Lisa, in conjunction with her 100th bento for daughter, Maisie, is giving away this fantastic set of bento things. So hop over here for more details of the giveaway.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Bentos # 117 - 122 : Bread bentos
More backdated bentos. And the bentos are no longer in chronological order since I messed up the timeline. So I'm grouping them by contents. I try to pack food in a rotating order centering on bread, rice, noodles, onigiri, pasta. Hopefully, that'll provide a variety in taste. Anyway, today I'm posting all the bread bentos for Girlet in Feb. All Speed Bentos, made within 15 minutes.
Bento #117 - Kaya sandwich with white and wholemeal bread. Added two chicks and a cheese dog chasing a cheese cat, and some grapes (no vege, so cheated with green picks *_*). First use of the red Hello Kitty box.
Bento # 118 - Egg mayo sandwich, red & orange cherry tomatoes, moulded quail eggs and a cheese cube.
Bento # 119 - Pooh bear sandwiches (can't remember now what filling they were), mini mandarin (which put this into early Feb when the mini mandarin were still sold), and grapes. Didn't pack any protein as Girlet was getting fried eggs and sausages in school. 
Bento # 120 - Mini poppy seed bun (again forgot what filling) with My Melody cheese, stewed oyster sauce drumnet, and grapes. This was one of the few bentos that I made decorations with cheese, since they melt in our hot weather. 
Bento # 121 - Butterfly sandwiches, nuggets and red dragonfruit cut with butterfly cutter. Girlet decorated the butterfly with pink food marker to match the dragonfruit. 
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Backdated Bentos # 115 & 116 - Pokemon
Pokemon pasta is every boy's favourite, at least at my boy's kindy. Suddenly, my boy decided that bringing bento to school was cool. I even had other mummies calling me to ask where to buy the Pokemon box and pasta as their boys went home requesting for the same.
Unfortunately, the Pokemon bento box was too small to fit all these in. So I used another box instead. Another justification for this recent purchase (among others) from MarketPlace. With two levels, it can pack more than the Pokemon box above. For snack bento, I will just use one layer. Boylet is absolutely thrilled with this.
Pics copied from Market Place. Thanks Chooi Peng.
Bento #115 : Pokemon pasta in cheese sauce, mini chocolate muffin, grapes and cubed cheese.
In Boylet's current favourite bento box.
For Bento #116 : Decided to be more ambitious and make a Pikachu sandwich as well (Boylet is more a bread person than rice). I used the Pikachu rice mould to cut out the shape on bread, and tried to cut the features as closely to the mould as possible. Made this for boylet's lunch (another replacement class right after kindy) so had plenty of time.
Contents : Pikachu strawberry jam sandwich (features were also stuck on with jam), pokemon pasta with carbonara sauce (in container under the bread), a crabmeat-on-stick and chicken nugget.
In Boylet's current favourite bento box.
For Bento #116 : Decided to be more ambitious and make a Pikachu sandwich as well (Boylet is more a bread person than rice). I used the Pikachu rice mould to cut out the shape on bread, and tried to cut the features as closely to the mould as possible. Made this for boylet's lunch (another replacement class right after kindy) so had plenty of time.
Contents : Pikachu strawberry jam sandwich (features were also stuck on with jam), pokemon pasta with carbonara sauce (in container under the bread), a crabmeat-on-stick and chicken nugget.Unfortunately, the Pokemon bento box was too small to fit all these in. So I used another box instead. Another justification for this recent purchase (among others) from MarketPlace. With two levels, it can pack more than the Pokemon box above. For snack bento, I will just use one layer. Boylet is absolutely thrilled with this.
Pics copied from Market Place. Thanks Chooi Peng.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Backdated Bentos : # 112 - # 114
I finally processed the photos from the camera. So here's some bentos from early February.
Bento # 112 : Tried making Yaki Onigiri for Girlet. While wrapping the seaweed around the onigiri, thought that it looked like a bandit. Duly added eyes, as if the bandit was eyeing the food in the box. Jokingly told Girlet to quickly eat up her food during recess before the bandit attacked, and she scoffily replied "then I'll eat him up first". She must have thought her mother is not too bright. LOL!
Bento # 113 : Made same day as above..... identified by the maki. Must be on a Wednesday then as this was Boylet's lunch before going to replacement music class straight after kindy. Boylet had to eat in the car, so I added easy to eat food like nuggets and sausages. Even cut them up to save eating time. The monkey container held icing sugar for the strawberries, to be eaten after the class.
Bento # 114 : I had earlier made mini onigiris with the 100 yen shop's moulds - cubes and face shapes - for freezer stash. When I was making this bento, decided that mini onigiri took too much time to decorate. So after steaming, remoulded three of the mini onigiri into one bear face. Yup! I'm that lazy.... one face to decorate is more than enough early in the morning. And picks were easy way to jazz up the fishballs. Had I not remembered the ribbons cut earlier (from lunch sheet) in the fridge, the sweet and sour minced pork would have remained unadorned too. The bear container with soy sauce turned out to be ornamental, as Girlet didn't use the extra flavouring.
