A Bowl of Ramen

Happy Father's Day! My niece moved back to California on Friday which has made me sad so I don't want to talk about Father's Day. Let me just say I miss my Father and leave it at that.

I'd like to tell you about the ramen noodle nights this movie inspired at my house over this last week. I got this movie last weekend and watched it on Saturday morning and then again Saturday night with Damian, Brittnee and Kelsey. I liked the movie so much that I had purchased ramen noodles at the Asian market in Medford during my Saturday grocery shopping. My family liked the movie too and was real excited about having ramen noodles for dinner.

Here is my bowl of noodles. I used chicken for the meat and spinach for a vegetable. I made a hard boiled egg and shaped it into a rabbit with one of my bento egg molds. I wish the photo had come out a bit better. I guess it is time for a new camera. This bowl was actually from my Wednesday dinner. Damian has French classes on Wednesdays so the girls and I had ramen noodles again for dinner Wednesday night. My niece Kelsey loves all things Japanese. Sort of like me with China - although I do like Japan a lot too. After all bentos are Japanese and lets not forget ramen!

This is what the package of noodles looks like. The noodles are soft not dried as they are in a cup-of-noodles. In fact I'm not sure I could ever eat a cup-of-noodles ever again after tasting ramen this way.

So if you want to watch a cute little movie - I recommend "The Ramen Girl." It is of course a Chick Flick but hey my husband thought it was cute.

Until Next Time. . . . . . .

Kathleen

Short Bread

I always get many request for my version of Scottish short bread. I make it at Christmas time and give it out as gifts along with home made marshmallows and hot chocolate. One reason I like to make short bread is because of my molds. I usually make it in the winter time.

This is the first mold I ever purchased and I got it from a thrift store years ago. I think I paid $3.99 for it.

Then came this mold and I also purchased this one from the thrift store but I think I paid $4.99 for this one.

This little heart mold I found at Christmas time. I also have a small Santa Clause mold and two Snowmen molds. They are packed away now with all the Christmas stuff.

Kathleen's Scottish Short Bread

2 cubes of butter soften

1/4 cup of sugar

2 cups of flour

Cream sugar and butter with mixer in a medium size bowl. Add flour one cup at a time. Mix until cookie dough texture. Shouldn't take long. I put dough into the mold and smooth out until even. You could form dough into a balls and slightly flatten onto a cookie sheet if you don't have a mold. With this much butter there is no need to grease the pan. Bake at 350 degrees in oven - the mold bakes for 25 minutes but the individual cookies would need to cook until golden around 15 minutes. When I bake in a cookie mold I turn the mold upside down on a plate immediately after cooking. It should release from the mold easily. The first couple of times I left the cookie in the mold and had a difficult time getting it out.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

Shepard's Pie

I couldn't manage to get onto my site last week. The early part of the week was spent nursing a massive headache that kept me home from work for two days. I wanted to finish up some postings regarding my month of getting my meals down. So I'm going to add postings now to round out the month and come back to this later in February for an update.

This was dinner from last Sunday (how sad that I waited so long to post.) My niece Brittnee and her boyfriend Angelo. My Shepard's and Chicken Pot Pie are their favorites. I think it is really the Herbs de Provence that I put in the mix that is the secret ingredient they really love.

My plate which really doesn't look that great but it was really good. You will just have to take my word for it. I baked bread in my bread machine. I use my bread machine at least once a week for the pizza dough for "Friday Night Pizza." I just love the smell of the bread baking but then I don't know many people who don't like that smell.

The small pie on the left I made with ground chicken and the larger pie on the right has hamburger meat in it. For winter I like to make this every other week.

This this the ground beef pie.

The Chicken Shepard's Pie before the mash potatoes.

After I topped with the potatoes but before I put it into the oven. The recipe below goes into a 13"x9" pan like this one. I find the icing spatula works best for spreading the mash potatoes.

Kathleen's take on Shepard's Pie

1 lb of ground beef

1/2 large onion

1 cup of frozen green peas

1 cup of chopped fresh carrots

2 small cans of cream of mushroom soup

4 tablespoons of Herbs de Provence

Salt & Pepper to your taste

Mash potatoes to cover

Brown ground beef with the onion. Drain off any fat after browning. Add 2 tablespoons of Herbs de Provence and salt and pepper to taste. Put mixture into a 13"x9" pan. Meanwhile - put carrots into pot of water and boil until slightly tender but not soft - then turn off heat under pot and add peas to the pot and let it stand for 5-10 mins. Drain carrots and peas and put into your 13" x 9" pan. Add the remaining Herbs de Provence and the two cans of soup making sure that it is well mixed. Top with mash potatoes and bake in oven on 350 degrees for about 45 mins. I often use left over mash potatoes to cover my pies. I think it would be about 4 or 5 large potatoes.

