Really too tired to Bento

I had actually asked Mr RM to buy recess in school today, but he really preferred not to, so Mum, although exhausted, dragged herself into the kitchen and spent about 5 mins on this one. I did so want to oblige him d:)

It's a cheese and red capsicum sandwich (weird), with grapes, a cherry tomato and a chocolate treat. 

Simple.

How To Make a Tomato Bunny

So folks, here's the tutorial for the tomato bunnies featured in Takoyaki's bento yesterday.  

WARNING: some gory and bloodshed ahead. Do not proceed if you cannot bear to see a tomato get dissected.

Here are the stuff that you will need.  The paring knife is actually good enough for all steps, but I took the Hapimogu carving knife out since I have it.

Cherry tomato, black sesame seeds, a small sharp knife, tweezers.

First, slice off lengthwise, a side of the cherry tomato. Make sure the piece you cut off is less than half the tomato.

Slice off less than half the tomato

Next, cut out a triangular wedge from the cut off piece. Discard the wedge (or eat it). What's left will form the ears.

Ear piece is done

On the main tomato, with the cut side down on the board, carefully slice at a 45 degree angle halfway into the tomato, towards the stem end. Do not cut all the way through.

Just in front of the cut, right above the stem end, gently poke two slits with the tip of a small sharp knife to form the eye slits.

Ouch! I'm blind

With the tweezers, poke a black sesame seed into each slit.

I was blind but now I see

All that's left to do is to insert the ear piece into the flap and the tomato bunny is done!

 

Tomato bunny complete! (in lots of gore)

You can also try this technique on other fruits. Here's a grape bunny.

Salmon Teriyaki Don this time

Takoyaki didn't get to eat any of the yummy fish yesterday, so she's having her portion (which was kept very safely in the fridge) today for recess.

I learnt a new skill yesterday - how to carve cherry tomato bunnies and I've put the result into the bento as well. Takoyaki thinks they're too cute to eat! Together on the side are noritama and fruits.

RM got some mini chicken pies from the bakery, some Garrett's popcorn, and fruits.

Teriyaki Salmon Udon Bento

It may seem surprising since I cook Japanese meals so much of the time, but I've never made Teriyaki Salmon before, although the chicken version appears every now and then. I finally decided to try it out today, by using my teriyaki sauce recipe on some lovely, fresh salmon steaks from a whole fish I bought a few days ago.

This was Roast Meat's lunch - panfried salmon teriyaki with udon, cuke sticks and grapes. The udon was tossed in some leftover fish marinade which I boiled and simmered for about 5 mins to boil off the alcohol content. The tot and I had a few leftover udon noodles, and gosh, was it yummy!

Recipe for Salmon Teriyaki

500g salmon steaks

2 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, cover with clingwrap and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour to allow the marinade to penetrate the fish. Remove from fridge let sit on counter for at least 10 min before cooking.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat and brush the surface with a little oil.

Place salmon skin side down, cover and cook about 3 min. Flip steaks and continue cooking another minute or two. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 min. 

Meanwhile, bring the rest of the marinade to a boil, reduce to simmer for about 5 min. Pour over fish or toss with udon.

This hodge-podge bento was RM's recess and is here purely for my reference.

Bentos allow for variety

One of the reasons I love bento is that I can pack more types of food into one bento, since the portion size is entirely up to my control. Some foods are perhaps just a tiny piece for taste. If they buy food at the canteen, they have to buy each food in a portion that is supposed to fill them up (other than fruits).

So Takoyaki is bringing a cheese sponge cake we got from a bakery over the weekend, plus assorted fruits (even fruits can be assorted, brilliant!), cherry tomatoes and some cocktail BBQ sausages.

Roast Meat got a couple of bear buns filled with coconut jam, the same fruits and sausages, a small package of cashew nuts and a Happy Hippo snack.

Gotta love bento! d:)

Claypot Chicken Rice

Well, to be pedantic, it was Happycall Chicken Rice, but cooked in the Claypot style. A very popular dish in Singapore, my whole family loves it too. However, I cracked my one and only large claypot (through mishandling) so I'm glad to find that it cooks just as well in my Happycall Ocher double pan.

Leftovers went into both kids' bentos today. Takoyaki had hers for recess, with strawberries and cucumber on the side.

And Roast Meat had his with rose apple, red capsicum and cucumber sticks for lunch, before he went for his Learning Journey to Fort Canning.

Panini Bentos

I made some loaves for panini yesterday, and this is what the kids brought to school.

 The fillings were: ham slice, cheese slice, romaine lettuce and sauerkraut. I was tempted to spread a very thin layer of Vegemite on the butter but decided against it.

Click here for the panini loaves recipe.

Chirashizushi Bento

To make up for yesterday's ultra boring box, I made Roast Meat a yummy sushi bento today. The hokkigai and surimi crabstick were bought precooked, so all I had to do was defrost them and blanch them briefly (just in case). These are sitting on a bed of sushi rice, something I have not made for months. On the side are a couple of cherry tomatoes, blueberries and lettuce.

I am looking forward to picking both Takoyaki and RM up today so we can go out for lunch.

