Monday, November 23, 2015

Unexpected bento

This was unexpected. It's the school holidays and we had a playdate at a friend's house and  I completely forgot to check the menu (kindly provided by the host) for foods that Mouse would be allergic to. I only remembered the day before and decided to pack him a bento to bring along. I'm so thankful for my bento skills!


Menu:
Steamed rice (leftover) with Kimchi
Simple Chawanmushi
Natto

Monday, November 16, 2015

Fusillini Pesto with Grilled Shrimps

Looks like it's going to be a bento-filled last week of school, because Roast Meat is going to be staying back in school almost everyday volunteering. To start the week's lunch, here is his requested Pesto-whatever-pasta.


Friday, November 13, 2015

Fusillini Pesto - Counting down to end of year...

I'm not even sure whether there will be any bentoing next week, although RM tells me he has to stay back in school to help his teacher with something.


Menu:
Pasta (planned over) with pesto (Arrighi's, I don't really like the flavour)
Toasted seaweed chicken
Veggies

Snack box: tiny clementine and a cheese wedge plus Milo

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Simple Don


Menu:
Steamed rice with hijiki-umeboshi furikake
One-egg tamagoyaki
Cocktail Taiwan-style sausages
Veggies

Friday, October 30, 2015

Aunt and Niece Onigirazu

Well I was going to call it Oyako Onigirazu but that would not have been appropriate as it refers to Chicken and Egg. This is Duck and Chicken Egg so I figured Aunt and Niece would be just about right d:P


Menu:
Smoked duck onigirazu
Tamagoyaki onigirazu
Cherry tomatoes

"Delicious and filling!" reported Roast Meat, although since today's his last exam paper, probably anything would have been as well received.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Chuka Kuraage Don Bento

This is Takoyaki's last school bento for the year. It's the school hols for her, hurray! Poor RM is still struggling with revision for final year exams...


Menu:
Chuka kuraage (bought)
Steamed rice
Tamagoyaki (recipe here)
Blanched Spinach
Cherry tomatoes

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Chicken Spring Onion Sandwich


Menu:
Leftover steamed chicken mixed with chopped spring onion and mayo (sandwich)
Broccoli
Cherry tomatoes
Apple chunks

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Very Chinese Bento

Very filling too. Takoyaki's.



Menu:
Stir fried naibai 乃白 greens
Steamed rice
Beancurd chicken (Tay's)
Orange chunks

Monday, October 12, 2015

Patties over noodles


Not very healthy but incredibly yummy.

Menu:
KOKA mee goreng noodles (cooked as per package directions)
Mini beef patties (recipe here)
Cherry tomatoes
Chopped spring onions

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Long Time No See Urara Boxes

I have not brought these two out to see the light of day for... at least a year? I just skimmed through my blog and the last picture I found that contains one of these boxes was on 28 Oct 2014, so it's really about a year ago!

To think I was once so crazy over these Urara boxes (I made a big fuss about them on FaceBook), and scrambled all over Singapore looking for the matching chopsticks, bag and any other paraphernalia I could find (I didn't find a single one except for the boxes). Ahh... those were the days of bento hunting and shopping.

The truth is, these low cost China-made, two-tiered slim bento boxes by the Japanese company Nakano Co. are not very leakproof unless they are kept upright and secured with a tight band. The hermetic lids for each tier aren't very... er... hermetic. 

From the way my kids dump their bags on the floor and wherever else they have to bring them, I sincerely doubt any gravy I provide will contentedly stay inside the box instead of leaking out all over the bag. I guess I have come to rely on the leakproof ones such as the Korean-made Lock&Lock for bentos with gravies or drippings, metal-walled bentos for oily, non-saucy foods, and our Totoro/Kiki boxes for practically everything.

However, last night as I was packing up the food for today, they seemed to call out to me with forlornness and I couldn't resist picking them up and including them in my plans.


