FoodBlog’s Packed Lunches: 5 Carb Lovin’ Lunches Powered by IPAK Bio 🥔
If you had the choice to eat either only protein or carbs for the rest of your life you’d probably rather dig a hole, bury yourself underground with your bare hands and ask a mate to cement it over. Just so you don’t have to face that terrible dilemma. Luckily, carbs and protein are BFFS so you don’t need to deprive yourself from either. 👍
This week though we’re shining a light on the carbiest of lunches with a faint feature from the good old proteins that we can’t get enough of. And to make sure our office lunches travel in style and in top grade security, we’re heading to our packaging favs Inserv for their IPAK Bio containers. So for this week’s series of FoodBlog’s Packed Lunches let’s take a look at the wonderful world of carbs:
IPAK Bio’s Large Container
The IPAK Bio container is perfect for those oddly shaped dishes or even meals like pasta, rice or noodles that require as much space as possible due to their ampleness. This week our highlight recipe will be packed in a large IPAK Bio box from Inserv as will another suggestion that is so inherently and classically Maltese. Let’s dive right in:
The Classic Ftira
The only thing more Maltese than a ftira is fenek or maybe pastizzi - but those beauts are best served hot, fresh and from the right sources; so we’ll bypass that and stick to an easily packed bready bite. 🇲🇹
The Maltese ftira is essentially the shape of the bread that we all know and love, but when you say “ahhh, you know what I feel like… a ftira!” you’re generally referring to the classic tuna, kunserva, olive and other bits combo. Right? Going the classic route is always a super option, and the moment you bite into your ftira you know exactly why you love it and why it was recognised by UNESCO as a heritage point for our islands. ❤️
Loading your ftira with ham and cheese, bajd u bejkin, egg mayo, pulpetti tal-corned beef, chicken or whatever other filling is by all means acceptable. In fact, sometimes it’s exactly what you want, but let’s be honest the tuna version is the elite on the list; if you’re a patriotic Teaser. 🏵️
Pork Stir Fry Noodles
This week our star recipe is going to be a quick and easy noodle dish. There are quite a few ingredients; all of which can be substituted for anything else lying in your fridge or on your fancy list of the day - but with this recipe you can get the gist on how to make a killer stir fry with the right balance of sweetness, spice, salt and texture - making sure your umami levels are A-OK. 👌
Pork Noodles in an Inserv IPAK Bio container ready for the office.
For this recipe we used pork, a bunch of veggies, wheat noodles and a crunchy topper to add some spark. We packed it in a large IPAK Bio box and counted down the hours to when we could dive in and make it disappear at lunch time. 🕐
The ingredients you'll need to make your Pork Noodles.
Ingredients:
Serves 2
- 2-3 slices of pork (get a fattier cut)
- 2-3 noodle nests
- ¼ head of cabbage
- 3 mushrooms
- 1 ½ mixed peppers
- 2 inches leek
- ½ zucchini
- 2 carrots, shredded as a topper (optional)
- 1 celery stick
- 3 spring onions
- 1tsp miso paste
- 1tbs okonomi sauce
- ½ cup kimchi
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2-3 dashes squid oil
- S&P
- 2 Large iPak Bio containers
Recipe:
- Your first step is to fry up your pork until your meat is nice and browned on either side. Make sure you keep your pork juicy, so watch your heat and cooking time. Splash in some soy sauce to start building the umami flavours. Remove from wok and set aside.
- While your pork is cooking, chop up all your veggies, it’s as simple as that. Chopping them to the same size will make your noodles a lot easier to pick up.
- As soon as the pork is done, into the same wok, chuck in the celery first as it does need more cooking time. Next you’ll add the mushrooms, leeks, peppers, marrows and garlic.
- At this point you can boil your noodles and add them to an ice-cold water bath to stop the cooking process. Dress your noodles with some sesame oil to avoid them from sticking together.
- To your veggie mix, add a miso solution by adding some boiling water to a teaspoon of miso paste. Mix the sauce with the veggies and add 1 tablespoon of okonomi sauce, mix thoroughly and add your noodles to the veggies.
- Give your wok a nice toss to incorporate the noodles into the mixture. Quickly chop some kimchi and add it to your noodles. Mix again and plate in your IPAK Bio container.
