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.

100 Yen Shop and My Current Korean Drama Craze

The 100 yen shop at Taman Desa had new stocks in. Emily and I went to check it out on Sat. Unfortunately the things that we ordered weren't in yet. That'll only be shipped over in March. Anyhow, we both still bought quite a number of stuff. For more details and pics, head over to Emily's blog.

Is anyone else following the Korean version of Hana Yori Dango, titled Boys Before Flowers? (Taiwanese version was Meteor Garden). Anyway, there was a very cute bento last week depicting the lead male character with curly hair and all. Simply kawaii! Pix were taken from Javabeans.

The male lead, Gu Jun-pyo, acted by Lee Min-ho.
The bento which makes me laugh each time I see it.

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.

Of Emily and 100 yen shop

Met up with Emily two days ago at Taman Desa's 100 yen shop to pass her some edamame. She is so familiar with the staff that she store her frozen edamae in their fridge while we go for breakfast. Then the 'si tau poh' came and Emily asked to look at their catalogue. We ended up spending almost an hour going through all the items. The si tau po has agreed to order all the cute bento stuff such as picks, baran, silicon cups, cutters. So exciting!! There'll be about ten different types of picks from clickety click picks, jewelled picks, animal picks etc. And the silicon cups are different from the Daiso ones. Depending on the supply in Japan side, most of the stock should arrive in March. Will let everyone know then. Watch this page.

Edit: The 100 yen shop is a franchise, and each shopowner/branch order their own stock, which accounts for the different items carried in different branches. So only this Taman Desa branch will order the things mentioned above.

In the end, instead of breakfast, we went for lunch at Francais Alliance. Thanks Emily for lunch and for the things you gave the kids. Hope you enjoy the edamame.

Bentos # 102, 103, 104

Bento # 102 - for Girlet. Tried to fashion a small charsiew pau and two pieces of fishpaste/ seaweed roll into a dog, with dismal results *sigh*. How did I pass art exams last time? Anyway, my mum gave me some mini papayas from her tree, and they were the perfect size for bentos. I halved 2 papayas and they just evolved into a man. Added edamame for some green as we're out of lettuce. Babylet had the rest of the papayas for brunch.
Bento #103 was for Boylet. He started classes in a new nursery, and they serve mainly fruits at snack time. It must be insufficient for Boylet as he would gobble down his lunch when he's home. On one hand I'm happy that he's eating lunch unlike last year where I have to either persuade, bribe, threaten or force him to have lunch. On the other I'm afraid he's starving. Am hoping that his appetite is growing as he's getting older. Fortunately many of the kids bring their own snacks, so he's not so adversed to a snack bento for himself. I tried to make a bunny out of the mini pau & grapes, and a flower out of jelly & edamame.

Bento # 103 was a breakfast bento for d'Hubby. Consisted of pancakes with maple syrup and mandarin oranges. The pancakes were just too plain and I couldn't resist adding facial features. A first cutesy bento for d'Hubby. All the container were too small to store the maple syrup, so made do with a silicon cup covered with a clingwrap.

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*