Lunch Box Idea: Tuna Pocket

Have you wonder how the pocket in a pita is created? The pocket is created by steam which puffs up the dough and as the bread cools and deflated, a pocket is left in the center. Pita pocket is such a convenient container for all sorts of fillings. I love Peanut Butter Pita Bread which has the creaminess from the peanut butter and crunchiness from the frosted cornflakes which I created in the early days of chowtimes.

Here is a another simple Tuna Pocket recipe that kids will enjoy and is ok for school lunch box as many schools are peanut free zone nowadays.

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Tuna and grape goes well in this simple Tuna Pocket recipe. The coleslaw and lettuce adds crunch to it and made this a complete meal with carbohydrate, protein, fiber and vitamins.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup coleslaw blend
  • 1/2 cup halved seedless red grapes
  • 1/2 cup flaked drained canned tuna in water
  • 2 tablespoons of your preferred dressing, like mayonnaise, kraft calorie-wise Rancher’s choice dressing
  • 1/2 round whole wheat pita
  • leaf or romaine lettuce

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Source: unknown

Yields 1 serving

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Lunch Box Idea: Alphabet Soup

Alphabet-Soup-8Minoo decided to do some lunch box recipes at the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen since it’s the start of another school year. I’m sure many parents are scratching their heads on what to prepare for their kids after the summer break. So, here are some of the ideas. Most of the recipes Minoo selected are adpated from Alive Magazine.

Minoo also shared a few tips from Alive Magazine on school lunch solutions.

  • Plan ahead school lunches over the weekend
  • Get the children involved in the planing, preparation and pick some healthy food of their choice
  • Make the lunch fun to eat like this Alphabet Soup, or lunches that involve squirting, dipping or slurping
  • Make colorful lunch i.e. include vegetables and fruit of different shades of colour

Bear in mind the following when preparing lunch solutions for kids who are growing fast and with high metabolism. Meals should include all food group that include:

  • a source of protein (meat, egg, beans, legume, tofu or seeds)
  • a source of calcium (milk, fortified soy, almond or rice milk, cheese, yogurt or sesame paste)
  • vegetables and fruit especially dark green veggies like broccoli, spinach and orange veggies like carrot, sweet potatoes
  • two serving of grains or bread like pasta, rice, oatmeal, couscous, with whole grain preferred
  • a healthy treat like homemade cookies, muffin or granola

A hot bowl of noodle soup is always welcoming in colder fall days. To make it appealing to kids, alphabet noodle is used here. You can use any other noodles of your preference. Home made soup is much more healthier than store bought ones which are laden with salt. Thermos is the best way to store the soup to keep it hot.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (500ml) hot water plus 2 cups (5000ml) chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 to 125ml) alphabet noodles or your preferred noodles
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 celery stalk, diced
  • 1 small carrot, diced
  • 1 small potato, diced
  • 1/2 cup diced red or yellow bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup green peas or corn
  • salt and pepper to taste

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Source: this recipe is adapted from Alive Magazine #275, September 2005

Serves 4

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Office Potluck — October 2009

At work we have a social committee which is pretty active. They organizes various events to build relationships at work. Some of the events that they organizes very well is the hockey pool and the office potluck.

We do this once every quarter and it is always a success no matter how many times we do it. This is one event that has the most participation of all events.

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The way we do it is to randomly split the office into two groups. Each of the two groups will be contributing to one potluck. So there are two potlucks held on different dates and everyone contributes on one of the potluck but gets to eat on both potlucks.

Everyone can contribute to the potluck by bringing a homemade dish. For anyone who doesn’t want to bring a homemade dish, they can buy them or pay $20 so that the committee can use the money to buy on their part.

At the end of the potluck, the Social Committee will put up an online poll to gather votes for the best of categories.

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My contribution this time is Baked Char Siu Bau. Actually, it was Suanne who made it. You guys know I don’t cook. Suanne makes really moist Char Siu Bau and am glad to say it was one of the favourites. This is not gonna win any prizes this time — that much I can tell you though.

If you want the recipe to this, you can find it here:

I used the dough recipe from here: https://chowtimes.com/2006/03/15/cinnamon-buns/
and the char siu filing from here: https://chowtimes.com/2006/03/28/char-siu-bao-part-1-of-2/
After the buns are made, let rest for 30 minutes and brush with beaten egg (egg wash).
Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown.

After the buns are made, let rest for 30 minutes and brush with beaten egg (egg wash). Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown.

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This dish above looks set to be the winner this time. This is called Russian Sushi!

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I don’t know if this is a made-up name or what. But it sure looked the prettiest.

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This is another pretty unique dish. I wanted so much to try it but when it got to my turn, they were all gone. This is … (more…)

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Office Lunches: Blount Lobster Bisque and Mandarin Orange

OK, home run. This is the last of the series on office lunches … and so glad it is over! After a while, everything is just the same thing over and over again. But still I hope you all enjoyed it.

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Today, I had the Blount Lobster Bisque and a mandarin orange. The container looked big which later I found out that it was not really meant for 1 person. There is enough to easily serve 2-3 people.

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Preparing this is simple. Just pop it into the microwave for 5-6 minutes. (more…)

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Office Lunches: The Boss Restaurant in Metrotown

Fridays had always been a good time to go out for lunch for some reason. Two Fridays ago, I went out for lunch with my friends from my old workplace. I am glad that even after having left the company for more than 2 years now, I am still remembered.

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Since, I am eating out, Suanne just packed grapes and a handful of prawn cracker for me. I still need my snacks.

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The Boss Restaurant is located inside the Metrotown mall. It is located near Zellers in case you want to know where exactly it is in the large mall. The Boss is basically a HK-Style restaurant and is almost always busy.

Wait times could be very lengthy during lunch time and more so since it is a Friday afternoon. We had a total of 12 people and since I was the nearest to the restaurant, I went there earlier to book a table. The wait was 30 minutes which was not too bad.

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We had to split up to two separate tables since it is quite next to impossible to get so many people seated together seeing how busy it was that day. We talked about table setting and that Asians tables normally have a spoon and a fork while for other Canadian restaurants, it is common to have only fork and knife.

Even after so many years in Canada, I still prefer just spoon and fork as it is more practical when it come to rice. I can use a fork for rice but it feels odd to me. Asians normally eat with the spoon and uses the fork to help scoop food onto the spoon.

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On our table we had six people and decided to just order four different dishes to share. The chow mein was served on a hot pan (more…)

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Stouffer’s Smoked Turkey Club Panini, Asian Pear and Cheese on Crackers

Today’s lunch has a cheesy theme to it.

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What I had was an Asian Pear, some cheese on crackers and for the first time ever, Stouffer’s Corner Bistro Panini.

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Of all types of fruits, I love the Asian Pear. I think sometimes this is called the Ya Pear or the Chinese Pear … or even the Korean Pear … or perhaps the Japanese Pear. I think the Asian pear is the most apt name.

One thing that somewhat surprises me is that most white Canadians does not eat this at all. Maybe it’s just my perception from the fact that the few people I talked to about this had NOT eaten this before. This has very high water content and is lightly sweet.

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We came across some bread crisps in the stores that reminded us of the cheese platter we had in Gastropod recently. Suanne gave me some Tillamook Pepperjack cheese (my fav). The moist cheese turned the bread crisp all soggy. (more…)

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