BENTO #77 & #78

Choir practice is off till Thursday, so #2 comes home for lunch. I packed some Penne pasta tossed in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and garlic, boxed some tomato based sauce loaded with fresh button mushrooms and sausages.

I hate adding sausages to my kids meals! Terri, a fellow blogger used to drop comments in my comment box whenever she read my posts on wieners/sausages/franks, about the dangers of Sodium Nitrite - a preservative carcinogen. Read here!

I'd cringe at buying them after much 'brain washing' from her comments and articles. My kids love sausages and it's difficult to get fresh ones without sodium nitrite and I've been avoiding them for a long, long time. Recently, my favorite 'tea time haunt cafe owner' offered me some sausages to try. It was delicious. Apparently made with more meat, less flour and no preservatives.

I bought some from him and used them in this recipe. I'm sure #2 will love it because sausages has been sorely missed in this household! Thanks to Terri! Seriously! I'm sold to the idea of healthy eating that's why I work hard at cooking wholesome meals for my family.



Lately, #3 has been asking if she too could bring a Bento box to school instead of her regular boring box.

I was happy to oblige and explained that if I had to pack only cookies then there was no use for Bento boxes. I made tuna sandwiches and used some large cookie cutters to cut 'hearts and bear' shapes for her and she was trilled.

In the lower tier, I added some home made chocolate chip cookies which she loves. I'm happy to pack two boxes now and hope it can continue. #3 is a very, very picky eater but we've come to an understanding that she has to learn to expand her taste palette and she's agreed.

#3's Bento box all prettied up and ready to go~!

BENTO #76

#2 has warmed up to the idea of taking 'full meals' for lunch in this insulated Thermos flask. Well at least the soup keeps hot till lunch. She likes it.

Today's schedule ends at 3p.m. because of choir practice again. Today, the Choir Mistress will be in attendance to do some brushing up.

It was Miso soup in the Thermos again because she enjoyed it yesterday and requested for the same. Only this time no more clams, just Aburaage and fish cake.

I re-fried some nori pork balls and added the balance of the vegetables from her break-time bento. In the rice box, I added some Daikon pickle (her favourite) and furikake.


This blue bento contains her break-time snack. Baby corn, Asparagus spears, carrots and cucumbers wrapped in Vietnamese rice paper. Added some tomatoes and a little box of salad sauce. #2 hasn't acquired the taste for the Vietnamese peanut sauce yet.

BENTO #75

Today's Bento is mostly left overs from the weekend. Cut up the Kyuri and crab sticks to fit the box. Added the simmered shitake mushrooms and fried a quick tamagoyaki.
I made the miso soup fresh and it, in itself is a meal because I added in clams (lala), Japanese fish cake, Wakame seaweed and Aburaage (Japanese taufoo pok).

Notice my black Oshibori box on the right?

This is going to be a very filling lunch because #2 has Choir practice up to 3p.m. today. The school choir is going for the Trinity Choir examination this Friday and #2 says they are not ready. Good luck then!

Excursion Bento

We're off to Sungai Klah Hotsprings with some of our Church Youths. I packed a bento for hubs and I to snack on in the car. The youths together with my daughter travels in a 44 seater bus.

My bento box contains Tamagoyaki - cut to resemble a heart shape. There are 3 pieces of peanut 'muah chee' (mochi) which I bought at a Nyonya stall this morning. Lots of crunchy vegetables and crabsticks to dip in thousand island dressing. Yummy!!


I added another picture to this post after I got back from Sungkai. I made Tuna Onigiri with sesame seeds and furikake and some futomaki for my daughters and their friends for tea on Friday when we arrive Sungkai. They finished everything during tea. *Slaps forehead* Just four girls and they could finish so much!

The picture is a little dark, as usual I didn't check because the girls were ready and waiting to tuck in to the food when I wanted to take the picture.

BENTO #74

We're off for a short break over the weekend. Today's a rush and Bento was a quick fix!

