Purchases and Bentos in Sydney

Sorry for the lack of posts. The computer and the server took turns to be down, and then there were the bad storms and lightning most of the week. Can't believe we've been back a week already. My mom came to look after babylet while we were away, but apparently she didn't missed us at all. She's even got to calling my eldest sis mummy. And she definitely put on weight under grandma's care. Hmm, while I'm glad she adjusted well, she didn't have to adjust that well, huh?

Anyway, back to update on the Sydney trip. We stayed at BIL's apartment in Sydney. Being a bachelor's part time pad, the first thing we had to do is to stock up on some groceries and fresh milk for the kids. Bought things like salami sticks, various sausages and ham, roast beef, breadrolls, tortillas, some vegies and lots of fruits : strawberries, blueberries, pears, grapes, oranges and banana (as insisted by boylet). And sorrylah, Emily. I passed on the kangaroo meat, hehe…

Then we went Chinatown, and was surprised to find bento boxes and cutleries.
Boylet really wanted the monkey box, but the clasps were hard to open even for an adult, so he reluctantly took the doraemon box instead (I think Jo-N bought the same one in KL's Pavillion). As expected, girlet chose the sugarbunny box. Also bought two cutlery sets.

I had brought along two small bento boxes there, thinking of packing snacks for kids. But after purchasing two extra big bento boxes and so much groceries, decided to pack bento for some of the outings. Also cheaper to packlah, the exchange rate is crazy.

The first bento was for Taronga Zoo. As it was a whole day trip, had to pack more. The photo on top had fish fingers, chorizos, black pepper sausage, asparagus wrapped with roast beef and eggs.

The second photo had grapes, more eggs (wished I had egg moulds with me), and cocktail sausages.
The third photo was of the rolls : plain, sesame seed and poppy seed. The intention was to make hotdog, but the kids preferred to eat the sausages and bun separately. Surprisingly, Boylet loved the poppy seed ones.

The second bento was a snack bento. We went to Sydney Aquarium, which was just a walking distance away from BIL's apartment. We had lunch at a cafe at Darling Harbour and snacked on wonderfully sweet (and cheap) grapes, blueberries, strawberries and hardboiled eggs. Not shown are stick salami which the kids really enjoyed.Finally, a picnic bento which we had at Hyde Park while walking towards Australian Museum. Tortillas rolled with ham, turkey slices, roast beef, carrots, long beans, and asparagus. All different heights, haha, was in a hurry so just simply cut. The smaller boxes had seafood pasta left over from dinner the previous night – penne with fish for the boylet, and with prawns for girlet. For fruits, more of the grapes, strawberries, and blueberries. Also packed some small packs of crisps for snacks.

We finished most of the perishables in Sydney. Just brought back some fruits and lots of biscuits and chocolates (those flavours still not available in Cold Storage like cherry ripe, bounty, minties sweets, non-halal bacon biscuits). Not forgetting macadamia nuts (unsalted, salted, wasabe and abalone flavoured) and dried fruits (apple rings, pawpaw, and kiwifruit which are cheaper than those in CS here).

Also managed to satisfy the kids (or mine?) shaped pasta mania with the following. Firstly, boylet’s favourite dinosaur pasta – both mini and tricoloured. He was really excited when I bought these, and insisted on opening immediately until I explained that they needed to be cooked.

Next is nothing new. Alphabets and animal pasta except these are tri-coloured.
Was tempted to buy tinned shaped pasta all ready cooked, just need reheating. But didn’t want to risk having d’hubby nagging that they were too heavy to carry back. So bought packet alphabet noodles to try out. The photo below also show raisin & apricots packs, and stick salami snack.That's all, next post will be photos of the kids in Sydney.

Back from Sydney and Bento # 44

We're back, arrived late last night. D'hubby is shaking his head 'cos haven't finished unpacking, already checking blogs... hehe... Well, girlet and he are watching the Olympics closing ceremony.

