Bento 262

It's a long day of replacement classes today. It's the last of the delicious "long yoke" from one of the CNY food hampers. There is a mini Laugen again and some red cherry tomatoes.



There are four nests of spaghetti Aglio Olio to feast on together with the okra or "ladies fingers" as we call it locally.

There was a box of frozen oranges and an energy bar that went with the bento. I didn't have time to take a picture because we were running late this morning.

Bento 251

Classes for both the elder girls begin mid morning today. I slept in and had time in my hands to think of making some vegetable rolls. I used the Vietnamese paper rolls to roll julienned kyuri, carrots, courgette and alfalfa sprouts. For the sauce, I simply used some sesame seed dressing.


For Carbohydrates and Protein, there was spaghetti aglio olio topped with last night's left over Roast Chicken. There was some Milanese Pennetone for dessert.

Bento 250

I'm back at planning my bentos so the mornings are organized and quite a breeze. No rush, no stress and best of all no need to wake up 30 minutes earlier!

There is a mixed veggie and tomato salad in one side of the box and a mini Laugen on the other side.


In the top box, there is steamed sole fillet with salt, pepper and ginger strips (removed) and some ham rolls with bread in it's middle.

Easy peasy bento today!

Bento 241

It's a wonderful, fulfilling emotion to be able to pack bento again! I have begun planning and clearing my freezer for future stock purchases. I've always been passionate about packing bento despite the time and commitment constraints.

I'm just too happy that #2 still wants her food packed even though she's already off to college.
#2 obtained a one year full scholarship of her choice from HELP University College under its annual School Achiever Scholarships Awards (SASA). Orientation was yesterday and today classes begin.
There is music in the air, everywhere! There are University auditions, competitions, multiple choir practices, camps, music exams, college exams and the entire works for another busy year ahead.

For energy and passion, surely there must be bento! LOL!
This morning I packed two mini Laugen sandwiches stuffed with tuna mayo. There was some leftover teriyaki chikuwa from last night's dinner. It's quite delicious and simple to cook. Just toss the sliced chikuwa into some oil in a pan and fry lightly. Then add some mirin, sake, shoyu and sugar, cook down the sauce till it gets a little sticky. Yummy!

I blanched some peas and mixed them with some corn and salad cream. Simple and delicious.

Bento 239

It's been more than 10 days since my last bento. I've been dying to pack one but unfortunately there was trial exams involved and then a long holiday following that.

I packed this for my lunch today.

It's basically some left over 'one pot rice' from last night's dinner. The rice had slivered Shitake mushrooms, yam cubes and slivers of lean pork, I topped it with a celery leaf. There was some steamed lady fingers and fried salt fish too.



This other box had some delicious store bought Korean Kimchi and some "Better banana bread" which I baked yesterday. I edited my post here if you want updates.


Home made sourdough bread is still going strong. I improvised another bread recipe and added sourdough thus reducing the yeast. I think I'll reduce the water too, next time. It's edible but definitely can be improved!



Hahaha! #2 refreshed my Photoshop skills!

#3 playing with 'dough'

I made gyoza today. #3 loves to help me because she claims that it's like "playing with playdoh". Today being Saturday, her two elder sisters are busy with their own programs be it studying or out with friends.

I'm blessed to have this 10 year old who is ever eager to help and be ready to offer hugs and kisses in between.

I really don't have a recipe for this and everything is just put together by memory. Actually it's very simple but if you need details, go visit Terri's site. Her recipe is near perfect. I love making these dumpling and I find it very therapeutic.

We made three plates of these in two hours. Wish I could do more but with one assistant cutting the dough and doing the first 'roll' to flatten it, and myself alone continuing the process of further rolling and adding the filling and 'sealing' the gyoza. I'd declare that it was quite a feat on my end! LOL!

