Wednesday 28 November 2012

Panda Sandwich



So it looks more like a racoon than a panda, but I didn't hear any complaints :-)

I used fig for the dark circles then bread offcuts & sultanas for detail. Nose is also a sultana & the cheeks are ham off cuts.

A strip of baking paper under the sandwich makes it easier to remove form the container come lunch time.

Love the lunchbox? You can win one! Check out the giveaway on this post.


~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Tiger Sandwich & Lunchbox



Today we had a tiger sandwich (vegemite, with vegemite & off cuts detail) and ham & cheese flowers.


Served in a cute Tiger Lunch box from Omai.

~J


Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Monday 26 November 2012

Self Portrait Snack






 The Bento Blog Network's Bento of the Week's theme this week is Self Portrait. I'm no artist, so this is what I came up with.



A little sweet (choc drops & sultanas), a little bananas, cheesy, nutty & mostly crackers . . . all wrapped in up a square :-D

Voting is open to the public so please drop over on Thursday & vote for my self portrait :-)

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Sunday 25 November 2012

Kambrook Speed Serve Review & Giveaway


I'm in love - there, I said it! I was recently lucky enough to be sent a Kambrook Speed Serve to trial and review and I've been wanting to share about it ever since :-)

It's amazing! I've never owned a food processor although there has been one on my Christmas list for a few years now. The Speed Serve comes with 4 drums (grating, shredding, slicing & potato) and to be honest it hasn't left my bench top for the last three weeks! I've either been slicing or shredding (which is what I would normally call grating. I will call it shredding in this post to save confusion - does that make sense? It is 1am) almost everyday. Yes, admittedly that is partly due to the novelty of being able to shred a zucchini in 17 seconds. . .  and yes, I do have a little helper who get excited with the noise.  . . and yes, it is small enough to fit into one of many nooks & crannies in my kitchen cupboards. . . but seriously, how many times do you slice things as part of your dinner preparations? Hundreds! If not more :-) (well, I do anyway)


The first thing I tried was slicing cucumber (for Melbourne Cup sandwiches). I pulled out my trusty old mandolin slicer and shot off a few pieces (on thin setting), then tried with the Speed Serve to see how they compared. As you can see the Speed Serve did a fantastic job! (Manual slices are the oval ones)
The second thing I had to try out was slicing & shredding cheese. I normally have a block of mild cheddar in the fridge that I slice off daily for snacks. No more! Now I have a box of sliced cheese in my fridge, ready to be served. (A note to the wise - slicing tasty cheese does not work so well. It's a little too crumbly in texture & tends to fall apart.) I also now have a box of shredded cheese rather than the bag I would normally have floating around. While the savings from shredding your own may not be newsworthy (buying from Aldi you're looking at $6.49/kg for a block, or $7.98/kg shredded), the savings from slicing are certainly worth it (again from Aldi sliced is $11.98/kg). Shredding your own also means you get a much nicer texture without the floury residue that most pre-shredded cheese have.


Next on my list of trials was a good Zucchini slice (you can find my recipe here. You know the ones where you spend more time shredding the ingredients than you do mixing & making it? For purely scientific purposes I set a timer for manually grating a zucchini & then timed doing the same task with the Speed Serve. Wow! Ok, so 21 seconds doesn't sound like much, but 3 zucchinis & 2 carrots in I can tell you which method I'll be using in the future! 

Clean up was a little odd, finding a shredded out shell of a zucchini in the machine, but all in all not much waste and no shredded knuckles



While I was at it I thought I'd try shredding an onion. . . this is not recommended.  I ended up with an onion mush rather than onion julienne which is what I was hoping for. I tried the potato attachment as well with onion. . . another don't try this at home moment. Very good if you want minced onion, not so much if you want a little texture left.

Also not recommended is using the slicing function for tomatoes. . . Live & learn :-)

By now I'm looking for things to slice & shred in the kitchen & while packing lunch I think - 'Sure, why wouldn't I be able to slice some of our favourite Pepperoni from Walkerston Country Meats'. . . It worked out well for pizza, but not for nibbles. (You can see some of the sliced mild cheese in the container too)

I gave the mashed potatoes a try too - how could I not after seeing this video. The first time I made them I'd boiled the potatoes, then got caught up with Miss M & they were rather cool (and a bit moist) when I finally got around to processing them. They turned out rubbery and not very pleasant, even after adding butter (which did help a little). Lesson learned, next time I tried I made sure my potatoes were still hot/warm and hadn't been sitting in boiled water for an unreasonable amount of time. OMG! Super quick and so smooth!! I mixed through a little butter, but then stopped. I normally just use butter to lubricate the mashing process, so I moved on to my 'fluffy' step. . .add in a raw egg. Yep, I thought it was crazy the first time my husband let me in on his secret to wonderfully creamy mash, but there you have it. Add a raw egg, but the trick then, is to whisk (with a fork is fine) it in as quickly as you can. The residual heat from the potatoes cooks the eggs & something magical happens to the potatoes. Light & luscious. If you're looking for a way to reduce the fats in your food, this could easily be a help for you.


