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.

Fancy Sushi for dinner

I was bowled over by Kel's fancy sushi here. And she has very kindly translated the tutorial she got from a Mandarin website to English. Thanks again Kel!

When I showed the pic to the kids to show them what they'll be having for dinner, Boylet wasn't keen on the flower. So I googled and managed to find one with a boat instead here.

And my product... not too good, looked more like a flagpole than a boat... haha. But I give myself a pass for a first attempt *thick skin ^_^*. The flag was ebikko mixed with rice with a filament stick in the middle, and the pole and 'boat' was egg. My eldest sis, took one look and said "What for!" What a party pooper.

That's what the kids had for dinner: fancy sushi, ebikko/filament stick maki, baby octopus gunkanmaki, seaweed/tofu soup and fruits - watermelon, rockmelon and honeydew.
Of course, Babylet came running when she saw the camera. And here she is with her current favourite pose.

Bento # 59 - Maki and Fishies swimming around

This bento was from yesterday. No bento today as Girlet's friend was celebrating birthday in school and food was provided.

Top: Fish shaped watermelon

Left: Maki with Ebbiko, crabstick and cucumber, with egg maki in the middle. Edamame stuffed at the sides, and soy sauce in a fish shape container.

Right: Fish shaped sausage, and sausage that I tried to cut into a fish, and fish shaped cucumber.

I found out that Girlet would eat cucumber if if was rolled up in maki. She left the fish cucumber untouched.

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 # 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 # 31 and # 32

Still posting about last week's bento.

Left : Fruits - red dragonfruit and ciku cut into star shape, with papaya (triangles) to fill in the empty spaces.
Middle : Egg noodles tossed with tomato sauce and sesame oil, topped with asparagus, sweetmeat & cheese cut into star shape.
Right : 2 pieces of star shaped nuggets, and 2 fish + vegie ball. Put a divider between the nuggets and fishballs to keep the nuggets dry, and girlet insisted to decorate with more dividers.



For bento # 32, I was inspired by my sis's futomaki, and Bento pet's very fancy futomaki. But those were beyond me. Confession - can't make maki with more than 1 filling yet. Hehe... And those in the pic below were the nicer ones. The messier lopsided ones became my lunch.


Main box at bottom : Maki with egg and crabstick. Baked honey chicken drumstick - not exactly leftovers, as I cooked extra for girlet's bento. There's another stashed in the freezer. Can expect to see that making an appearance soon. The stirfried vegies were leftovers from dinner, consisting of broccoli, sugarpeas, babycorn, red and yellow capsicum. Another confession - the capsicums were included purely for decor /colour. Girlet has yet to learn to like them.


Smaller box on top : Watermelon cut into ice cream cone shape, and half a chocolate muffin.