Samgak Kimbap Lunch Box

Samgak kimbap or triangle kimbap is the Korean version of rice balls.  This is another easy to make lunch box idea for your kids at school.  I used the same recipe as my post in making onigiri.  You can either buy the samgak kimbap seaweed wrap (it came with seaweed in a plastic wrap with sticker) at the Korean store or supermarket (I read that 40 pieces is about $10+) or you can use the ordinary kimbap seaweed and do as what I did below to keep the seaweed dry and crisp (and save some money).  My girl loves the extra hand on approach in wrapping the rice balls herself.  It is like she makes it herself and showing off to her friends at the same time.  :-)
 

Three Seed Bread

I always make our bread from scratch via the bread maker at home.  I am also happy to try out any healthy bread recipe for my family.  Recently, I am into flaxseed and chia seed, so I bought a packet of Bob's Red Mill flaxseed and at the back packet of the flaxseed, it included two recipes and one of it is this Three Seed Bread.  I decided to try this recipe because I have all the ingredients and it sounded great.  This bread indeed turned out delicious and soft and we loved it.  Hence, I decided to share it here with all of you. 

Flaxseed and Chia Seeds Waffles

You know I make my own bread/buns for breakfast right?  Sometimes I will make muffins or waffles as they freezes well.  My old waffle recipes used oatmeal and since I no longer buy oatmeal, I tried out a new recipe here.  I added flax and chia seeds simply because I have some in my pantry.  Next time I would buy the ground flaxseed  instead of  the whole flaxseed since it is easier for our bodies to digest.  (Update: I grounded my flaxseeds using a food processor and store it in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.)

I served my waffle with butter and Malacca palm sugar syrup and it was so delicious.  My girls asked me to make another batch of waffles after we are finished with this because they loved it a lot.  I used chocolate chips for them and raisins for us.

Onigiri Lunch Box

This lunch box is super easy to make since most of us have some leftover rice in the refrigerator or from the night before.  I stock up on pouch tuna when it goes on sales and that comes in handy.  If you have these two main ingredients, you can make onigiri!  Onigiri is Japanese rice balls and you can eat it with a piece of roasted seaweed too.  Korean have their own version and it is called samgak kimbap (triangle rice balls) and it is wrapped in seaweed (will do a post on this later).  Both of these make easy lunch box or picnic food and kids love them.

Samples Lunch Box 2

White rice with stir-fried kailan and braised A1 emperor chicken spices with boneless and skinless chicken thighs

For me, making lunch box for my girl used to be saving money.  But now it is to ensure that she gets a healthy and balance meal.  She used to envy her classmates who get to eat in the cafeteria, but now she loves bringing her lunch box to school as her classmates would come and check on her lunch box (they are curious) and say things like it looks good, it smells great, oh are you eating spring rolls, that's the best thing ever, some even want to exchange her lunch box.  She gets compliments on her lunch box and I guess that changed her attitude towards it.  I do let her eat in the cafeteria when they are serving special meal such as Thanksgiving meal and Christmas special.

Bibim Naengmyun (Spicy Mixed Cold Noodle)

Bibim naengmyun or Korean mixed spicy cold noodle is so economical to cook at home.  Furthermore, we can add whatever ingredients we like.  The one sold in the restaurant mostly has cucumber, radish and boiled egg and they charge $9 for a bowl.  I would rather spend my $9 on some chicken/meat and side dishes.  A plus is this cold noodle dish is so easy to make and I calculated the cost to be less than $6 for 2 bowls.

If you have a craving for spicy mixed cold noodle, why not make it yourself?  One thing though, you got to be able to take the heat, as this is a SPICY noodle dish.  Those that cannot take spicy food, can try the naengmyeon, is a cold noodle dish serves in cold radish kimchi broth or clear beef broth (with crushed ice), suitable for hot summer days.

Chinese Watercress Soup

I made this soup occasionally so I thought I had posted the recipe in my blog, but when I went to search for it, I couldn't find it.  Only then I realized I haven't posted the recipe.  So, I shared it here for my record so that next time if my girls want to make it, they would know where to look for the recipe.

The health benefit of watercress is plenty and it has been dated since ancient time.  It is high in calcium, iron, Vitamin C, beta-carotene, folic acid, potassium, phosphorous and rich in fiber, iodine and anti-oxidants.  You can read more about it here.  It is also a cooling food for Chinese.

Black Porridge Dessert

According to the Chinese, black food is a golden food for the kidney.  And taking care of your kidney is very important as it can reverse aging and makes you look vibrant and younger.  A good kidney can erase the sign of aging, black spots and blemishes on your face, and even turn white hair into black hair.  If you maintain a strong healthy kidney, you will have strong bone and bone marrow, articulate, hear well, clear face and jet black hair. Other black foods that need to be noted are black fungus, black mushroom, kelp, seaweed, fermented black beans, black chicken, black lentils, blackberries, black grapes and etc.  Are you impressed?