We had enjoyed the trip. This was girlet's 4th trip to Sydney, but boylet's 1st. Poor babylet had to stay home as we didn't want to plan the trip around her naps. Turned out to be a blessing as it was the coldest winter in Sydney in 40 years. Boylet said he loved the cold weather. Yeah, he is such a sweaty boy. Anyway, will post pics soon (although super efficient -and obsessive- hubby has downloaded the pics, super procrastinator me need some time). Also have to take pics of my purchases from the supermarket. Yay!

Ending this post with a bento girlet had before the school break. Girlet loves glutinous rice, so cooked Lor Mai Fun for her. After steaming, used heart & star cookie cutters and clingwrap to shape the rice. There were chicken stuffed in the rice. Added two siumai, bought earlier, and half a ladyfingers stuffed with fishpaste. Fruits were heart & star shaped apples. Had to place the heart shaped cups upside down to fit in the box. Lastly, a pig shaped container of sweet sauce for dipping. Girlet ate everything except the ladyfingers. She ate the seeds though. Strange girl, she likes tomato without the seeds, and ladyfinger's seed without the ladyfingers.

School break

I've finally received my package from NST. Yay! But as next week will be school break for a week, no bento to pack. We'll also be away for the duration of the break - taking girlet and boylet to Sydney to visit BIL. My SIL will say I'm such an auntie because I'm really looking forward to go to the supermarket there. LOL!

Will post photos of my purchases from NST after the trip. Right now, I'd better finish packing. Have a good hols, for those concerned.

Bento # 42 and # 43- More leftovers

Had another mini celebration for babylet at her music class. Bought Dunkin Donuts' munchkins and mini shaped jellies to distribute to her classmates. Had a few leftover, which went into girlet's bento on Wed. On the left, 3 pieces of munchkins, car egg, and 2 pieces of nuggets. On the right were bear jelly, steamed corn with butter, cereals and tomato sauce. This is the first and last time she would be getting those coloured cereals. Although the kids loved them, I'm not too keen on the colouring.

Since school hols is next week, I'm not cooking anything new for bento. Instead focusing on clearing leftovers and frozen stash. So, dare I say this - another leftover bento. Poor girlet, she's getting leftovers all week.

Top container : Munchkins, squirrel shaped jelly and golden kiwi. Bottom container : Hello Kitty onigiri, but didn't want to open new packet of nori, so no face, just scattered with sakura denbu. Stewed soy sauce drumstick (I was thinking of you, Emily, when I packed this, hehe), and stir fried mixed vegies made up of carrots, sweetpeas, cauliflower and young lotus root.

Girlet had been having lotus root & peanut soup since young but didn't like the lotus root itself. When I saw some young lotus root at the wet market, decided to get that for stir frying. And girlet loved it, said it was crunchy and sweet. Yay! Another option for bento! Unfortunately, boylet and babylet refused to try it.

Bento # 41 - leftovers from babylet's party

Babylet's birthday party became an impromptu egg moulding session. Unfortunately didn't have the correct size egg on hand, (normally buy from the wet market as size M in supermarket is too small). Hence the fish egg turned out without a tail! But my friends all ooh and ahh over it. The quail eggs turned out better. A friend's fussy 2 yr old promptly ate them up. May have converted a few people to kawaiiness... haha.....
Bento 41 consisted mainly of leftovers from babylet's party only redressed. On the left were tulip shaped sausage, chicken meatballs halved and skewered with halved cherry tomato (with seeds scooped out per girlet's instruction), and tailless fish egg. On the right were heart shaped cheese and kaya sandwich, and heart shape layer cake. Beneath the layer cake was a mini croissant with cheese (got boylet to bite one end off to fit in the box). A banana completed the bento.

Bento # 39 and # 40

Bento # 39 consisted of tri-coloured spirals with ham, carrots, button mushrooms and cheese sauce, decorated with baby corn. For protein, baked honey chicken drumstick from the frozen stash. The top container had apples cut with a Winnie the Pooh cookie cutter, Pooh cookies made by girlet herself, and steamed baby carrots, baby corn and broccoli.

