Bento # 76 - Halloween Spider Pizza

Following the previous post, girlet requested for another pizza bento. Lacking any original ideas, shamelessly copied another pizza idea from Gourmet Mom. However, as Girlet is not fond of olives, the spider is made from a gummy snake instead. My so-called pizza was made from white bread, beef bolognaise sauce and cheese. Included two pumpkin marshmallow and some grapes. And mindful of allthingspurple's advice in keeping the food intact, I placed a plastic sheet over the bento, and then plastic cutleries and damp towel on top so there would be no space for the food to move about. Other for the spider which appeared somewhat squashed, that worked quite well. Happy Halloween!

Bento # 75 - Halloween Snake Pizza

This is the first pizza I'm packing into a bento. Reason being I had always associated pizza with being piping hot with gooey cheese. But after seeing a few other mommies packing pizza with no complains from their kids, thought I should try out too. And what better time than a Halloween bento. I took the idea of the snake pizza from here. Love this blog, has all sorts of cutest ideas.

The original recipe used bagels. Not having any bagels, I cut out semi-circular shapes on white bread instead. Using some leftover beef bolognaise sauce topped with cheese, these snakes took no time to make at all. I put the pizza in the toaster oven for 5 minutes while I washed and cut the apple into Jack-o-Lantern.And while the pizza is cooling down, I packed the rest of the bento - a marshmallow ghost which BIL brought from Oz, and a Snickers o'Lantern. Unfortunately, being clumsy, I dislodged the snake while transferring into the bento box. See how the snake have gaps which was earlier held together by cheese. And the second snake was slightly too long so Girlet got to eat the tail first for breakfast. So the final bento had 1 and 2/3 snakes.

Verdict : Girlet cleaned the bento. First time she has so much treats, that she requested for another pizza bento for the next day. *_*

Bento # 74 - Spooky Riceball

This was Girlet's bento for friday. My BIL and SIL were back from Melbourne, and SIL's grandmother made Bakchang. Girlet loves bakchang, except the chestnut, so I dug into the chang to remove it and decided to reshape it into riceballs. And thought that since Halloween's coming, to make spooky riceballs, with eyes of fishcake and black sesame seeds. Added meat dumplings, kamaboko flower, fishpaste swirl and filament stick in fishcake, some pieces of red/yellow capsicum, sweet peas, and champagne grapes. All placed on iceberg lettuce.It turned out to be too much food for girlet. She ate the Bakchang, kamaboko, part of the dumplings and surprisingly, some of the vegies. She had the rest when she came back from kindy.

Bento # 73 - A bouquet for a girl

This was Thursday's bento. Made from leftover chicken rice ala claypot style. We love this meal, delicious and very easy to make, just marinate and dump everything into the rice cooker and voila! An all-in meal with carbs, protein and vege inside. And high on the kids' list of favourites too.

For Girlet's bento, I strip the chicken thigh meat and mixed with the rice. On top, I placed 3-D carrot flowers and sweet peas cut into stalks and leaves. More vege and protein in the form of fish balls and yellow/red cherry tomatoes skewed on a pick. I cut the papaya into cubes and topped with two pieces of flower papaya just for fun.The fishballs looked remarkably like eggs, didn't they?

Bento # 72 - leftovers adult bento

This was my bento a few days ago. The lower tier has rice with salmon furikake, lettuce, yellow/red cherry tomatoes, yellow/red capsicum, and half a flower egg (placed downward as the yolk is not centered. The top tier has beansprout, minced pork & potatoes and more tomatoes and capsicum. Other than the fresh vegies, everything else were leftovers. Because unlike my sis, Biblo, who has SIL, mom and colleague's mom to cook for her, I have to fend for myself. Dear sis, tell your mom how pathetic I am and to come and cook for me instead!! Maybe playing the grandkids card will work better. *_^

Bento # 71 - A Fishy Affair

This was yesterday's bento. Last week, Girlet had been having simple bentos. Thought to compensate and make her something that requires more effort. Since I had two more of the fish sausage in the freezer, ended up with another fishy bento. It would have been better with a coloured fish egg, but overall it's quite satisfactory.

Bottom tier: White and Red Fish Dragonfruit, Fish Pretzels with cream fillings, Fish container

Upper tier: Fish sausage, cheese & nutella sandwiches, egg, ham anemones, broccoli corals.

Purchases from Market Place

These are my newest purchases through internet, from a local website called Market Place. I found the prices very reasonable and some even cheaper than e-bay. And the service is superb!! Thanks, Chooi Peng!

It's almost time for the year-end's long school holidays. I am planning a few jaunts to some local attractions. So stocking up on boy's or asexual bento stuff for Boylet's bento, to balance out all the Hello Kitty stuff. Pooh bear is a safe 'investment' as the girls can use them too, should boylet persists on refusing a bento to school.

So Pooh bento box, Pooh container with spreader, Pooh cookie cutters, Thomas dividers, mini Alphabet cutters, egg shell cups, and chick furikake container. Chooi Peng threw in some colourful baran for free. Thanks again. Also bought a pack of picks, but already given away before taking this pic. And I've already have the cookie cutters. These are for a friend.

A bigger pic of the egg shell cups. Comes with 3 picks - chick, frog and dinosaur!! The last being a delightful surprise.

And a bigger pic of the Pooh container with spreader. To quote Emily, "Cutesy"

Anyway, Shopping Therapy is very good for stress.... LOL!