Just like a Picnic Box

It's a simple ham-and-cheese sandwich day for Roast Meat. I was glad to be able to take out this square Lego box which is the only one big enough to carry all the sandwiches plus the frozen yogurt drink.

Picnic bento for RM's recess

Mixed Vegetables Scrambled Eggs

Fried at dinner time last night for today, these yummies add a boost of protein and fibre to today's bentos.

RM's recess bento

I overslept this morning so quickly cobbled this together. Thankfully, the scrambled eggs were sitting in the fridge waiting for me to pack in so this went pretty fast! From top left: Mini moulded kaya bun, cherry tomatoes, ham rosebud, scrambled eggs, golden pear slices and a Happy Hippo treat.

For Takoyaki who is having Day Two of her Prelims Oral, I delivered a hot lunch and hoped it would help to make her happy and confident. Although she told me that she wasn't nervous at all, since it was English Oral (it was a different matter for her Chinese Oral).

Takoyaki's hot lunch

On the menu was daikon pork rib soup, scrambled eggs, kimchi, seasoned seaweed and fruits.

P6 Prelim Orals are upon us!

Or rather, upon Takoyaki. She was a bundle of nerves this morning so I was glad I had planned a sweet bento to fill her tummy and encourage her before it began. I almost didn't finish the bentos in time though, because Mouse woke up.

RM's is similar, except he has less rice (less carbs for the roly poly boy). The tamagoyaki is filled with pork floss. Yum!

Store bought pastries can be such lifesavers

Especially when I have to pack three meals for two kids.

RM's recess and lunch

Consisting of mini chicken pies, veggie sticks and grapes, Roast Meat's recess is simpler since he often has to stay back in class and ends up having a shorter recess. Lunch is a square onigiri with seaweed chicken, some cucumber and crabstick salad, and cherry tomatoes.

Takoyaki's recess

A hotdog pastry for Takoyaki, to enjoy with her veg sticks and mayo dip.

Yin Yang Bento #2

Yin Yang Bento

This is my version of Yoshinoya beef and pork bowl. I am so glad that Roast Meat now likes cantaloupe - I made him try a piece a few days ago and he was so surprised to find that it was crunchy and sweet. Should have tried it earlier, boy. Then you could've enjoyed it earlier.

Next target - Mouse, who only eats apple.

Can't get enough of Spaghetti Pesto

Actually, it's because I have lots of the pasta and lots of the pesto sauce to get rid of and Roast Meat doesn't mind since he loves pesto d:) Yes! RM is finally well enough to return to school today (no more wheezing and shortness of breath) so I get to resume my normal routine, which includes homeschooling my almost 3yo Mouse.

New boxes today again! These are part of a set of four nested One Piece-themed boxes from my (most) recent Bento&Co purchase d:) I love the quality; they are sturdier and better finished than my cheap Matryoshka and Cowboy ones from a Cash Converter store. 

On hindsight, I could have tried to make a Jolly Roger with the crabsticks and ham. Oh well.

Minnie's Dinner - steamed chicken rice

I got to use some new boxes for Minnie and her Mum, to pack some multigrain rice, stirfried greens and tamagoyaki. Will post pics of the boxes another time.

Spaghetti Salad

Takoyaki's power lunch today was angel hair spaghetti salad with smoked duck breast. As it was for her lunch in school, I stuffed a few ice packs in the bento bag to keep everything cool.

Roast Meat was unwell today so he didn't go to school.

Moulded Hardboiled Eggs Bentos

Hardboiled eggs that have been moulded into different shapes were today's feature. For Roast Meat, he had his with Korean jiajiangmyun, apple slices and cucumber. His egg was star-shaped, and cut crosswise in half.

Takoyaki had hers with rice, Japanese style braised pork slices and broccoli. The heart-shape of the egg was not very well done, and it cracked when I sliced it. But she came back home beaming about her "fabulous lunch bento", which gave me lots of satisfaction d:)

There will not be any bentos tomorrow because our school is having a fundraising mini fair and I'm up to my neck making preparations including a simple pinata and lots and lots of makizushi!

Prawn and Leek Stirfry Bento

Nothing much to say.

Minnie's Dinner - Sesame Oil Chicken

I get to pack TWO dinner bentos today, because there's also one for my sis, who will be eating her dinner considerably later and I am a little fearful of whether the food will keep.

Minnie gets a cute little onigiri with a girl's hair and face.

