Unexpected (and really) last bento of 2012

Mr Roast Meat has to get up really early and go out tomorrow morning, so lazy Mum, instead of also waking early to get him a fresh breakfast, decided to bento tonight so he can grab it before he heads out the door.

Some raisin bread cubes (Gardenia, in case you were thinking I baked it myself, hurhur), ham and cuke rolls, plus some chocolate covered nuts and raisins (I can hear him "yay!" already) I loved as a kid, and which he loves, but Takoyaki does not. Oh well.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

And... AH!! A giveaway by Bento Monsters! Quick quick head on over there!!

Some news (not of mine) and a bento sale!

This blog has been kinda quiet since my last official bento post for the year. Well, school's out so there's not much reason to bento since the kids are with me all the time (I cook, they eat, the end). And I've been busy researching on homeschooling my 2yo (very unofficially).

And I haven't been thinking or planning next year's bentos yet (haha! that would be so UNtypical of me, to plan), but I know I need to do so soon, perhaps not so much the actual food or themes, as the timing and workflow, since both Takoyaki and Roast Meat will be in the morning session. I hope to bento BEFORE they go to school on some days, instead of the night before. But this will take some preparing, something I'm loathe to do.

Some good news - Bento guru Maki is feeling better these days and has again begun updating both her bento site JustBento as well the sister site on Jap food (and other Japanese topics, as well as other cuisines), JustHungry. I know you don't know me, Maki, but I'm so glad to hear you're feeling better! Both your blogs have been sources of great inspiration (not to mention bona fide Japanese recipes that I depend so much on).

And Bento&Co, my favourite bento shopping site, is having a promotion! 20% off for orders over USD190 and free shipping to certain areas (unfortunately, sunny Singapore is not one of those places so I can only sigh).

Wishing you a Blessed Christmas, everyone~

Last official bento day for 2012!

So it's their last day of school, and it's a combined session (meaning both AM and PM sessions function together in the morning) so again the bentos were made last night and kept overnight in the fridge.

The contents are almost exactly the same, with minor differences - the filling in the bread and the treats. Here's Takoyaki's, featuring jam-filled bunny buns, sausage pineapples, kiwi and a Kinder Bueno.

Mr Roast Meat's having Nutella sandwiches cut into jigsaw puzzle pieces, sausage pineapples, cherry tomatoes and a Happy Hippo.

Each child also brought a bottle of yogurt drink to school, as a celebration for the last day of school. I can foresee that next year on, all my photos will be this kind - yellow and dark, since Mr RM will also be in the morning session and I have to either pack the night before or on the morning itself. Natural daylight always looks better.

Fuss free and count down to end of term

The kids are in a joyous mood since this is the last week of term, especially since they only have to officially attend school on TWO days, there being a public holiday yesterday and home-based learning taking up one day, AND Friday being Speech Day (prize presentation) so there're no lessons.

So today is my second last bento day, tomorrow being the very last. Both Takoyaki and Roast Meat went to school early in the morning, the former for interclass netball tournament (and refused to bring a proper bento), and the latter for lessons.

I told Takoyaki she would definitely be hungry and made her bring a box of cheese crackers as well as some Choclairs, and RM will be having bread logs (rolled up with Nutella and kaya), a cheese wedge, grapes and a chocolate.

Bunnies and carrots

Takoyaki went to the zoo today with her class, and they were going to split into groups for a picnic, so her contribution was to be fruits. So she brought grapes, six bunnies and six carrots, one for each bunny.

Mr Roast Meat will also be having a bunny and carrot, fried multigrains with prawns and Taiwanese sausage, and some cuke sticks.

And here's one more lunch bento for Takoyaki when she gets home (so I can take a nap with the little one), made of the same fried multigrains, Japanese-style pickles and rose apple.

The secret lives of fruits and vegetables

Takoyaki wanted to buy food today but agreed to bring a box of fruits (which she shared with her clique). There's a cherry tomato masquerading as a grape which is masquerading as a balloon.

Mr Roast Meat got some fish nuggets, grapes, more masquerading cherry tomatoes, and a Nutella sandwich with a smiling striped cheese bear (I still have about 3 striped cheese slices left).

Tired. 'Nuff said.

Takoyaki's box: sandwiches, hambaagaa, fruits and fruit juice.

 Roast Meat's: cheese crackers, Happy Hippo snack, cuke shurikens and grapes.

Cold weather, hot food

It's been cool and rainy in Singapore for the last couple of weeks, which translates to cold nights (cold by our standards, that is).  This is the time to pack hot soups and stews for the kids!