After assuring the kids that minimal gravy would be present (except what is already on the chicken), I set forth to give them (the boxes, not the children!) some TLC.


Menu:
Honey soy sauce chicken, deboned
Blanched broccoli
Cherry tomatoes
Steamed rice with furikake

Everything is either leftover from dinner or else just washed if necessary and added to fill up the space and increase flavour. A very traditional bento.

Unfortunately, Roast Meat woke up ill this morning so he had his for lunch at home.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Neverending Onigirazu Craze



I bought some ham specially for making onigirazu. However, this leg ham from House of Gourmet is rather salty. Well, the rice isn't seasoned so the flavours should balance out. The other fillings in the wrap are leftover roast chicken, cucumber and cheese slice.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Chicken Pie from Polar Bento

If it can even be called a bento...


And it's the last day of September?? Takoyaki is smack in the midst of exams while the same are looming on the horizon for RM. I simply cannot imagine my roly poly RM taking PSLE next year.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Hazy Days of Bento

Bentoing in a closed kitchen (thanks to the haze) is no fun at all. I recall how I planned the renovation of my new kitchen at my new home and really miss the fresh breeze coming through the windows. But life has to go on, right?



Takoyaki knew this was coming when we had it for lunch yesterday. Always cook more, I say! And use the planned overs (kept hygienically) for bento the next day.

Menu:
  1. Kimchi soup (reheated this morning before going into the warmed food jar
  2. Kiwi slices and grapes (washed, cut and packed yesterday)
  3. Steamed rice (packed by Takoyaki yesterday)

Monday, September 28, 2015

Sandwiches Poles Apart

Here are two different types of "sandwiches" - a standard egg mayo sandwich aaaaaannndd... onigirazu!

Yes, the diligent mum has once again gone rather bonkers and prepared two different bentos for her two fussy (and opposite) children.

First up is the new sensational Onigirazu. This time I made with Thai Jasmine rice (leftover) as an experiment, to see whether, since the whole thing is bound up with nori, it will do as well as Japonica rice. We shall await the feedback of Roast Meat. The fillings are surimi crabstick and a one-egg square omelette made with my tamagoyaki pan. Looks rather like two three-eyed aliens.


I was reading JustOneCookbook's bento posts recently and was at first inspired to make Ajitsuke Tamago, but then I remembered that Takoyaki doesn't like that (the fusspot!). So the egg ended up getting hardboiled and mixed with Kewpie mayo.


Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Onigirazu

I have jumped on the bandwagon. Here is my first try at the latest bento craze in Japan - Onigirazu.

Onigirazu are simply a rice sandwich, wrapped with a sheet of nori. Why are they better than the traditional onigiri? Well, they have substantially more filling (which we love!) and they are soooo much easier to make than onigiri. You can use ANY filling you like, the possibilities are endless! One strange one which we saw was kimchi over sliced cheese, which seemed rather... weird to us.

There are many vids and sites on how to make onigirazu online. Check them out!

I've just done something simple - kimchi chicken (planned over) with corn kernels.


I stopped buying nori sheets for quite some time because I don't often make makizushi and the rest of the pack just went soggy after a while. Now I'll be buying this again since it's so simple to make onigirazu!

Friday, September 18, 2015

Tom Yum Noodles. By request.

RM had no school today and we planned to have instant noodles for brunch, so when Takoyaki heard she decided she wasn't going to miss out! Cos we seldom have instant noodles.


My version of Tom Yum noodles is cooked with chicken soup noodles and tom yum paste instead of the tom yum flavoured instant noodles which are usually... too spicy and too little in terms of sustenance. She likes this better also, although I added too much nam prik pao (tom yum paste) and she texted me from school to complain... hee....

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Sardines VS Bak Gua

Bak Gua sandwich for Takoyaki who does not like sardines. Most fish, actually. Fusspot. I enjoyed myself impaling the tomatoes onto the sandwich. Muahahaha...


