Bento

Bento books !!

After courts last Tuesday, I dropped by KLCC.

I thought I checked out Kinokuniya and see if their Japanese books aisles have any bento books.

And true enough, what did I find !!!!

 
I got these at a steal at RM42.

It is a good deal because they are selling them at ebay for like USD19. Plus that with USD4 for shipping or probably USD9 for EMS and you get the idea.

I got this other book as well. It’s around RM46.

If you ask me, I still prefer those pictures that those Japanese moms churned out in their daily blogs. However, these books does makes a refreshing reading (flipping) at bedtime.

However, I think the prettiest bento book has got to be from this book that I got from www.NST.my 6 months ago, before the price hike from their supplier.

I still haven’t utilised any of them ideas in the span of the 6 months since I got this book !!! I do enjoy flipping through them, though.

Perhaps this coming school holiday.

Let’s hope I have some time to make some kawaii bento for the kids.

So, bento addicts ! Fast, fast hop over to Kinokuniya check out their bento books. There aren’t many there the last time I looked.

And this is not a paid post, by the way. haha.

Happy bentou-ing , folks !

Bento Silicon Foodcups - My “must have” !

I find silicon cups so useful. Before I purchased any silicon cups, I had to painstakingly divide the dry food from wet food with baran dividers or aluminium foil.

A lot of baran dividers sometimes.

…. Like so…..

Now with silicon cups….

I can just do this instead….

Slot the food in……

No prize for guessing why I was grinning from ear to ear when Angeleyes send me this parcel stuffed with silicon cups when she came back from her trip to Singapore !!!

And the darling won’t let me pay for it !!!

Isn’t she such a sweetie?

I rushed to the Post Office to collect the parcel immediately after receiving the red postcard from the Post Office. Reached there barely half an hour before the post office closes.

I brought them all to FIL’s place the next day itself where we spend the weekend and I utilised them fully. haha.

Used them for packing small portions of dishes home when we dined out because Ashley dozed off in the stroller and missed dinner and were bound to be hungry when she woke.

Used them to pack bento meals for the 3 1/2 hour ride to FIL’s place and to pack bento food again for the 3 1/2 hour ride home to PJ.

Used them to pack bento box snacks when we popped into DH’s relative’s place with the kids, knowing that we are going to be hours there.

Now that Angeleyes/Alice is into bento-ing, she is making up fantastic bento-s for her toddler, Darrius. Incidentally, Darrius is almost the same age as Ashley.

Check out her site for her bento posts !

And hugs to you, Alice, for the lovely lovely gift. GIFTS !!!

Bento #41 and Bento #42

Bento #41 was hastily put together.

Ashley was not feeling well and I could hear her fretting noises from the monitor as I was packing Kimberly’s bento.

Kimberly’s bento for Wednesday is peanut butter sandwiches cut with Hello Kitty’s cookie cutter. She prefers those little Hello Kitty ones that she can pick easily and popped into her mouth.

At the side, some steamed carrot and apple slices cut into various shapes.

I was going to give her some turkey slices roll up for protein, but Ashley sounds like she couldnt wait anymore, so I quickly filled the gap with a pack of mini raisins, a mini pack of smarties and 2 block of cube cheese, feeling almost guilthy as I did that. But it will have to do.

Ashey didnt go to school on Wednesday for her running nose so there is no bento for her. She will be having some fish porridge instead.

Bento #42

Ashley was feeling better enough to go to school on Thursday. Bento #42 are for both kids.

Both kids has nuggets, steamed carrots and peeled grapes on skewers.

I hardly cook anything with carrots at home with the intention that they would want to eat them if I pack it for their bento boxes. I could add carrots for their bento every other day or so and the boxes would still come back empty.

After all, I could always insist or persuade them to eat other coloured food with beta carotene at home like red pepper, mangoes, pumpkin and apricot, those food of which are trickier to get them to eat.

The Pooh Bear container is for Ashley and the Hello Kitty Container is for Kimberly.