Takoyaki's having her favourite meesua 面线 (Chinese wheat vermicelli) soup again. I made her some french bean stuffed tamagoyaki (one of the few ways I can get her to eat french beans). My pan's working fine again, after I realised that it must be hot before pouring in the egg so that the egg mixture cooks instantly, instead of cooling the pan down so that it sticks. In the panda container are some fried ikan bilis from my mother-in-law.

Roast Meat will be having the hambaagaa I made on Sunday, with some moulded kaya ship buns and grapes. And oh-ho! He's so delighted. Yogurt drink.

Mini Hambaagaa or Beef patties Recipe

I just made a batch of these for bentos this week (but they will probably be obliterated by Tuesday). I have previously featured these patties in this post and this one too.

Ingredients:

500g ground beef

1.5 1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 a medium onion, finely diced

1 tsp parsley (fresh or dried, up to you)

1 tsp salt

ground black pepper to taste

2 shakes of paprika

1 medium to large egg

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix really well with clean hands.

Shape into equal sized patties about 2 inches across and 1/3 inch thick.

Gently press the centre of each patty in (makes them cook more evenly) and lay patties in a single layer on a large flat plate or tray.

Heat a frying pan on medium heat and add 1 tbsp oil.

Once oil is hot, reduce heat to low and fry patties about 1min on the first side.

Flip patties and cover pan, leave to cook about 3-4min.

Remove from heat and drain on paper towels.

Let cool before storing in an airtight container in the fridge.

What would I do without leftovers?

Takoyaki loves it when we have kimchi soup for dinner, because she knows there will usually be some leftover which she can bring to school the next day.

This time there are pork ribs in the soup (I usually do shabu shabu pork), an omusubi/onigiri with beef soboro filling (another favourite), and of course, fruits. My daughter is the fruit queen!

Here's my video on how to use an onigiri wrapper.

Mr Roast Meat says he loved the ketchup prawns from the other day, so I cooked up another batch for him (and me and the tot). And the rest of the food are two moulded bear buns with Nutella filling, some nuts and grapes.

Back to Simplicity

I shall take a really long break before charabening again. The kids seem tired of all the Halloween themes, but it was nice to rise up to the challenge!

Today's bento for Mr Roast Meat is simply yachaejeon, some lovely organic dark chocolate cookie sandwiches and grapes.

Can you... Count?

So here is the supposed crowning glory of my Halloween journey, but alas, I don't think it quite comes through.

The food for both bentos are essentially the same - Nutella sandwich under the ham slice, ham-and-cheese rolls, golden pear slices and treats.

Takoyaki's Sesame Street Count bento

Roast Meat's Sesame Street Count bento

Mr RM couldn't recognise it so I had to tell him, imagine if the Count was standing in front of a wall that is exactly the same colour as his skin. Then he would blend into the background yes? I think he understood after that.

Frankenstein

My heart was itching to make a Frankie, so despite earlier protests, Frankie it is. Mr Roast Meat was actually ok with it, after he saw the finished product.

Frankie is slightly abstract on a cheese spread sandwich, the top slice of which is spread with kaya (coconut jam) to achieve the slightly green effect. The bat's on cheese with sesame seed eyes, and in the top tier is a very failed scallion and leek tamagoyaki (the pan is starting to stick very badly!) which I just chopped up and dumped in the silicone cup.

The hair, nose, mouth and scar of Frankenstein are all cut by hand, while the eyes are just little round pieces of cheese with a black sesame seed each. The nori bat is also cut freehand based on my memory of some of my friends' bats, placed on a sliced of cheese, left to soften a little, then I carved around the seaweed with my knife. The eyes are white sesame seeds, and I also gave Frankie a drop of sweat by sticking on one white sesame seed in his hair.

OOOoooOOOooo. . . Ghosts!

After discussing with the children over the long weekend, we decided on ghosts for today.

Takoyaki's is depicted by striped cheese (carved out using my Hapimogu knife) on a sheet of nori, over a kaya sandwich. I also cooked some tamagoyaki in my new pan (and it's not burnt this time, yay!) and stuffed in some grapes.

Mr Roast Meat will be bringing a rice ghost (he thought it was the wind at first, humph) with ketchup prawns, grapes and M&Ms (the last of which is by request).

Bento staple - Tamagoyaki

I finally caved in and bought a tamagoyaki pan to make my life easier. The great thing about this silicone-coated pan from Daiso is that it's really tiny, so I won't have to use so many eggs to achieve the many many layers.

