Berkeley Bowl Lunch

This was a beautiful lunch. I mean, I am aware it’s totally blurry in the picture, but it was a thing of beauty. Spicy tuna, a little bit of lettuce, crisp cucumber, and the avocado. There was rice at the bottom of the bowl. I mixed my wasabi with some soy and poured it over and it was incredible.  I’m not capable of producing something like this at home — so I’m very glad that our local grocery store (which is called The Berkeley Bowl) has it in its prepared foods case, and it is so fresh and delicious.

Tiffin Tin Lunch: Pasta & Cherries

Although it is not insulated beyond the natural insulation stainless steel provides, this is my favorite tin. It holds a lot and it is very attractive in its neat way. The water bottle comes from lululemon, which is hard to type but not hard to find in my neighborhood, because it’s in a HUGE story across the street from Cafe Roma in Berkeley, on the corner of Ashby and College, which is ground zero for a lot of good things.

What’s inside? This:

Whole wheat angel hair pasta, a little good olive oil and cracked pepper and some sauce from the jar with parmesan on top. The work of the moment. The greatest part of this lunch though is that it’s cherry season. Eat up!

Oh, Oh, Oh!

This summer, I acquired the most wonderful bento. It’s made by those masters of all things bento, Zojirushi, and I just happened to see it in a little shop on Vashon Island, in Washington State, when I was visiting my friend Karen. Here’s what’s inside:

I took these pictures with my phone’s camera, and god or someone divine must be living inside that phone, or why else would top of the bento be lit up with that celestial light? Let’s hope I can think of some heavenly things to put inside. And I’d also like to point out that the largest container is insulated — it’s metal, and there’s a nifty little plastic jar inside. None of these three containers is very large — they’re perfectly lady-like, perfectly delicate portion sizes. If you want more, get two! No one should ever, ever go hungry around here.

Schooltime!

Oh, how I have missed putting things in the laptop lunchbox. This lunch went out the door a few days ago, but involved a blueberry reminder of summer, some Straus Family nonfat vanilla yogurt to dip the blueberries in, dried mango, and a turkey sandwich on the world’s best baguette, from Berkeley’s own Acme Bakery. It was for Tiniest Tiffin, who is actually not that tiny at all, being a third grader.

So here are some upcoming things:

• the Berkeley School Lunch Initiative — I’m getting ready to check out what’s up with the new buffet style lunches
• Some stuff about feeding pre-teens and hungry third graders,
• Orange food.  Halloween is coming.  Last year, we made easy cupcakes.  Last year, at Halloween time, I was not my total healthiest.  This year I am feeling way better, and stronger, and might do something so spectacularly  orange that it will be spoken about in my family for generations.  Or we might just make cupcakes again.
• Plus, I have got to show you my new bento box thing.  It is so utterly beautiful.  And also, my own lunches are much easier to photograph, because in the morning I’m just way too bleary-eyed to photograph my children’s.

So welcome back to lunch! It’s going to be such a fabulous year.

Fruit and Yogurt on the Open Market

Here it is then, the lunch to follow up the lunch that got dissed by the kid who hates Valentine’s Day, the kid who told Tiniest Tiffin his heart napkin sucked.

The mighty Tiniest Tiffin’s response: TWO heart napkins. Take that. And some strawberries and cantelope with really good whole milk vanilla yogurt to dip the fruit into. Creamy, yummy. UMMMM. (Not to mention some turkey roll ups, a couple of goldfish and two of those starburst things that have Valentine’s patterns on them. Oh. And carrots.)

We’re coming home and I ask him how lunch went. Apparently, on the open market of the cafeteria, fruit and yogurt is like gold during a serious inflationary period.  Here’s how he made out:

• A gave me a chip for a piece of fruit with some yogurt on it.
• N gave me two yogos for a strawberry with yogurt.
• L gave me two chips for a cantelope with yogurt.
• J gave me a cookie for fruit with yogurt.

L, I’d like to say, is the kid who said Tiniest Tiffin’s heart napkin wasn’t up to snuff.

Tomorrow I’m packing extra fruit & yogurt. I’d say three chips, two yogos and a cookie isn’t going to kill the triumphant Mr. Tiffin and is worth it seeing as how he’s winning hearts and minds through the fruit & yo program.

Lentil Soup

                              

A heart warming lunch for a cold day — lentil soup, beets (yes, I know, they look like tomatoes, but they’re not!) with feta cheese, and some nice crackers.  I like this tiffin tin, by the way.  It’s pretty small — just right for my soup in the bottom and the beet salad in the top.

Beets are easy to roast, and when prepared as I’m about to describe, they’re wonderful.  These are not those scary salad bar beets.  Use golf ball sized beets for this, by the way.  Smaller beets are yummier. 

• Cut off the top and the bottom, and place about six beets in a shallow baking dish.  Add a little water and cover the dish with aluminum foil. 
• Roast at about 375 degrees until a knife pierces right through them, about 25-30 minutes. 
• Peel your lovely roasted beets, trying not to burn your fingers as you do. 
• And then, while they’re still warm, sprinkle them with a little red wine vinegar, some salt and toss with as much olive oil as you think appropriate. 

Cut them into whatever shapes you like and eat them any way that makes you happy.

Tiffin Obsessives of the World Unite!

Would it surprise you to learn that there aren’t that many blogs out there that’re all about packing lunch for your children? In fact, I know of two: the Vegan Lunchbox and the Daily Tiffin. I like them both.

So, when I heard that Meeta, who writes the Daily Tiffin, was looking for contributors, I thought, how fun: I can hang out with another tiffin tin obsessive and not feel weird when I want to talk, say, juice boxes versus water.

