VOTE FOR ME - Javapot's Bento Challenge

This was my entry for Javapot's very interesting Bento Challenge - a self-descriptive bento for myself. I found this tough and scratched my head for 2 weeks before the dateline forced me into action. Nothing like a burst of adrenaline to get the creative juices flowing.

The bottom tier consisted of my all time favourite food, nasi lemak, which I moulded into a face, with sambal in the middle. I added nori details to represent yours truly. The hairstyle is something that I have been sporting my whole life, with bangs, to cover my wide forehead *_*.

Japanese and Korean food are my other favourites, represented by inarizushi topped with ebbiko and seaweed, and kimchi. Also can't live without meat, and wasn't impressed that I couldn't fit in more than 1 piece of chicken into this small box. This was how the bento looked like without embellishments.

Unfortunately I am currently trying to lose post baby weight - the question "how many months pregnant are you?" by complete strangers is getting to me!!! I am now more likely to be eating salad for lunch, as depicted in the top tier. The salad consisted of lettuce, red / yellow cherry tomatoes, raw carrots and pine nuts (another fav). Would have added capsicum if I had planned better and restocked the fridge. For the dressing, I used Sesame Seed dressing from Jusco, which was recommended by Bentopet. Thanks! It's super yummy.

Being a SAHM, my whole life revolves around my 3 kids, which I blogged about here. Hence this bento couldn't be complete without their presence. The three figures were cut out of fishcake (for faces, arms and wings). I hope everyone noticed that I even varied the sizes of the figures to match their real life sizes. I added some colour with kanikama (imitation crabstick) for the girls' dresses and eggsheet for the the boy's shirt. Fortunately, I called them angels. I had initially wanted to call them little monkeys, but didn't want to be 3lilmonkeys myself... hehe ..... otherwise would have ended up figuring how to make monkeys for this bento.

I also added some fun pasta shapes, with three types of flower pastas, and three figures, 1 boy and 2 girls, again for the 3 kiddos. Those who had been frequenting my blog would know that I'm a 'collector' of fun pasta. In fact, in my cupboard now, I have about 20 packs of pasta sourced from as far as Australia and USA. I admit to going a bit crazy there *_*. But am still buying whenever I come across new pasta shapes *incorrigible grin*.

The time taken to complete this bento is about 1 hour. I usually take 15 - 30 minutes, but for the purpose of this challenge, of course had to put in more effort and time *_*. The pasta was an afterthought, as was frying up the egg sheet for the boy's shirt, all adding to the prep time.

Thanks Heaps, Javapot, for organising this fun challenge and including me in the event. And everybody else, please go vote for me (No. 11) now at this link. Polls closes at 5pm (Malaysian time) on Wednesday, 22 April 2009. Thanks!!

And you can view all the other very beautiful shortlisted bentos here. Happy Bento-ing!!!

Bento # 97 - Potato Salad

This is only the second week of 2009, and I've already broken one of my resolutions of not procrastinating with a few bentos pending posting. *sigh* After seeing what a productive morning Bentopet had yesterday, thought I'd better buck up *hanging head in shame*.

Know what I've been doing? Watching Taiwanese drama! haha... all because Blessedmom said that her favourite series are Meteor Garden 1 & 2. While being bored one day, I checked them out and was hooked (yes, I do realised that I'm very outdated!) . Had a marathon last 6 days and am glad to say that I've finished both series & got them out of my system. I'm NOT going to start her other favourite show (It Started With A Kiss, also with sequel, so 50 episodes!!) - someone kick me if I do. Though I don't mind catching Meteor Rain with only 3 episodes. Anyone have that? *Incorrigible Grin*

Back to bentos, this potato salad was made last Wed. Thanks to YL for the idea. It's a nice solution to early mornings, as most things were prepared the previous night - boiling, cutting, & filling the mayonnaise case. All that was left in the morn was to shell/chop the egg & cube the apple - didn't want them to oxidise /dry up overnight. Everything was cold out from the fridge to prevent the mayonnaise from going bad in this hot weather. Also packed the bento into a thermal bag (cheap one from Daiso) with an ice pack. Initially, I just left the quail eggs bare, and was going to snap a pic when Girlet asked why no faces. Oopsie, I think I created a monster..... so demanding now. But since the bento took very fast to complete, I obliged her with two smiley faces.
As for hubby's bento, it was 'recycled' from the one he forgot to bring the previous day. Original items were the meatfloss sandwich and longans. Added a layer cake, chendol jelly from MIL, mandarins and grapes, to differentiate a bit. But as can be seen, didn't bother to put in much effort. You know where my priorities are.... haha..... *unrepentant grin*

Better wish Happy Belated Anniversary to d'hubby (that was yesterday). Eight years and counting....

Bento # 85 - # 91 - Adult bentos for morning break

Since the kids had been eating out or having takeaways, I decided to pack bento for d'hubby instead. He prefers to lunch with colleagues, so these bentos were for his morning break. These bentos went back 1 month ago. I was contemplating not to post this as the bentos were rather boring. But thought my dear sis, Biblo, needed some encouragement to post her bentos which are also not of the kawaii category.

Bento #85 - just simple ham, cheese & lettuce sandwich, swiss roll and Kueh Bahulu.

Bento # 86 - futomaki, unagi maki, curry puff (from Ikea which has less and less fillings), a small piece of brownie and packet soju from the Bento party organised by Bentopet and Emily. Thanks! Those came in handy as I don't think d'hubby will be impressed by cutesy container... hehe..Bento # 87 - Mixed herb pita bread with french garlic ham, lettuce & capsicum, with flower & roll from sandwich ham and cheddar cheese.
The blue bento box is actually a Mickey Mouse box, which d'hubby said didn't suit his image..... haha. So I tried this round black box below for Bento #88. Looked good. In reality, after I took the photo, I couldn't fit the upper container (with fruits) on top of the lower container although the later wasn't filled to the brim. The upper container takes up almost 1/3 of the bottom container's space. I had to rearrange the items to accommodate that. So it's actually pretty small. No wonder my sis had to bring two of these boxes for lunch.

Bento # 89 - Bakchang (made by a SIL's grandmother) cut into half to fit in the box, garnished with capsicum & lettuce, mini mandarin oranges and honeydew.

Bento # 90 - chicken curry puff, longan, peanut angku kueh, and mini mandarins.

Bento # 91 - charsiew pau, siumai, prawn wrap, edamame, grapes and mini mandarin.
So my dear sis, I've posted my boring bentos. Now your turn!! No more excuse that your bento is boring.