Here's the result of my first try:

A little too dark, I'm afraid. I love the practically white tamagoyaki I've seen in professional bento pics and I've always wondered HOW they get them that way without undercooking? My friend Emmem recently posted her beautiful, UNburnt tamagoyaki and gave us a tip - low heat. However, all the videos I've seen say the pan must be hot (at least medium heat) so that the egg mixture will not stick to the pan. Argh... I can't get my head round this.

But I will try again!

Here's a great English vid by two Japanese ladies on how to use a tamagoyaki pan.

Bats

If it's not obvious already, I'm trying to do Halloween themes all the way till it's over. I must be batty, haha!

I put in some extra effort into this bento for Takoyaki, because I was supposed to give her one yesterday, but was so exhausted the night before that I fell asleep with the tot and didn't get up! So here's her bat-on-ham-on-cheese-moon, over a Nutella sandwich, together with some bloody fingers and fruits. I had a swift thought of putting eyes on the grapes but it vanished in the wink of an eye (haha! again).

I hope her friends don't get too shocked d:)

Since I had all these tools out anyway, I made the same cutouts for Mr Roast Meat at the same time, except that I marked out the eye slits with cheese (eeeeeevilllll). Over rice with homemade salmon flakes, and matched with a Halloween pumpkin (it's actually half a clementine, thank you to inspiration from my dear friends on the Facebook EZ Bentos group, and I think the Ah Ma of the idea is Ming of BentoMonsters). To fill up the box and add some fibre, I threw in some cuke sticks and capsicum slices. 

 

Tomorrow is a public holiday in Singapore (Hari Raya Haji), so no school and no bentos. Need to brainstorm for next week's Halloween themes!

Have a grrrrrreat weekend, everyone!

Eek! A Spider! Or a Crab?

I had meant this to look like a spider! Why does the end result look more like a crab??

Luncheon meat-and-leek multigrain rice stirfry (what a mouthful), which Mr Roast Meat also had for brunch this morning (time-saving tip). Together with cocktail sausages and grapes.

Oh Mighty Mummy!

Today's design is almost a failure. It barely looks like a mummy. I didn't have any bread or rice for Mr Roast Meat so I quickly fried an omelette to make a base for the cheese strips.

The eyes are black sesame seeds on cheese circles. The rest of the food is red capsicum, peanut butter cookie sandwiches and golden pear.

Jack Skellington Bento

I want to say first of all that I really love the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. My husband and I have collected some paraphernalia over the years.

It's exam week for both kids, so there won't be any lunch bentos for school. Takoyaki brought rice, leftover beef stew and some grapes today for recess. That's a mobile phone pouch I found some years back. And nope she didn't bring it to school d:)

Jack Skellington Bento round

Mr Roast Meat brought an onigiri with salmon flakes filling, grapes and some pork cocktail sausages.

Jack Skellington Bento triangular

Jack's features are all cut out of nori by hand.

Drained Friday

There's just this day of school this week and boy, am I thankful! My tot and I are not well yet, especially me. It was all I could do to churn out Mr Roast Meat's bento today.

That's a rather failed breadcup holding some BBQ baked beans and topped with a cheese flower. The French madeleines from that day are all gone, so I made another batch yesterday. He ate one right before heading out the door, so there's only one for his recess, together with pear and some red capsicum.

French Madeleines

I'm having a long break from bento, firstly because Mr Roast Meat was ill last Thursday and Friday, and secondly, the first four days of this week are what we call PSLE marking days, where all the teachers in Singapore are involved in marking the PSLE papers, so there's no school at all for the children. How happy they are.

Unfortunately, everyone in the family is taking turn to fall ill, so we have mostly been stuck at home, save short trips to the neighbourhood market or heartland mall to get meals and some much needed groceries.

Since my 2yo is feeling better today (and hence not so sticky to me), I found a chance to make a batch of these babies. Bought my madeleine tray last week from Phoon Huat. Just for the record, I buttered some moulds but left some ungreased (this is the scientist in me speaking). No difference in final product, all popped out easily. So I won't bother to grease them in future.

And here are the amazing yummies. Light and slightly crispy on the outside. Bit lacking in the flavour department though.

I hope there'll be at least a couple left for Friday's bento(s). School resumes on Friday.

Cold Udon

It's already mid October but the weather is still really hot in Singapore. I remember it used to be rather much cooler this time last year. Think there were more showers and strong breezes.

This is the first time I've thought of using this set of containers for cold noodles. Everything fits pretty well, actually. In fact, if she had more time (say, on a Monday when she has to wait 2hrs for netball practice), I'd even use up the last box in the set to give her some treats or more fruits. But for a short 25min recess, I'm hoping she'll remember to eat quickly and not chat too much.