Minnie's dinner bento

This is for my sister, Mummy to Minnie Mouse. My onigiris started to fall apart when I was rolling them in the furikake, so they look far from awesome d:( In addition to Minnie's food, she gets kimchi and some Korean-style seasoned soy bean sprouts.

Power Lunch Monday - Sesame Oil Chicken

For Takoyaki's long day (netball practice), I had the pleasure of preparing a freshly cooked meal to bring her at lunchtime when I picked Roast Meat up.

Menu: Sesame oil chicken with rice, assorted veggies, kimchi, and fruit.

RM's recess was a simple one of leek omelette (cooked in my tamagoyaki pan just to keep it to the right shape), crackers, cherry tomatoes and a clementine.

Greens and Browns

Is the theme of today's bentos because I overslept (again).

Hotdog with melted cheese, a mini bun car, cucumber and grapes. TGIF!

Cold Steamed Chicken Bento + Review of Style Lunch Nature

We had steamed chicken again last night, and it's really easy to just set aside one of its breasts for today's overnight bentos.

Roast Meat has his with some udon tossed with black pepper sauce (he likes it, even though it's spicy).

RM's Cold Steamed Chicken Bento

Takoyaki will have hers with rice and lots of fruits and vegetables. She is using, for the first time, her new Style Lunch Nature Bento from Bento&Co in its entirety. I love the way this box stacks - each tier screws on tightly to the one below and there's a pretty lid to cover it all up. I can even just use 1 or 2 tiers and it still works and look attractive.

This bento box has really solved some problems I had in the past when wanting to pack food in three tiers for Takoyaki. The other 3 tier thermal set I have (Mr Bento Style) is heavy and I don't always want the food to be kept hot. So this fills a bento niche of mine. The tiers are just right for the amount of food an older kid would eat for lunch - 650ml in total.

Bento&Co is having a storewide 20% discount till 15 July! Oh I should have held off my purchase! d:/

Takoyaki's Cold Steamed Chicken Bento

Udon Salad Lunch Bento

Lunch for Takoyaki and Roast Meat today was delivered fresh as I had to attend to some PV duties in school. The menu was a last minute decision because I had forgotten about the duty and had originally intended to bring them out for lunch d:)

Takoyaki's Udon Salad Bento

RM's Udon Salad Bento

The weather is so hot! So I prepared cool udon noodles with a clementine-based salad dressing, to be eaten with shiozake (panfried salted salmon), hambaagaa, blanched baby broccoli and carrot flowers, and grapes.

Feedback from the children: I've been asked NOT to make this salad dressing again, sob sob! I should have tasted it first before finalising the sauce. Heehee.

Pseudo Kappa Maki Bento

Kappa maki (seaweed rice roll with cucumber filling) is one of the kids' favourites but I did not have any sushi rice at home.

Pseudo Kappa Maki Bento

Menu:
Pseudo kappa maki - Jap cucumber wrapped with rolled out bread wrapped with nori
Seaweed chicken
A halved cherry tomato
A clementine
Some M&Ms

Onigiri Wrappers on display

In order to feature these onigiri wrappers today, I made sure I cooked calrose rice for dinner last night, using leftovers to pack immediately. The other triangular wrapper is from another set of 6 cute wrappers, all featuring *ah-ha!* little onigiris playing and moving around.

Each child brought a mixed onigiri, hambaagaa patties, a cherry tomato and grapes to school (forgot to include ketchup and lingonberry sauce for the hambaagaa). These being for recess, the portions are small. In fact, they came back and told me they were really full!

New Animal Onigiri Wrappers

Yesterday was Youth Day, so today is the school holiday in lieu of. Kids are home so I have one more day of rest. I decided to post about some new stuff I purchased last week.

Short of time to decorate your bento but still want it to look good? Not good at moulding onigiris with your hands but don't have a riceball mould? No problem! Just pull out a sheet of animal onigiri wrapper and pack the rice in with your paddle. Simply use the wrapper itself to mould the riceball into a flattened ball, then just fold the edges of the wrapper over, like a present, and tape the edge down with the kawaii, matching sticker included. Ta-da! Bento instantly cutesy-fied!