- Once you’re happy with the portion you set for yourself, top with sliced pork and some spring onions and some carrot shreds. Store in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.
The perfect container for the perfect carby lunch!
IPAK Bio’s 4-Part Container
Your 4-Part IPAK Bio container stock is great for your office lunch meals that require a little bit of assembly after re-heating. These next two dishes are great lunch time treats. One warm and comforting and the other fresh and just as rewarding! Here are 2 awesome dishes to try out this week:
Pizza with Parma Ham, Rucola and Parmigiano
Everyone loves this pizza combo. You can either go with the absolute Italian classic or mix it up with different toppings like mortadella, pistachio and mozzarella di bufola (all of which have their very own designated slot in your IPAK Bio container. 🍕
Store bought pizza dough is A-OK here. Of course if you do have time to make some yeasty homemade pizza dough, we’re all for it. But for the busy worker, the store bought rolls from your supermarket’s fridge just fine. Roll out your dough add a touch of olive oil and salt and layer some shredded mozzarella right onto the dough if you’re going for a bianca, and on the tomato sauce if it’s a standard rosso you’re after. 🍅
Bake your pizza, remove once the bottom of the dough is cooked and the cheese is irresistable. Cut into squares and pop them into the large segment of your IPAK Bio box. Fill the other sections with your toppers and store away in the fridge for your midnight snack, ohhh… I mean lunch. Yes, lunch, lunch. 🤤
Cheesy Jacket Potato
When your boss is nagging, your colleagues won’t turn down their Christmas 2021 playlist, all you want is a big hug from the inside to take you through the day without a massive freak out! Enter the potato. Nature’s quick fix to any situation. 🥳
These bad boys are best prepared when you’re making a roast for dinner. Jacket potatoes take quite some time to cook, boiling is a quick speed up trick that makes them fluffier. Don’t poke and prod at your potato before it hits the salted boiling bath though. Just let them rock it. 💡
After you parboil your potatoes, wrap them in foil with a knob of butter and some salt. Bake for about 45 minutes and check on them once or twice. Remove them from the oven and pack into your IPAK Bio box once cooked. Keep the foil on, but remember to remove before reheating in the micro-wavé. Add a LOT of cheese to one small container, some very finely sliced onions and either some sauteed mushrooms, tuna, beans, some leftover chilli, some shredded chicken - whatever floats your boat! ⛵
IPAK Bio’s 3-Part Container
You might think that you can avoid 3-Part containers altogether, and opt for their 4-Part cousins, but the 3-Parter gives you much more space in your smaller segments, so you can add more of what you’ve got on for lunch that day. This dish requires all the space you can get. You might be happy with 3 Large IPAK Bio containers… (we’re only kidding)! 🚀
Pie, Roasties and Peas
3-Part perfection comes in the form of a classic trio with an office-friendly twist. Pies, roasties and peas! You might want to substitute your roasties for mash, but the beauty of mash is serving it piping hot and buttery directly off the stove. A microwaved version is rather sad. 🥧
As for your pies, these guys are perfect meal prep material. Every time I make a roast chicken, I save the breast for a chicken and mushroom pie and the carcass for a chicken soup. I obviously smash the legs, wings and skin fresh out the oven. You can do the same with your beef or pork roast - maybe lamb too. Why not! Simply give the meat a lot of moisture in the roux and veggies that you pair it with. 🍗
Line a pie tin with some butter or olive oil, or use some baking paper and lay on the dough. Fill the base with your filling, cover it up with another thin dough layer, poke a few steam holes in there. Little bit of egg wash and bung it in the oven. Make single servings or a big beastly pie; it’s up to you. While you’re baking your pie; whip up some roasties with rosemary, garlic, olive oil and salt and boil some peas. Lunch is served. 🍴
That wraps up 2021’s FoodBlog Packed Lunches series, a quick and simple collection of recipes that are fun and versatile. There’s no need to worry about what to make for lunch anymore, and even less to worry about with Inserv’s IPAK Bio containers making everything so easy! 👋
Tune in next year for another series fo FoodBlog’s Packed Lunches powered by Inserv! 🥊
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