I froze the dipping sauce overnight in the container so it will have nicely defrosted but still be cold by Takoyaki's recess time. Packing the frozen sauce box right on top of the other two will also help to keep the food cold (important so the cuke stays crisp and the kiwi doesn't turn mushy).

The cucumber was sliced very thinly using a mandoline and I just sliced the ham up into thin sticks - will be easier for her to mix and eat with her noodles. Forgot to include the nori strips! Again!

Recipe for Cold Udon/Soba dipping sauce

(adapted from Just Hungry)

1/2 cup mirin

1/2 cup white sugar

1 piece konbu seaweed (about 5cm long)

a handful of bonito flakes

2 cups soy sauce

Combine mirin and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer for about 5 min to evaporate the alcohol. Add konbu and bonito flakes and stir about a min. Add soy sauce and bring to a simmer again. Simmer for about 10-15min (volume will have reduced). Remove from heat and let cool before bottling and refrigerating or freezing.

For mentsuyu (dipping sauce), dilute approximately 1:10 or to taste. I also use this mixture for sukiyaki, hot noodles soup, and beef/pork done Yoshinoya style.

More Nutella Wassants

Well, we have to finish those wassant rolls up right? I still have about ten left. I'm thinking that whatever we can't finish in time will become Nutella bread pudding, which will be another yummy dish!

Takoyaki's roll go with sausage flowers, a sweet plum and yogurt drink.

Roast Meat's roll and sausage flowers are packed together with some yachaejeon that we had for breakfast and dragonfruit.

Homemade Chocolate Wassant

I took the plunge and made some of these. Mine are rather ugly though.

I didn't use the Chinese water roux method, just a "normal overnight dough" from Peter Reinhart. Texture is not as soft as Four Leaves', but tastes just as yummy. And I used Nutella instead of chocolate paste.

Mr Roast Meat brought two to school for recess, together with some sausage flowers and grapes.

Enough of Charaben...?

Here's a normal bento for Takoyaki's recess. Old cucumber soup with onigiri and kiwifruit.

And another plain one for Mr Roast Meat.

 

All right, maybe I spoke too soon. But I did want to use the striped cheese and it can't be a faceless bear, right? Unfortunately though, the bear split his pants d:)

RM is having onigiri - one plain and one mixed with edamame, a slice of honey baked ham, a cheese wedge and watermelon.

How To Make Striped Cheese

Quite some time back expert bento'er Amy from Mothering Corner showed our bento group her striped cheese bears (oh so cute!) and also taught us how to make it for ourselves. I finally got down to making it today. Here's my block of striped cheese which I've double wrapped and put in an airtight box in the fridge.

I won't try to reinvent the wheel here, so for the photo tutorial, please hop on over to Amy's blog. I didn't cut my cheese in half though, just used up two whole packs of regular cheese and smoked cheese (SCS, because it was on offer). Figure the extra can just be used in sandwiches anyway. The kids will love it. And because I like to procrastinate, the slicing of the striped cheese will be done when I want to bento with it.

Children's Day 2012

And here is my very first from-scratch charaben. Meaning I cut the cheese and nori from scratch. And all because Takoyaki requested for a Children's Day themed bento, but girl, why couldn't you have said so BEFORE we left the supermarket? I didn't have any sausages or ham to fool around with, so I had to come up with something that would look ok on cheese and nori.

To keep the girl safe, I wrapped the entire sandwich with clingwrap. I also showed it to her this morning before packing the box into the bag. She was thrilled d:)

Butter and sugar sandwich, cuke flowers, pork floss rolls, grapes and goodies to share with her clique.

Mr Roast Meat will be having a simpler design - just a frog face on a pocket sando (buttered and filled with crispy anchovies from Ah Ma), cuke flowers and grapes.

More of the Savannah

We went out for brunch at the heartland mall again. Mr Roast Meat told me LAST NIGHT that he has to bring a photo of himself to school on Thursday for Art lesson, so we had to make a dash to the photo store to get some pics developed. What's with children and last minute must-dos?

On our walk back, I thought this bento out in my head, so the minute we got home I timed myself and started cutting, etc. Took me exactly twenty minutes! Much less time than I expected, although I guess with a little better planning, it could have been even shorter.

It's a simple cheese sandwich, cut to fit the box WITH the box itself, so only the bottom crust is "leftover" (which will go into my bread crusts box to be ground into breadcrumbs for meatballs/patties at the end of the week). The cheese elephant and hippo are cut out with some cookie cutters, and features were pre-punched with my $2 Daiso nori punchers and kept in a pill box in the freezer (to keep them crisp).

