Memorial Day Lunch - Hotdogs! with home-baked bread.

What a lovely day in Ames, Iowa. This morning, I baked cute hot dog buns for lunch. Stan likes to enjoy hot dogs for this holiday. Here is our Memorial Day lunch on our backyard patio.

• Hot dogs with Kosher Franks (Hebrew Nationals) in home-baked buns
• Egg sandwich
• Potato salad with beets and fresh dill
• Cole slaw salad with Thai dressing

No grilling this year. I boiled the Kosher franks with my favorite Chinese pepper corns (two kinds). Healthier, of, course. Also made a "classic Japanese egg sandwich in a hot dog bun."

To make this sandwich, here is a recipe for the filling:

Easy, healthy, and creamy Egg Salad:

• 1 Soft boiled egg
• Light Mayonnaise (as much as you like - for me it was about 1 Tbs)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• a pinch of Sugar
• 1/2 tsp of water (this is the secret ingredient, yes, please try! If you like "hard boiled eggs", increase to 1 tsp per egg)
• Dill (fresh or dry)

Mix all together. Fast way to get your hard boiled eggs ready for a salad or deviled egg dish? Use a whisk! Very fast (no more folk, egg slicer to do this job!).

Here is a recipe for the home-baked hot dog buns. They are soft and delicious. Much better than store-bought ones :-) I baked 8 buns (2 small ones for my princess).

Hot Dog Buns (Koppe Pan in Japanese) makes 6-7 regular size buns
Kosher Parve

• 200g Bread flour
• 50g All purpose flour
• 20 g Sugar
• 4g Salt
• 165cc Unsweetened soy milk
• 20g beat egg (about 1/2 egg - leave the remaining for brushing the top before baking)
• 4 g dry yeast (about 1tsp)
• 30 g Parve margarine

Mix first five ingredients. Warm soy milk in a microwave until warm (be careful not to warm too much - the heat will kill the yeast). Mix the warm soy milk with dry yeast - bubbles will form.

Warm Parve margarine in a microwave just until melts.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients. Kneed about 5-10 min. (by hands or a Mixer) - add melted Parve margarine. Kneed until the dough becomes smooth. Let it rise for about one hour.

Divide the dough in six or seven. Rest the dough for 10 minutes.
Shape them in hot dog buns - let it rise for about 40 minutes. When the dough become double in size, brush the top with the remaining egg.

Bake them in a 350F degree oven for 15-17 miniutes.



Enjoy!


Mext

My First character Bento "Kyara-Ben" in Japanese - Totoro Onigiri

I have been fighting with a bad cold (delaying my posting). Here are some of my creations from last weekend.
I finally did something very Japanese - making character bento "Kyara-Ben" in Japanese. I found a "how-to" on-line cooking site to make Totoro character onigiri (Japanese rice balls).
Used Nori (sea weeds) and sliced cheese to make this onigiri. Two "Makuro Kurosuke" - a character from My Negihbor Totoro movie and Totoro. Oh, yes, I made sure to remove cheese before eating with meat dishes.

I need more practice, but my princess recognized Totoro shape immediately and excited about them :-)


Here is lunch for my princess last Sunday:

• Totoro character onigiri
• Miso soup with tofu and vegetables
• Boiled Kosher franks and broccoli
• Apple sauce for dessert
  

Stan and I had "regular" triangle shaped onigiri for lunch :-)

Here is breakfast from last Sunday:
I had a few slices of bread that began to dry and harden. To hard for toast or sandwich - well, let's make yummy French toasts!
Mix milk, egg, vanilla extract, sugar - soak (yes, soak!) the bread slices (I used my homebaked challah for my princess), and grill on a non-stick pan with low-heat. Cover with my warm banana maple syrup - mmmm, yummy. Golden brown, warm, soft with the egg custard - Stan and the princess loved them!









Here is breakfast from last Saturday:
I wanted to make donuts for my pincess for a long time. I did not buy from a store. I purchased a donut baking pan and made some homemade baked donuts. They are very small - cute!!! There were some leftover donuts batter, so I baked in muffin cups. Ingredients: organic flour, aluminum fee baking power, organic cane sugar, vanilla, eggs, soy milk. Definitely healthier than store-bought ones and tasty! Stan - five, Princess - three! Yummy.







Happy child after yummy breakfast.

Kakesoba Obento and Yaki Onigiri Breakfast

Here are some Obento pictures from yesterday and today.
Stan's Kakesoba Obento:

• Japanese rice balls (onigiri - mini size)
• Boiled egg
• Cantaloupe
• Beets, cucumber salad (Russian salad)
• Kakesoba (instant soba noodle)

I made Yaki (Grilled or Sauteed) Onigiri for breakfast this morning. I got this recipe from Japanese cooking site and arranged a little bit.