Boring old box

Seaweed chicken, oreos, ladyfinger (leftover from making tiramisu) and fruits. Better one tomorrow.

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Takoyaki made some scrumptious blueberry oat muffins yesterday (recipe here), so of course she gets to bring them to school (I strongly suspect she will be sharing them with her friends). I squeezed in some fruits and ham flowers. Done in 10 mins.

Roast Meat's box was done last night. He refused any muffins, so got plain ham and cheese sandwiches, with fruits, tomatoes and some treats. Oh, and a packet of juice.

Have a great week, everyone!

Milestone Friday

This is what Roast Meat had for recess. He complained when he got back that it was not enough. Good! I can give him more food then. Seaweed chicken (a staple in our house), blanched broccoli, homemade kueh lapis (har har) and grapes plus blueberries.

This was Takoyaki's lunch, which I delivered to her when I picked RM up. Something we haven't had for some time - teriyaki chicken (click for recipe). The rest are all her favourites.

To find out why today is Milestone Friday, head on over to my other blog, Talk To Me Baby.

Accidental V Day bentos

I totally forgot today is Valentine's Day! d:( And only remembered it after I had sent the kids to school. It's strange that Takoyaki didn't remind me to make her a flower-themed bento; I guess she forgot too, haha!

On hindsight, the bentos do have a basic V day theme - flowers and candies, can do lah! Takoyaki has pineapple tarts (made by my Mum), strawberries, a ham flower, cherry tomato and M&Ms. Roast Meat has the same last three ingredients plus some cashew nuts and grapes instead.

These bentos were put together in less than ten minutes, since everything was just taken from the pantry and thrown in. The ham had to be rolled up, that's all, and picks stuck in. Mum is still suffering from food poisoning... alas...

Voluntary Lunch-in-school

It was pleasant to recharge over the Lunar New Year weekend. However, I don't seem to have rested any at all, on account of the horrid flu we all caught, ending in my losing my voice.

Today, I had a lunch appointment to which I couldn't bring Takoyaki or Roast Meat, and they very kindly volunteered to have lunch in school and do their homework till I was ready to pick them up. Such sweet children d:)

So in return for their generosity (they could have kicked up a fuss since this was the only day neither kid had to stay back in school and I could have brought them out for a nice lunch), I brought them their lunches fresh and warm, to school, before heading out with the tot.

 

Takoyaki's consisted of rice, lotus root soup (with pork ribs), edamame, kimchi, and a clementine.

 

RM's is rice with hokkigai (arctic surf clam) which he loves at sushi restaurants, lotus root, broccoli stem kinpira, edamame and clementine.

Happy Lunar New Year 2013!

The well wishes for this bento are:

大吉大利 (Auspiciousness and good fortune) - clementine

年年有余 (Abundance every year) - moulded bread fishes

步步高升 (Ascension to higher levels) - homemade kueh lapis legit

Wishing everyone a Blessed and Prosperous Year of the Snake!

Charaben that didn't happen

I originally intended to make a charaben with rice for both kids, but last night I was still busy making my last batch of kueh lapis legit, so when I thought of how much nori cutting I would have to do, I gave up.

Instead, here are two simple, very Japanese bentos, one for each kid. These, I can do without much thinking or concentration. Each has two onigiris, two pieces of noritama (recipe here but sub small pieces of nori for the scallions), some edamame (this is protein and some fibre), broccoli and fruits.

It's always good to have Fried Chicken at home

 

We had Popeyes delivery for dinner because we were spring cleaning and I didn't cook, and we always order the large Family Feast so there's leftover chicken for breakfast and bentos on the following days (same applies for pizza).

Oh yay! went the children. I squeezed in some sultana crackers and fruits for each kid.

Two in One Bento

It's Mr Roast Meat's long day, and since he wasn't sure whether he wanted to buy a meal in school, I decided to pack both his recess and lunch. It turned out much lighter than expected, since this is often the weight that Takoyaki would pack too (and her bag is, horrors! tonnes heavier than RM's).

So for recess it's BBQ pork jerky (bak gua) sandwich and grapes, and lunch is some leftover sausage "fly lice", with salad veggies and a Happy Hippo. We found a chocolate version of the original vanilla Happy Hippo, and we all agree this is much nicer!

Galbitang - Korean Beef Ribs Soup Bento

There is this Korean-operated restaurant chain called Ju Shin Jung that we love to go to for some authentic Korean food. Takoyaki absolutely adores the galbitang they serve, and orders that every single time. So good ole Mum attempted this at home. I am using Susan Wong's recipe, slightly altered for my convenience, and the second attempt tastes better (the first was rather a disaster, many months back).

Takoyaki's hot lunch delivery today consisted of galbitang, Korean-style spinach over plain rice and cocktail sausages and fruits.

Hot soba again

Lunch delivery for Takoyaki - Beef soboro, Natto, cherry tomatoes over Soba noodles. And starfruit.

The Simplest Sandwich Decoration

An easy way to decorate a sandwich - just place a plastic baran on top. The sandwich is kaya and cheese (one of my favourite combinations), and those are cheddar cheese cubes and cherry tomatoes.