Coconut Fish Cake (Otak2) with Peanut Sauce Recipe

Coconut Fish Cake is one of my favorite Indonesian food! In Indonesia, they called it Otak-Otak, which translates to Brain-Brain. I'm not quite sure why they called it BRAIN, maybe because of FISH being one of the ingredient and fishes are brain food. Anyways, this recipe I got from my mom. Pssssttt...don't tell her I'm sharing this to the world!

What you need:

Fish Cake:

• 1 Pack of Cha Cha Fish Paste (1 lb fish paste/ground mackerel)
• 100 ml of Thick Coconut Milk
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Minced Garlic
• 2 Tbs Thin Sliced Green Onion
• 50 ml Cold Water
• 1/2 Cup Tapioca Stach (Tapioca Flour)
• Banana Leaves

Peanut Sauce:

• Thai Chilli Pepper (Depending on how spicy you want, you can put none to however many you like)
• 1/2 Cup of Ground Peanut or Peanut Butter
• 1/2 Cup of Warm Water
• 1 tsp Minced Garlic
• Salt

How to make:

Fish Cake:

1. To make the fish cake, combine fish paste, water, and coconut milk in a medium bowl. Mix them until they are well mixed.
2. Combine the rest of the ingredients (salt, garlic, green onion, and tapioca flour)
3. Clean banana leaves, cut them to squares and dry them with paper towel.
4. Place about 2 Tbs of fish paste on one side of banana leaves and roll it.
5. Close the ends with tooth pick, or some people use staples (be careful don't eat the staples)
6. Bake for 10 minutes at 375F, flip and bake for another 10 minutes.

Peanut Sauce:

1. Chop thai chilli pepper finely, then combine the rest of the ingredients together.
2. Mix until well mix and serve with the fish cake.

I hope you love the Otak-Otak! 

Here is an example of Cha Cha Fish Paste sold in the US, there are a lot of different brands so what brand doesn't really matter. Good luck!

Yumbox Original and Panino -- Review

Yumbox my new favorite lunch box! (well, all of my lunch box are my favorite) I am so glad I got these, I think it was worth the investment. I ordered these boxes as a present for my mom and my kids on Christmas.

Their prices range from $13.00 - $33.00 and I think that is a good deal for a such awesome box! I got lucky that I got them discounted at 30% off! I didn't know that there was a sale going on at the website, they just suddenly discounted my order, so I went back and ordered 4 boxes! Yeah!!! 4 BOXES!!!! hehe.

Before I started Bento boxes, it was very hard deciding which box I should get! So, I got the planet box first but I can't shake the feeling of wanting to get Yumbox because of their leakproof feature and their colorful boxes. My daughter loves it so much that sometimes, she asks for her dinner in her Yumbox! There are many things we love about Yumbox! I can only think of a few things we would like Yumbox to improve. okay, let's get to the business =D

Yumbox Tray $13.00
Yumbox Exterior Box $15.00 - $16.00
Yumbox Set $28.00 - $33.00 (Comes with 1 tray and 1 exterior box)

What we love:

1. Color Choice! I love their bright and pretty color choices. There are 7 color choices, I think they are going to release more colors in the future. 
2. Easy to open. Even my 2 year old knows how to open the lunch box.
3. Dishwasher Safe 
4. Eco-Friendly
5. Sturdy
6. BPA and Phthalates Free
7. 4 and 6 compartments, makes it fun to pack food!
8. Leakproof. The website said only food with consistency like yogurt, ranch, ketchup, etc. I tried putting water inside one of the compartment the first day I got my daughter's box and shake it up and down real hard. I only see one to two drops going in another compartment. I will update it again and try to put water and sit it down sideways for a few hours to see if it does leak or not. 
9. Removable tray, makes it FUN for lunch or dinner at home. It can be a plate or it can be a lunch box! I love it so much

What you should consider:

1. The cute food illustration. I love the illustration but I do not love the fact after 2 washes it's starts to wear off. I can see some parts of it's image missing.
2. Very small compartments, only for Yumbox Original. 
3. Drying Issues, I'm crazy about having my Yumbox dry before storing. I do not use them everyday because I take turn between three different kinds of boxes, so, sometimes I have to leave it out for two days to make sure it is dry before assembling them back together.

See, there are only 3 consideration before buying Yumbox! It is so worth it!