On the spur of the moment, I decided to cut some of my leftover nori (from the feature punching) into simple shapes and add them to the picture. They are "glued" to the bread with a dab of kaya each (or you can use jam, butter, even water). Don't ask me what a fruit tree is doing on the savannah though. At the back are some seedless grapes and some peanut butter filled M&Ms. Oooh! said Mr Roast Meat.

I used some clingwrap to wrap up the Rilakuma silicone cup holding the M&Ms (to prevent them from rolling all over), and another sheet of clingwrap to cover the entire box before putting the lid on (to prevent the cheese from sticking to the box during "transportation"). That's it! Twenty minutes. If you can read Chinese - 绰绰有余.

No Hot Lunch Wednesday

As it's the exam period, there are no PV duties for 5 weeks, so I guess that's a long break from hot lunches for Takoyaki. Here's what she brought to school today for recess: A bear-shaped jam bun, noritama (Japanese style rolled omelette layered with seaweed laver), watermelon and a packet of rice crackers.

In addition, this morning when she was getting ready for school, she asked to bring along a packet of fruit juice. Ok girl.

Ghoulie hunt begins

I have been having insomnia for the last two nights and am feeling the effects of it. Mr RM wanted udon noodles, but I am too tired to cook. Sorry son. Well, at least you got your pork jerky stick that you wanted so adamantly.

The pink Aluminium package is holding some ABC biscuits. They're wrapped up so they don't roll all over the box. There're also some seaweed chicken and a piece of broccoli, and watermelon.

Rest day - Bakery bun

I brought Mr Roast Meat out to the heartland mall for breakfast and a haircut this morning, so he chose a bun from the bakery (I wouldn't have time to do a full bento for him when we got back anyway). As usual, I will stuff some fruits in the box (so he gets part of his daily fruit requirement) and there are three safari animals peeking out from behind the savannah grass. Doesn't the silicone grass look so much better than the plastic ones?

Update: Mr Roast Meat just reminded me - pandas are not safari animals!

No Carb

Takoyaki will be having a long day today (for some strange reason, there's one solitary netball practice in the middle of exam period), and she asked to bring lunch. There's more time to enjoy her meal slowly.

I don't have any rice or noodles for her to go with the leftover chicken and radish soup, so she suggested, "Why don't you give me the soup, chicken, veg and fruits, and I'll buy a bowl of chicken noodles from the canteen?" She says the noodles do not come with much chicken (I agree) and zero veg.

So it's leftover honey baked chicken, freshly blanched broccoli, clementine and grapes. In my beloved Matryoshka boxes (the middle two). These complement well with the Foogoo jar because they will all fit in the Daiso lunch bag with the drawstring. The shape and size of the Foogoo and the way it is packed (must keep upright), does not allow the other rectangular boxes to co-exist in the usual bento bags.

Magewappa box (Urushi or lacquered)

Here is one of my "precious" boxes, although strictly speaking, all my boxes and tools are really precious to me. This box was brought back by a Japanese acquaintance of a close friend and mentor of mine. She refused to accept any payment, so I will never know how much it really costs.

 

And this is the box with the cover off. There is one removable divider made of solid wood. The whole thing is lacquered, which makes me very afraid to wash it. It's really light though. I have used the box only once, in this post. The capacity is about 450ml.

Barans on display

Since today is a Saturday, I thought I'd share some of my favourite bento accessories - baran or dividers.

These lovely little things are most commonly found in sushi platters or trays, the little plastic grass pieces that divide up the different types of sushi. The plastic grass types are easily found in Daiso stores everywhere, and most have "antibacterial" labelled on them. Well, they're supposed to help keep your raw fish fresh. For a short time.

But many bento'ers (myself included), prefer to use silicone barans, for a few reasons.

1. They're not plastic

2. They're washable and reusable

3. They're more environmentally friendly since you don't throw them away after one use

4. They're thicker than the plastic ones, which is helpful when you want to fill up a bento box so the food doesn't move around

5. They come in lovely designs

Thanks to an alert from my friend Diane, I got my hands on the latest arrival of new silicone barans.

The one I like best (for now) is the packet in the bottom right of the pic - the silicone grass barans that look just like the plastic ones! Boy, have I been waiting for this! I grabbed the leaf ones (top right) because Takoyaki asked for them. There were also two other packets of flower barans, but we were not interested.

And here's my entire collection of barans. Most of them are from Daiso or another two-dollar shop.

I still have quite a number of reusable plastic ones, which are too cute to throw away. They're also thicker, unlike the plastic grass, which is not made to be reused. My husband has suggested that I use the plastic ones for some art and craft work with the kids (now why didn't I think of that?).

I can't wait to use my new barans!