Animal Onigiri Wraps

Spotted at Daiso - a new design of rice ball wrapper plus a set of plastic food cups which can be used as barans as well.  Although these are all disposable, they're really easy to use. The stock at Daiso is very erratic however, so whenever I come across them, I buy a few more packs to tide me over. And now I've got rather too many packs of onigiri wraps in different designs d:)

To eat the onigiri, simply tear the tag on the animal's face straight down to reveal the yummy onigiri beneath, it's that simple! This onigiri wrapper was the only one I'd allow RM to bring to school, because he was not able to use the other type with the nori sleeve, which requires flipping the riceball or unfolding and refolding the plastic. Recently though, he has learnt how to use both types, so good for him d:)

This type of onigiri wrapper was previously featured in this post and this post.

Minnie's Dinner - Picture Frame Bento

By the shady eaves of the wood, two red bunnie graze on delicious grass as larks fly over a snow-capped mountain in the distance.

Edge of woodland scene

This is my first time making a bento picture, and I sure hope Minnie Mouse likes it! As far as I know, they're all her favourite foods, so the added picture factor will surely make her smile. Her Daddy gave me some feedback on the first bento that she didn't like the sesame seeds on the greens, so I'll take note of that. It's always important to ask for feedback from the bento diners.

The background is angel hair spaghetti tossed with chicken drippings from the boneless roast chicken thigh which forms the mountain. Sliced cheese was trimmed, placed on the chicken and toasted gently to allow the cheese to melt slightly. The trees and grass are blanched long stem broccoli while the birds are nori on the rest of the sliced cheese. Check out the How To for the tomato bunnies here.

Swimming Power Bento Lunch

And so Mr Roast Meat begins his first, school-sponsored (ok, should be Ministry Of Education-sponsored) swimming course today. To give him lots of energy for the lesson, I gave him some angel hair spaghetti tossed with chicken drippings for lunch.

Roast chicken angel hair bento

Leftover Warm Soup Day

And true to their nature, both Takoyaki and Roast Meat cannot come to an agreement on which soup to bring (one hates soup A and the other dislikes soup B), so they each bring a different soup.

The other items on the menu are the same, thankfully. There's a cheese sandwich, veggies and fruits for each child.

Takoyaki's Beef Radish Soup Bento

 

RM's Cream of Mushroom Soup Bento

Salute to a friend and Hokkaido Fair

Today, I met an old acquaintance, a Chinese lady who has a Japanese husband. She told me she wakes up 1.5hrs before her husband and kids leave for work and school, to cook and prepare bentos for all of them. April, you are awesome!

Roast Meat's recess consisted of an edamame korokke (croquette) from the Summer Hokkaido Fair that's happening now at Tampines Mall. This is a yearly event that we all look forward to, when we can indulge in Hokkaido gelato, sushi dons, ikameshi (braised squid stuffed with rice) for me, and I get to buy half a year's worth of chinmi (pickled seafood). Yay!

Korokke bento

 

Then, RM had a Learning Journey to the Science Centre after school, so I brought him lunch when I went to pick Takoyaki, who has a short day. I do think the food looks really good in the new Totoro box d:)

A filling lunch before a field trip

Lunch menu:

- Rice with gomashio

- Blanched long stem broccoli

- Ketchup prawns

- Scrambled eggs with mushrooms and yellow capsicum

- Grapes

Overnight Angel Hair Spaghetti

Equals more sleep for Day 2 of Term 3. A very quick bento because the sausages were cooked during dinner prep, and angel hair spaghetti takes only a few minutes to cook. Roast Meat loves my pesto and can eat it anytime, with lots of parmesan cheese on top. 

I used another new bento box from my recent bento purchase from Bento&Co, and I love that the round shape makes it easier to wash compared to boxes which have corners. Round boxes are always my preferred choice for packing greasy foods such as pasta and fried rice. And breaking out a new box is always fun d:)

First Day of Term 3, 2013

It was with a weary heart that I faced this day. Ahh... no more late nights!

Thankfully, I didn't have any nightmare last night about waking up late for school this morning as was my wont, and bento-making proceeded comparatively smoothly (meaning the tot didn't wake up).

I decided to use the new Totoro box for RM today. I hope he takes good care of it. Simple stuff - PB sandwich pocket, seaweed chicken, edamame and a clementine.

Takoyaki is very happy to face this new day, because for the first day of Term 3 they are actually going to the zoo for a field trip! Wow... She asked for some store bought sausage buns to share with her group at the zoo, as well as some strawberries.

My white light bulb blew, so this pic was taken in the old, original yellow light. It sucks.