Here are some example of lunch I've packed my daughter to school and my son for fun or when he has to go somewhere:

 

Turkey and Cheese Wraps, Tic Tac (Indonesian snack, you can find at an Indonesian grocery store), Banana, Hardboiled Egg, Carrots with Thousand Island, Cashew Nuts

Biofeel (You can find at any Asian grocery store), Chocolate Bread Sushi, Cut Up String Cheese, Cheese Quesadilla, Pomegranate

Fried Noodles, Tic Tac (Indonesian snack, you can find at an Indonesian grocery store), Blood Oranges, Mandarin Orange, Roasted Garlic Parmesan Pee Wee Potatoes

Peanut Butter Chocolate and Cheese Bread Sushi, Fuji Apples, Ying Yang Babble, Edamame, Crab Rolls

Strawberry with Strawberry yogurt, Car Shaped Hardboiled Egg, Black Sweet Rice Porridge with Coconut Milk, Corn, Celery, Mangoes, Cashew Nuts

Homemade Hot Pockets, Carrots, Sticky Candy, Ninja Babybel, Oranges

Steamed Broccoli, Roasted Garlic Parmesan Pee Wee Potatoes, Oranges, Strawberry Yogurt, Homemade Chicken Nuggets, Mango Fruit Leather, Bear Shaped Hardboiled Egg (The shape isn't so good this time lol!)

Wheat Thins, Sunflower Seeds, Snow Man String Cheese, Kiwi, Ranch Dressing, Snow Flake Cheese with Ham and Cheese Quesadillas, Carrots, Triple Berry Fruit Leather

Strawberry Yogurt, Kiwi, Ranch Dressing, Corn, Celery, Quail Eggs, Hello Kitty Ham and Cheese Sandwich

I hope the reviews and the sample lunches help you decide to buy which lunch box you would like!

Yumbox did not pay me to review their box nor they give me any type of compensation. This is a very honest review from the boxes that I bought. Thanks so much for reading! ^^

To purchase your Yumbox, go to www.yumboxlunch.com 

Don't forget to comment and follow me! 

Black Sweet Rice Porridge Recipe (Ketan Hitam)

Oh! this recipe brings me back to my childhood. I grew up in Indonesia, the 4th populous country in the world (right next to US). My mom loves to make these when I was little. I remember trying to eat it as slowly as possible so that when my brothers are finished with their rice, they'd be watching me and begging me for some. Anyways, we usually eat this as snack and serve it with coconut milk. I want to invite everyone to try and make it. It tastes great and I bet you will want to eat more and more! here goes:

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Glutinous Black Sweet Rice (It can be found at any Asian grocery stores)
• 4 Cups of Water
• 1 1/2 Cups Sugar (2 Cups if you like sweet)
• 1 Canned Coconut Milk (Usually comes in 161ml (5.46 fl oz)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 Pandan Leaves

Instructions:

• Wash sweet rice thoroughly with cold water. Drain, and place it in a slow cooker (crock pot)
• Pour water over rice
• Turn crock pot to high, cook it for 3 hours (stir in between)
• Add sugar, stir until sugar is dissolved
• On a small pot, bring coconut milk to boil while stirring, add salt
• Let cool and serve!

Tips for Quick and Easy Lunch Box

As a mother, I firsthand know how busy and hectic life can be. I have a few tips for a quick and easy lunch packing ideas. The best part is that they are healthy. 

Turkey and Cheese Wrap, Cashew Nuts, Baby Carrots with Thousand Island, Baby Bananas, Boiled Egg, and Indonesian Snack (You can only find it in Indonesian Grocery Store) 

Bio feel (You can find this at any Asian grocery Store), Chocolate Bread "Sushi", String Cheese, Pomegranate, Cheese Quesadilla

So here we go, Tips for Quick and Easy Lunch Box for Busy Parents:

• Use left over food from last night. Many times, I cook dinner and there were still a little left over, just enough to pack in to my daughter’s lunch box. For example, pizza, I always have at least one slice left if we were eating pizza that night. I use cute cookie cutter to make her lunch look a little more FUN!
•  Prepare and/or freeze food. I like to prepare vegetables on Sundays. I buy them from the store, wash and cut them up. Then, I put them in individual boxes (I love Pyrex) and put some in the freezer (if I plan on cooking them) and the rest in the refrigerator (if I plan to serve it as raw veggies). You can also prepare and cook food and freeze them, then use them through the week. Dehydrated food also lasts long in an airtight container. I love making fruit roll ups/leather (you do not have to have food dehydrator to make these, I’ll post some recipes in the future).
• Daily plan or weekly plan your kid’s lunch. My daughter loves it when I let her help me with her weekly plan. Sometimes, if I do have unexpected leftover food, I would tell her, “Okay, Tasha, we have some change of plan!” to make it sounds fun haha!
• Last but not least tip would be to pack their lunch the night before. This method doesn’t work all the time though. When you want to pack warm food, you can’t really pack it the night before. Well, you can but you still have to re-heat it in the morning.