And I made cheese sauce for her pasta because thought she might be bored with tomato based sauces. But girlet only ate half of the pasta, and requested for tomato sauce the next time. Girlet said that the first thing she ate was the pooh biscuit because she made it. Maybe next time I'll get her to make cheese sauce herself so she'll eat it all up.

Bento # 40 is very simple. Udon with Hello Kitty fishcake, and steamed vegies. While I went to get the camera to take a shot of this bento, girlet and babylet 'stole' some of the fishcake and left only one piece. I took the pic anyway, which turned out to be a good move because after I cut more fishcake, and filled a sauce container with thousand island, girlet's transport to kindy arrived early. So stuffed everything into the bento bag together with a banana. I packed more vegies, and less of everything else as I thought she might be more inclined to eat vegies with fewer options. But the plan backfired with girlet eating barely half of the vegies. She'd rather go hungry. Sigh.....

Babylet turns 2!

Another milestone. The babylet is 2 years old.......no longer a baby.... sniff, sniff..... As per tradition, we had a mini celebration with my in-laws, dinner at a restaurant on Saturday. Babylet absolutely loved the attention. As well as her chocolate birthday cake.She has been practising blowing a whistle so she managed to blow out both candles at the first try. Here she is cutting the cake, with jiejie's help, while giving her 'camera smile'.
Had an actual party for her at home on Sunday. Didn't think to take photo of the food.... until now. Oh well, she didn't eat anything as she was too busy running around playing with other kids. What she'll remember is her birthday cake - a doggy ice-cream cake. Singing birthday song again. After the 'trial run' the previous night, she can now sing at the top of her voice.
Look who is so pleased with her new dolly.

Happy Birthday, darling!

Baking cookies

Made cookies the previous week with the kiddoes. Yes, yes, I know. I'm totally backlogged. But blogging is supposed to be fun and not pressurising. Hehe.... another excuse for procrastination. Back to topic, we had fun, too much fun that we forgot to take photos except for this in the beginning. Girlet holding the mixer, with boylet looking on. The real fun began after the dough had chilled in the fridge.

Boylet asked : Mummy, I want more playdoh please?

Me : This is not playdoh. It is real cookie dough.

Boylet : Then can I have more cookie playdoh, please?

Well, that's exactly what they did, play with it like playdoh. Boylet kept dusting his portion with flour, that his dough were harden and i'm sure unedible, overwork as it is. Anyway, just dumped them after he had his fun. He did made a few cookies with his before-turned-lumpy dough. Girlet did a better job, obviously. At least the surface of her cookies were smooth. Here's the photo of what they made. No prizes for the correct guess of which cookie belonged to whom.

Bento # 38

Round of applause, please. Doesn't this bento look absolutely beautiful?

Hehe..... this bento was from some time ago. Didn't post earlier as the bento was kind of a visual disaster. Had wanted to make a flower quail egg. It was fine as I cut it, but when transferring from the cutting board to the bento box, the yolk crumbled. Also tried to cut the sotong balls into a flower, probably not enough petals, or not enough space because they did not open up nicely. I tug at the sotong ball and the egg went lopsided. I rearrange the egg and the sotong ball clamped up again. After too much time of poking and prodding, finally got fed up. I quickly took a photo, thinking that this was another not-good-enough-to-post bento. They've been plenty. Then while playing around with this presentation, thought of salvaging this photo, because I did like the colours. The rubik cube did a good job in covering the flaws. I want to stress that tastewise, it was a winner as girlet cleaned the bento box. Hehe... did that sound a tad defensive?

Oops, almost forgot. This bento had white rice drenched with sauce, prawnball, sotong ball, quail egg, flower shaped carrots and part of a mandarin orange.

