Bento # 134 - Cheesy Baked Pasta

Thanks everyone for your prayers and good wishes for baby Amelia. So far, reports are well. She had a hole in the heart, but it mended by itself (Praise God!). Have yet to check her eyesight and hearing. She has opened her eyes, so we are hopeful.

Anyway, I'm taking a break from studying, erm, helping Girlet revise for exam to post outstanding bentos. It was an easy bento from (yup, still) Feb. The telltale item was the lunchsheets which expired early March.

This bento consisted of baked pasta (made individual portion while making dinner). I decorated the pasta with cutout cheese (obviously it would melt, which is all the better for the pasta). There were nuggets under the deepfried lotus root (which Girlet complained had turned limped by recess), grapes, cherry tomatoes and flower lunchsheets.

To my dear Janet who requested for the 'recipe'. Well, as usual, I don't have fixed recipe, just by estimation, and what's available. But this baked pasta is ridiculously easy to make.

1) Boil your fav pasta shape (I used shells here, but have used elbow macaroni and spirals).

2) Meanwhile brown some minced beef (I used a small pack of Aust Weight Watchers from supermkt) and chopped onions, then pour in a can of tomatoes, some water, a dash of oregano, salt & pepper to taste. Let simmer and thicken.

3) In an oven-safe dish, pour in half the cooked pasta, layered with half the meat sauce and plenty of cheese, then repeat the same layers.

4) Make (and later freeze) individual portions for bento.

5) Then dump into preheated oven for 20 - 30 mins (I used 180`C as my fan forced oven is rather hot). Use higher 190`C if yours is not.

Note: For cheese, I put cheddar & a little powdered parmesan in the middle, and topped with mozzarella as my kids love the cheese to be really gooey. But you can put in any processed cheese you like.

Easy-peasy and less work than fried rice!!

Hair-y Tales and More Pasta

Girlet is due to start Standard One in Chinese school next week, and the school regulation forbid long hair. Despite a letter from her Ballet School for exemption (as she would need to bun up her hair), I took her for a haircut today as her hair is way too long, almost to her waist. We went to a hairdresser at the nearby Hartamas Shopping Complex. I was concerned that she'll be upset, so bribed her with a hairwash. She really enjoyed that, while Babylet was busybody watching everything the hairdresser was doing. I had left Boylet to play with sand at home, and was able to spend the half an hour relaxing and reading a gossipy magazine.... *_*

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Girlet was really pleased with her haircut. Her hair looked so glossy. After Girlet's haircut, we went down to the supermarket, Mercato, to pick up some basic groceries. I promise I was not looking for any more pasta, but I found these .....

Vegetable Pasta (Rice & Corn) in Farm Animal shapes. Sorry for the flash. I took this in a hurry cos first time taking pix in supermarket, don't know whether get scolded or not. LOL! Flash on the pricetag too ....... think it's about RM 13-14.

Also found Spiderman pasta, alongside Scooby Doo and Spongebob @ RM6.30 a pack. Sometime ago, I got d'hubby to go through all the trouble to buy Spiderman pasta in US. So it looks like I'm in for a scolding.

Scoop - I bought the last pack of Pokemon pasta. Boylet should be happy with this.

We had lunch at home. After which, I left the older kids to play with Playdoh and went upstairs with Babylet for her nap. The maid was washing up in the kitchen, when there was a loud cry from Boylet. He managed to get playdoh stuck in his hair. It's not the regular playdoh, and was really sticky. OMG!! Got anyone sillier than him or not?

He got very upset when I told him I have to cut his hair, and he'll have a bald patch like Friar Tuck. So I took pity on him and tried to loosen the playdoh with oil (baby massage, not cooking). Fortunately, it worked, after a painstakingly 15 minutes with the sacrifice of only a few strands of hair. Oh boy! Am I glad the school's reopening soon. I will tell you about how the same silly boy got stuck at some rustic fly trap just three days ago next time.

