What's in my Lunchbox -Week 2

Keeping in theme of the cheap and easy lunches, I really want to get maximum use out of my new lunch box and minimum use out of my wallet. I even managed to keep it under $10!

Mini Savoury Muffins, Pumpkin Seeds, Raisins, Dried Apricots and Pot Stickers

Pot stickers are a pet favourite of mine -they're easy to make, can be tailored to one's tastes and very easy to store. I have yet to find someone that doesn't love them. Pot stickers look like dumplings because they are. Except they are pan fried on the base and steamed on the top instead of being just steamed or boiled. I am constantly told that food that is fried or baked is not good for me. But I don't listen -it's yummy!

2 Beaten eggs and cover with 2 cups of sifted flour

Mix to form a dough. Add water if needed.

Dough!

I had never made dumpling pastry before so my mother kindly offered to give me a quick tutorial. To my surprise, it wasn't as hard as I had originally thought. Just really time consuming. Traditionally, dumpling pastry is just made of flour and water. While this is perfectly adequate, my mother discovered the addition of egg gives the pastry a lovely smooth and shiny appearance when cooked, much like store bought pastry.

Pork mince, carrot, celery, black mushrooms and a splash of spicy Teriyaki sauce for taste

Like sushi, you can put almost anything in your dumpling filling. Just make sure that everything is chopped up reeeeal fine -I just put my ingredients in a blender and pulsed. If your ingredients are too large, they may pierce the pastry when you go to wrap it or may not cook all the way through during the cooking stage. And no one wants to see that! I used 1/4 celery which cost me $1.20 (for a half), $2.50 for 200g of pork mince, $0.40 for 1 carrot and everything else was already in my pantry. That's $4.10 total. It shouldn't cost you too much more to collect the other ingredients.

Divide the dough into two, roll into log and cut into 2cm thick pieces

Flatten, and use a rolling pin to create a circle about 2mm thick

The most time consuming part of dumpling pastry making is creating each individual circle. It's a time consuming and tedious task but, be assured, it is very rewarding. For a step by step guide for assembling the dumplings, go to my previous post and then come back for the cooking part.

Add enough water to cover half the height of the dumplings once the bottoms are browned

The best thing about pot stickers is the storage. You can freeze your dumplings once they are assembled and pull them out at a later date for cooking -like I'm doing here. This way, you can make a whole week's worth of dumplings, freeze and cook a few at a time so they stay crunchy on the base when you get around to eating them!

Cover immediately to steam

Once all the water has evaporate leave them a little bit longer and they should be ready

You know what? You don't have to limit pot stickers for lunch -have them for dinner. I did, and it was great! Also, you don't have to limit the amount you make -they are pretty great for afternoon and midnight snacks so go ahead and freeze a whole month's worth!

Self Raising Flour, Egg, Sundried Tomatoes, Milk, Cheese, Bacon, Salt

What's a lunch without a snack? What's Pot Stickers without savoury muffins?

Your normal muffin mix with sundried tomatoes, bacon, cheese and black pepper

I'm sure you don't need an introduction to the wonderful combo that is bacon, cheese and sundried tomatoes but I do want to push is the invention of silicon bake ware. Namely, silicon mini muffin molds. How did I ever cope without them?
These are, actually, a godsend. No longer do I have to oil the pan or scratch the sides with a knife as I carefully try to pry the muffins away -now a simple pop does the trick! I think I got this for $10 at The Warehouse near my house but I hear the $2 shop also has them in stock (up to you if you want to risk it). Just remember kids, read the package for maximum temperature limits!

One of the best inventions ever

I already had most of the ingredients in my kitchen so the only additional costs were: Bacon (3 slices) -$2.36, Sundried Tomatoes (6 pieces) -$2.00 which brings the total of this week's lunch to less than $10 again. The snacks in the snack compartments were also already in my pantry so I didn't include them. Yay for a well stocked pantry!

Tip for shopping cheap: Always check the deli, butcher or seafood counter at your local supermarket before opting to buy prepackaged goods. The items are usually cheaper and the lovely people behind the counter will measure out amounts for you. This ensures you're not buying more than you need (aka the leftovers don't end up in the bin).

