More backdated bentos #123 - 125

Can't believe it's already April. I'm getting quite desperate to finish posting on Feb's stuff.

On a good note, I started my exercise program and had lost 1 kg in two weeks. Another 1 kg to go to pre-Christmas/CNY binge and then 3kg to pre-Babylet weight. I've given up trying to get to pre-babies /wedding weight. *_*

Bento #123 - Bear onigiri with lunch sheet cutouts, sausage, kanikama (artificial crabstick) & edamame, green grapes & strawberries.
Bento # 124 - contained chinese style inarizushi - aburaage stuffed with rice and charsiew (just making use of leftovers). While all four have the same contents, for visual interest, I covered some charsiew cutups with rice and top with stars (from orange lunchsheets). Also had stuffed chikuwa (tube shape fishcake) with baby asparagus, lunchsheet flowers and strawberries. Bento # 125 - Dog onigiri with lunchsheet feature, chick (moulded quail egg), stewed soy sauce drumnets, watermelon and grapes, with a dog fork pick (you can get this at 100 yen shop -Tmn Desa & Kuchai- for RM4.90).

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.

Valentine Bentos

I have plenty more bentos unposted, but thought better post the Valentine Bento first in keeping with the season. Haha... that's coming from someone who hasn't posted the Christmas and CNY pics. I've actually been bento-ing practically every schoolday. But more misses than hits, so not inspired to post them.

Anyway, although Valentine was on a Saturday this year, Girlet had school as replacement for the long CNY break. So she had her Valentine bento on the day itself. Made her a heart shape onigiri and two stewed drumnets wrapped with ribbon (made of Jap lunch sheet) for ease of holding.
The day before, I made heart shaped Nutella sandwiches. Now that I put the photos next to each other, I realised the similarities between the two. Same box aside, the lettuce and mandarins were at the same position, and the colours are alike. I'm really stuck in a rut or what??!! Accompanying the wheat shaped pasta was cheese sauce in the orange container. I admit that the lettuce is purely for decoration. While Girlet now is eating lettuce, this particular bunch of lettuce was yuckily bitter even for me. The pet rabbit gets to enjoy it instead.

Didn't make any Valentine bentos for the men in my life. D'hubby had conferences and didn't need any bentos, while Boylet preferred dinosaurs to hearts.

This skipping of posts really messed up my numbering system. Sheesh.... I'll just label them as Bentos # 108 & 109 for continuity sake.

Ox themed bentos for CNY

I'm jumping into the fray by making ox-themed bentos in conjunction with Ox Year this Chinese New Year.

Bento #105 is an ox onigiri for Girlet, with salmon sausage and corn. Thanks to shoppingmum for the idea of using the bone pick for the ox's horn. Saved me lots of time. I made the ox from a Pikachu (pokemon) rice mould and moved the ears down to resemble an ox. Was late and didn't have time to shell edamame, so the middle portion of the bento was left empty. Bento # 106 - A simple cow made of cheese on top of sandwiches, with salmon sausage, broccoli and corn. Lastly Bento # 107 was a snack bento for Boylet. It contained an ox made from quail egg, ham and spaghetti strip. Surrounded the ox with various farm animals cut out from bread & cheese. Corn, salmon sausage and a rooster pick completed the bento .

GONG XI FA CAI to everyone.

Bentos # 99, 100 & 101

Being very blur, I didn't realised until now that I've reached and passed the 100th bento milestone. *duh*

Bento # 99 - Egg and Filament stick maki, nuggets, kamaboko flower, grapes and sweet peas. The quail eggs were embossed with facial expressions but indistinct, hence used foodwriter to enhance them.
Bento # 100 - Girl & Boy onigiri, prawn fritters, mandarin and grapes.

Bento # 101 - Sweet & sour chicken, My Melody apples, and under the Hello Kitty carrot was Onigiri mixed with Korean seaweed. There were more grapes in front which I removed for the pic as they were blocking Melody's face.

Bento # 98 - Bears Onigiri

I had thought about how to cut down on the preparation time each morning, and decided that freezer staple is the key. Made a batch of onigiri and fried nuggets last week and froze it. It is impractical and time consuming to cook just a small portion each morning. I also cut out nori with various cutters and store in the fridge. Grapes, mandarins and fruits that don't requiring cutting will also be a staple. So those items will be featured rather regularly in the bentos, though I do hope to mix up a little so Girlet does not get bored.