In the left box there are some cashew nuts in a silicon cup and four pieces of turkey, cheese and butter sandwiches. In the right box are fruits - apples and kiwi. If you look close enough, you can see the apples cut in the shape of 'apples'. LOL!! Some plum cherry tomatoes and left over Mac and cheese.

School breaks at 12.30p.m today and I'm planning a Donburi for lunch. Wonder if I have time to post about it before I leave.

The complete Bento and it's pretty strap ready to go!!

Looking for space for my Bento boxes

No Bento today. #2 is the official photographer for the state level Choir competition held in Sri KDU today. We arrived at her school before 7.00a.m. this morning. I am told that she and some of her co-photographers will be going to Sri KDU with the Choir teacher and Choir mistress up to 4.00p.m. I insisted on packing her some chocolate chip cookies and some marshmallows to snack on.

********************************************************

I need more shelves and space! After rummaging and re-packing my Bento boxes, these poor things were left with no space to keep them. I need to buy some more of those plastic drawer type shelves to shove these fellas in.

Don't you just love my Oshibori boxes?? I used to let #3 bring them to school everyday, now #2 has agreed to use the Oshibori packed in the box instead of 'wet ones'. I'm glad I have a couple more for spare.

The box of onigiri and sushi molds below are all packed in a lock & lock box. I tried using them before but it was too troublesome, I prefer to use my hands. The onigiri molds are too large - so says #2. She likes her onigiri the way mum makes them - small and cute! Lol!!



I bought these huge ramen bowls from the 100 Yen shop in Puchong today. I love the colourful soup bowls and the bags too. The 100 Yen shop is having a 20% discount on all items up to 22nd June or something. I have a membership card that entitles me to collect points but I'm not sure if you get the 20% if you're a member or not???


I've watched a couple of those Korean shows and they always have their 'lovestruck couple' slurping over a hot bowl of Korean Kimchi Ramen. Recently I bought some to try and #1, #2 and I have been addicted to the wonderful Kimchi Ramen flavour! Absolutely tasty and satisfactory. I made some for dinner tonight because I was out shopping the whole day and didn't have time to cook! " Shhhh.....not so loud!"

BENTO #73

I packed two sets of Bento this morning because #2 is staying back in school up to 3.30p.m. There's a debate going on and she's there to support her friends.

The blue Bento is for the 10a.m. break at school. It contains smoked turkey ham rolled with cheese, carrots, french beans and some red and green coral. I added sliced oranges and Kiwi for dessert.

For lunch, I packed rice (forgot to dust with furikake), some chicken karaage, blanched carrots, French beans and a hot pot of ABC soup.



The picture below shows the two Bento boxes and a set of Monokuro Boo cutlery. There was a bottle of frozen "Loh Han Koa" drink packed in a Yellow Urara water thermal insulated Bento bag and an oshibori box and towel.



#1's been talking about "green awareness" and I spoke to #2 to stop using 'wet ones' and to start using the oshibori towel instead. All agreed and it looks like the oshibori box will be a permanent feature in future pictures.

Packing and re-packing Bento accessories

During the last holidays, I had some time to re-pack my Bento collection.

I used a 3 tier drawer which I packed some of the Bento boxes.

Tier 1 - 9 boxes

Tier 2 - 8 boxes

Tier 3 - 7 boxes
(The rest of the boxes are still waiting to be packed)

Picks and food dividers

Forks and food dividers

My box of food dividers

All the food dividers and food picks packed together
in a larger container for convenience

My cup and mold collection:

Food cups

More food cups, egg molds, rice molds, etc

Some more food cups, silicon cups, Bento straps, Onigiri cases and sandwich bags

In the box - sandwich bag ties and forks

My cutlery collection:

Chopsticks

Cutlery and chopstick sets

More sets

All packed in one box for convenience

Cutters

Box of cutters

Some more cutters


Some side boxes, sauce containers and Furikake templates.