Pot Stickers (fed me for a week of lunches and a few dinners as well)

Dough Ingredients:

2 Large Eggs

2 Cups Flour

Water to form dough

Filling Ingredients (you can tailor this to your own tastes): 

300g pork mince

1/4 stalk of celery 

1 carrot

Handful black mushrooms (remember to soak if you're using dried ones)

1/8 cup of Kikkoman's spicy teriyaki  sauce (or to taste)

White pepper to taste

Method:

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat.

2. Sift the flour over the top.

3. Add water, if needed, to form the dough.

4. Cover and allow to sit for about an hour. 

While the dough is resting, make the filling

5. Finely chop the celery, carrot and black mushrooms.

6. Use your fingers to mix the veggies with the pork mince.

7. Add the sauce and pepper and continue to mix with your hands until well combined.

Back to the Dough

8. Divide the dough into two and roll each out into a log of about 3cm in diameter.

9. Cut each log through the cross section into 2cm thick circles (see image above)

10. Flatten and, using a rolling pin, roll it out until it is about 2mm thick

Assembly (click here to see pictures of me assembling dumplings)

11. Fill each wrapper with a heaping teaspoon of the pork filling. Be sure not to overfill or to spread the filling too close to the edge of the wrapper.

12. Gently lift the edges of the wrapper over the filling and crimp the edges of the wrapper and pinch together to seal. 

Now you may freeze them or read on to cook

13. Heat a wok or nonstick skillet on medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon oil.

14. Add 10 – 12 pot stickers, and cook for a minute or two, until the bottom is browned.

15. Add enough water so the bottom half of the pot stickers are submerged, cover and steam until the liquid has been absorbed (about 5 minutes)

16. Remove and cook the rest.

I like to use a mix of soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili oil as a dipping sauce.

Yummy Savoury Muffins (makes 18 minis)

Ingredients:

1.5 cups self raising flour (or regular flour and one teaspoon of baking powder)
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
Lots of grated cheese
8 Sundried Tomatoes (chopped)

2 Slices of middle bacon

Black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Mix, together, the dry ingredients.

2. Add the cheese, sundried tomatoes and bacon.

3. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.

4. Mix wet and dry ingredients together but don't over mix. Your mixture should be quite stiff.

5. Spoon mixture into a greased muffin tin (or a silicon one if you're lucky) and bake at 190 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes or golden brown.

6. Try not to consume them all before the end of the week.

So there you go guys and dolls, I have managed to feed myself for another week for under $10. I know I have a lot, already, in my pantry but there is no reason an ordinary kitchen shouldn't have flour and eggs. So go forth, and create pot stickers and savoury muffins. Have a pot sticker and savoury muffin party!

What's in my Lunchbox -Week 1

Nearing the end of last year, I began to notice the steady decline of funds in my bank account. Mostly due to dining out. Mostly because I had to get up at 6am to make the 7am bus to make my 8am starts at uni. Every day. For those of you that know me, you'll know that I'll happily sacrifice breakfast and lunch making time for a little more sleep and then happily munch on a mince and cheese pie during a lecture (yes naughty, I know). But that was the old Lucy. New Lucy wants to save herself a little cash moneys for trips, the gym and better food! Which brings us to this..

The three tiered lunchbox -the most Asian-tastic one I could find in $3 Japan

Yes. Those are matching chopsticks. Yes. That is a BELT for my lunchbox. I know you're jealous.

Anyone who has been to Auckland's CBD will have heard of $3 Japan (now known as $3 + G.S.T Japan due to something to do with commerce that I don't really understand). This store is full of the cutest gadgets, stationary, make up, soft toys and dining equipment. Everything is adorable! I bought this baby on special for $5 (perhaps they're charging per layer?) and it took everything in me not to buy the cute cookie cutters, onigiri mold sets and seaweed cutters! I will probably be back soon though.

Sushi Sandwich, Cucumber and Pickled Daikon Salad, Rice Wine Egg-Cucumber-Daikon Sushi

 So my plan for the uni year is to pack my own lunch more often and eat fast food less frequently so I save money for more important things like fancier meals! My secondary objective is also to make them student friendly (aka cheap and accessible) so others in my situation (aka poor student) can feed themselves with quality food without breaking the bank.