This concludes 2008. Happy New Year, everyone.

What I bought in Singapore

My first purchase in Singapore was no surprise - more cute pasta *_*. Upon arrival in Singapore, my in-laws took us for a late lunch in Paragon. SIL showed me the DaPaolo Gastronomia shop where she bought the Disney Character pasta. Babylet was excited to see that the Mickey pasta was in stock, besides Princess and Pooh. So, bought the Mickey pasta and another pack of Princess pasta, this time in tricolour. BIL also bought more dinosaur pasta from Australia, so our pantry is well stocked with pasta for next year.
Went to the Hello Kitty counter at Takashimaya, and saw many bento boxes there - Hello Kitty, My Melody, Shinkansen, Twin Stars, and Cinnamoroll - mostly rectangular/oval shape. It took me a long time to decide and I finally bought this Hello Kitty box for its red colour and apple shape. Was also the cheapest there at SGD11.90. And picked up a HK belt too, just for the heck of it. *_^ The Shinkansen train is really popular in Sg. I've not seen any Shinkansen products in KL.
There were quite a number of Thomas the train bento boxes in the various shopping centres, which were not available in KL. I bought this box which comes with adjustable divider and upper tray for cutleries.

I didn't buy much things at Daiso. Went to the branch in Plaza Sg as arranged to meet IL there. As expected there was a huge Christmas crowd there, and I already owned most of the things left on the shelves. The only interesting thing I bought was these plastic crinkle cut knife (probably sold in Daiso KL). While I have a similar steel knife, was looking for one with a deeper groove. These are for cutting jelly, don't know if can cut harder things like potato or steamed carrots.

YL had earlier tipped me about new Mickey Mouse products in KaiKai at Chinatown Point, and I called ahead to book some items. Must be kiasu, mah. Was quite disappointed that the stock will only arrive in January. Still I had fun going through the 2009 catalogue book and seeing the new Mickey products. (Hey, YL, saw your order on a few things *_*) Now the question is how to collect the things. Looks like another trip to Sg is required if my dearest sis or SIL couldn't pick up for me. Well, I am going back hometown in Johor for Chinese New Year.........

My purchases from KaiKai were the Pooh and Tomica multi-cutters, Tomica vege cutter and Pooh furikake case.

On the penultimate day, I 'geram' didn't shop enough as too busy entertaining kids. So put the kids to nap and headed for Takashimaya again, this time Basement (Household section?) for 1 hour shopping before dinner. Found silicone moulds in the shape of dinosaur fossils for my dinosaur lover boylet. It was sold as ice tray but can also make jelly. Can withstand temperatures of -58`F to 446`F, so can also bake??, not that I'll be doing that. They were rather price-y, enough said.

More impulse buys (still at Takashimaya)- cutters, which I had seen in NST and Marketplace but didn't buy. Why did I make the plunge this time? Well, I was in a buying mood and the things were there to be bought. Make sense? haha.... Lucky for hubby I'm no longer into LV bags. *_^

Also bought some cheap books at Lucky Plaza, t-shirts for the kids, cute stationeries & stickers. Overall, I think I showed a lot of restraint this time round. ^_^

Presents from Blogging friends

I just realised that it's the 31st of December today, and I've still got lots of backlogged posts on the kids' concert, holiday programme and stuff. Waiseh!

Anyway, we just got back on Monday after 5 days in Singapore and 2 days in Johor.


In Singapore, I met up with YL for a continuation of our Bento Swap. She is so efficient, and has posted what I got her in her blog here. And she is so lovely to get us our favourite - shaped pasta - Christmas Pasta from Muji, and Disney Cars pasta. She bought the pasta earlier on which was a good thing as they were all sold out when I was there. Lesson learnt - mustn't shop 2 days before Christmas, or after weekend / public holiday as shops like Daiso / Muji will have their cute stuff swept clean.
She also included mini Hello Kitty containers, which can be locked together or used separately. Cool! Thanks heaps, YL. Earlier on when I posted up the picture of the various egg moulds from 100 yen shop, IL (Family of 5) requested that I get her the moulds. Was glad that the Taman Desa branch stocked up the week before I went to Singapore. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get the mini Pooh Bear containers for her. Another efficient blogger, she has blogged about it here.

