Bento # 19 & # 20

Since I was cooking fried rice for girlet, decided to pack lunch for d'hubby as well. Unfortunately, couldn't fit them all into the biggest bento box that I have, so have to put into the clear plastic tapau containers. Not sure if I should invest in a bento box his size since this may not be a normal occurence.

Top : Mini apple, grilled drumstick (leftover from dinner), and portugese egg tart.

Bottom : Fried rice with chicken, prawn & mixed vege, garnished with egg and fried onion.

For girlet, I tried to design trees with egg and mixed vege. Yes, I know, it's a miserable failure. Ran out of time because spent too much time trying to fit d'hubby's lunch into bento boxes, so just left it as it was. Instead of fruit, she got a Ribena jelly in a pig silicon cup, as well as a portugese egg tart.

At least she enjoyed her food because there were none left when she came back. Better than having a pretty bento, but not eaten, right?

Maths tuition - Kumon or Enopi?

Strangely, I thought that a Chinese Kindergarten's maths level should be very high. But girlet so far has been doing simple addition and just beginning with subtraction. This is what she's been doing in montessori kindy last year.

Being kiasu, I went for a consultation at Kumon to find out more on Kumon's method of learning. Am impressed with the focus on developing good learning habits, concentration, responsibility of own work leading towards being an independent learner. But a little hesistant with the daily worksheets, as she has a lot of homework on writing Mandarin from kindy as it is.

Then went to check out Enopi, which is the Korean method to learning maths. Seems similar to Kumon with exception that this include problem solving, and less homework. A friend thinks I'm weird to be looking for less homework because "for Maths, the more she practise the better she becomes".

Erm, so which to choose? Proximity wise, both are about the same. In the end, chose Enopi because I can set maths problems for her to do anytime but lateral thinking is something that I don't know how to teach her. Let's hope this is the best decision for her.

Bento # 18

Two weeks ago, a fellow blogger, Angeline informed me about the Hello Kitty kamaboko in Jusco Midvalley. Since then, I had been dropping in Midvalley periodically to no avail. Anyway, I was in 1U to buy a present and on a whim, checked out the Jusco there. To my delight, they had two packs left. Very clear sign that I'm meant to buy them, right? RM12 price tag regardless. Hehe.... can you hear me clapping my hands with glee..... Thanks Angeline (Sorry, can't access your blog to thank you directly).

So yesterday's bento was wonton noodles topped with Hello Kitty kamaboko and carrots. Fried wonton, boiled wonton and sweet peas on the left. (Both type of wontons are part of my stash in the freezer.)

For dessert, Girlet got a custard tart and cherries. Notice the teeth mark on the tart? Girlet couldn't resist having a taste first. It ended up as a Hello Kitty day with all Hello Kitty boxes, sauce container, wet cloth, cutleries and bag.

Bento # 16 and # 17

Yesterday's bento. Mini cubed onigiri, made with the mini rice mould from Daiso (can you guess how much I love that place?), crabmeat on a stick and homemade breaded fish & prawn ball, carrots, unshelled edamame and cherries. Two Hello Kitty containers, one with soy sauce, the other with tomato sauce - so she can't complain of the lack of choices.

Another winner - she finished all her food, but I did make sure to pack her favourites. Probably also getting better at judging the food portion.

Today, Tuesday was another busy morning as Babylet had her Kindermusik class. So frozen spaghetti to the rescue. I followed lunchinabox's method of freezing extra spaghetti in a patty tin.
All that was required in the morning was to steam it up and let it cool down enough to pack. I actually defrosted two pieces of chicken nuggets and heated them up in the toaster oven. Unfortunately, I left it in there to cool and forgot to pack it in the rush. Oopsie!! No protein, and the nuggets were suppose to have a dual function of 'weighing down' the spaghetti to prevent less food movement.

I comforted myself that there were protein in the measly bits of minced beef in the spaghetti sauce. And she did have her nuggets when she came home for tea. But nothing can be helped about the spillage. As the girlet couldn't give a clear picture of the state of the bento at lunch, hopefully the divider would have lessen the mess somewhat. Haha, such delusions....
Spaghetti bolognaise, extra sauce in HK container, edamame, grapes, and rice crackers.

Bento # 14 and # 15 - quick bentos

I usually plan girlet's bentos around the carbohydrate - rice, riceball/onigiri, noodles, pasta and bread - and try not to duplicate the carb within the week for variety sake. But due to popular demand, the egg mayo sandwich made another appearance this week. This time used different cutters - butterfly, flower and Hello Kitty. Threw in some grapes, cream cheese and a mini pack of biscuit (not shown), it took only 20 minutes to make, and that involved waiting for girlet to slowly mash up the egg. Girlet, you can have this whenever you want.
Friday mornings are a busy time because babylet has her Shichida classes in Bandar Utama. So needed another quick-to-pack bento. Just heated up the frozen leftover noodles and charsiew, leftover egg, ham and spinach pinwheel, and edamame and left to cool, during which I sent boylet to his nursery. Then as I packed the cooled food into the bento box, enlisted girlet to punch star shapes on nori. You can tell from the number of stars punched that she enjoyed the task. Babylet also enjoyed her task of munching on the leftover nori. Added custard swiss roll and sliced apple (dipped in salted water), this bento took less than 15 minutes to assemble. All that was required was a little planning at night.
Most importantly, girlet finished up the food in both bentos, which to me is the actual measure of success.

Bento # 12 and # 13 - Flower Gardens

On Monday, Girlet asked for her favourite egg mayo sandwich. Decided to make flower sandwiches to match a leftover egg. Half the egg was mashed up for bread, and the other half had the yolk mixed with mayo and parsley flakes. Used mayo to stick cheese and raisin to the sandwiches. A flower garden needed some greens, so in went broccoli and sweet peas. Also have raisins tucked in between.

Ended up the bento was too yellow/green. Didn't help matter that I didn't think through and took the photo against a black blackground. The only consolation was that Girlet finished up all her food and requested for the same again.

Second attempt on a flower garden on Tuesday. Cut out flowers from cucumber and steamed carrots and swapped the insides to create a visual interest. Stalks made of cucumber and leaves made of sweet peas completed the picture.

The top container had chinese sausage, thousand island sauce in pink container #1, tomato sauce in the other, extra vegies, and grapes. Also had shredded chicken thigh beneath the rice. Was very satisfied with how this bento turned out. Better than the previous, right? But not so the girlet. She agreed that it was prettier, then she left all the vegies save two carrots uneaten. How exasperating!!!

Hmm... the plot to get her to eat vegies intensifies...... *cue the creepy music & sinister laugh*

Read while Waiting Project by RandomAlphabets.com

Came across this project while browsing through my sis's friend's blog.

The project aims to get 1000 people to freeze and read together at a specific time and places on August 23. The purpose is to make a statement and to promote the reading habit in Malaysia. Check out the organizer's blog for more details. If you are interested in joining, you can RSVP on facebook.

Didn't know I've been inadvertently supporting this cause. I bring reading material along most of the time. Sometimes ask Girlet to pray for red traffic lights when I'm driving and itching to continue an interesting book. Must say she is most useful in alerting about the change to green lights. Haha...... save me from many a honk from impatient drivers behind.