The Filipino Mom Blog

Lunchbox Meme for 2009 is back!

Which means it is back to work for some of us and back to school for most of the children.

I am sure we’ve had enough of those meaty food during the holidays. Now is the time to make good on our promise to have healthier food choices, for ourselves, and our family members.

Grab the badge and join us here, just leave a link if you played.

The meme will be opened every Tuesday. Final round-up will be done for entries that will make it till Friday. So now there is no excuse to let this pass as you all have four days to take photos of what you have prepared in your lunchboxes.

Share your secret recipes so we can all learn something new.

Let’s bring a whole new meaning to the word LUNCHBOX

~o0o~

Julie’s Lechon Kawali with a (sort of) recipe here

Mauie’s Big Boy had Chicken Curry Maki

Maver’s Healthy Chopsuey

So now I’ve made public my attempt at the Christmas ham this year.

So this better work… Or else!

Aside from being a tradition begun by Mama that I want to keep alive, making my own Christmas ham has its many advantages. For starters, it’s less expensive. The 5.6-kilo fresh ham (pigue in Filipino) that I bought yesterday cost Php816.00 (or about USD16.50 only!). Commercial hams nowadays cost as much as Php850 per kilo!

Home-made ham is healthy. Mama never used nitrates (salitre in Filipino) and prague in her hams, and I will never too. Anyway, my ham won’t be stored for too long. It’s going to be gone shortly after midnight of December 25th! So there’s no need for other preservatives - good old rock salt has always been enough to do the trick.

In the past, I have dry-cured my hams, just as Mama did. My cure consisted of rock salt, brown sugar, ground black pepper, and cinnamon.

Approximate cure proportions for a 5-kilo ham:

1 cup salt (I don’t like it too salty so I’d put in about 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup brown sugar (I like it sweet, so I adjust this to 3/4 cup)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground pepper

*Mix all of these together.

I massage the ham all over with the cure. The ham is always deboned so even the crevices where the bone used to be get some cure massage. The ham is kept tightly covered in the ref in a plastic container.

Curing time depends on the meat size. Two years ago, I cured a 3-kilo ham for a month, and we ended up with a very salty ham. (The meat was pink and tender though - saving grace! haha) I should have soaked the ham in cold water first before cooking to remove the excess salt.

According to this site, ideal curing time is 1.5 days for each pound of meat. So for a 5-kilo (11-pound) ham, 16 days is ideal. 

Very important during curing: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the 3rd installment of our Lunchbox Meme and we’d like to see your wonderful creations. Post a comment here and I’ll do the round-up tonight.

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Its week number two for the Lunchbox Meme.  Just leave a comment here as soon as you have posted and  I’ll do the round up later tonight.

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Greetings, Mommies!!
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Today is the first day of our weekly meme and we’d like for you to share what you pack in your kids’ lunchbox. It can be as simple as a sandwich to an elaborate 5-course meal. Its up to you, just show us.

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One of the jobs that we, Mommies, have to take very seriously is preparing lunch boxes for our kids and hubbies. Nowadays, packing lunch isn’t as simple as making a peanut butter sandwich and throwing in a can of juice. With all the healthy options available there is the increasing demand of making nutritious pack-away meals for our family.

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I have always dreamed of having a flower garden. Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up to colorful blooms everyday? What about butterflies and birds merrily playing in the garden amidst the flowers?

I started having a garden years ago when I started to collect orchids and indoor ornamental plants. But alas, my thumb wasn’t green enough to sustain the life of these unfortunate plants. These all died after a few months. Or maybe even weeks.

I have tried again, last year. We got several grown plants with blooms but the dog thought these were toys and managed to uproot several. So the plans to have this flower garden was botched again.

My husband has been talking about having our own farm and planting plants that will yield fresh produce for our own consumption. A vegetable garden in one area, some fruit-bearing trees in another, and maybe a few chickens that will bring fresh eggs. A part of the plan will be an area for dog breeding, if it is still possible. He said a flower garden would be nice but for what purpose since we can’t use those flowers anyway.

Ok, now I am starting to be convinced to start a vegetable garden.

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This is an easy recipe. I used to do it with whole chickens, but I realized my kids and husband would attack the thighs and leave the breast to me. Nobody wants the white meat in our house.

Chicken thighs, contrary to what you may have been led to believe, are healthy (remove the skin if you must). According to Women’s Health Magazine, dark-meat poultry like chicken thighs are rich in iron, zinc and B vitamins, while having lower fat content than red meat (such as beef).

Chicken thigh meat is juicier and doesn’t dry up the way white meat does after it has cooled. So it’s ideal for school (or office) lunch too. I’d marinate the chicken at night, throw them into the oven the following morning. And, voila! A superb school lunch that your kids will be proud to share with the class.

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