[Kaxiyu]

A lot of people I know buy their lunches or has their parents prepare them. I'm just wondering what you guys do for school lunches.

Typically I have my parents prepare them for me, but when I feel like cooking, I pull out my Tamagoyaki pan and make a bento that's a little more complicated to what everyone is used to. This usually I cook these the night before or make them in the wee-hours of the morning at 4 AM.




I made this one on the first day of school way back in September. The first container (on the right) had a Mini-onigiri and some failed attempts at rolled sandwiches (I had no idea I needed to make my own bread for the sandwiches ; ; )

That container though wasn't the star attraction as much as my "mini-rice omlettes" that were featured in the container next to it.

I was kind of sad to eat it after it had gone cold in my bag. It smelled really good while I was cooking it...

Now my friend left her lunchbox next to my stuff when the bell rang today. I didn't want to see it ignored, so I took it home, washed it, then decided to make a lunch for her.




I can't show you the results of it because I'm just getting the ingredients ready for it. I probably will take pictures of the finished product but I'm not sure, so I'll just put the pictures of the food I'm preparing ahead of time. In the corner to the top right are some molded boiled eggs in the shape of stars and hearts.

The metal bowl has two eggs, which will ultimately become tamagoyaki. The strange clear brown concoction below it is the liquid mixed in with the eggs to give it it's sweet taste (which is a mix of dashi soup stock, sugar and soy sauce; the recipe for the sweet liquid had been cut in half so the sweet taste isn't overpowering, I'm not sure if my friend likes sweet eggs)

You can see a package of smokies in the picture, which I cut using that odd red thing on the cutting board and a small knife. The red thing is an octopus cutter. I had one for a flower as well but we didn't have any hotdogs... So octopus smokies will do...

The smokies that are to-be-cut for tomorrow's lunch are in the freezer while cut ones I already had, I fried and ate them... I was hungry! ^^;;;




Here's a shot of the molds used for the eggs in a basin of water with my lunchbox from today to be washed (you can see a sponge floating in there lol). They aren't very big, just about the size of your palm.

The final lunchbox should have all the things above as well as some rice (either I'll make the rice into mini-onigiri or I'll do something different)


Obviously, not everyone goes through all the work I do to make lunches like this. I'm just curious though, after seeing all the lunches my friends had, what everyone else did.


Do you buy lunch? Do you bring your own? Or you have your parents pack it for you?? What do you do?

[bob]

When I was in high school, both of my campuses had an open campus, so I went to Subway or the regular grocery store most of the time. During wresting season, I would just eat half of a protein bar. Mooching works too.

[jasperchoi]

Whoa.

[kitaek27]

Yeah most of us eat the 4 pieces of rubbery "chicken" we get along with the undersized apples it comes with.

I actually did a research for a class for high school lunches.
About 80% or more of the students buy lunch from school rather than packing their own.

I have heard of really fancy rich schools giving actually decent food, but this was our school's menu.

1. Main course. Usually something along the lines of a hotdog, slice of pizza, or like I mentioned above, chicken nuggets.

They're usually too small to fill.

2. Juice or Milk. In those little cartridges.

3. Side. Like fruit or something. Oh god, the applesauce. Sometimes, they're so watery that you could drink it. And sometimes, you could flip the bowl upside down and nothing would fall.

Everything else is "optional" and costs you like 5 dollars.

You, are VERY lucky to have such a very nice lunch.

4AM? My god. Thats like, when I go to sleep.

Most homepacked lunches don't go very far from your average ham sammich either. I haven't seen anything too impressive.

Having been in college for a month now... I'm actually missing my original oriental foods.

Originally Posted by bob

When I was in high school, both of my campuses had an open campus, so I went to Subway or the regular grocery store most of the time. During wresting season, I would just eat half of a protein bar. Mooching works too.

I think there was some debates done over this whole issue.
Wrestling in highschool has turned into an anorexia class.

My friends would always sit there talking about how hungry they are but wouldn't allow themselves to eat anything.

[bob]

Originally Posted by kitaek27

I think there was some debates done over this whole issue.
Wrestling in highschool has turned into an anorexia class.

My friends would always sit there talking about how hungry they are but wouldn't allow themselves to eat anything.

Yep, pretty much. I was lucky though, because my weight class was actually close to my natural weight, rather than having to lose some 15+ pounds, I just had to not let myself gain any. Kinda funny actually, I spent the whole summer training to bulk up to the next weight class, but ended up actually losing weight and went down a class.

If only it weren't a winter sport, it would be easier to bear.



On-topic: As a college student, I'm eating ramen and hot pockets. With ramen, I cut up some hotdogs and romain lettuce into it with a Centrum vitamin on the side. Awesome.

[Qwanz]

School lunch.

A Grille Line, a Sub line, a Pizza line, a Mexican line, a Comfort line, and a Bakery line.

The "Grille" line, is what you'd expect, fries with too little salt on them, and chicken that can be questionable about the taste.

The Sub line and Pizza line are obvious. The pizza line has calzones and extra bread sticks that beat the wheat one you get- very stiff. Sub line always makes me want more food since it never fills me.

The comfort line is like the casual school line, each day is different and listed on a schedule. The cheapest line I think, and it has some good food.

The bakery line has salads, cookies, cookies with whip cream in between them, etc.

The Mexican line has nachos, and sometimes Macaroni and cheese. They have each name above each line. I really hate the name choice for this selection.

The Grille and bakery line basically have a special each day of the week. The grille line has a chicken sandwish (Clux Delux...I didn't name it, I just never eat it ) and the bakery line has a fudge brownie with ice cream.

You can buy a whole pizza for $10.00 in the pizza line.

[Notakun]

I have nothing to eat, but wood and bad water...

Lol, joking. Just a Wrap and an apple... that is it

[Kaxiyu]

Yeah. Most kids buy the lunches but some of my friends who are really into the whole "Western Otaku" thing tend to pack their own lunches. They typically contain leftovers from the nigh before. No one really triest to make anything fancy like I do.

I just think it's fun to make lunches.

After I looked into what cafeteria food and lunch lines served, I refused to buy anything other than drinks and maybe a dessert from the lunch line. The school serves pretty decent cookies, although they have a little too much sugar in my opinion.

For some reason, they quit selling individual cartons of milk... I usually bought milk for a drink. Now it's just Gatorade and Powerades or whatever "ade" there is for sale. It's either that or some really icky flavored water that is better if it's just plain water or with tons of added sugar D=

I sleep at midnight usually. At the latest, 2 AM. If I'm still up at 3, I get yelled at by my parents. >>

[kitaek27]

Yeah I'm too lazy to eat anything other than what I'm given.
Making my own food?
Beh. If it doesn't have "microwave" and "add water" its not something I'd put the effort into.

[bob]

I'm curious though, how do those hard boiled egg molds work? Seems like high potential to be messy.