Bento Lunch Boxes

I discovered recently, to my shock and horror, that my husband had not been eating lunch at work because he was too busy to go down to the cafeteria in his office building. On top of that, he had been drinking, on average, 5 cups of coffee a day, and was a nervous wreck by the time he got home every night. I even caught him sneaking in a few puffs of cigarettes, a habit that I thought he broke a few years ago, outside our home.

Naturally, I felt horrible about this and wanted to find a way to encourage him to eat lunch with very minimal effort. I decided to invest in a thermal bento box that does not require microwaving. This cost $9, and you can pack a pretty substantial amount in there.

There are some really fancy ways to create bentos, as documented by many blogs, but I'm an amateur at this and I wanted to just start with leftovers and whatever is in the refrigerator.

This morning, I started with a layer of red jasmine rice packed down really tight with a spoon, some baby carrots and a tomato wedge on the side compartment. Then I added some pork that I sliced up really thin, and some stir fried Chinese greens. The content of the lunch was under $2.

Crepes are French Tortillas!

A simple cheap dessert recipe for crepes. But note that this basic crepe can be used for either savory crepes or sweet! I prefer mine with either dulce de leche or nutella and banana.

2 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Combine eggs, milk, flour, oil and salt. Beat until smooth.
2. Grease a medium sized (about 6 inches) skillet with butter. Heat skillet. Remove from heat. Spoon in 4 tablespoons of batter. Lift and tilt skillet to spread the batter until the bottom of the skillet is covered evenly. Return to heat. Brown on one side only (it's important that you don't flip it) and invert onto plate when the up side is no longer gooey. Butter pan occasionally in between crepes. Fill with filler goodness to your liking!

You can store any extras you make in the freezer. Just remember to separate each crepe with waxed paper in an airtight container. Thaw for an hour before eating.

Ramen's Undeserved Stigma

Yes, we all wrinkle our noses when we think of our late nights in college when we resorted to instant ramen noodles for a quick bite. But we have to admit that ramen noodles taste good, and it is really okay to eat it once in a while.

If you really need to watch your sodium, you could trade in the MSG packet for broth or stock that you made yourself. But I personally don't think that MSG is really that terrible for you as long as you don't eat it everyday. I seriously doubt that anyone living in Japan can go through one day without any MSG (it's in almost everything they eat), and yet they generally live longer than Americans.

In fact, there are restaurants in Japan that serve instant ramen noodle soup with different toppings. Here's an interesting article from the Cape Cod Times about a ramen noodle restaurant. http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/LIFE/807160301

So, this is what I just had for lunch. A bowl of ramen noodle soup with a poached egg and some leafy green vegetable, with a sprinkle of sliced scallion. Let's do a cost analysis.

I purchased a 6-pack of Nissin's Top Ramen for $.99 from the soup aisle in the supermarket. I used only 1 pack, making it $.17.

The scallion was $.89 a bunch. I used just a few sprinkles. Let's say, 1/30 of the bunch, making it $.03.

I used one medium egg. $1.99 for a dozen medium white eggs. That's $.17.

Leftover green leafy vegetables. In this case, I used an Asian vegetable called Shanghai choy, which was $1.49 a lb. This is about 1/10 of the 1-lb package. $.15.

My lunch was $0.52. The preparation time was 10 minutes. It was filling, warm, and perfect for a cold winter's day. In terms of calories it's about 500. Not ideal, but still better than McDonald's in nutrition and in price.