Bento # 98 had bear shaped onigiri. In the morning, I just quickly put the onigiri in the steamer, cut the vegies and porkball, and steam together. Meanwhile, put the nuggets in the toaster oven, and peel the mandarins. Let everything cool down under the fan, while i reshape the onigiri and put the details on the bear. All in took less than 15 minutes including waiting time. I'm happy with the progress.

Girlet's comment? "Why the bears are not smilling, mummy?" A critic in the making, huh?

The bear with the ribbon is a girl and the other boy. Isn't the ribbon gorgeous? Saw it in Arlene's blog and just had to have it. Was very happy to find it at 1 Utama's MPH.

Now I look at this bento again, the boy looked rather naked, huh? Should have cut out a vest or something for it. Too blur/sleepy in the morning to notice earlier *sheepish smile*

Bento # 84 - Stomping Elephants

This bento was from two weeks ago. As it was the last bento for Girlet to bring to Kindergarten, I thought to make a themed bento which she has always enjoyed. I looked at my bento stuff and having found some elephant mould, cutter and sauce container, decided to make a elephant themed bento. This took some planning as I had to make elephant shaped chicken nuggets ahead (see previous post).

Top : Jelly, Elephant container with tomato sauce, edamame and filament stick on elephant picks

Bottom : Elephant nugget, elephant onigiri, with carrots separating them, and coral lettuce to make it look like a jungle. And of course elephant fork and spoon too.

I tried to make the eye and ear for the nugget too, but the seaweed would not adhere as the nugget were not smooth. Couldn't think of how to improve the looks of the elephant nugget, any thoughts?

Bentos # 53 - for Girlet and I

Since girlet loved the seaweed onigiri the previous day, I made another with her agreement. This time tried a round one. Managed to make a perfect ball.... hehe... not hand made lah, used a rice mould from 100yen shop. Also packed a stewed drumnet in soy sauce, baby french beans stirfried with minced pork and wolfberries, a crabstick wrapped with egg, and ham shaped as sea anemone. For desserts, girlet got some grapes and mini grape-filled marshmallows. Forgot to add the food picks before taking the photo. Unfortunately, girlet must have been bored with onigiris as she left that untouched and most of the grapes as well. She had poor appetite during dinner too. Hope she's not coming down with anything.
Also packed a bento for myself even though I ate at home : A salad with green & red lettuce, red & yellow capsicum (don't fancy green ones unless cooked) and cherry tomatoes. For this meal, also fry some mushroom in olive oil and then simmered in balsamic vinegar. The remaining dressing was for the salad. I found it hard to eat out of the small box. Could't stir or mix as everything was packed tightly together. For carbo, I had a red bean onigiri purchased from Jaya Jusco. I had expected it to be sweetish being red bean and all, and was surprised by the rather salty taste. Not something that I'll try to duplicate. Anyway, after finishing this bento, I remembered my soy sauce drumnet still in the pan for reheating. Thank goodness. That completed the meal nicely.

Bento # 52

This bento was very quick and easy as all except the onigiri were premade. Cooked the rice in the morning and mixed with sushi vinegar (because girlet likes it this way). For the triangular onigiri, mixed with some Korean seaweed from Jaya Jusco. The flower onigiri (thanks again Emily for the mini mould) was mixed with Sakura Denbu.

At the top are two crabstick fishballs. First, pull apart the crabstick. Then roll fishpaste into a ball and wrap the fishball with the crabstick. Saw something similar being sold in the wet market, and thought to try my own. Of course, mine ended with odd shapes.

The pink flower is kamaboko rolled up. Sorry for the bad lighting. Girlet ate everything except the flower onigiri (just took a bite) and the lettuce. Said she was too full. Maybe should have substituted one onigiri with fruits.

Bento # 33 and # 34

For Bento # 33, decided to finish the last of the onigiri in the freezer. Rolled two mini triangles in chicken floss & sakura denbu and covered the third partly with flavoured nori. These aren't the traditional onigiri, as I've added vinegar/sugar/salt to it. Added a leftover drumnet (stewed in dark/light soy and oyster sauce with a dash of pepper).

The green item was a problem. Ran out edamame and frenchbeans, and tired of sweetpeas and broccoli. Then remembered both LZmommy and Rachel made asparagus wrapped with bacon. So tried that out. Looked good, right? Made two rolls, with five stalks of asparagus. Apparently that was too much vegie for girlet, she only ate the roll with two stalks in it. Maybe I should roll the asparagus individually next time. While I was at it, decided to copy Rachel's orange flower with cherry tomato middle too. Thanks Rachel. (Oh, silly me. Just went to check the link in LZmommy's blog and found out that I should have cut the asparagus/bacon roll, for ease of eating if nothing else.)