What I didn’t expect was for her to give me a box of bento things. So paiseh!!! See the nice box with a ribbon and a nice card - Babylet claimed it as her Christmas present. *_*There were so many things in the box. A bento box for each kid, pretty cupcake liners, long wooden fruit skewers and a 4-in-1 sandwich cutter. I had planned to buy the last item from Takashimaya, so was very happy to get it from Irene. Thank you very much.

So glad to have met up with both of you and to put a face to your blogs. Wishing you both and everybody a Happy New Year. Despite the gloomy economy, let's make 2009 a happy bento-licious year.

Bentos # 94 - Easy Christmas Bentos

I managed to squeeze in another Christmas Bento just before we went off to Singapore for a holiday last week - very easy ones with just sandwiches cutouts, and Girlet doing most of the decors. Also took a shortcut in the form of Christmas Tree Marshmallow (from Cold Storage, KL), which was a real treat for the kids, besides brightening up the bentos.

They had the bentos at home as none of the decorations could've survive a transportation farther than the one from the kitchen to the living room. *_* Here I got them to pose ala Angeleye's Darius with their thumbs up.
For Girlet's bento, she decorated the tree with edible markers (bought from Cake Connection, PJ) and candy coated chocolate sunflower seeds (from US). She is getting a quite handy at making bentos. She also requested to add in the Princess pasta which SIL had just given her. It's adorable with shapes of castle, carriage, flower, slipper, and two princess figures.

Thanks, May, for the Princess pasta. Girlet absolutely loves it. For those who don't know, it was purchase from DaPaolo Gastronomia in Paragon, Singapore at SGD 6 per pack. And thanks for the pack of Winnie the Pooh pasta too.

Babylet had plain white bread. I gave the Santa a bit of texture with the hat, moustache and beard. Girlet chose to put a wink on Santa. Babylet is actually rather fearful of Santa (as was Girlet when she was 2), so she was happy that she can eat up Santa. Silly girl!
Boylet's bento was the easiest as he requested for a snowman. Decided to give the snowman a bowtie to smarten him up ala Arlene's style.

And to Shoppingmum, who asked about the small star cutouts, this was the puncher I used. Not sure of the brand, but got it from the stationery section of Parkson. Have also seen it in Jusco.

Bento Swap

Recently I had a Bento Swap with Our Story. It didn't occur to me to take a photo of what I got for YL. Duh!! But there were a Doraemon bento box, 2 teddy bear silicon cups, a pack of spiderman pasta, and some 100 yen shop stuff - quail egg moulds and several bento boxes. YL's post is here.

And YL got so many things for me that I feel so paiseh. What I requested were some things from Daiso and the Disney pasta. She added so many extras, including things from her recent trip to Hokkaido. And knowing that I 'collect' pasta, she has sent not one, but five different packs of various pasta shapes. We're so spoilt with choice now. Thank you very much, YL. And Muak, Muak, Muak from the 3 kiddos.

Cutters, picks, sauce bottles and lunch cloth. *swoon* Babylet immediately claimed the Hello Kitty cutter as hers.

Organic wholewheat animal pasta and Organic teddy bears pasta. *drool*

Brown Rice Assorted Shapes Pasta. *more drool*

Halloween pasta and Winnie the Pooh pasta. *add kid's drool too*

Also thanks to my sister, Biblo, who made arrangement for the delivery and collection of the packages. Why sound like accepting some award liddat... hehe...

YL, you're the BEST!! And thanks to your SIL too.

Bento # 81 & # 82 - Pasta

These are the last of Girlet's backdated bentos from last week, both containing pasta.