Bento # 112 : Tried making Yaki Onigiri for Girlet. While wrapping the seaweed around the onigiri, thought that it looked like a bandit. Duly added eyes, as if the bandit was eyeing the food in the box. Jokingly told Girlet to quickly eat up her food during recess before the bandit attacked, and she scoffily replied "then I'll eat him up first". She must have thought her mother is not too bright. LOL!
Bento # 113 : Made same day as above..... identified by the maki. Must be on a Wednesday then as this was Boylet's lunch before going to replacement music class straight after kindy. Boylet had to eat in the car, so I added easy to eat food like nuggets and sausages. Even cut them up to save eating time. The monkey container held icing sugar for the strawberries, to be eaten after the class. Bento # 114 : I had earlier made mini onigiris with the 100 yen shop's moulds - cubes and face shapes - for freezer stash. When I was making this bento, decided that mini onigiri took too much time to decorate. So after steaming, remoulded three of the mini onigiri into one bear face. Yup! I'm that lazy.... one face to decorate is more than enough early in the morning. And picks were easy way to jazz up the fishballs. Had I not remembered the ribbons cut earlier (from lunch sheet) in the fridge, the sweet and sour minced pork would have remained unadorned too. The bear container with soy sauce turned out to be ornamental, as Girlet didn't use the extra flavouring. Tuesday, March 17, 2009
What we've been doing
Life had been so much on the go, that sitting down to write/ blog seemed like a chore. But in conjunction with school hols, it's time for me to slow down, recollect my thoughts and reflect over the past two and a half months.
Since Girlet began Primary 1 in a Chinese School, I've been studying Mandarin too. Good news is my reading vocab has increased by 200% (which is not difficult since I could only recognise less than 30 words before *>^ ). Still confused with similar looking words though. Girlet is doing very much better than me, and actually asked me "Why you learn so slow?". Hmmph!
She is certainly adapting very well to Chinese school. She does her work very fast, and often finishes her homework in school so she'll have more playtime at home. Her problem is writing too fast, so the handwriting is messy like 'cakar ayam'. What is shocking is the amount of time or lack of that they spend on English - two half-hour sessions a week. Apparently they thought with Maths and Science in English, that is sufficient time allocated on English. And what they are teaching is so basic, things that she already knew 2, 3 years ago. I almost wept at the poor standard. But then, the purpose of sending her to Chinese school is to learn mandarin. We can work on English at home, we certainly can't work on mandarin at home. So we'll just soldier on.....
For Boylet, we've been working on his reading. I didn't post last year that his teacher (now ex) thought he was dyslexic. Anyway, I went around contacting Dyslexic programs and none wanted to take him as he was too young to be diagnosed. In a panic, I switched him to another kindy, one that will work on capturing his interest and motivation instead. He still struggles with phonics.... (which I don't actually understand either.... English is so unphonetical!!). So left that for his new kindy which is using Jolly phonics, while we concentrate on whole word recognition (supplementing his tuition using the Oxford Tree Program). We have to get him reading by this year as next year he'll be off to Chinese Kindergarten, where they only concentrate on Mandarin and neglect English. It's a Do or Die situation..... sense my desperation?! The good news is he is recognising some words now. What he's good at are numbers, puzzles and mazes. So I bought him plenty of workbooks in these area for him to practise and to build up his confidence.
I've started some homeschooling for Babylet.... didn't buy any materials, just made use of the ample books and materials accumulated over the last 7 years. Other than reading, Babylet had been busy cutting with scissors, pasting, drawing, tracing..... all working on fine motor skills and pre-writing skills. She enjoys what she called 'homework', mimicking what the Jiejie and Korkor are doing. In fact when I'm supervising the older ones with their homework, she would come and insist on doing homework too.
On lighter note, we've done some baking. Made these in my eldest sis' house using those cute Wilton silicon cups I got d'Hubby to buy in US last year. The kids gobbled these up in no time.
Also tried my hands on icing. Can see that I am in need of more practice. The buttercream was also way too sweet. We're so used to fresh cream. Anyone got a nice icing recipe that's not sweet, yet can be piped and retain shape?
Yours truly has also been embarking on some, ahem, self improvement programs. Was inspired by the passion in music shown in the Japanese drama, Nodame Cantabile, and decided to take up piano again. See, good things come out from watching drama *_^. (That, by the way, is an excellent show, highly recommended for the wonderful classical music it contained). So instead of surfing bento sites, I've been surfing sites providing free piano scores recently. Current favourite song to play is Fairytale (Tonghua) by Michael Wong. Started learning it in the original key of F# major, which was a real killer with all the sharps. After much searching and begging (on youtube), am so glad to find the transposed version at G Major. So anyone wants the score, just let me know. The upside of my playing piano is that every time I want to practise, the kids would clamour to play too.