Cutters, cutters, cutters everywhere!!


All the cutters packed together

BENTO #72

I've been encouraging #2 to eat a little more, since her operation about 2 months ago. She's very tall so she doesn't have a weight problem, well at least that's what I think. However, she thinks otherwise. She now wants to go on a fruit and vegetable diet.

Today she stays back up to 3p.m. for Choir practice. I offered her 'Cha Soba' but she declined. It's 'fruits & vegetables' she says. So, I prepared this - some red and green coral, cucumbers, carrots, corn from yesterday, cashew nuts, cherry tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and salad cream.

In a side box, I added some toasted croutons.

I added a bottle of frozen apple juice and got them all ready
to be packed into the Tenmari kinchaku (bag).

BENTO #71

#2 attended the The 6th Young Singers Choral Festival organized by Young Choral Academy at KLPac for 4 days ending on Saturday. After the first day, #2 insisted that I pack her food for the next 3 days because the food was , *in her own words Uggggghhhh!!!!*

She asked for Onigiri and sandwiches. I had to be up by 6am every morning (it was the holidays!@#$%&!) pack her food and then send her to her friend's house where she'd hitch a ride down to Sentul (thank God for that).

She had a great time learning new songs and techniques. She learnt to sing some songs in 4 different languages and participated in interesting workshops. She made some new friends and renewed some old friendships. She got selected to sing in the front row of the Choir - when I heard that I was more excited than she was, because she only told me about that last night after dinner and said she'd forgotten to tell me earlier! Sigh!! I'm humbled that she's so humble!!???

Anyway, I'm glad I allowed her to participate in this Choral Fest. I hear that this may be the last (because of poor participation), which is such a pity because there is so much raw talent out there that can benefit from some of the local, well organized musical professionals in the system.

It's back to school! So Bento days are here again!
I packed some Salmon mayo into the tiny blue Hello Kitty tupperware and some Ritz biscuits in the top tier (right box,in the picture).

In the bottom tier (middle box, in the picture), there was corn, some longan in syrup (didn't pack the syrup) for dessert, and some crispy green peas for snack.

I added a Chocolate lollipop as a 'back to school treat'.

Bento *eggsperiments*

I've been wanting to do this for a long time!!! Finally after two attempts I've barely succeeded but I'm satisfied that I did what I've been wanting to do.

I played with my EGGS (Tamago)!!!

Last week, #2 had some friends over and I did my first "eggsperiment" because I had to have people consume the eggs. I hard boiled six eggs and I did this to them!

(Top) Simple sliced eggs using an egg slicer

Star shaped egg using a star mould
(the shape is disfigured)

Scarface!! Put two black sesame seeds for eyes

Onigiri shaped egg using an Onigiri mould

Star shaped egg using the star shape mould
(see the egg yolk 'bursting')

I found that the eggs I used were too large and the shapes didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. I was only too happy to make an egg mayo dip for the kids to eat with water biscuits and Ritz biscuits. They finished about 90% of the dip *smiles*. The only sad thing was that the pictures were blurry! I was in a hurry and didn't check if they were okay. *Sigh*

Today, I bought slightly smaller eggs and I hard boiled four. They came out very much nicer!!!

I made another 'star' egg. Notice that it didn't have 'extras' hanging out!!

This heart shape egg was perfect!

This bear face is my favourite creation.
As far as I know, I haven't seen this in anyone's blog yet!!

Open faced flower shaped eggs

All the eggs from tonight's 'eggsperiment'!

The tools I used for the 'eggsperiment'!!

All these shapes are easy to achieve if you can get the right size eggs. Most blog posts will call for 'large eggs' but I've found that it's not really a good choice. I think the medium ones fit the moulds better. If you don't have the egg moulds, just be creative and use a knife an cut the egg a little and you can get 'scarface'!

I used the bear rice mould to get the bear face!