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 While being bored one day, I checked them out and was hooked (yes, I do realised that I'm very outdated!)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....

Bentos # 96 - Flossy Sandwiches

This was made for the second day of school. I had wanted to make potato salad only to find out that we're out of potatoes *kicking myself*. Asked Girlet what she wanted and she requested for meat floss sandwich. The only thing I could think of to cute-ify it is to make a cheese lion face. Added a sleepy baby quail egg, corn, brocolli & brocolli flower (so pretty rite?), and grapes under the egg and vege. So simple but still took me 30 mins to prepare..... how to be faster?


Also made hubby's breakfast bento, which took another 10 mins. Only he forgot to bring it with him. So I ate up the egg tart as it was already 2 days old and the brocolli flower. Kept the rest in the fridge for the next day.

Girlet's 1st day of Standard 1 & Bento # 95 -

Another milestone - Girlet's first day at primary school. My baby's all grown up in her new uniform. She didn't need me to go with her to school, but I went anyway.... who's the one who can't let go?
I stayed until recess, to make sure she knows where to sit etc. Signed her up for the catered food (although I'd and will be preparing bento for her) as that will ensure her a numbered sitting place at the cafeteria. Kiasu? Wasteful? Read this story first :
During orientation last week, the kids had a go at queueing up to buy food. There were parents queueing up too, and everyone kept cutting into Girlet's queue, even parents! So I told her (loudly for the adults' ears) to say 'excuse me, I was queueing first' and tears started rolling down her face. She didn't dare to cry out loudly though.
After that, I don't think I want to risk her jostling with older kids for a place to sit. And the catered food is only RM40 a month. And I'll have a backup on days I can't (too lazy) to prepare bento, which doesn't entail her queueing up (Break time is only 15 mins. By the time she finish queueing, break would be over). Good enough reasons? *_*

I'm sure she's happy with the decision. Managed to reserve a seat next to a familiar name from kindy. Turned out that on her other side is a friend from kindy too. Too bad they're both not in the same class as her this year. The first meal the cafeteria served was a bun with choc filling and soyabean. But she chose to eat the bento instead. *grin*

For such a momentous occassion, I'd prepared a school-themed bento for her. Brainstormed earlier and came up with 'Books, calculator/abacus, pencil, schoolhouse, alphabet'. Grand plans..... only at 6 am this morning, all that seemed like too much work. *not morning person lah* So quickly thought of Plan B. Failsafe weiners, easy sandwich dressed with 'I love School' and Girlet's face (must make the eyes extra big lah, just because they're not) and fillers - brocolli, brocolli flower, mini mandarin & grapes. Even that took me 45 mins to make. Hope to improve my rhythm soon.

Girlet, Congrats on your first day at school. You're growing way too fast. My wish is for you blossom into a beautiful person. Study hard and play hard. I don't expect perfect scores, but good learning attitude of always striving for improvement. Enjoy your school years. This is the Best Time of your life.

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.