Salted Fish Fried Rice / Tuna Pasta Salad

Last evening, Takoyaki commented that I have not fried salted fish - that pungent, salty Chinese dried fish that lends so much flavour to dishes - for a long time. So I obliged her by frying some on the spot for her to bring to school today.

Here's her Salted Fish Fried Rice Bento. Contrary to its name, the rice itself is not very salty and requires some seasoning.

For Roast Meat, I boiled up some spaghetti, cooled it under running water and tossed it with some leftover tuna mayo.

Stuffed Pita Pockets Inna Bento

I've finally found a new dish to add into our bento rotation menu! Stuffed with lots of meat and vegetables, these healthy homemade sourdough pita bread pockets barely made it into the bento.

This is my second time making sourdough pita bread, and although it takes a little longer time to rise than regular yeasted pita, they were absolutely worth the wait. I guess the same can be said for all sourdough breads. My homegrown sourdough starter is six months old and going strong!

Takoyaki had priority today as she has long combined recess so she got a full pita. These are stuffed with leftovers from our dinner - roast pork tenderloin, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, cherry tomato, cucumber.

RM only has half a pita because that's all we had left, haha! He has an additional filling - canned tuna.

SHG Chicken Bento

SHG stands for Soy Sauce, Honey, Garlic (didn't know what else to name it, haha). One of our regular favourites and definitely always in bulk so there are planned-overs for bento (and my lunch) the next day.

First up is Takoyaki's bento which includes Fish Maw Soup in a thermal food jar.

Then we have Roast Meat's which is missing the soup (cos he doesn't want the extra weight, the lazy bum).

I had wanted to add some cucumber to add some green and crunchy fibre, but unfortunately, we'd just run out.

Pseudo Hotdogs

I've never liked to buy hotdog buns because firstly, it's hard to get wholemeal ones and secondly, the bread to filling ratio is just too high (why do we have to eat so much carb just to eat one sad sausage?). 

It makes so much sense to just use sandwich bread, and you can eat the rest of the bread in so many other ways.

One Meat, Two Different Bentos

This is Takoyaki's - rice with furikake, roast chicken breast, fruits and veg.

This is RM's - roast chicken sandwich.

Sandwiches for Midweek

I found a new type of sandwich bread by Gardenia called Extra Fine Wholemeal bread so decided to give it a go. Kids reported "ok!" about the texture, maybe since it went with their favourite honey baked ham.

I am loving these sandwich packs from Daiso! They are just the right size for my sandwiches.

Happy New 2016!

Aaaand... we are back! First day of school, a brand new start for both Takoyaki and Roast Meat.

Takoyaki brought a full bento for her first day of school, on which there was a long, combined recess for the whole school - an onigiri, a roast chicken thigh and the usual veggies.

This second box looks rather substantial but it's actually only a box for RM's mid-morning 10-minute snack. A mini onigiri, cheese cubes and grapes.