Recess

Baon Plan # 5 Plus a Recipe for Lazy Pizza Grilled Cheese

July 31, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 12 Comments

Woohoo for a whole successful month of packing recess and lunch for my son! We move on to month two now, and I’m pleased to say that this early morning cooking task is easier to do and feels more natural now. I love it, I am making progress!

I found out from my son that some of his classmates pack hotdogs and spam with rice for lunch. One of his classmates even has McDonalds almost every day! I now feel so proud of myself for really making an effort to prepare freshly cooked healthy meals for my little boy each and every day. I’m also super proud of MrC for stepping in for me on days when I couldn’t be in the kitchen, like during Week 4 when I was sick. Teamwork and cooperation is key!

So, here’s what we prepared on Week 5.

MONDAY
Breakfast: Crumpy sandwich -(Crumpy is one of our fave sandwich spreads! Yum!)
Recess: Pomelo (Dad’s pasalubong straight from Davao.)
Lunch: Baked pork ribs (Leftover from dinner prepared by Lola.)

Baon Plan #4 – Sick Week

July 26, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 1 Comment

If last week’s lunch box plan was loaded with photos, this week I only have one. I have a good reason why though! At the beginning of the week, I cooked up a lot of the food that I had previously kept in the freezer. And then, towards the end of the week I got sick and MrC had to take over my kitchen duties. Excuses, excuses? Lol!

Another thing, I discovered in the previous week that my son’s recess and lunch times are close together. This means that when I pack a heavy snack for him, he usually fails to finish his lunch. This being so, I’ve decided to just pack him fruits for recess. It’s also nutrition month, and the school is encouraging the kids to pack fruits and veggies as snacks, so this particular week was a good time to start on a new fruit-snacking habit.

Here’s what we prepared on the second week of July.

MONDAY
Breakfast: Tuna and cheese sandwiches
Recess: Banana
Lunch: Rosemary Chicken and cheesy potatoes

TUESDAY
Breakfast: French Toast
Recess: Banana
Lunch: Daing na bangus

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Recess: Apple slices
Lunch: Meatballs in tomato sauce and boiled carrots

Packed lunches. One for my sister and one for my son.

THURSDAY (Which was the first day that MrC took over for me)
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Recess: Apple slices
Lunch: Chicken nuggets and boiled carrots

FRIDAY
Breakfast: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Recess: Apple slices
Lunch: Tocino and scrambled egg

Sorry this week’s post is delayed. It’s been an insane work week for me. In fact, it’s only 8pm and I’m already very sleepy. We’ve got The WAHMeo Workshop with Manila Workshops tomorrow, so it’s gonna be a big day. I should probably get to bed now. Haha!

Hope you’re looking forward to next week’s baon plan!

Baon Plan #3 Plus a Recipe for Italian Meatballs

July 16, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan Leave a Comment

I’m back with another baon plan, and this time I’m armed with more photos! Woohoo! So far I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback about the lunchbox meal plans I’ve been sharing, and because of this I really want to make an effort for this to become a regular thing on this blog. So thank you to you guys who actually read and comment and tell me that you like my food ideas. It means a lot, specially since I really am a newbie at this.

Okay, here’s what was on the baon menu on our third week of school, July week 1.

MONDAY
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Snack: Cereal and yogurt
Lunch: Pork adobo (the one that I marinated and froze)

Baon-1 — Let this baggie thaw in the refrigerator overnight

Baon-2 — Pick out the cloves of garlic coz you’ll wanna brown these in oil first before you throw everything else into the pot.

Baon-3 — Once the garlic has browned nicely, brown the meat then throw in the sauce and everything else that’s in the baggie and boil until the sauce is nice and thick.

TUESDAY
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Snack: Cheese muffin and peanut butter oatmeal bar (Recipe here. Made from Monday’s leftover cooked oats.)
Lunch: Chicken fingers

Cheesy Chicken Fingers from the Magnolia Chicken Station

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bar fresh from the oven

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast: Ham & cheese sandwich
Snack: Peanut butter oatmeal bar and banana
Lunch: Beef tapa and scrambled egg

Got this Beef Tapa recipe from my cousin

THURSDAY
Breakfast: Pancakes
Snack: Cereal and yogurt
Lunch: Minute steak and garlic butter sayote

My mom made the minute steak, I cooked the sayote

FRIDAY
Breakfast: Grilled PB&J
Snack: Cheese muffin and cracker sandwich
Lunch: Italian meatballs (Recipe here)

Baon-9 — I’d never made meatballs before, and it was much easier than I thought it would be. You just dump everything into a bowl and mix well.

Baon-10 — Then you shape everything into little balls and bake or fry. This is 1kg worth of beef meatballs.

I still have one container of meatballs in the freezer and I’m going to add them to my spaghetti sauce one of these days. Yum!

Next week’s meal plan is interesting because it’s from the week that I was sick. Half the time it was MrC doing the early morning cooking, so that next meal plan is something that anyone can do.

Baon Plan #2 + Things I Learned From Week 1

July 9, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 10 Comments

I’m back with another baon plan! *Happy dance*

I noticed though that I only have one post between last week’s lunchbox meal plan and this one. That seems to be a sure sign that I need to blog more often. How do I find the time to do that though? Well, Dainty Mom told me in this blog post that in order to find time to blog, you really need to make a deliberate decision to blog. As in you MAKE time for it. Yes, I firmly believe that she was speaking to me, please do not burst my bubble!

Today I am making time to blog about my second week in baon planning. For my friends abroad, baon, in Filipino, basically means something that you take with you. In this case, baon means packed lunch/snacks. Mmkay?