Click on the image to make it larger

This is just an example of a chart you can make, there are more fruit and vegetable ideas than just listed but I ran out of space hehe. 

This is a great example of quick lunch box

Fruit Leather (I prepared on Sunday and use it through the week), Celery (I've cut them up that same Sunday), Oranges, Peanut butter banana rolls, Ham and Corn Bread (Bought at a local bakery)

This is the leftover sample =)

Leftover noodles from last night's dinner, Mandarin Oranges, Blood Oranges, Tic Tac Snack (You can replace this with nuts), Roasted Pee Wee Corn (I bake it for 15-20 min. this morning but you can always bake it the night before)

Well, I hope these tips can help you with your lunch box packing in the future. Please follow my blog and check out my Facebook page! www.facebook.com/mamadelish

Bread Rolls "Sushi" Tutorial

I love making bread rolls or "sushi" bread! I think it makes the lunchbox look so much nicer because of the spiral design it makes. So...here is what you need

1. Bamboo Sushi Rollers (optional)
2. Knive
3. Rolling Pin (Or anything round, you can use your mug, glass, cup, etc.)
4. Bread of course
5. Any spreads (nutella, peanut butter, cream cheese, jelly, etc.)

Instructions:

1. Grab your bread and put it on top of the bamboo sushi rollers. Now, if you do not have the bamboo sushi rollers, what you can do is put it on top of your cutting board. 
2. Cut the crusts
3. Use rolling pin or anything round to flatten the bread
4. Spread your peanut butter or anything you'd like. I used peanut butter, cheese and some chocolate chips this morning.
5. Roll it up with your hand
6. Use the bamboo sushi roller to tighten the roll. *if you do not have the rollers, you can use plastic wrap and wrap the bread tightly with it to tighten it. 
7. Place your rolled bread on top of a cutting board and cut the bread starting on the middle. Then put them together, as pictured, and cut it in half again.

There you go! I hope this post help you make your beautiful "sushi" bread.

Happy Lunch Boxing!!!!

Yes! You Can Prepare Lunch Box For Your Kids! ^^

This post is to convince mothers out there who really want to prepare school lunch for their kids and think that they do not have the time to do it because they are so busy with work that they can do it. I have a part time job, a home based business (photography, face painting, and online boutique), and I am also attending college majoring in Chemistry. If you don’t call that busy, I don’t know what is busy. I have two kids, Tasha, 6 years old and Oz, 2 years old.

I never thought of myself as someone who would pack my kids lunch every day for school. Since the first day of Kindergarten, my daughter wants me to pack her lunch and so this journey begins.

Making lunch does not take a lot of time. I spend only about 15 – 30 minutes in the morning getting those lunches ready. Here’s an example of my morning schedule…

6:20 a.m. – I wake up and brush my teeth

6:30 a.m. – I wake up Tasha and told her to brush her teeth. I then grabbed her clothes and told her to dress up (Sometimes I got her outfits ready the night before)

6:35 a.m. – I would get Tasha’s breakfast ready. (She usually asks for bagel with cream cheese) while I toast her bagel, I get her fruit and veggies ready for her lunch box

6:40 a.m. – Her bagel is done toasting and I put the cream cheese on top or any other topping she wants. Tasha starts eating.

6:42 a.m. – I work on the rest of her lunch.

7:00 a.m. – I am already done with her lunch box. Now, I usually stuff it in the bag and stuff the lunch bag into her book bag.

Now, Tasha is a slow eater, so it took her about 30 minutes for her to finish her breakfast sometimes. We usually leave the door by 7:15 a.m.

See! It didn’t take long! The secret is to multi task. Say, you want to make boiled egg. It takes 10 minutes for it to cook. You have 10 minutes to do something else while waiting for it to boil. I think those are not really a secret right? Us moms are used to multi tasking.

Here are some of my favorite lunch boxes that I’ve packed for her in the past.