Being the eldest, Kimberly gets to choose whichever she wants first. That, and including the fact that when Kimberly goes off to school, Ashley is still sleeping. If she weren’t, I would never be able to pack the bentos in time everyday. Ha ha.

And that’s Wednesday and Thursday’s bento.

Have a great day today, folks !

Bento #39

Because Kimberly has started blogging, I showed Kimberly one of the blogs belonging to another little girl, Rachel and she saw that Rachel had pancakes for bento, so she said, “Momma, I havent had pancakes for a long time !”

So, Monday’s bento was pancakes.

Ashley has had pancakes for her school’s bento but not Kimberly.

Bento #39

Bento #39 is pancakes cooked in the Hello Kitty frying pan. If we were having the pancakes at home, she gets to draw eyes and stuff on the Hello Kitty face with the sauce pen, but because this is for school, I didnt want the chocolate sauce to smudge all over the pancake, so she has them plain.

One of the monkey container contained peanut butter. The other contained butter icing (butter and sugar beaten up) leftovers from the butter cake we baked over the weekend.

Those monkey containers are really nifty. It came with a little spreader spoon stored neatly inside the container. Cool, yea? One of my favourite bento accessory.

Ashley has only cereal for school. This is because she has started to show an interest eating the school’s food together with her classmates in school and I like to encourage that.

For Bento #36, Bento #37 and Bento #38, click “here”, okay ?

Have a great day today, all

Bento #34 and Bento #35

Bento #34

Yours truly woke up late, so Bento #34 was made in a rush. And I do mean, a rush. Ha ha. what, like in 10, 15 minutes? wash bunches of champagne grapes, slot a bunch each into Tigger’s green round containers. Took out chinese sausage of the night before from the fridge, cut into strips, peeled pear, slice and cut 2 slices each for the kids, placed in silicon triangle cups, and that’s Ashley and Kimberly’s Tuesday’s bento.

Sorely lacking in colour combination and variety. My only consolation is that both containers came home wiped clean. At least its the food that I know they definitely want to eat. Perhaps they finished them purely because there is so little food in there.

Wednesday’s bento is somewhat better.

Bento #35

It’s peanut and butter sandwich cut into Hello Kitty shapes. In the purple jellybean container, skewered peeled grapes, peeled at request of my little madam who says that she had needed to spend a long time peeling them despite my attempt to get her to eat the fruit’s skin as well.

I didnt get a chance to use my Hello Kitty kamaboko, so sliced some yellow zuchini (the last of the lot) and green zucchini (also the last of the lot, ha ha) and layered them with the sliced fishcakes.

Ashley didnt go to school on Wednesday, so I didnt prepare any bento for her.

For Bento #36, Bento #37 and Bento #38, click “here”

Have a great week ahead, all !

Bento # 29 and Bento #30

Toddler’s Bento #29

Ashley’s Bento for Friday is chicken teriyaki from yesterday’s dinner. This is one of her dad’s favourite dish. And Ashley’s too. So I figure it would be a good choice for her bento today.

LZmommy is right. Not easy to think of what to put into bento boxes at times. In my case, it’s purely because I would only put food that they would want to eat, with only one unfamiliar food at most. But there are so little variety that my toddler would want to eat. With Kimberly, I have it easier though.

Anyhow, Ashley’s bento is simply teriyaki chicken skewered on foodpicks, and turkey drumstick (debone and cut into manageable sizes) skewered likewise. On the side are her favourite zucchini and cucumber. She loves crunchy fruits and vegetables like apples, pears, zucchini, sengkuang, even raw carrots thinly sliced.

She didn’t finish her bento in school, so as usual, I would offer the unfinished bento to her again on the ride home, and she would almost always finish them.

I also brought along some apple slices in the yellow container for her when I picked her up from school because that morning’s bento wasn’t much.

Look at my little demure lady’s manner. So unbecoming. Ha! Ha! That’s Ashley eating the remaining cucumber.

And zucchini…

Bento #30

As for Kimberly’s bento, it is somewhat the same, with zucchini and cucumber, save that she doesn’t like having the same food twice in a row, so I had to cook her something else that morning.