So, I made a quick and fuss free black porridge for us, using a slow cooker (the idea came from a Chinese source).  I finally found another way to enjoy some black beans besides cooking it in soup.  Since this is sweet, it is enjoy by everyone, even my girls loved it.  Not only this is delicious, fuss free to cook but also extremely healthy.  For the real benefit, it was recommended to have a bowl everyday and you will see result in week 3 +.  I am not sure whether I want to eat it every day though, but probably once a week (good enough for 3 days) as I do cook with black sesame seeds, seaweed, mushroom and black fungus often during the week.

All ingredients can be found at the Asian supermarkets except walnuts.  If you don't see the black slab sugar, feel free to buy the brown slab sugar.  Dried lily bulbs can be found at the herbal aisle in the Asian store.

Samples of Evy's Lunch Boxes

Kimchi Fried Rice with Roasted Seaweed to wrap the rice

Turmeric Brown Rice with Stir-Fried Spinach and Chicken with Wood Ear Fungus and Tofu Knot

Turkey Meatballs Spaghetti

An easy dinner with the baked turkey meatballs that I made earlier.  I liked the whole wheat angel hair pasta because it cooked fairly quickly.  Since this was a quick and easy dinner, I used the Target brand traditional spaghetti sauce, added some chopped red onion and button mushrooms and lastly some spinach to make it more nutrition.

If you look closely, you can see a dollop amount of red chili paste on top of my pasta.  That was my extremely spicy chili paste (that's why a small amount was sufficient) to increase the appetite of this dish.  If you haven't tried eating it this way, try it next time, it's really delicious (given that you can take the heat to begin with).

Vietnamese Shrimps Spring Rolls

I think I wrote about the Vietnamese spring rolls or summer rolls before but never really provided the method of making it.  Since I make this quite often now and have been playing with variety of fillings, I am definitely getting better.  I will show you a picture of my ingredients and guide you along in my next page (if you are a newbie of course).  As for my ever popular peanut hoisin dipping sauce, you can get the recipe here.  I have perfected the recipe, so you don't have to go else where for the recipe, just get it here!

This is definitely an appetizer or snack or lunch (it's great for picnic too) that you can make ahead of time.  It also becomes one of the food that I prepare for Evy's school lunchbox.  I cut the veggie, par-boil the vermicelli and shrimps and make the hoisin peanut sauce the night before.  Then, on the next day, I just have to wrap it with a rice paper and enclose it with a cling wrap individually (so that it won't dry out and easier for her to eat) .  I also pack a small container of peanut sauce for her to dip.

Green Cabbage Kimchi

This green cabbage kimchi came about because I haven't been to the Asian market for a while and I was so out of napa cabbage or any Asian greens for that matter.  I am not even a Korean but I just had to have a big jar of kimchi in my refrigerator these days.  I used to dislike kimchi because of its pungent smell and taste, but while reading about the benefits of probiotic and kimchi, slowly I became to like kimchi especially the homemade ones as I can adjust the taste according to my liking (mostly towards a sweeter taste).

After it is fermented, it doesn't taste much different from the napa cabbage kimchi, except perhaps crisper.  Loved it in the instant ramen and the soup was just sourish delicious!  Read that there is a lot of probiotic in the juice of the kimchi so don't throw it away. Besides the beneficial bacteria for your gut, kimchi is also a great source of beta-carotene, calcium, iron and Vitamins A, C, B1 and B2.

Salad for Lunch

Our lazy and healthy lunch (minus the fried chicken tender)!  These days when I made my Asian Peanut Sesame Salad Dressing, I would double the recipe and keep it in a glass bottle in the refrigerator.  Then, I would pack the salad with dressing on the side for Evy to bring to her school for lunch.  Edda and I would eat that for lunch as well and that's the best way for us to have some raw food into our diet.  As in our Chinese culture, we hardly consume any raw food, it has to be quickly blanch in hot water or in a quick stir-fry.

For this salad, I was trying to incorporate as much nutrients as possible so I added fruit (banana, dried cranberries), seeds and nuts.  Not to forget the cilantro (can remove toxic chemicals from the body).  I forgot to add tomato and Hijiki seaweed.  I finally thought of another way to eat the Hijiki seaweed but on that day itself I forgot to use it.

Brown Rice Kimbap/Gimbap (Korean Rice Rolls)

I am loving kimbap/gimbap because you can basically put everything you desired as fillings.  I loved to make kimbap using my leftover turmeric barley brown rice (hence the yellow color) or brown rice .  These days, I would keep some nori seaweed wrapper in my pantry so that when I feel like making some kimbap, I can.  I made the above for my girl's school lunch, she loved eating it and there was no mess.  I would make another for Edda as well when she comes home from school. 

Close up of my fillings above:  Fried eggs, imitation crab meat, spicy tuna, carrot, pickled radish and blanched bean sprouts (I wish I have some cucumber though for extra crunch).  The filling is very versatile, if you can think it, you can make it.  In fact, I like to make kimbap using leftover. 

This would make a great picnic lunch as well.  I can't wait for summer to arrive so that I can go picnic with my girls.  Well, if the weather turns nice like in the 70s, that's a good reason to go picnic, doesn't have to wait until summer. :-P