Enjoy - okay so I sort of suck at writing down recipes because although I have a zillion cookbooks I usually cook by smell and sight. I use the cookbook to get the basic recipe and then I always seem to change it.

Until Next Time . . . . .

Kathleen

Update on Breakfast Goals

Here is a little update of breakfast. . . . this is my morning shake I make during the week. I finally figured out how many Weight Watchers points it has and I was happy to discovered it wasn't loaded like I thought. Keeping track of Weight Watcher points seems to be easier for me then counting calories etc.

Kathleen's Morning Shake

1 cup of Frozen Cherries
1/4 cup of lite firm tofu
1 large tablespoon of vanilla Activa yogurt
1 packet of tangerine Emergen-C
1 teaspoon of mostly barley green powder
1 cup of orange juice

Put all ingredients in the blender in the order listed and blend until a smooth liquid. This added up to 4 points.



Until Next Time. . . .

Kathleen

Friday Night is Pizza Night!!

On Friday night my niece and her boyfriend come over to our house and we make home made pizza. We think it is much better than buying it some where. These are two types one with pesto sauce (mine and Damian's favorite) or the regular tomato version.

Here Brittnee is shaping her dough. I make the dough in my bread machine. I just follow a recipe from the booklet that came with the machine. It takes about 50 minutes with the machine set on the Pizza Dough cycle.

We use my marble top island in the kitchen. I put down a little flour and corn meal.

Here Brittnee is dressing up her pizza. I just purchase all different types of toppings and sauce. I would like to get a good pizza sauce recipe - so if you have one please share it with me.

We put the pizzas on parchment paper and bake in the over for 20 minutes on 425 degrees.

I have been focusing on dinners this week. I will make many post this weekend to catch up like I did last weekend. Doesn't seem to be enough time during the week. I admire everyone who can do a post every day.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

The American Bento Box

Here is a new bento bag that I got for Christmas. Well, really my husband purchased me some perfume for Christmas that I was allergic to and I took it back and got this bag. Technically it is still a Christmas present though.

I had actually noticed these bags when I was purchasing my husbands Christmas present at Paddington Station in Ashland. I wanted one then but you know - I was shopping for him so I put it out of my mind even though I went back 4 or 5 times to look at it. I liked this one out of all of them as it seemed like it would hold everything I wanted. It is a Mario Batali bag and this one cost $20.00. Part of the money from the bags helps fight against world hunger. You can find out more at http://www.thelunchboxauction.org/ They had other great ones. One of them looked like a smart black purse. It was $29.00. Even though that was the exact price of the perfume that I had credit for I wasn't sure it would hold as much so - the green bag it was. Maybe I will purchase the black bag when I get my eating down to bird size - Ha! That will never happen.

The green bag accommodates what I like to call my American Bento box. This is a Fit and Trim lunch box that I purchased at a local grocery store. I've also seen them for sale at Target. I think I paid around $7.98 for it. So here is a lunch from last week with my star molded rice. One of the small containers has a lentil Indian sauce and then I put my hummus and carrots in the other small container.

This little ice block keeps the small container away from the rice and keeps the food chilled.

It fits nicely in the bag and I have room for my silverware and napkin.

Until Next Time. . . .

Kathleen

Bento Supply Shopping At Sunrise Asian Food Market

Just the thought of Sunrise Asian Food Market in Eugene Oregon is enough to make me want to move there. There are many things I like about Eugene and Sunrise is one of the top things on the list. I've been known to take the 2-1/2 hour trip north just for shopping at Sunrise and Trader Joe's.

Being true to their name, Sunrise carries food items from all over Asia. Some of the aisles are dominated by foods from a particular region in Asia. Thailand, India, Japan, China and Korea are the ones which readily come to mind.

They also have lots of bento making accessories from food jars, rice makers, dishes and just about anything you could want. My favorite pair of chop sticks in a case were purchased at Sunrise years ago. On my last trip I purchased various rice molds (remember my heart and star rice molds.) Years ago I purchase a mold to make my own California rolls. Which do on occasion usually in the cooler months of the year.

Here are many varieties of the seasoned soybean pockets I stuff with rice for breakfast. They have an impressive produce area. Their deli area has the largest rice cooker I have ever seen in my life. Next time I will make sure to get a picture of that.

Many soybean cakes and various varieties of moochie (not sure if I spelled that right.) The owners of the store are very friendly and helpful. So if you are in the area stop by and tell them I suggested it.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

Bento Lunch

I'm still trying to work out breakfast but this week I am focusing on lunch. Since I'm trying to save a little money and watch what I eat - I've decided to work on Bento Boxes.



This bento box is going to be for salads. I keep the greens on the bottom under the ice ring and my salad dressing in the little container. I put canned Salmon in the little container to the left. The top of the box is where I put my mid-morning snack.

I used a hair band I got from the dollar store to attach my small container of salmon. Then I have Mandarin orange slices and another small container of almonds.