After spending way too much time deciding what to pack for the above bento, resolved to make a speedy bento for the next. And nothing much is faster than bread and leftovers. So kaya and nutella pinwheels for carbo, and NgorHian (minced pork/prawn wrapped with beancurd sheet) for protein. Added two Japanese dessert, purple with lotus paste (I think) and pink with green tea. While making the sandwich, set girlet to cut out the dragonfruit. She chose a tiara shape which unfortunately can't be seen under all the picks she used.

No greens? Haha, I was counting pandan kaya as a green item. So was the green tea filling of the Japanese dessert. ^_^

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 # 27 - Pikachu

Although I'm not packing lunch for the boylet, there is no reason to let the bento tools I got for him go to waste. Hence a Pikachu bento for girlet using Pikachu rice mould. Beneath the fishcake were stewed chicken and quail's egg. Sweetpeas and sweetmeat filled in the gaps. The pikachu was made from chicken rice. Also had a side container for dragonfruit cut into bear shapes. Was attempting to get girlet to eat a wider variety of fruits, following Rachel's blog.
The final product in a pikachu bento box complete with cutlery set. Both were bought from a gift shop in Bangsar, opposite Czip Lee / Bangsar Village 2 a few months ago. They carry lots of Hello Kitty, My melody, Doraemon, and Disney stuff. Have bento boxes (not the face shape ones though), cutlery set, occasionally certain moulds/cutters.

Anyway, Girlet's response was : "Mummy, that doesn't really look like Pikachu....... But I know you tried your best." LOL. How encouraging was she?

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 # 22 and # 23

Was determined to master the speed bento as advocated by lunchinabox. Hence this bento is mainly made from frozen stash, onigiri and chicken nuggets. Took out the nuggets earlier to defrost in the fridge. Then heated up in the toaster oven. At the same time, heated up the three square onigiri - straight from freezer to the microwave. Immediately coated with 3 different flavour - meatfloss, sakura denby, and nori - because they stick better when the onigiri are still warm and moist. For vege and fruits, packed in some broccoli blanched in salted water, and cherries.
Then realised that there was no space for the ketchup. Rearrange the vegies and there you go. Another bento done, all within 20 minutes. So, my dear 2nd sis, who has so far packed only 2 bentos, if you're lazy to wake up early to cook, suggest you build up a frozen stash as well.


I love to stash spaghetti too as it contains carbohydrate, protein and fiber all in one. Add some pretty cutouts from carrots and cheese, fruits and a snack. My dear sis, that was less than 15 minutes. What I would do differently next time is to pack a green coloured vege or fruit instead. By the way, I added more minced meat to this batch to avoid forgetting the protein again...hehe..

Bento # 11 - mini onigiri faces

Another bento for girlet. Mini onigiri faces made with mini triangular rice mould, and seaweed; steamed beans, and shiumai (girl's fav and bought earlier in the morn). Also grapes and the last of the pandan jelly. Not shown - sweet sauce for shiumai and picks.

Girlet named the onigiri after herself and siblings.
Girlet : The one in blue cup is me 'cos I'm the biggest and have long hair. The middle, short hair one is boylet and the yellow cup one is babylet. She's got more hair than boylet, you know?

Haha.... didn't intentionally set out to do that. Funny how the bento meals evolve by themselves sometimes.

Onigiri and Jelly stash

While making the Hello Kitty onigiri, made extra to stash in freezer. When needed, just microwave for 30 seconds (as the size of these onigiris are small). The trick is to wrap them when still warm, so there are steam droplets which will soften the rice when you microwave it again. Check out lunchinabox.net for a tutorial on making and freezing onigiri / yaki onigiri.





Also these jelly are very handy, as copied from Our Story. Just stick them in the bento to add some colour, so fast and easy. The moulds are a mixture of plastic and silicon, all from Daiso. Added Ribena to make red jelly and fresh mango juice for the orange. While green jelly is from pandan/screwpine leaves (pounded to get green juice) mixed with evaporated milk.

Bento # 7 - Hello Kitty rice mould set

Have new toys, must play right? So this is the product using the Hello Kitty rice mould set. Turned out quite well. The girlet was most impressed. I offered to make for the boylet too, but he refused. Still he looked a bit green when he saw this....... oopsie...



The main compartment has steamed eggrolls (fishpaste and ham fillings), green pandan and milk jelly, and hello kitty carrots. Girlet ate everything except the capsicum bow and flower.