooms, trimmed of ends, cut into half and peeled into individual strips
• 1 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Water, about half cup

Seasoning:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoon black pepper (adjust according to your preference)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  Boil some water in a stockpot.  Cook the udon noodles.  Drain and set aside.

Step 2:  Heat up a wok or pan with olive oil.  Add minced garlic when oil is hot.

Step 3:  When garlic starts to brown, add in the ingredients (imitation crab stick, fish cake, mushrooms and bok choy) and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.  Add half a cup of water and allow the ingredients to simmer for another minute.

If you notice, this whole wok are just the cooked ingredients.  See the mushroom and red imitation crab stick strips?  We like our udon with lots of ingredients!

Step 4:  Add the udon noodles into the cooked ingredients.  Blend well.

Step 5:  Add the list of seasoning next, one by one.  Stir-fry the udon noodles till all the ingredients are mixed evenly.

Finally, our completed wok of stir-fried black pepper udon.  Don’t you think the udon look a little like squid tentacles?  LOL.

Time to eat!

I set a portion aside for Hubby’s lunchbox too.  For this type of meal, I usually use a microwave-safe bento box so that Hubby can heat it up again during lunch.

This udon recipe is really easy to cook and makes a great lunchbox idea for kids and adults.  It is convenient to pack too as it is an all-in-one dish like fried rice.

By the way, don’t you think all-in-one meal ideas are like a godsend on the days we feel really lazy or under the weather?  I am often guilty of this, so I bet I will be sharing more all-in-one meals to come.  Haha.

I love it so much still that every time we cook this, I can finish two portions.  LOL.

I also found out that almost every kid who tried this dish liked it very much as well.  It is not only colorful, but it’s healthy, tasty and filling.  If you have kids who are fussy eaters, try cooking this once and see if they like it.  Perhaps, they will ask you to cook it again the next day!

Ingredients (Serves 4 to 5 adults):

• 1 medium carrot, diced into 1 cm cubes
• 2 regular sized potatoes, diced into 1 cm cubes
• About 170 g luncheon meat, diced into 1 cm cubes
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional)
• Ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 5 tablespoons cooking oil
• 3 tablespoons water

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1:  Heat up 4 tablespoons cooking oil in a fry pan.  Deep fry the potato cubes, carrot cubes and luncheon meat cubes respectively.  Remove and set aside after they are cooked.

Step 2:  Heat up 1 tablespoon cooking oil.  Add the minced garlic.  When it is turning golden brown, add in the red onion slices.  Stir-fry for 1 minute till onion slices are soft and starting to brown too.

Step 3:  Put in the deep fried potato, carrot and luncheon meat cubes prepared earlier.  Add 3 tablespoons water.

Step 4:  Add the sugar, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce (optional).  Stir-fry for another minute, ensuring the ingredients are blended nicely.

Step 5:  Add a dash of ground pepper.  Stir-fry a few more times to mix well.

This is how it looks after it is completed.

It’s a well-balanced lunchbox dish as it is made up of a meat, vegetable and potato combo.  I recommend you to eat it with plain white rice.  Yummy.

It is good enough for me as a one-dish meal, but with another vegetable dish, my lunch box will be perfect.

Sometimes, home-cooked comfort food taste best, don’t you agree?

PS:  I am infatuated with luncheon meat, so there will be more luncheon meat recipes to come.  Hehe.

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?