Bento # 37

Bento # 37 consisted of maki, with crabstick and egg fillings; inari with rice, egg and QP mayo-the slight saltiness of this mayo balance out the sweetness of the inari, although did rinse to reduce the sweetness; eggroll with crabstick; edamame; crabmeat on stick, and dragonfruit.

Girlet had the task of cutting shapes with the dragonfruit. She chose heart and star shapes. After finish cutting, she said "Now I can relak jack". I glanced at her, surprised by her choice of words. She saw the glance and said "Daddy taught me all the wrong things, is it?" Well, I did think of that, but didn't know she was perceptive enough to get it from one glance. So I gave a slight laugh. She responded "Why you laugh? I'm very cute, is it?". And there you are : a wordless conversation on my part. Moral learned : Never underestimate your kid!

Bento # 36 - more pita bread

Had pita bread for the second day running. Just with different fillings. D'hubby's snack was made with tuna mayo and parsley flakes. Didn't have time to take photo as he left earlier than usual for work. Just as well since it was a boring though practical bento.

I put in more effort into girlet's bento. She had her pita bread with egg mayo cum parsley flakes. Other things included a fish shaped egg, steamed baby carrots, baby corn with grapes hat, more grapes, and a piece of layer cake.
Don't you just love this presentation? I copied it from Emily's blog. Check out here and here for other cool presentations. Doesn't her bento make you drool?

Chinese primary school?

I've finally received the letter confirming the allocated primary school for girlet. Still in a dilemma whether to send her to a chinese school as both d'hubby and myself were not chinese educated. In fact we're 2nd generation of non-chinese educated people. What we like about chinese school is of course learning mandarin, the discipline, and supposedly better teachers (compared to the kebangsaan schools). Also more affordable than private schools, which she'll probably attend in secondary school. But we're worried that she can't cope, or we can't help with her homework.... don't even know half of what she's learning now in kindergarden. Have to formally enrol her by end of the month. Would appreciate if any experienced mothers share your thoughts.

Bento # 35 - pita bread

Bought pita bread for a change. Since d'hubby didn't want to be anti-social and eat lunch by himself in the office, offered to make him a mid-morning snack instead. His pita bread was filled with ham, bacon, cheese and carrots. No lettuce because ran out, and no tomatoes because he won't eat them.... hehe. There was some space in the bento box, hence added in a piece of Layer Cake which he bought from Jakarta. Was going to cut some papayas too, when he commented "Is this for snack or lunch? Why so much?". So left it as it was. Girlet's bento had pita bread as well, but only half. The other half I had for breakfast with the same ingredients as d'hubby's. For girlet's bento, instead of ham & bacon, I shredded some leftover chicken cooked with 'kicap manis' or sweet sauce, then topped with cheese and carrots. Quartered the pita bread to fit in the box. There were some extra chicken, so packed into a silicon cup. Also added 3 quail eggs shaped as bunny, chick and car, cubed cream cheese, mini steamed chocolate cupcake and papaya. Some smiley faces fruit & vegie dividers kept the food apart.
Experimenting taking pics of the bento box from different angles. Did this photo look too congested? How about from the top? Which photo do you prefer?

I'm Shortlisted!!!

Well, this is old news. I didn't think of writing until I saw everyone else had blogged about it. Yup, I'm referring to Bento Pet's bento competition. I've entered and surprise, surprise, was actually shortlisted....... what an honour, especially after seeing the fantastic bentos that was shortlisted. *blush* A bit 'paiseh' also to have mine posted next to theirs.

Bento Pet has put up a poll for votes to be casted. The one with the most votes will be announced the winner on Friday. So please hop over to Bento Pet's blog to vote - poll at sidebar - for me, if possible..... I'm not expecting or even think that I qualify to win, but like fellow finalist allthingspurple said, very embarassing to get "zero" vote, lah. Thanks, I'm a new blogger.... 7 weeks old now....... and not many friends in the blogsphere...... so any vote is appreciated.