About this time I began to wonder if I was just trying too hard to find things to use with my new toy, so I decided to have a crack at some of the recipes in the book (since I've prattled on quite a bit already, you'll have to wait until later in the week for the recipes sorry ^-^), but here's a teaser for you anyway. . . .

Carrot cake. . . well, not so much a teaser as you've already seen the finished result in my Frosty post.


And everybody's favourite 'bring-a-dish'. . . Potato bake!

Now the serious part.
Loving:
* Dishwasher safe (or easy hand wash if you're like me)
* Compact - Bench top friendly
* 17 seconds to shred a zucchini!!!
* Slice/Shred/Grate/Mash directly into a bowl or onto food
* Kambrook is a trusted name in Australian household appliances
* The potato mash is heavenly!
* No more shredded knuckles!!

Loving a little less, but liveable:
* Unfortunately this will not be replacing my mandolin slicer. I do like the julienne piece on my mandolin, & this is one attachment that the Speed Serve doesn't have. Another feature of my mandolin is the large slice option which I use for tomatoes amongst other things. I'm not sure that even if an attachment were available that it would work with tomatoes due to the speed of the machine
* The drums are a little bulky & don't easily stack for storage. I have mine in an overhead cupboard right above where my Speed Serve now lives on the bench

Overall:
Did I say I'm in love? I don't think we've ever eaten so much shredded carrot in this house before! What used to be a chore is now a pleasure.

Now, on to the best bit - the giveaway!

The wonderful people at Kambrook are giving you the chance to win one of these fabulous appliances just in time for Christmas (delivery not guaranteed in time, but we'll do our darndest!) All you have to do is follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below to go in the draw!

* As per Terms & Conditions entrants must be subscribed to at least one of Loving Lunches' social media or email updates. You may subscribe to as many as you wish. It is highly recommended that the email address you enter the give-away with matches the email address/ID you follow with, otherwise your entry can be difficult to verify
* If the winner does not reply to claim their prize within two (2) working days, they will forfeit and a new winner chosen
* As we are so close to Christmas, Kambrook are happy for this prize to be transferrable so it can be sent on to family or friends as a gift (We can deliver to all states, but due to legislation NSW residents are not eligible to enter, sorry)
*Full Terms & Conditions can be found here

Note - Open to Australian residents only


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post and no monetary compensation was provided nor offered. This post was written for Loving Lunches & Kambrook Australia who generously provided the prize/s for this competition as well as a complimentary sample for review.  All opinions expressed are my own based on my personal experience with the review item.

Saturday 24 November 2012

Tigers, Pandas & Icepacks. . . .Omai! (Giveaway update)

After the saga of the icepack with the Panda lunchbox I received from Omai I decided to order another one & make sure the icepack went straight in the freeezer before Miss M could get her hands on it . . .  it worked! But then I forgot to take a photo of the lunch I packed for myself in it.

In the base I packed 2 party pies with chocolate moulds full of sauce. In the top I packed yoghurt (in a Tupperware container) topped with passionfruit, some carrot sticks & dip. I froze the ice-pack & popped that on top (between the white-ish lid & the pretty yellow one) as we were walking out the door. 4 hours later & my yohurt was not quite room temperature. Seeing as I did nothing else to help keep the lunchbox cool (it just sat in my work locker until break time) I think it handled quite well. I think if I were to use this for a school box (or anywhere you don't have access to a fridge) I'd either look at alternative ingredients, freezing components of the lunch (like the yoghurt), and/or investing in a cooler bag

On a side note I am super happy to discover that this lunchbox fits perfectly into Miss M's larger (Sistema) box! I normally pack 2 small Tupperware containers in her big box (one with a sandwich, one with 'something else'), but I can see these super cute characters quickly replacing that! As you can see I used the top container as a cutter to create my sandwich (I wanted to do a Tiger, but she wanted a pig) Ham & sultana details. I laid some baking paper under the sandwich to make it easer to remove come lunch time. The top layer has 2-minute noodles with some frozen pea/carrot/corn mix.