My Olympus gave up on me and I took this picture using my handphone. *Gawks*

The quality of the handphone picture was so poor, I couldn't but ask #2 to help me take the bottom few pictures. The reason I don't like to use the Canon 40D is because I find it bulky and the pictures take forever to load. After all, I do the same thing with all cameras, just press 'click'.



This is my 2nd batch of "Sourdough starter a.k.a. sponge".


I used the 'sponge' together with all these ingredients...


...to make another batch of Sourdough bread. This time, I was home most of the time and managed to 'handle and shape' the bread properly. I tried plaiting one and it looks like I have to practice it a little more.

I haven't been able to use the no-yeast method yet. Soon...




Tonight's supper is freshly baked sourdough bread with home made lemon curd. Care to join me?

Sourdough bread and strawberries from the garden!

Finally, I made Soudough bread! There are lots of recipes on the internet forever tempting me to attempt my first.

I got smart and obtained some 'mother' from my local baker. I fed it and kept postponing my baking for almost a week. Worrying that something would happen to my starter dough or 'sponge' as it's technically called, I began work early at 9a.m. this morning.

I had a busy morning between making bread, going out for breakfast, tuition and Uni runs and errand runs. It was a chaotic morning rushing from one place to another in between the "bread proofing moments".

Nevertheless, the bread came out very well. I'm elated that the recipe called for so little yeast. I bake often and I do have some issues with the amount of yeast used so I bought organic active yeast. Now with the sourdough sponge, I can choose to omit the yeast but allow longer rising and proofing time.


Delicious Sourdough bread! I fed another batch of flour and water to the 'mother'. I'll try the no yeast method next!


See what I found in my garden!

10 minute Banana Bread

I love the holidays! I have time to experiment with new recipes, do some spring cleaning, browsing my recipe books and surfing the net for new 'adventures'.

Banana is our favorite fruit. In this house, we eat bananas if we get constipation, eat them for energy, eat bananas for dessert, make smoothies out of bananas, etc.

I came across this banana bread recipe today and was captivated by the simplicity of it's method. I didn't even have to bring my Kenwood out!

As described in the recipe, it is really simple and quick. I made a double recipe here.

Beautiful banana bread!

Look at it's texture. It was delicious!!


A great recipe to try if you're in a hurry!

*********************************
Edit:

I tried the better banana bread.
I improvised on the ingredients because I only had one cup of Yogurt, so I balanced the recipe with another cup of cream. It tasted softer and more moist. Personally, I prefer the no fuss and more 'textured' 10 minute banana bread.

Bento 238

This is a quick fix. #2 finishes school at noon and need a light meal for break or in between exams.

In the left box are some sliced carrot circles for munching. There is a pancake sandwich slathered with peanut butter and strawberry jam.

In the right side box, there is home made Ciabatta bread with tuna and moyo in between. I also experimented with Abok-Abok Sago. This is a Ramadan sought after desert and sago, being #2
s favorite, I decided to try making it.

I read about it in the Star newspaper yesterday and since there was a recipe included, I experimented it. It was a simple recipe. I tried to follow it as closely as possible but because there wasn't specific measurements for some ingredients, I had to use my instincts. It turned out okay with some tweaking but I'm intend to try it once again today just to get the actual measurements.

By the way, I didn't have banana leaves yesterday so I steamed it "talam" style. I got some from the market this morning to try the recipe again.

Frist cooking lesson for #3

It's Saturday and all the kids were home, so lunch had to be served! I was amidst spring cleaning the cupboards and house was in a total mess.

My ten year old was reluctant to practice her piano scales, so I cajoled her by inviting her to "help mummy to prepare lunch." She was very excited and so was I. Our lunch menu was Spaghetti Aglio Olio and Italian Seafood stew.

Item 1: Spaghetti Aglio Olio.

Step 1: Fill a wok half full of water and add 2 tsp of salt.
Step 2: When water boils, add 350 g of spaghetti in a 'spread out circular motion' (shown below).