Marinated some baby sharks fillet the night before and pour some flour out on a covered container left in the fridge. Fried them the next morning for her bento.

So Kimberly’s bento is baby shark fritters and zucchini and cucumber slices, with a lone cherry tomato.

Kimberly loves cherry tomatoes, but Ashley would only eat them sometimes. Ashley is more minded to eat tomatoes with the presence of her chieh chieh, such is the influence of her big sister over her.

As usual, a close up of the bento ……

And that’s Friday’s bento.

Oh, in case you noticed that the Bento # numbers doesnt run, its because I posted Bento #28 at my old blog at www.allthingspurple.blogspot.com, so hop over there for Bento #31, Bento #32 and Bento #33.

Okay,now. the reason why i need to type out the blog url in full is because I havent figured out how to make the link stand out in another colour. In blogspot, its automatically blue, but here, link and post, they are all in indistinguishable black. I appreciate any tips at all. Anyone? Any tips at all?

Now to take a 2 days break from bento-ing. It’s weekend again, the peel-fruits-by-the-barrel time of the week again. For homemade juice, dearie, I juice them and freeze them by the trays to last the kids the whole week. Some of them goes into popsicles sticks.

Now you guys have a great weekend !

Bento #26 and Bento #27

As mentioned in my old blog, I havent decide yet if I should seperate my my new blog , (dot my) and my old blog (dot blogspot dot com) with different focus, so for the moment, I will be posting from both sides, including Bento posts, to even both blogs up. So if the Bento # numbers doesnt run, just hop over to my my old blog, okay?

Actually, I find that it takes longer posting from my new blog, cos I have to figure out stuff like, … what is this visual and html feature at this right hand corner on top of the post here? …. and going like,…. Oh, okay, that’s what its for ….. before I proceed.

Anyhow, this here is today’s bento.

Bento # 26

Today’s bento is Hello Kitty shaped peanut and butter sandwiches. To fill the gap of the bento, weiners. I try not to let the kids have weiners more than once a week, even though the kids loves them.

Some asked how I got my kids to eat the things they did. I guess the only reason my kids eat their bento meals is because the only occassion I ever let them eat stuff like weiners is when I packed them in bento boxes. Nothing wrong with certain items like peanut butter sandwiches. But I save certain food for bento meals instead of letting them eat those at home so that they would find those food appealing for the lack of it. Therefore, those food packed bento are food that they would want to eat.

I would perhaps add one new item every now and then to tempt them into expanding their palate ie. yellow zucchini for Ashley or mandarin oranges for Kimberly. In this instance, I skewered a cherry tomato between slices of Japanese fishcakes, to check if Kimberly would like them. This is because Ashley rejects them. Japanese fishcakes are somewhat softer compared to our local ones. Our local fishcakes are much more firmer to the touch.

If they eat at home, they eat homecook food like rice with mui choy pork or steamed pomfret or pasta with salmon, not finger food like nuggets or fish balls. For tea, its usually pancakes, waffles or meatloaf/meatballs, or the Chinese’s old fashion staples of fried noodles or fried rice, although in my fried stuff, Kimberly always complain that she cant see the rice or noodles for the crowded meat and vegetables in the dish. I guess lots of other mums are like me, kiasu-ing crowding every fried rice dish with as much protein as they could. Ha ha.

Bento #27

Anyhow, Ashley’s bento for today.

Ashley’s bento is simpler. Plain bread cut into crescent shapes and weiners slices skewered with food pick. On the side, 2 blocks of cheese cubes, which she loves.

Happy Bento-ing, folks !!

Be sure to come back and visit this new blog too, yea? Have a great day, all !!

Bento #19

With Ashley off to school, and my client being late, lets see if I have time enough to press the “publish post” button before he turns up.

I know most advocates and solicitors prefers to meet clients in the comfort of their own office, but I am inclined to meet most of them out of office if I am not minded to venture into the office before and after the meeting, like this instance; after coming out from getting a mention in court and before picking up Ashley from school to bring her to a doctor, and going to another court for a decision after that. I will be taking Ashley home from school earlier after that and hopefully, catch 40 winks myself. She has been having a bout of flu lately and I had spend the whole night carrying her in my arms cos she couldnt sleep for her stuffed nose.