1. Japanese steamed rice (cooked)
2. Mushed potato
3. Soft scrambled eggs with broccoli

Mix the three ingredients and make rice balls (onigiri). Melt butter (or Parve margarine) in a pan, grill the onigiri. Add a few drop of soy sauce to make a crisp coating on both sides of the onigiri (takes only 30 seconds to do this). Enjoy!
My princess had THREE of these this morning :-)



Here is Stan's Obento today. A bit of fun on Friday!

• Organic smoked chicken sandwich on wheat breads
• French fries (oven baked) with ketchup in a star-shaped cookie cutter (this way, he can "dip" the fries)
• Boiled broccoli
• Mini tomato
• Sweet potato casserole (I baked in muffin cups, so easy to go into Obento!)

Happy Friday Lunch!

Leftover Yakisoba Obento

In the past few days, I feel like I'm regaining my energy back :-) I am still slow (and moody - sometimes) in the morning, but at least have the energy to pack Obento.

Here is Stan's Obento today.

• Japanese steamed rice with Furikake topping
• Cucumbers and mini-tomato
• Boiled egg (I like when the yolk is still soft and golden)
• Leftover yakisoba (sauteed soba noodle with veggies and beef)

Here is his Obento yesterday.

• Club-sandwich 1: Organic smoked chicken, 2: Sauteed Kosher franks with ketchup and pepper
• Cucumbers
• Cantaloupe melon
• Strawberries

Big smiles from last weekend - every parent thinks his or her child is the cutest thing in the world. Yes, I feel the same for my princess :-)




Happy Lunch!

Bagels, cream cheese, and Lox - Very Jewish Lunch for Shabbat

We were invited by our neighbor for a luncheon. It was nice to meet & catch up with our wonderful neighbors. I brought a tray of bagels, cream cheese, Lox, slices cheese. Well received :-)





Also, baked some healthy muffins made with: non-fat Greek yogurt, silken tofu, sugar, bananas, and flour.



For breakfast - I made some Thick Belgian Waffles!!! Yum! (Kosher Parve)
My family LOVED them.





Ingredients:

• 1 Egg
• 50g Organic sugar (non refined)
• 3 Tbs Parve non-dairy whip cream
• 100g Silken Tofu
• 120g Organic all purpose flour
• 20g Corn starch
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 30g melted Parve margarine

Opps. My princess was not smiling - she was too busy tasting - she ate more than 3/4 of one big waffle!



This morning, we had to say good bye to our dear friends - who graduated and going back to Israel. Mira does not understand the concept of good bye - to her best friend. We will visit them sometime near future. I was emotional and sad, but wish them the very best in their new journey.

Shabbat Shalom.

Chicken Sandwich Obento & Home baked Challah Rolls

It's raining and cold - in the middle of May! The weather is so unpredictable lately.
I can't wait for a nice warm spring weather in Ames.
Today's Obento for Stan:

• Organic Smoked Chicken Sandwich on Ciabatta Roll
• Banana
• Apple
• Tiramisu (from Stomping Ground)

I baked some loaves of Challah last weekend. Took some challah dough to make these Yummy chocolate cream marvel rolls :-)
Stan and the princess love these rolls. Well, she learned the taste of "chocolate" with her favorite challah. Is this a good thing or not? I'm just happy that she loves my home baked goodies :-)



Happy Lunch!

Catching up with the lost month - Obento and more.

It has been for a while since my last post. Let's catch up a little bit.
I found this Obento image in my digital camera - Stan's obento on March 30.

• Japanese steamed rice with Furikake topping
• Cucumbers and steamed sweet potato (star-shaped)
• Baked Kabocha squash
• Homemade meatballs with lean-beef, veggies, and tofu

Here are some pictures from April 2. My princess began to use a pair of chopsticks to eat her favorite breakfast (Japanese steamed rice with soft scrambled eggs "iri-tamago").
She was so proud of herself :-)





Here is our Mother's Day breakfast. When I was making this breakfast, I was hoping - someday near future, my princess and husband will wake up early and fix this breakfast for "me".

• Pancakes "Hot cake" in Japanese - (soy milk, eggs, flour, vanilla extract, sugar, canola oil)
• Organic raspberries and blueberries
• Sauteed banana in organic Maple syrup (1 banana sliced, 1 Tsp Maple syrup, 3 Tsp water, 1/2 tsp corn starch)

My princess loved it!



Here is Stan's Obento today.

• Vegetable tofu curry (leftover)
• Mini-Onigiri (Japanese rice balls wrapped with sea-weeds)
• Cherry tomatos
• Boiled snap peas
• Carrots and sliced squash
• Chicken tenders

Happy Lunch!