Pickled Daikon -$2.50, 10 Sheets of Nori -$2.20, 1 Egg -really cheap, 1 Cucumber -$1.20, Bowl of Rice -Also really cheap

One of the most popular things I see students buy on campus is sushi with the cheapest, most basic types going for $1.20 each while the fancy types (with eel or bean curd) going for about $2.20 -this was over a year ago and prices have risen this year. This means $6 for 5 pieces of basic sushi which doesn't feed anybody except anorexic people. Prepare to spend close to $10 for a yummy, filling lunch. This may not seem like much but, if you were to do this every day, it's $50 a week plus more if you're like me and need food to concentrate. For a student, this can be a hard ask.

Adding powdered Sushi vinegar -$2.50 for two packets. Does about 3 cups of rice.

You know what's not a hard ask? Buying the ingredients yourself! 

Mix it in gooood

Can you believe I got all my sushi ingredients for less than $10? That will feed me for a week, guys. Do you hear me? A whole week!! With leftovers (maybe you have hungry friends?).

To be fair, I didn't include the cost of rice or the egg. Being Chinese, my family buys rice in bulk -you know, like 25kg bags? And we also have lots of eggs. There is always 2 trays of eggs in my pantry. Always. 

You don't even need fancy equipment! This is me frying an egg.

I hardly think rice and eggs would bring the total up to $50 though.

Pickled Daikon, Sliced Cucumber, Egg cut into strips

If this reason doesn't entice you, it's probably not worth your while to read the rest of my entry as you're obviously not into saving money and eating well. If you do like having an extra $40 or so, read on. As you can see from my pictures, I'm not feeding myself cans of $0.98 baked beans and spaghetti. I'm eating actual food with actual nutritional value. Protein and vegetables and carbs. It's even vegetarian. Excellent.

Assembling my Sushi (bottom to top): Sheet of nori, layer of rice, egg strips, cucumber and pickled daikon

The only piece of equipment you may not have in your kitchen is the bamboo sushi mat (I assume most flats have a frying pan, knife and chopping board). This will stop the seaweed from sticking to your hands and making a big mess. This one cost me 10 cents at a garage sale. I'm sure you can purchase these from your local $2 store -you can purchase one with the money you're about to save in lunch!

Starting to roll

The hardest part about sushi is probably rolling it -which actually isn't that hard. Just make sure to tuck and press with each step of rolling. And don't get too eager and wrap the mat inside (don't laugh, it's been done before). Check out this video for pro sushi rolling instructions. Too much rice on her sushi though..

Slice sushi into your preferred thickness

Oh yeah, have a SHARP knife. This is very important.A dull knife will pull the fillings and nori with the blade, and be unable to achieve clean cuts. A damp towel to moisten your knife edge between cuts will help.

While we're on the subject of cool things I own, look at this:

Cookie Cutter Set

 My friend, Asia, got this as part of my present on my 21st birthday. She obviously knew my love for baking. What she didn't know was that I would, one day, use these as molds for sushi making.

Bottom layer of rice

Middle layer: Canned tuna and Japanese mayonnaise mix

These sushi sandwich things have started popping up in sushi bars everywhere and are very popular with students. Forgive me, I have no idea what they're called -the sushi book I have calls it sushi for non-Japanese. All you have to do is find a suitable mold -you can buy special ones at Japanese and Korean stores (and $2 shops) but cookie cutters work fine.

Assembled

 You start off with one layer of sushi rice at the bottom, making sure to fully press the rice down to the edges of the mold. Add a middle layer of whatever you want (preferably something malleable) and top with another layer of sushi rice being careful to pat each layer down so it doesn't fall apart.

Top with Furikake. Beautiful.

 I topped mine with a little Furikake I found in my pantry. Furikake are flavoured sprinkles that go on top of rice to make it more tasty as well as more aesthetically pleasing. A small amount of sprinkles go a long way. 

Savings, week 1: Around $40. Awesome.

Sushi Ingredients (serves as many as you wish)

Rice

Sushi Vinegar

Nori sheets

Fillings:

Any meats you can think of

Any vegetables you can think of 

ANYTHING

Do you see what I mean? You can tailor sushi to your tastes -it's the Japanese version of pizza. And it's so easy! I don't want to hear anyone complain about being poor and not being able to feed themselves anymore -I expect all you poor students to have sushi for lunch!