Don't forget to enter our competition for one of these super cute animal lunch boxes! All the information can be found in the original review post here

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches & Omai Australia who generously provided the prize/s for the competition and the original Panda lunchbox mentioned in the original review post.

Thursday 22 November 2012

Ham Flowers



I fell in love with ham flowers the first time I saw them. I think they are just so beautiful

*Here I used a flower biscuit cutter with cheese to give me a base.
*fold ham in half, then cut 3/4 of the way through, as you can see in the piece down the bottom. Then you roll the ham (in this case left to right) and secure with cheese spread, or my preferred method - raw spaghetti
*sliced cherry tomato buterfly

I have tried doing cheese flowers with the plastic wrapped cheese I normally use for Miss M's lunch but it tends to break rather than curl.

Don't forget to check out our Omai giveaway in this post

~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Frosty. . .

. . . the Snowman. . . well, not quite. I didn't have any corn-cob pipes & I didn't think a button nose would be particularly tasty, so this is what I came up with instead. . .


I saw a cute little snowman on Pinterest and I thought I just had to give it a try!


I tried with an almond. . .



















(from this angle it almost looks like he's smiling & the choc drops are a beard)

















. . . and I tired with a jelly bean. . .





. . . but I must admit I think I like the baby carrot best :-)

I was planning on saving this for next week but I just couldn't resist sharing!

These little guys are carrot cake (recipe next week) topped with cream cheese icing. Decorated with mini M&Ms, chocolate drops & baby carrots (or almonds, or jelly beans)

Made in my Kambrook doughnut maker but I'm sure they'd be just as cute as cake pops




~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Monday 19 November 2012

Mo-Vember Manwich


Movember is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November. Movember aims to increase early cancer detection, diagnosis and effective treatments, and ultimately reduce the number of preventable deaths. Besides getting an annual check-up, the Movember Foundation encourages men to be aware of any family history of cancer, and to adopt a more healthy lifestyle.

So this little guy was a weekend lunch that I did as a trial for what I could send to day care - I decided this was not practical for a lunchbox, but was cute anyway.




1 slice only of fancy bread (eg Helga's); 'plastic cheese'; circle slice of ham
Made with circle cookie cutter, using crusts for eyebrows & moustache to limit waste
Served on Ikea plate





~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.

Sunday 18 November 2012

Lions & Tigers & Pandas. . . Omai! (Giveaway)

Well, no lions or tigers, but there is a panda in this post. . . and there is a giveaway too!


I was very excited recently to discover another Australian Bento supplier! Omai Australia is a small family business based in NSW and they have recently joined the social media whirlwind. If you are about on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, pop over & share some Loving Lunches love with them :-)

The wonderful people at Omai Australia are giving you the opportunity to win a fabulous lunchbox. How do I know it's fabulous? Well they sent me one to try. . .


Both Miss M & I were both super excited to receive our parcel in the mail. I gave Miss M the pleasure of opening it & she was thrilled to find a lunchbox inside - and even happier to find it was a 'polar bear'. That was soon corrected & she discovered the ice pack which I had to pry from her fingers to take this photo.

The 2 lids are on the left, the 2 bases are on the right. In the centre you can see the elastic band that holds everything together & the ice pack.

Alas the ice pack has been hi-jacked (Miss M had an 'ouchie' that only panda could fix) and is now somewhere very safe. Somewhere even mummy can't find, even after hours of searching *sigh*

I can't read the information on the box, but if anyone can translate I'm happy to post it :-)

I ended up taking this to work a few days this week & was amazed at how much it holds. I was also surprised that I had no spillage and nothing got damp that shouldn't have been. This got me thinking so I decided to do an experiment. I filled the lunchbox up with water, assembled (with strap done between the ears, not Pat Rafter style) & turned it on it's side (over the kitchen sink) Unfortunately it did leak the water. I found that it leaked less when it was held with ears pointing to the ceiling than the other directions (this way was a slow drip whereas ears down was almost a flow). Intrigued, I repeated the experiment with yoghurt - no leaks at all! I even gave it a good shake to ensure there was yoghurt in the 'leakiest' spot & no leak! So if                  
used the top box as a cutter for the pancake = perfect fit
 you are planning on sending something of a water like consistency (eg. salad dressing) I would recommend using a separate container inside the lunchbox, just to be on the safe side.