So, lessons learned first. Week two was not as tough as week one in the sense that it wasn’t that much of a struggle getting up at 5am anymore. But, like I often say, waking up and getting up is one thing. Functioning is another. To this, I am pleased to say that I have found an answer, and that is to have what I like to call a jump start routine. If this seems like common sense to you, well, to me it’s a whole new thing, and that’s why I seem overly excited over something that sounds so simple.

A jump start routine is basically something that you have to do everyday, as soon as you wake up. It’s such a regular and recurring thing that you don’t need to think about it much. To a certain degree it becomes a little bit mechanical. The logic behind this is that you actually start moving and getting things done while you are organizing your thoughts and figuring out what other things you need to do. That way, you don’t run around like a headless chicken, aimlessly going back and forth between the refrigerator and pantry collecting ingredients, with not much else getting done. Having a jump start routine buys me that extra time to think about my battle plan, so I make less trips back an forth from one area of the kitchen to another.

My jump start routine basically begins with sitting up right when my alarm goes off and NOT hitting the snooze button, no matter what. And then I follow these simple steps:

Wake up MrC and ask him to please get the coffee pot, rice cooker and frying pan which were left to dry overnight in our outside kitchen. Why do I need MrC to do that? Because honestly you can’t make me step out of the house before sunrise unless it’s to go straight into the car. That’s because we have a froggy friend who lives in one of the corners of our garden, and he likes to sing to me each morning. *Shudder*
While MrC is outside, take out all the pots and pans that I need for that morning.
Make coffee (unless MrC is in the mood to make it himself).
While the coffee is brewing, cook rice.

Once I turn the rice cooker on, I’m kind of already sure about what I need to get done and how I’m gonna do it. So yes, this whole jump start routine business really works.

Okay, moving on to the meal plan. On week two, I didn’t go to the supermarket until Thursday since we had so much food in the house. Oh, and I’ve decided to include breakfast in my menus since I do prepare it every day. Plus I think that anyone who can have breakfast on the table and a packed lunchbox ready by 6am is super, and deserves the recognition. Yes, I just complimented myself there.

Here’s what I managed to prepare on the last week of June using whatever we had in our fridge and pantry.

MONDAY
Breakfast: Pancakes
Recess: PB&J pancake (we had one left over from breakfast) and apple slices
Lunch: Steak with cheese sauce (prepared by Lola, left over from dinner the night before) and boiled corn kernels

TUESDAY
Breakfast: German franks and toast
Recess: Sandwich crackers and apple slices
Lunch: Chicken Drumettes (the Purefoods kind) with gravy

Wednesday's Breakfast — Wednesday’s Breakfast

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast: Grilled cheese pandesal
Recess: Two kinds of cereal (Little MrC loves munching on cereal)
Lunch: Breaded pork loin (1/3 of the pork I bought at the supermarket last week) and boiled carrots

Wednesday's Snack Attack — Wednesday’s Snack Attack

THURSDAY
Breakfast: Red Ribbon Mamon
Recess: Crumpy sandwich
Lunch: Pork tapa (the last of the pork from last week, click here for the recipe) and scrambled egg

FRIDAY
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Recess: PB&J Pandesal
Lunch: Rosemary chicken (which I marinated overnight) and potato wedges

I should really remember to take photos before I pack everything into the lunch bag, but sometimes you just forget. Oh well. There you have it, I’ll be back with another baon plan next week!

MrsC’s Tried and Tested Baon Plan #1

July 2, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 19 Comments

I wake up at 5am on weekday mornings and immediately head to the kitchen. I prepare breakfast for our family, and pack recess and lunch for my son. It’s a bit of a challenge figuring out what to make every day, especially where the packed meals or baon is concerned. Thing is, I really cannot falter because Little MrC’s grade level does not have access to the school canteen yet, and so he is stuck eating whatever he has in his lunchbox. So, I took this challenge head on from the moment school started, and I am now on my third week and doing okay so far.

I figured that I must not be the only mommy with meal planning woes. I’m also pretty sure that there are many early morning iron chef mamas out there who, like me, are in charge of making sure that their kids have a proper meal to eat in school each day. And so I’ve decided to share my weekly lunchbox meal plans, and also impart some kitchen wisdom in what worked, what didn’t and why. Sounds like a plan? Yes, a meal plan! Sorry, I know I’m too corny to function. Forgive me, I’ve been up since (you guessed it!) 5am.

Before you leave this page out of boredom from my corny jokes, I bring you MrsC’s Tried and Tested Baon Plan #1. This is what I packed for my son on the first week of school, which happened to fall on the third week of June.

MONDAY
Recess: Vjandep Pastel – First discovered in Cagayan de Oro, this time bought from Market Market.
Lunch: Purefoods Chicken Nuggets, boiled carrots and rice – Always a fave among the kiddies. Plus boiled carrots for added vitamins.

TUESDAY
Recess: PB&J Sandwich
Lunch: Breaded pork, corn & carrots, and rice – I used lomo (tenderloin) so it’s super soft.

WEDNESDAY
Recess: Strawberry Pop Tarts – Since we have a whole box from our Duty Free shopping spree.
Lunch: Pork adobo, banana and rice – My mom’s epic recipe. Best eaten with a ripe banana.

THURSDAY
Recess: Grilled Cheese Pandesal – Prepared in our trusty Big Boss Grill.
Lunch: Daing na bangus, chopsuey and rice – I buy the Century marinated and frozen bangus (milk fish). It’s pretty good and it’s boneless too.

FRIDAY
Recess: Voice Overload cracker sandwich and apple slices
Lunch: Tocino, scrambled egg and rice – I tried the CDO young pork tocino for the first time. It’s good for baon because it’s really soft.

So there you go! Hope you guys are able to get some ideas from this meal plan. Let me know if it helped you somehow. I’d love if you could share your meal plans and recipe ideas too. And please, come back next week, there’s more to look forward to then!