I put the whole thing in this cute bag. My bentos are not that exciting yet. I do want to get into the fancy ones with Eiffel Tower shapes and all but for a start here we go. So please leave me a comment telling me what is your favorite packed lunch. I'm listening as I need lots of ideas to get up to fifteen lunch ideas.

Thank you sister Suzy (she is my sister and not a nun) for signing up to follow my blog. As I suspected my blog must be very dull as I only have one follower. Not that I don't appreciate you Suzy as I do believe me - I really do. You don't have to be a blogger to follow my blog. My sister Suzy doesn't have a blog - not yet anyway.

Until Next Time . . . . .

Kathleen

Breakfast The Meal of Champions

Here is a picture of Sunday breakfast from a couple of weeks ago. I like to make a big deal out of Sunday breakfast and use my Rose Chintz China. I usually listen to opera but on this day it was Easy Listening Chinese Pop music. After breakfast I settle in reading the Sunday Newspaper.

So my goal for the month of January is to get a handle on meals in my house. I don't like feeling lost about what to make for meals. I want to get 15 good lunch and dinner recipes that I can use to plan tasty, healthy meals. With the economy the way it is and with a slight reduction in my pay checks (medical insurance went up at work) I want to be able to make sure I am getting the most all around for my money.

I thought this week I would concentrate on breakfast. I'm not one to eat cold cereal and I don't seem to be able to tolerate oatmeal. I love it - it just doesn't seem to love me. I've been making shakes every morning with frozen fruit, tofu, yogurt, orange juice and vitamins. I want to actually do the math and count the calories etc. just to make sure I'm not over doing it.

I've been exploring other options. I've been reading about what the Japanese eat as they have the longest life span. That is until the start eating like Americans. From what I've read they tend to have miso soup, rice and some meat usually fish. That actually sounds good to me. My sister Suzy and I use to love eating soup for breakfast when we were kids. So my plan for breakfast is to get 3 or 4 things I can alternate with during the week. If any one has suggestions I'm all ears as I would love some input.

So Until Next Time. . . .

Kathleen

Mom said not to play with your food but. . .

A friend of mine at work sent me this link about Bento boxes http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/bento I just think this is the coolest thing. All of the pictures below are from this link. I've been thinking a lot about Bento boxes because....I've got a few pounds to lose (could that be cousin Keith why there are no new pictures of me on this site.) I was thinking how it could help with portion control and make eating fun. Well, now I'm hooked so sorry Mom but I think it is time to play with my food.

I collect Eiffel Towers so this is one of my favorite. This was done by a true artist Sakurako Kitsa check out her site http://sakurakokitsa.blogspot.com/

Green Eggs & Ham - I'm not so sure I would want to eat this but how cute is that!

Snoopy - On our instant message at work I usually have a Snoopy or an Anime Character from Gintama for my picture. I'll tell you a story about meeting Charles Schulz one day. He was my Hero!

This one is for Jeanine - she loves Halloween.

Wouldn't your Star Wars fan love to have this for lunch??

Now this is art people - too beautiful to eat

Look at the bananas - this is actually a container to hold sauces. The little monkey also holds sauces. And look at the tiny Monkey head that is a food pick (in case you were wondering.)

And this one is for my friend Kris - who loves Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty and a Panda

Now wouldn't that make you smile getting this for your Birthday lunch?

Now the bunny on the left is a boiled egg which has been put into a mold (we will get to that later.)

Breakfast Bento Boxes

Yes you can even take breakfast all packed up - I know I do sometimes.

This looks like one my husband would have made.

This little monkey is a sauce pots - isn't it cute. I bet it holds syrup.

Regular Lunch Bentos for the Regular folks like us

So I know what your thinking that all that stuff is cute but lets get real. Well here are some everyday type bento boxes for us regular folks.

Now this doesn't look that difficult to make but think of how it would bring a smile to the face of who ever opened their lunch box to this.

Little bear is also a sauce pot. I could see giving this one to my husband.

Or even this one.

These little hot dogs are great!

Look at the little bottles these are sauces bottles. Yes, I know that you are thinking that I know way too much about this stuff.

Cheetos - see you can put anything in there.

Websites of Knowledge

The website http://lunchinabox.net/ has lots of great information about Bento building such as shaping rice into shapes.

They also have information about how to freeze the rice shapes for faster Bento building.

Tools of the Trade

Lunch in a box has great links for purchasing your tools for the trade. I really enjoyed J-List which I will be purchasing supplies from soon. http://www.jbox.com/

Now this is one box I would love to own.

Food picks.

Sauce containers.

Plastic food cups - to keep foods separated.

Not very green but disposable food cups.

Egg & Food Molds

More sauce containers.

And look at all these tools for Bento

Now this is my sort of organization. I want a box full of stuff like this!

Until Next Time

Kathleen