And that’s just what I’ll be doing, on Mondays, at the Daily Tiffin, where I’ll be contributing a weekly post. The other women who’ll be contributing are an interesting, smart, wonderful group. Here they are, courtesy of the Daily Tiffin — and be sure and check them all out!

About Meeta – Administrator
I am a working mum and have a 4 year old son, Soeren. When I am not busy with family and making lunches, you’ll find me working for a software development firm in Germany. I am passionate about living a fun and good life, which mainly revolves around my family, work and hobbies. Offering Soeren good values and setting a healthy base in life is very important to me. You might see me jetting off with my camera in my hands and lost in some photo shot – you see I am an amateur photographer and am always looking for the perfect picture.
I also write What’s For Lunch, Honey?

About Nandita – Co-Adminstrator
I’m a medical doctor but I pursue my passion for writing. I write on health and food for several publications including Men’s Health – India and Complete Wellbeing. Life with my husband in Mumbai is fast paced. Striving to maintain a balance between work and pleasure, fast food and healthy home cooked food, heavy metal and the blues, that is I guess is the fun of life. You can read about my kitchen exploits in Saffron Trail.

About Shaheen – Co-Administrator
I am a part time working and full time
mom to a 6 yr old son. He started public school now
and packing his lunch is what led me to the Daily Tiffin. I
work as an architect in New Jersey, now part time so
rest of the time is being devoted to my wonderful
family. I love cooking, find it relaxing and creative
most of the time. Other interests are mostly books and
movies now.
I also write: Malabar Spices

Contributors to The Daily Tiffin:
Asha of Foodies Hope

A Tiffin For Mom

I like packed lunches as much as my boys — maybe more than they do. But I don’t often enough make one for myself. Proof of that? It’s October, and I’m just getting around to thinking about my own lunches. That’s about to change.

This lovely tiffin tin was waiting for me when I walked in the door Friday afternoon. It’s gleaming silver and ready to be filled. Except today’s Saturday. So I packed a lunch to take with me to Tiniest Tiffin’s soccer game.

(edamame, a little cheese, some Acme pain au levain, and two kinds of organic grapes.)

This isn’t a huge tin and it’s best for food that’s good cool or at room temperature. It seems ideal for salads of all kinds (green salads, composed salads, lentil salad, that sort of thing). It’s an easy size to transport and to put in the fridge at work, or at home . I’ve got some smaller dishes to put in it to make compartments, for those days when I want to bring a composed salad, and don’t want (gasp) different foods to touch.

And one word on moms who work at home and moms who work outside the home: one thing we all need is a decent lunch, nicely prepared, with an eye to good health. Feed yourself the same way you’d feed any of your loved ones: with care, and thought, and love. If you give your children a chocolate kiss, give yourself one too.

Another Lunchbox Find

Here’s a simple Sunday link, with thanks again to the Tiffin Tin’s research editor (my sister Sue), who found this great site for melamine lunchbox tiffin tins.

The Village Market

I’ve returned from the quest for that colorful melamine tiffin tin made by Vivo I talked about in yesterday’s post, and am here today to sing the praises of the Village Market in San Francisco’s Ferry Building which does indeed sell that tin. They’re out, but they get shipments of them several times a week, so you can call them and ask for one.

And you don’t have to live in San Francisco to order from the Village Market. They have a website. Although this tin isn’t up on their site, their contact information is and I have the feeling they might ship it to you if you ask.

Tomorrow, a piece about the Berkeley School Lunch Initiative, which Tiffin Tiniest’s school participates in.

Update: Thanks to reader Kate, here’s another source for a colorful melamine tiffin tin.

Buying a Tin Online

There are few things more frustrating than knowing what you want and being unable to find it. A tiffin tin — that wonderful Indian lunchbox, cunningly constructed out of layers of stainless steel to nicely keep your lunch hot — can be hard to find. Here are a few American sites to help you in the search for this lunching holy grail:

Reusable bags is a great site for all things related to packing an earth-friendly lunch. And, naturally, there’s a tiffin tin.

This one surprised me. It’s from a classic hardware store. Of course a tiffin tin can be used to store your nails. Still, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t put it to its intended use.

Here’s another earth friendly site. Tiffin tins to be had here.

JBoxstocks a wonderful array of containers. They’re bento box people, but I’m including them because this is a wonderful site and some of these small containers are quite good for storing things like dipping sauces and salad dressings.

Now here’s one that’s giving me trouble. Long before I learned they’d featured these colorful melamine tiffin tins on Real Simple, I’d spotted them at a great store in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. A week later, they were out, probably because of Real Simple. The guy at the store told me they would be ordering more. They’re made by a mysterious entity called Vivo that doesn’t seem to want to answer its phone.  Look here for something similar. 

That’s it for today tiffin fans. Tomorrow, Sunday, a note about shopping for a middle schooler’s lunch. (Middle school starts next week, and the Tiffin Twins are gearing up for it.)

The Daily Tiffin

Thanks to the Tiffin Tin’s intrepid research editor, IT manager and all around awesome web detective (my sister, of course) I have been alerted to another packed lunch fan site.  Written by a German woman, the site is called The Daily Tiffin. Which, it seems to me, would be a great name for a food newspaper as well as for a fun, informative web site.

One final thing:  The Tiffin Tin sends its most sincere condolences to the unified Germany for the way the World Cup match against Italy turned out.  We were rooting for you — for youth and multiculturalism, for a Germany at its best.  But we don’t think this loss means anything too important.  Sometimes, the team that loses is the one we remember best.