 

Left Photo:

• Biofeel (You can find these in Asian grocery stores)
• Oranges
• Cashew
• Pizza
• Alfredo Pasta

Right Photo:

• Trix Cereal
• Corn
• Oranges
• Scramble Eggs

 

Left Photo:

• Oranges
• Celery
• Carrots
• Trix Cereal
• Grapes
• Flintstone Gummies
• Home made spinach noodles with Chicken

Right Photo:

• Veggie Sticks
• Fruit loops
• String Cheese
• Pomegranate 
• Oranges
• Turkey Wraps

 

Left Photo:

• String Cheese
• Fruit Snacks
• Horizon Cheese Sandwich Cookies
• Annie's Cookies 
• Grilled Cheese Sandwich
• Grapes

Right Photo:

• Grapes
• Chocolate chip mini muffin
• Waffle chocolate sandwich
• Cocoa Puffs
• BBQ chicken wings (I took it off the bones)

 

Left Photo:

• Lady Apple
• Carrot
• Golden Banana
• Cheese Quesadillas
• Trix Cereal

Right Photo:

• Horizon Cheese Sandwich
• Annie's Cookies
• Chocolate Stuffed Strawberries
• Cashew Nuts
• Boiled Egg
• Nutella Bread Rolls

I hope I have convinced you that YES! you can make your kid's lunch boxes!

PlanetBox Review

I love packing my daughter's lunch. I have always wanted to get planet box since she was 3 years old, but I did not get it until recently. The reason I waited so long before I get her lunch is because when she was in pre-K, her school did not let outside food in school, so I never had to pack her lunch for a whole year.

At Kindergarten, I never thought of buying a lunch box for her because I was so used to not pack any lunch, and I just expect her to eat school lunch. On the first day of school, I gave her $20 to put into her school account. She came home from school very disappointed. She said to me,"Mommy, why did you not pack me any lunch? They don't have any food for me! I only ate yogurt, milk, and just snack foods!!" Then, I asked her,"where is your $20 I gave you?" She answered,"I gave it to my teacher and we bought lunch and that was my lunch, the yogurt, milk and snack foods!!!!" Then, I decided to buy the PlanetBox. Their shipping was really quick because I got it within a few days.

Okay, enough of my story, let's give this awesome PlanetBox a review!!!

I have purchased the PlanetBox Rover for $59.95 and it came with

• The Lunch Box
• One Little Dipper Container
• One Large Dipper Container
• Cute set of magnets (25 different design and 1 blank white to design it yourself)
• One Carrying Bag (9 different colors to choose from)

They also sell only the main box or only with the dipper, you can also add other accessories such as the water bottle, the spoon set, the ColdKit, and more!

What I like about PlanetBox:
1. It has 5 bento sections, I love it that the food wont touch each other when I pack her lunch. Also, it has good amount of space so I can place a whole sandwich without cutting it in weird shapes.
2. It came with two extra containers with individual lids for liquid foods.
3. I love the fact that it is made of food grade stainless steel
4. It is sturdy
5. The carrying bag has pockets for extra items I like to pack like on the inside it has a pocket for ice packs to keep food cool, and straps for forks and spoons. On the outer part of the bag, it has a nice pocket for water bottle or juice and an extra pocket to place anything you want to put in there.
6. It is also easy to open and close for my daughter's little hand (she was 5 years old when she started using Planetbox)
7. Dishwasher safe, it made my life easier!

What I do not like about PlanetBox:
1. The Price is quite expensive, but if I were to go out to stores and buy similar items they also add up, probably not as much as $59.95 but close to it.
2. I do not like the fact that I have to use the dipper containers for wet food. Sometimes, I just forget. Like when I pack my daughter eggs, well they have liquid coming out of them sometimes and they would leak out to the bag and well the bag would get dirty and I have to wash it and so on.
3. I do not like washing the bag. The bag is very thick and hard to dry. I have to dry them outside but when it is winter, it doesn't get dry as fast as I would like it to be. If it doesn't dry fast enough, well you will get a very smelly lunch bag.

So, Those are my pros and cons about our PlanetBox Rover. Bottom line is, I love the box. I would recommend this box to anyone out there that is looking to purchase a bento box for their kids or themselves.

PlanetBox did not pay me to review their box nor they give me any type of compensation. This is a very honest review from the box that I bought. Thanks so much for reading! ^^

you can purchase your own PlanetBox at www.planetbox.com

Don't forget to follow and comment ^^.