Bento # 81 comprised of bowtie pasta with cheese sauce and mixed vegie. Girlet also requested for bread with meatfloss, so I added a slice for her. Also had a lotus paste bun, and hardboiled egg, which turned out better than previous post's quail eggs.
Bento # 82 had some leafy looking pasta, this time with salmon cream cheese and parsley, in a Wilton flower silicone cup. Love the cup, it's so pretty. Made the pasta look yummier somehow *_*. Also had omelette with a gourd my mum called 'Kak Kue' in Hokkien. I dyed the quail egg but didn't have any time to do anything else with it. Tsk, tsk, bad time management. I couldn't fit a round corn into the box, so cut it into half and cover up the ugly parts with more corn. Girlet says it looks like a sun, and complained that the cherry tomato spoiled the effect. Haha... very clever to look for excuses to avoid eating the tomato. Too bad for her I wasn't so easily fooled. Hence, in went the tomato, with the condition if she finished her food, she would get a treat. The verdict, the bribery worked. *_^

Bento # 67 - Spaghetti

Today's bento are made up of the frozen stash in the freezer - spaghetti bolognaise, and breaded prawn, fish and squid. Also included shaped cheese, carrot stick and blanched snow peas accompanied by mayonnaise dip in blue strawberry container, and champagne grapes.


Verdict : Girlet only ate two carrot sticks despite the mayonnaise. And carrots are the usual vegies that she would eat too. Sigh!

Bento # 57 - Dinosaur Pasta

Today was speed bento day, as have to rush for Babylet's music class. Last night, we had bakuteh for dinner and girlet requested to pack that for her lunch today . But how to pack that? If put in thermos, I'm sure the teacher wouldn't be impressed with the aroma wafting through the classroom... hehe... Her second request was for egg mayo sandwich.

I thought about what other carbs I have in the freezer and remembered the leftover dinosaur pasta from last week, which was frozen without the sauce. That's how she ended up with egg mayo pasta with mixed veg today. Boiled the eggs last night so today will be cold to keep the mayonnaise fresh until lunch. This morning just heat up pasta and frozen mixed veg, wash some grapes, and mash the eggs. And assemble. Included a dino biscuit to complete the theme. Accidentally broke the stegosaurus in half, replaced with T-rex. All in took almost 15 mins.
After taking photo,
Girlet: T-Rex is boylet's favourite.
Me : So how, I broke the stegosaurus. No more left.
Girlet: Never mindlah. Let boylet have the T-Rex.
Me : You don't mind the broken one?
Girlet: It's okay. Maybe I eat it first?

And she ended up with this bento instead. Fortunately, as now the spoon can fit in.
The dinosaur pasta may be a novelty item, but boylet really eats more and faster too when we have this for dinner. Gotta ask BIL to buy some more when he comes back from Australia.

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.

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.....

Bento # 29 and # 30

Trying to catch up with my backlogs, seems like back at work all over again..hehe....

Bento # 29 : On the right of the bento was wanton noodles topped with boiled wanton, stirfried baby french beans with keichi/wolfberry, chick quail egg, and fishpaste, spinach & egg rollups. On the left was part of a buttered steamed corn, grapes, breaded fish/prawn ball and a container of ketchup.
For Bento # 30, I tried out the metal cookie cutter whether can be used as mould for frying egg. Worked out alright. The flowover was minimal and was easily cut off and popped into my mouth... hehe.... And the metal cutter doesn't warp, unlike the silicon moulds which I have read a few complains of. Of course can just fry the egg and then cut with the cutter, but that means more wastage / more egg into my mouth... hehe...

Main box at bottom : Animal pasta and mixed vegies tossed with a little milk, cream cheese and powdered parmesan cheese. Packed extra in case girlet decided to share with her friends again.
Smaller box on top : Animal shaped egg & ham 'sandwich', and papaya cut into rectangles - thought already had enough animals. Of course with animal picks and divider too.