So, here I am now, in Starbuck, with my laptop on my lap, posting Ashley’s bento of yesterday. Havent load up either Kimberly’s or Ashley’s bento of today into photobucket yet cos I had needed to send Ashley to her kindy earlier than usual today.

Bento # 19

Ashley’s bento is milo balls and besides it, corn on the cob, unbuttered and unsalted so that she wont have messy fingers. If she smudges her hand and do not wash her hands, she is likely to scratch her hands raw later. Better be safe than sorry. This is the corn that they called “Sui Ching”(crystal) corn. I find these kinder to children’s teeth than our regular corns.

I had wanted to cut the carrot into an appealing shape for her but there wasnt much time yesterday.

In the container are 2 cherry tomatoes and sliced apples cut into various shapes to tempt her. I had worried about her having cherries in school the other day, concerned that she may have swallowed the stones in case the teacher left her for a split second, so I thought I better give her tomatoes instead. She can have cherries at home in my presence.

I tried salting the apples or sprinkling lemon juice on top to stop them yellowing, but she rejected them the other time when I tried them on her. So her apples will have to go to school yellowed like that from now on. ha ha.

Okay, now to post this. Have a great day today, all.

Bento #18

This is Kimberly’s bento of today.

I made onigiri for her yesterday with moulded eggs for dinner, because I got some unagi from Jaya Jusco and I thought it would be nice to go with it. She ask for it for her bento today. But we finished the unagi yesterday, so she has only onigiri and eggs.

These are Hello Kitty moulded eggs sitting on a bed of lettuce. She ask for two. She has never been able to finish more than one at any material time but just to humour her, I made two. Just so she wont opened up her bento and exclaimed,”Why is there only one?” in my absence in the school canteen later. I expect to get one returned today unless she gave it away to one of her classmates in the canteen later. I also include 2 soy sauce containers for just in case, a Hello Kitty pink one and a carrot one.

On the side are some cherry tomatoes, courtesy of her grandad who got them from Cameron Highland last week. And 2 slices of onigiris with seaweed I punched out of the Hello Kitty onigiri tool kit’s nori puncher. Didnt do such a good job cos I wasnt deft enough with my chopsticks. The onigiris are on top of each other, seperated with a Hello Kitty baran.

I wanted to add some salmon Hello Kitty ribbons on the onigiri but there isnt time cos she was late for school. Ashley frets a few times while I was preparing Kimberly’s bento and I had to leave the kitchen to tend to her and pat her back to sleep. If she wakes before the bento is done, I will never get anything done cos she will be clinging to me for at least half an hour.

Okie dokie, now to get Ashley ready for school. As usual, there isnt time to post Ashley’s bento so will probably do that later at night when Ashley goes to bed.

Have a great week ahead, everyone !

Bento # 17

This is Ashley’s bento of yesterday. Didnt have time to post it up yesterday cos I worked late. Got home only in time to cook, feed, bath the kids and send them to bed.

This is a simple toddler’s bento.

It’s buttered corn, unsalted. Father in law bought some corns the other day. I think they call it “cyrstal corn” in chinese? Because of the speckles of light and dark corns? I deshucked them and steamed them in the wok. They are so much tastier than our regular corns. Ashley simply loves corns !!!

Those on top of the corns are slices of cheese cut into Hello Kitty shape.

Inside the green container are tiny slices of plain wheat bread, home baked, cut into Hello Kitty shape. I didnt imprint them hard enough. Besides, the imprint are usually not noticeable unless you sanwiched them between spreads.

On the outer side of the divided container, some cherries that her grandad bought for the kids.

Since I had included a note of reminder for Kimberly, I thought that it is prudent for me to include a note for Ashley’s teacher as well.

Ashley take the stones out of the cherries herself when she eat them at home, but with my supervision. I thought I remind her teachers to keep an eye on her as well.

Have a great weekend, all !