Also been trying to read more 'intellectual' books instead of chit lits. Finished 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet' by Salman Rushie back in January. Currently reading 'Midnight's Children' by the same author. Yup, I borrowed it because it won the 'Best of Bookers' last year. Shallow reason, huh? I usually finish a chit lit in 1 or 2 days, but been taking forever with this book.
The only thing that I still can't get going is the exercise regimen. With SIL's wedding in Nov, I must, must get in shape by then. Sigh!
Enough rambling. Will try to post bentos next. I had been packing bento every school/work day, the kids and hubby had to eat after all. But speed bentos are just not as interesting to post without interesting food. Didn't even bother to take pics of some of them. But doesn't mean the frenzy is dying off, otherwise wouldn't splash on more bento stuff from CP(new link here), and 100 yen shops (see Bentopet and Emily's accounts). And that's another post.
Since Girlet began Primary 1 in a Chinese School, I've been studying Mandarin too. Good news is my reading vocab has increased by 200% (which is not difficult since I could only recognise less than 30 words before *>^ ). Still confused with similar looking words though. Girlet is doing very much better than me, and actually asked me "Why you learn so slow?". Hmmph!
She is certainly adapting very well to Chinese school. She does her work very fast, and often finishes her homework in school so she'll have more playtime at home. Her problem is writing too fast, so the handwriting is messy like 'cakar ayam'. What is shocking is the amount of time or lack of that they spend on English - two half-hour sessions a week. Apparently they thought with Maths and Science in English, that is sufficient time allocated on English. And what they are teaching is so basic, things that she already knew 2, 3 years ago. I almost wept at the poor standard. But then, the purpose of sending her to Chinese school is to learn mandarin. We can work on English at home, we certainly can't work on mandarin at home. So we'll just soldier on.....
For Boylet, we've been working on his reading. I didn't post last year that his teacher (now ex) thought he was dyslexic. Anyway, I went around contacting Dyslexic programs and none wanted to take him as he was too young to be diagnosed. In a panic, I switched him to another kindy, one that will work on capturing his interest and motivation instead. He still struggles with phonics.... (which I don't actually understand either.... English is so unphonetical!!). So left that for his new kindy which is using Jolly phonics, while we concentrate on whole word recognition (supplementing his tuition using the Oxford Tree Program). We have to get him reading by this year as next year he'll be off to Chinese Kindergarten, where they only concentrate on Mandarin and neglect English. It's a Do or Die situation..... sense my desperation?! The good news is he is recognising some words now. What he's good at are numbers, puzzles and mazes. So I bought him plenty of workbooks in these area for him to practise and to build up his confidence.
I've started some homeschooling for Babylet.... didn't buy any materials, just made use of the ample books and materials accumulated over the last 7 years. Other than reading, Babylet had been busy cutting with scissors, pasting, drawing, tracing..... all working on fine motor skills and pre-writing skills. She enjoys what she called 'homework', mimicking what the Jiejie and Korkor are doing. In fact when I'm supervising the older ones with their homework, she would come and insist on doing homework too.
On lighter note, we've done some baking. Made these in my eldest sis' house using those cute Wilton silicon cups I got d'Hubby to buy in US last year. The kids gobbled these up in no time.
Also tried my hands on icing. Can see that I am in need of more practice. The buttercream was also way too sweet. We're so used to fresh cream. Anyone got a nice icing recipe that's not sweet, yet can be piped and retain shape?Yours truly has also been embarking on some, ahem, self improvement programs. Was inspired by the passion in music shown in the Japanese drama, Nodame Cantabile, and decided to take up piano again. See, good things come out from watching drama *_^. (That, by the way, is an excellent show, highly recommended for the wonderful classical music it contained). So instead of surfing bento sites, I've been surfing sites providing free piano scores recently. Current favourite song to play is Fairytale (Tonghua) by Michael Wong. Started learning it in the original key of F# major, which was a real killer with all the sharps. After much searching and begging (on youtube), am so glad to find the transposed version at G Major. So anyone wants the score, just let me know. The upside of my playing piano is that every time I want to practise, the kids would clamour to play too.
Also been trying to read more 'intellectual' books instead of chit lits. Finished 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet' by Salman Rushie back in January. Currently reading 'Midnight's Children' by the same author. Yup, I borrowed it because it won the 'Best of Bookers' last year. Shallow reason, huh? I usually finish a chit lit in 1 or 2 days, but been taking forever with this book.
The only thing that I still can't get going is the exercise regimen. With SIL's wedding in Nov, I must, must get in shape by then. Sigh!
Enough rambling. Will try to post bentos next. I had been packing bento every school/work day, the kids and hubby had to eat after all. But speed bentos are just not as interesting to post without interesting food. Didn't even bother to take pics of some of them. But doesn't mean the frenzy is dying off, otherwise wouldn't splash on more bento stuff from CP(new link here), and 100 yen shops (see Bentopet and Emily's accounts). And that's another post.
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