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 While being bored one day, I checked them out and was hooked (yes, I do realised that I'm very outdated!)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 # 78 and # 79 - Out of fresh produce

I twisted my ankle last week while running down the stairs. I was carrying Babylet then. Thank God I fell back on the bum, so I didn't drop her. Though it did give her a big scare. I managed to turn it into a teaching session - "Don't run on the stairs or you'll fall down like mummy" *_* Can joke about it now that the pain is over. It wasn't so pleasant last week, hobbling around with a swollen and bruised ankle. As a result, I didn't manage to go shopping for groceries. And had to made do with staples in the fridge.


These two bentos were from early last week. Was contemplating not to post because not-up-to- standard. Haha... but they were among Girlet's favourites... I think it was the lack of vegies... LOL!

Bento # 78 had white bread with ham and two types of cheese - cheddar and gouda. Tried to roll into heart shapes, but not too successful. Quail eggs, which were too big for the various moulds, were fashioned into a hamster and chick. And pears were cut into simple rectangles. The next day, things got worse when we ran out of fruits too. Fortunately the breadman came right to the house so we had enough bread. Bento # 79 had white and wholemeal bread with cheese, Nutella and chicken floss/seaweed/sesame seed, respectively. I left the crusts intact since Girlet don't mind them. I then tried to cut the too-big quail eggs into a nice shape but ended up in a mess!

The positive note was: Girlet loved the bentos!

Bento # 69 - Spinach Noodles and coloured eggs

Girlet's bento for today consisted of spinach noodles (thanks to Emily for introducing it to me), various steamed fishball/fishpaste/filament stick, and coloured quail eggs.

I read with interest on how Blessed Mom coloured eggs with blueberry juice here, and tried with Ribena blackcurrant juice. The egg turned nicely purple, though it was slightly too big for the bunny mould and the face broke somewhat. The yellow chick was soaked in turmeric/curry, and turned out very well.

Girlet was very happy to have her favourite colour purple in the bento.

Bento # 58 - Inari-zushi

One dish that we always order at Japanese restauraunt or sushi bar is the orange fish roe or ebbiko. It is Girlet and Boylet's favourite, next to the red baby octopus. So, when I saw ebbiko at the supermarket, decided to get for the kids.

I was thinking of making ebbiko maki, when I remembered the balance of the aburaage/fried beancurd pouch bought a few weeks earlier in the fridge. Decided to make inari-zushi instead. In the end, I made two fillings - sushi rice mixed with flavoured korean seaweed, and sushi rice topped with a very generous portion of ebikko.

For Girlet's bento, she had one of each inari, edamame, potato croquette stuffed with sweetmeat/bakwa, fishcake roll, , egg flower and grapes. there are more edamame behind the dog divider. Her only complain was that I stuffed the inari so full that it was hard for her to eat. Oops, talk about kiasu. It was a good thing I packed a small fork. She used the fork to eat up some of the fillings first, so that the inari could fit into her mouth.
Since I still have more tofu pouches, decided to make a bento for myself too. Mine had two inari with seaweed and one with ebbiko. Saved the rest of the ebbiko for the kids' dinner. Made another egg flower, from the balance of the egg from girlet's bento. Laid them on top of a bed of green and red baby butterhead lettuce, accompanied by red & yellow capsicum, cherry tomatoes, edamame and a fan shaped strawberry. Had the salad with French vinaigrette. Delish!
A different view of my bento.

By the way, I bought more aburaage at 100 yen shop yesterday because it was only RM4.90, compared to RM6.90 I paid at Jaya Jusco. It was the same brand and same packaging. Also must add that from the making this bento, I've acquired a few Japanese vocab along the way. *_*

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.

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 # 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.

Bento # 28 - Rabbits hopping everywhere

I can finally update my posts. D'hubby was away for 5 days to Jakarta, so it has been chaotic around here.

Anyway, I was excited over this first use of the quail eggs mould. The rabbit shape inspired a rabbits bento with rabbit onigiri, rabbit quails egg and rabbit dragonfruits. Also made cherry tomato and cheese 'burger', an idea copied from lunchinabox. Girlet didn't like the 'seeds', so that was scooped out, and stuffed with some cream cheese instead. The cheese in between was Colby Jack's. Included some sausage to up the protein content. Too bad I didn't have any rabbit fork picks. Had to make do with the dog and the cat fork picks.

Girlet was happy with this bento as her first pet was a rabbit. We've had it for 5 years. It was named Snow White until we discovered that it was a male! Nowadays we call it Snow as the boylet and babylet couldn't pronounce Snowy...... comes out as Sno-ee. Here's babylet being 'angelic'.

Here she is showing her true colours.

Bento # 25 - Hello Kitty

Today's bento had the Hello Kitty onigiri again - trying to clear the frozen stash. Didn't dye the eggs this time because wanted to make white rabbits. But after struggling with the first rabbit, whereupon I tore the egg white while stuffing the carrots ears in, decided to turn the other two eggs into chicks instead. Also cut out star carrots to complement the star chicken nuggets. Edamame made up the green component of the bento.