Tomato sardine pocket sandwich for RM. It was fun to take my pocket sandwich maker out of storage.


Monday, September 14, 2015

Spaghetti Con Le Sarde Bento



My version though, cooked and tastes completely different from the authentic one. Ok essentially it's just canned Sardines with Tomato Sauce tweaked to my tastes and tossed with cooked spaghetti. I hope you weren't expecting anything fancy. Hahaha!

Planned over for RM's school meal tomorrow. This tastes really nice, surprisingly.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Sandwiches... boring...

But easy to prepare and pack when I am short of ingredients and mojo.



Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Sausage Salad?

Sounds weird, but tastes nice. After all, if you can have ham in a salad, why not sausage?


A very simple one for Takoyaki, who, due to "combined recess" does not like to queue up for a long time to buy food.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Clear Your Fridge and Pantry by making Bentos!

Here I am trying to use up all our planned overs and leftovers, so we have two different bentos for two kids.


A chicken liver pate sandwich, Babybel cheese and some salad for RM.


And chicken stew over rice and kimchi for Takoyaki. 


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Snacks Bento for quick recess


Because RM has to go for song+dance practice during his recess (with me, haha) as we are all preparing for Teacher's Day concert.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Friday, August 21, 2015

Steamboat Leftover Soup Bento

This soup is one of the most flavourful ones any family can cook up. Just prepare a huge pot of simple stock and begin cooking your favourite meats and veggies! We had a miso soup base (wrong choice, it did not pass on any flavour to the cooked meats and veggies at all), and shabu shabu beef, lamb and pork. The lamb really added some oomph to the soup!



Takoyaki really loves the slow braising of napa cabbage (aka wongbok aka Chinese cabbage aka kimchi cabbage) in this soup, so I cooked the last of it for her to bring to school. The soup looks super oily because of all the meats that were shabu shabu-ed in it.

To go with her rice, I added some leftover roast chicken (from another meal) and some salad. Love the bright colours!

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Thursday, August 13, 2015

New Onigiri Wrapper!

Look what I found at Daiso!


I've previously seen it on some online bento store and wanted to get my hands on it. Here I have used it to wrap some round riceballs for Takoyaki and Roast Meat.



Love the cute animals! However, one wrapper can ideally hold only a small ball of rice to be effectively tied up, so to hold enough rice for my two big eaters, I will need to use two each. More work, hahaha.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Japchae Bento


For Takoyaki. I was so thankful I had these ingredients, because she threw a bomb at me late last evening that she had to stay back in school and I didn't have any planned overs. Cooking this took about 15 minutes excluding cooling time so I had, after Mouse had gone to bed, to whip it up.

The ingredients are sweet potato noodles, ground beef and baby bokchoy 小白菜. Not very authentic but at least the taste was near enough.

Friday, July 31, 2015

Sausage Don

Under request from RM, I found a little mojo to do some sausage art. It's been so long since I last did stuff like this!

Flowers for Takoyaki

Octopuses for RM
Other sides include pork jerky and blanched green beans.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Anyhowly Match Bento


A peanut butter sandwich (homemade bread), cold steamed chicken and cherry tomatoes. Whatever is available in a pinch.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

French Toast is a great way to use up stale bread

Especially homemade bread, which, without all those additives in commercial bread, doesn't stay soft as long. I have some sourdough bread which is perfect for turning into French Toast to feed those hungry wolves of mine.


This is Takoyaki's box, which consists of French toast, cherry tomatoes, cuke sticks and some ham cones. RM has the exact same foods in the Lego box, but in my half asleep state, I accidentally deleted the image on my phone instead of uploading it. Boohoo!

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Beat Summer with some Cool Noodle Salad!

June and July have been two months of oppressive heat and sudden, short downpours for Singapore this year. However, high temperatures are the norm so I decided to toss up some cold udon salad for both my critters. 