Loving:
*Comes in 5 cute characters (KittyBearFrogPanda & Pig) so everyone can have the same, but different
* Comes with a shaped icepack (which I sadly didn't get to play with - thanks Miss M)
* Microwave safe
* Fits in the door of the fridge (at my work at least)
* Actually fits in quite a bit of food - more than you would think
same food on a plate
* Easy to open (even for 2.5yr old Miss M)
*You can easily pack a single layer if 2 is too much
* Fairly liquid safe, but I'm not going to say leak proof. (see note above)

Loving a little less, but liveable:
* Parts can go missing (thanks Miss M)
* Difficult for Miss M to put strap back on when done
*doesn't quite fit in my usual 'day out' handbag - a good excuse for a new bag, don't you think?

same food in Tupperware square round, 400mL
Overall I quite like this lunchbox and know it's going to come in very handy. I think it might even get moved to the Mummy cupboard :-) We've already taken it to the park & Miss M's little friends (and their mummies) were quite intrigued by it & keen to see what was inside. Even some of the fussy eaters showed an interest in some things they normally wouldn't look twice at. I actually struggled to fill it the first time I packed it as it holds *so* much!

I had every intention of packing a lunch & then serving it on a plate to show exactly how much this container holds. . . but then I forgot. You can get a fair idea from these pics of breakfast (pancakes with bacon & maple syrup) that I packed in it this morning. Please forgive the 'bitzer' pancake, we ate all bar one of the pancakes so I had to use the pikelets I made for Miss M's snack.




Roly Poly sandwiches
Roly Poly sandwiches and cereal


dried fruit with Sush-ezi ANZACs

mint balls, carrot, dip, yoghurt
salad with cute picks & dressing in a bottle
(picks & sauce bottles available from Omai.com.au)
mint balls, cheese shapes, carrots, cake, yoghurt
salami, cheese, tomato sauce (x2), party pies (x2)

My cake was a little tall for the box


dip, carrot, yoghurt
mashed potato, carrot, chicken, bean




 These Instagram photos were taken at work so you can see how the food travels. All in all no spills and nothing got damp that shouldn't have been :-)

 Lunchbox in the fridge at work

I've been waiting for an excuse to bring out my panda picks & sauce bottle. I had these in my collection already, but by happy coincidence they are part of the Omai range. I have included the links above













**EDIT**
I couldn't resist so I weakened & ordered the 'kitty' box as well. This time I put the ice pack straight in the freezer before Miss M could steal it. Gave it a trial run today & the results are in! I froze the ice pack & packed yoghurt, carrot sticks & dip in the top; party pies & sauce in the base. Ice pack in the lunchbox on our way out the door & 4 hours later my yoghurt was not quite room temperature. I'm satisfied with that, seeing as I did nothing special to keep the lunchbox cool other than put the ice pack in. There are of course options of freezing all or part of the yoghurt & dip/s as well as storing in a cooler bag for those with schools :-)
Kicking myself I forgot to take pics :-S

Now for the fun part!

Simply follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter form below & you will be in it to win it!

* As per Terms & Conditions entrants must be subscribed to at least one of each of Loving Lunches AND Omai Australia's social media (or email updates where applicable). You may subscribe to more than one of these. It is highly recommended that the email address you enter the give-away with matches the email address/ID you follow with, otherwise your entry can be difficult to verify
* If the winner does not reply to claim their prize within two (2) working days, they will forfeit and a new winner chosen
* Full Terms & Conditions can be found here

Note - Open to Australian residents only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches & Omai Australia who generously provided the prize/s for this competition. Full Terms and Conditions available here.

Thursday 15 November 2012

Re-Purpose. . . Chocolate Moulds




I have been eyeing off some of these little silicone cups from the cheap shops for a little while now & finally gave in. My excuse is that they are multi-taskers. . .




Sauce container (without being too big)













Jelly mould (serve on yoghurt here)




(This is what happens when you forget you have jelly in the back of the fridge)





But she ate it all anyway :-)






Frozen yoghurt shapes. . .



(OK I cheated, I used this idea once before. . . you can see my last post about yoghurt shapes here)


Cheesey bite moulds. . This is the first time I've tried this & I must admit I wasn't fussed on the end result, but I did use 3 different sorts of cheese in the one mould so maybe that was my problem. I also melted the cheese in the moulds which meant the fat went all goo-ey on top. . . A good excuse to try again I think :-)

What do you use your silicone moulds for?


~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.
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