Look simple right? But this bento took me waaay too long to make, almost an hour. That was because I'm a zombie today after a sleepless night. First, struggled to put babylet to sleep. "Mummy! mouth pain pain. Mummy put meyson." That's for calling her weird because her molars grew before the canine. Guess what? As a revenge, her top canine teeth chose to make a showing too. So three molars peeping out and 2 swollen gums, added up to a really whiny baby. To make matter worse, at 2.30 am, d'hubby woke me up because of a stench in the room. Sure enough, the boylet peed and pooed in bed while sleeping last night. He's really regressing. After cleaning him up, the mattress and washed his pajamas, I was left turning and tossing, unable to sleep again until 5 in the morning. So good night everyone. I'm turning in now - with or without the babylet. Sleep well and sweet dreams!

Bento # 24

My MIL gave me some swirly Japanese dessert, so decided to make sandwich pinwheel again, with Nutella and cheese. What I don't understand is why did the cheese keep breaking into pieces when I rolled them up. I used Kraft sliced cheddar cheese, and the cheese looked fine, not drying up and expiry date still some time to go. Hmm...


Nevertheless, the eggs turned out fine. Soaked them into a mixture of curry powder and turmeric - both for colour and some flavour - with black sesame eyes and carrot beaks. Cut the pink mochi in half to fit in the box and added in cherries & some chocolate cone biscuit to round out this mainly sweets bento.

Transportation Themed Lunch

The boylet requested for jam sandwich for lunch. So decided to make it a transportation theme, with sandwiches cut out with car, ship and airplane cutters, and car shaped boiled egg. Also sneaked some cheese into the sandwich. Was very happy the picky boylet finished all his food, although had to mash the yolk and mixed with mayonnaise first. Yep, no vegies. Just grapes for dessert. One battle at a time is enough, thank you.

My kids love eggs, so been making a lot for them. Below is the car, rabbit and flower eggs. Nope, don't have a flower egg mould. Just decided to rename the star egg mould as flower egg mould, as that was what it kept producing....hehe...

Bento # 2 - more eggy experiment

For this bento, I used the egg moulds for quail eggs. You can see a faint rabbit and bear picture on the eggs. Sorry, bad photography. In real life, the imprint is more obvious. Click the pic to see an enlarged version of the pic.

Lunch consisted of fried bee hoon, crabstick and edamame on picks, and 2 quail eggs. The rabbit container that the carrots (and some extra edamame) were in is actually a rice mould. Also some sauce in the Hello Kitty container. Was very bad at judging the proportion of food. Packed too much bee hoon and vegie, as girlet came back with half of the noodles and carrots leftover.

These are the egg moulds for the quail eggs. Couldn't take clear pics of the eggs using the mould on the left. In hind sight, should have bought another set of mould instead. I like egg moulds that change the shape of the eggs, rather than just imprinting pics on the eggs. Yay, more reason to shop.....hehe.......

After the previous post's disaster, retried using the egg moulds using larger eggs. Better results, drumroll....ta da....

Boylet's lunch - dino shaped strawberry jam sandwich (with some leaf shaped ones as their food), bear egg, soy sauce in Hello Kitty container, and Hello Kitty bento box. Don't you agree I was in dire straits to buy bento things suitable for little boys? Hehe.....

Only managed to take a picture of 1 egg, as the rest were gone in a flash. Shapes that I have are rabbit, bear, car, fish, heart and star. Bought from ebay and came in sets of 2, as pictured below. Then I saw the same heart and star egg moulds in Daiso, for only SGD 2. Of course must grab them, can always give as presents to friends, right?

Bento Meal #1 - misadventure with the egg

This was my first attempt at Bento Meal - 6 weeks ago.

Was trying out the star and heart egg moulds, but with dismal results. First, the eggs were too small (size M). Later found out supposed to use at least 65g eggs.

Secondly the shell was hard to peel, keep sticking to the egg, arrgh..... apparently that happens if the egg is fresh..... huh??

Finally, the yolk wasn't in the centre. That's my fault, cos too lazy to stand over the stove to stir the eggs. So gave a few cursory stirs, which turned out to be insufficient.

Oh well, live and learn...... the girlet didn't even notice anything wrong. The conversation went like this:

Girlet : Wow, mommy. So nice.

Me : No lah. Egg not nice. Don't look like star.

Girlet : It's okay, mommy. I like it.

What a precious girl!

The lunch consisted of leftovers - chicken rice, with shredded chicken below, stir fried broccoli, baby corn and wolfberry (kei chi), strawberry, egg, and soy sauce in the Hello Kitty container. The precious girl finished the chicken rice, half the vegie, and left the strawberry and egg yolk.

The finished product. My Melody bento box (bought from ebay), Hello Kitty fork and spoon in their own case (gift from Meili a few years ago), round Hello Kitty container for wet HK towel (which looked good but not useful cos the girlet had problems opening it), and HK bag to keep everything in.