First, I cooked some dried udon, washed it well, then added julienned Japanese cucumber, halved cherry tomatoes, sesame oil, a dash of homemade mentsuyu (Japanese dipping sauce) and natto, and mixed them well into a big bowl of slime. Next, I portioned it out into each critter's box.

Takoyaki's has Japanese seasoned jellyfish (chuka kurage) on top.


While Roast Meat has shredded surimi crabsticks.


And hey! There's some slimy noodle salad left for me to devour today. Yay!

Monday, July 20, 2015

Old Cucumber Soup Makes One Feel Young

Nourishing and flavourful, this soup hits the spot whether it's high summer or coldest winter (not that we get winter here). Takoyaki was practically begging me to cook this last night so she could bring some to school today.


On the side are some naibai stir-fried with garlic and dried shrimps or 虾米 (planned over) and because even pickled vegetables can't keep forever, I added some of her favourite pickled takana to her rice.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Simple Chinese Rice Bento

With leftover grilled chicken wings (from the hawker centre) and some planned-over Stir-Fried Winged Beans. Yum! Served in my new SG50 La Gourmet Food Jar.

These sides were requested by Takoyaki herself. 


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Yee-ha! Kimchi Fried Rice is here!!

If it isn't obvious by now, I like to dig through old bentos to find inspiration for bento. After all, one can only have so many new things to cook up. This was a VERY last minute decision because I completely forgot I had to bento today. Thankfully, there's some leftover rice and, most importantly, a fresh batch of kimchi I just made yesterday. Plus some leftover, rather sour kimchi I wanted to get rid of, muahahahaha...

It's not clear in this pic, but each of the apple wedges has been carved with a smiley, a "saddy", and a heart. 

While RM has only one star. It's been so long since I last did apple carving, that I am feeling rather rusty at it, but it was fun to add a little "fuss" to the bento.


Monday, July 6, 2015

Monday already...

Aaaand I've run out of rice and bread. So it's down to instant noodles aka yakisoba. To go with some roast chicken chunky salad.


I'm probably feeling a little guilty but I daresay these two jokers will be in seventh heaven when they open their boxes.

Friday, July 3, 2015

Lovely Lovely Rice...

Once again, we feature the basic staple of the Orient. I normally stock two kinds of rice in my pantry - Thai Jasmine Rice and Calrose or Japonica Rice, to make onigiris and makizushi (haven't made these for a loooong time), or just for a change of taste and texture. There are differences in cooking method, with Calrose and Japonica taking more time to prepare, but it's well worth the effort.

Today, it's Thai Jasmine Rice. Takoyaki is having hers plain with beef and radish soup (cooked Korean style).


While RM has his topped with surimi and edamame.


Viva la weekend!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Aaaaand... Onigiris make their early appearance

Together with Tamagoyaki, of course. One set each for Takoyaki and Roast Meat.



Monday, June 29, 2015

Strong start to a new term... Let's Bento!

After a brief hiatus, this blog is alive again! Well, there was really little chance to bento these last June hols, as quite a number of things happened. But here I am again, as the first day of school is a nice long one for Takoyaki, who always has CCA on Monday and needs some lunch.


She had some yummy furikake with rice, and oooh, her favourite chuka kurage (Japanese seasoned jellyfish). I added a slice of ham to up the protein factor.

Full steam ahead for this term!

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Oh Mighty Teriyaki Chicken!

You have my whole family under your control... we always lurrrrve to devour you... okay this is getting a little weird. But we do enjoy our teriyaki chicken.


Did you know that there are more than a MILLION Teriyaki Chicken recipes out there? Amazing how something so basic (in Japanese culture) can have so many variations. Jamie Oliver has his own version and so does Nigella Lawson, to name two of the most famous celebrity chefs. 

I guess this is one Japanese product that has really found a home in the hearts of many people all over the world with its sweet-savoury umami-ness that so hits the spot, especially when you don't know what else to cook.

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