Crisp salad, every time! Prewash your own salad.

You will need:

Your prefered salad leaves

Herbs you enjoy

A salad spinner, for crisp veggies.

Vegetable washing solution

• (try 1tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar, and 1 cup cold water in a spray bottle. There are other varriants of vinegar, lemon juice, and basking soda wash recipies available on the net.)

Procedure:

1. Wash

• Spray the leafy veg with your vegetable wash.
• leave for 3-5 min
• rinse off or soak (if carrots or potatoes, they take a while)
• let drain in a colander for 1-2 min.

2. Spin

• When the cleaning agent has been washed off, place your leaves in a salad spinner and spin.
• This is crucial for good salad, the veg will absorb the excess water that doesnt drip off and will be soggy if you dont spin it.

3. Chill & Store

• Line a container with a paper towel (use PET plastic or PET density varriants, glass or BPA free plastic please, unless you want plastic toxins and chemicals seeping into your food)
• Keep chilled in your refridgerator's crisper (the bottom pull out bin).

It should keep a week. and you took care of the hassle ahead of time.

And thats it, easy 1-2-3 your own stock of nutritional veg, waiting for mealtimes. Just take the hassle out of the way ahead of time.

Be sure to use unwashed, fresh, loose (non-vaccum sealed) packed leafy veggies. Usualy i wash a couple packages at the same time, since its just Mr. Catfish and I this lasts us a week to a week and a half. You can definitely adjust this amount to three packages (for 3-4 people, 2 salads a day for 3-5days) or five (for 6 people and above 2 salads a day for 3 days). The amount you make really depends on how much your family or guests like salad.

I like leafy lettuce and aragula, if i'm bored with it i add some fresh basil or rosemary to the wash bin. You can serve it as is leaves and herb with some dressing or add more veg to it. Sometimes I add cucumber, olives and capers or onions to it before serving. Try your own combo of leaves and herbs and tell us about it!

Check out making your own salad dressing.

Why pre-bagged salad is bad for you.

Bagged leafy veg is misconceived as healthy for you when it's actually toxic! Many of the mass produced conveniently bagged salads are pre-washed, thats why they are so convenient. You aren't told though that the veg is washed in chlorine. Doesn't sound so bad? It's a helpful chemical for cleaning and home maintenance. Remember you use it to kill microbes and keep the bugs out - which die when they get into chlorinated water. Chlorinated water also kills plants, so how would it affect you? Chlorine is a poison, the gas of which was also used in warfare as a poison.

The best way to support services you appreciate or want to see more of is to put your money into it. Economically speaking if people do not buy an item, the item will either lower in price or no longer be sold, however if people buy the item it will be made more available. Lets support smaller non commercialized and sustainable buys from companies that care about the consumer's wellbeing.

So the next time you see a bag of salad... just say no.

SM Organics

Stumbling into SM supermarket's organic section was a pleasant surprise. SM organics are priced well for organics and depending on the item it can be anywhere from a third to half the price of its counter part at Rustance fresh. Rustance produce keeps longer and is isn't as shocked by the change of temperatures during transport. Some of my SM organic section purchases have had a bit of spoiling or partial softening, but you can cut it right off and keep the extra savings.

They have carrots, cucumber (both white and green, the white is just a bit sweeter and crisper), bell peppers, celery, cherry tomatoes, squash cabbage, chinese cabbage, broccoli, baby corn, and lemon grass. The produce is affordably priced - the baby corn and squash is at just 17 pesos, two pieces of carrots or a bundle of celery is 20 plus pesos, a bundle of three cucumbers of either variety is 50 pesos and so on.

There is a bit more than that, but off the top of my head thats what I remember. There are herbs and bagged salad leaves right after it. Don't get tricked by bagged salads though! (more on this in the next post). There are several publications that have discussed the "dirty dozen" and its clean counterparts. Most of the dirty dozen is made available at the SM grocery stores.

Check out the dirty dozen.

SM Beef and Bento #3: Burger steak, penne bolognese, with rice and veggies

The bolognese sauce was the winner in this batch. Its easier to make pasta in large batches and just freeze the extra for the rest of the month. I added a tea spoon of herbs de provence to it and it was amazing! I got my herbs de provence from Healthy Options in Shang ri-la mall. Its a bit pricey since its organic but i think its worth it, P550 (about $12) for a bottle that lasted me a year. The also have pre-ground black pepper, its in an orange bottle and its very good too! its only P220 (about $5-6) but organic produce makes so much of a difference in flavor and health benefits.

I packed in a lot more treats than i usually do since i wanted to try a couple of new products. The meat i used is ground beef from SM super market, whil i was cooking flys were attracted to food near the meat but not the meat itself. This was not something i liked, since it probably means that the meat is GMO or genetically modified. GM foods have been linked to organ failures and a whole other pleathora of health issues so suffice to say i wont be getting ground beef from SM anymore. Dont get me wrong, they have some good products and are afford-ably priced. But affordable now, can be a long term stay in the hospital much later on in life.

Compartment a:

Plain rice, Soy rice and strawberry rice with carrots and ham. a strawberry and soy and mayo containers.

Compartment b:

Mini-Hamburger steaks

Penne bolognese

cauliflower, snow peas, carrots

mini- cupcake

a piece of candy

Bento #2: tonkatsu with vegetable rice and soup

For this bento:

My goal here was to make a nutritious meal for my guy and bentos cheer him up a lot. I tried to sneak in as many veggies as i can by adding string beans, and i used the water broccoli was blanched in to cook the rice. Traditionally for man-bentos you put the rice in the larger compartment. Here i used the smaller compartment for rice, so it has less calories. For a little treat, i added a shortbread pie i got from choto shop on sale! it was only 10 pesos! thats about $.20. It was really tasty and i wish i bought more now.

I got the tonkatsu from the SM Mega Mall supermarket, it was about 10 pesos per tonkatsu. I was quite disappointed with this buy. The breading didn't have enough seasoning (pepper in particular) and the meat is so thin! I have six left in the freezer and i really don't want to touch them.

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Bento break down:

Compartment a:

Brown and red rice with broccoli, broad beans, and salmon furikake.

Compartment b:

Tonkatsu strips

Boiled egg

Spaghetti with Japanese mayo and cherry tomato

Cauliflower and bell peppers.

Soup bowl:

nilagang baka (boiled beef with saba bananas, cabbage and potatoes)

Bento #1: broccoli rice,tuna soboro, chicken curry, egg salad, Green tea furikake, Brocolli and red peppers

Bento 1:

• Mixed broccoli rice (3 parts Japanese rice, 1 part brown rice)
• Chicken curry with carrots.
• Tuna soboro.
• Nori, ham and cheese decoration.

Bento2:

• Broccoli "water sautéed" with garlic and red bell pepper
• Cherry tomato
• Egg salad
• Apple bits
• Green Tea Furikake (the bottle with a yellow cap)
• Soy sauce (the bottle with a pink cap)
• Chili paste (in a monkey case)
• Japanese mayo (in a monkey case)

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This is my second attempt at a kawaii bento. My guy liked it -he said the egg went well with everything and he felt really healthy and energized after. I think there is still something missing though.

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Credits:

Tuna soboro and furikake recipes are from Maki of justbento.com

She has alot of good resources there for any aspiring bento maker. She doesn't focus on chyraben or kawaii bento, but has alot of recipes, health facts, and bento making information.

Go have a look: http://justbento.com/

Food picks, Silicone cups, Bottles, bentos: bought from Saizen (Robinsons Galleria and Trinoma)