Step 3: Peel about 10 pips of garlic. (Here, you can see #3 peeling the garlic under supervision).

Step 4: Add 2 tbsp of EVOO into a pot and toss in the sliced garlic. Add 1/3 tsp of salt. Keep fire low and once the garlic is soft, it is ready. Do not cook till brown or it will taste bitter. Turn off the fire.

Step 5: Once the spaghetti is cooked, toss it into a sieve till dry. Toss it into the EVOO and garlic combination and mix well.


Step 6: Mix and toss well so that the spaghetti is well coated with the garlic EVOO.



Step 7: Spaghetti Aglio Olio is ready to be served. Congratulations #3! You cooked this dish almost completely by yourself, under mummy's supervision.



Item 2: Italian seafood stew. This was from my frozen stash. It's a vegetable base and I can add whatever which is available from my freezer. My elder two loves seafood so it's been like that for a while.

I took the box of frozen vegetable base and added a piece of Sole fillet and some fishcake which I bought from the market. It was near expiry and I wanted to use it up quickly.



This was lunch today. The two elder girls had a great time tucking in. #3 had her spaghetti aglio olio with Kewpie mayo as usual. All the dishes were empty and that was a good sign.

While all of that above was happening, I had two loaves of bread proofing.

This time, I sprayed water on top of the bread before baking instead of salt water and the finish was slightly different.

When #2 ate it she exclaimed that it was delicious and tasted even better than the last. This girl has amazing taste buds.

Yesterday, when I was shopping for high protein flour at a nearby grocery store, I splurged on a bag of organic unbleached flour which cost me RM18/kg and a bottle of Organic active dry yeast. My regular high protein flour only cost RM3.50/kg.

I didn't even say anything about my excessive splurge and #2 could immediately taste the difference! She never fails to surprise me!

Finally, after a delicious and leisurely lunch at the terrace, #3 began practicing her piano scales. She spent about 3 hours practicing but also resting in between, to reach "an acceptable level of competency." Next stage is to work on the speed.

Cooking again!

It's back to home cooked food for lunch again! #2 is sitting for the SPM trials and said that we were spending too long hours having lunch at our favorite haunts. "Mum! You need to cook lunch" she says. "I need the time to study!"


This was lunch -
Clockwise: Salad with Honey dressing, tomato Coulis with basil and Puff Pastry Turnovers filled with chicken, bacon and herbs.


This morning was a cold and rainy day. I managed to bake two loaves of white bread for tomorrow (although one loaf is almost gone already).



Really need to get cranking up with the Bentos soon!! Since it's back to school again and Uni has begun for #1, there are three mouths to feed in the mornings! It's exciting and challenging because all three have different preferences.

Bento 192

I went to Jusco @ 1U yesterday to buy some fish balls from the Japanese fish section - their quality there are the best. Mind you, I only purchase this occasionally because their prices have been escalating and it's getting a little pricey to buy them on a regular basis.

I blanched some French beans, then I knotted, twisted and curled them and then, skewered the fish balls and French beans together for easy eating.

There is a little silicon cup full of schimeiji mushrooms stir fried with cherry tomatoes, garlic and a dash of oyster sauce.


For a treat, there is a silicon cup full of yellow raisins. The rest of the box is filled with sliced home made bread. #2 is very passionate about eating plain breads. She's fine if it's a sandwich with filling or otherwise. Much as I love bread, I really haven't learnt to eat bread on it's own.

This is the last bento for this week. School breaks for a week and so Bento posts will be intermittently posted if it's packed, otherwise, please come back and visit for some random posts!!

Bread day!

No bento today. #2 still recovering from her flu.

I baked bread today and I'm getting so used to eating home made bread that I can't eat store bought bread anymore. I don't know if that's good or bad, not yet anyway!

The recipe was for 1.5 kilos of flour. I wanted to save time and electricity so I baked them in various shapes to fit one tray all at the same time. It came out pretty well.