Say cheese, Angry Bird!

I finally got up the motivation to try and make an Angry Bird lookalike. It's actually a BabyBel cheese (the one with the red wax), with part of the red wax removed thanks to my handy little carving knife. The eyebrows are pieces of nori, and the pupils are black peppercorns (because I don't have any black sesame seeds). The beak is a kernel of corn.

The peppercorns had rolled off by recess time, as Mr Roast Meat reported after school. No problem, since I showed him the thing before he went off to school this morning. The rest of the bento is made up of 2 kaya aeroplane buns (not very well done, alas), and some wedges of clementine.

Last bento for this term, it's the school hols!

Ham and seaweed rolls

They may look like maki (sushi rolls) but are actually ham and bread rolls wrapped with dried nori (laver). I made two rolls last night, one each for Takoyaki and Roast Meat. Might as well since I had to take out the rolling pin and use up a piece of clingwrap.

Takoyaki had hers on skewers plus a tub of frozen yogurt which will be nicely defrosted but still cold by her recess time.

Roast Meat has an extra car bun which is filled with yummy liver pate.

Almost-picnic lunch

It's Wednesday again, but this time I had to be in school for a Full Dress Rehearsal for the Teacher's Day concert (taking place this Friday). After mulling over my options, I decided to do a combined bento for Takoyaki (who was waiting for me in school) and myself (and the tot).

Wrapped up are ham-cheese-cuke sandwiches for us, plus one little liver pate roll for the almost-2yo. The rest of the bento is made up of fish bites, cherry tomatoes, longans and kiwifruit.

I'm using my Tupperware tiffin cake box. On days like today, I WISH I had a proper picnic bento box in the Japanese style. Sigh...........

Korean vegetable pancake aka Yachaejeon Recipe

Mr Roast Meat loves this! Recipe from Maangchi, with the only difference being that I chopped the veggies smaller, and added some cubed pumpkin that I need to get rid of.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup plain flour
pinch salt
1 egg

2/3 cup water
1/2 cup coarsely chopped spring onions
1/2 cup coarsely chopped Chinese chives or jiucai (韭菜)
1/2 cup diced pumpkin
8 medium sized prawns, shells removed (optional), cut into small pieces or left whole

Method:

Combine flour, egg, salt and water in a medium bowl. Stir well, batter will be lumpy.

Heat a nonstick frying pan on medium heat and add abt 1 tbsp veg oil / olive oil. I use coconut oil.

Saute the prawns for about 2 min.

Add all the veggies to the batter and stir well. Pour evenly onto the pan and spread gently with a spoon or spatula.

After about 1 min, gently shake the pancake around on the pan in a circular motion - you should be able to hear a scratchy, scraping sound. This means the bottom of the pancake is ready. (Or you can check with your turner that it's golden brown on the underside d:P )

Flip the pancake (woohoo!) and return pan to the fire (medium heat).

Drizzle some oil around the sides of the pan so it flows underneath the pancake.

After another min, check for doneness (sound or turner).

Serve hot or warm. Or cool completely before packing into bento.

Somewhat Nautical

I had to spend the morning in school (Teacher's Day Concert rehearsal) so this box for Roast Meat was prepared last night. The row of boats on the right are simply kaya sandwich cutouts, decorated with leftover chocolate fudge icing from Takoyaki's cakes. The foil packet contains some breaded fish bites I'd previously panfried and just needed reheating. To prevent the different foods from contaminating each other, the clementine wedges (and silicone cup) were wrapped up in clingwrap, while the pistachios (bottom) were wrapped in some printed green tinfoil.

Finally! He gets to bring the Lego box to school again. I am considering letting him bring the Foogoo soon since he's not leaving his bento on the table and running off to play anymore.

Birthday cupcake bento made by Takoyaki

She made this for one of the girls in her clique in school (they always have recess together, even though they're not all from the same class). Birthday's over, but they still want to celebrate. I made the icing and helped her to touch up some of the pieces, that's all. Cakes she made herself, to be delivered tomorrow by good ole Mum (but of course).

Vanilla butter cupcakes with chocolate fudge icing. Recipes from Allrecipes.com.

Great job girl!

Char siew rice 叉烧饭

Here's another planned leftover bento. I decided to cook Chinese style grilled pork for dinner last night (aka char siew fan or 叉烧饭) so from marketing to marinating to cooking, it was a double batch. Roast Meat was pleased indeed to hear that he'd be bringing this to school today for recess!

I added cuke sticks and longans to complete the meal. He tells me that these days, he and his friends just sit at the table after eating and chat, so there's no excuse for a "discount". He's always famished when he gets home after school!

My char siew is based on a YouTube video uploaded by mamabliss, except I eyeball it and make some substitutions based on whatever I have at hand and whatever is more economical for me. Here's the vid:

My changes:
pork shoulder/collar, cut into long strips
shaoxing wine or huatiaojiu 花雕酒
omit black soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar (unless I'm in the mood or remember to add)

I used my Happycall pan, just because it's the right size and shape for my pork, and I don't flip the pan, but I flip my pork after every 5 min. Hubby says it reminds him of the char siew his mum used to buy for him from somewhere near his childhood home. I do prefer this recipe over my mum's (from maternal grandfather who used to sell this and BBQ pork 烧肉 at the market).

Kimchi soup repeat

We were supposed to have this for dinner last night but I remembered at the last minute that I had a meeting in school, so we ordered pizza instead. Takoyaki was sorely disappointed (she'd been looking forward to the soup) so I promised I'd make her some when I came back, for her recess today.

Pork kimchi soup with Korean-style dangmyun (sweet potato glass noodles) and kiwi. Made with the last of my batch of napa cabbage kimchi, which is very sour by now and only for cooking or frying. I used shabu shabu pork slices - fast to cook and yummy, plus that's all the pork I have on hand.

Roast Meat brought a simple not-much-fuss box - just quadrattini, a wedge of cheese and some sliced red bell pepper.

Back to work

Takoyaki has a long day so she brought recess and will be buying food for lunch. Just some seaweed crackers, pork floss rolls (fall back protein when there's nothing else she likes) and half an apple. I think my Hapimogu carving knife is getting a little blunt.

Roast Meat's recess will be some fried rice and apple.  He LOVES his luncheon meat fried rice.

No bento day - birthday!

Neither of the kids got a bento today because it's Mr Roast Meat's birthday and we're celebrating in school. His class will be having cake, some snacks and a yogurt drink each for recess.

This is a vanilla sponge cake with chocolate fudge icing. I'm not too happy with the icing. Will have to look for a better chocolate fudge icing recipe that's not so sweet and does not have the crunchy icing sugar texture. But it was my first time making a sponge and I really love the end result!

Yin yang

A last minute decision to prepare rice for Takoyaki's lunch today (prepared last night). Half the rice is mixed with Korean style myulchi (sweet stirfried dried anchovies) and the other half is mixed with pork floss. The seasoned seaweed is wakame or 裙带菜 mixed with garlic, spring onions, sushi vinegar, soy sauce and sesame seeds. I make it in a big batch and keep in boxes in the fridge to have with meals, ditto for myulchi, which the kids like a lot.

I learnt how to make the myulchi from Maangchi.

Roast Meat will be just be having some leftover cold udon with salmon flakes and grapes. The noodle sauce is packed in a separate bottle.

One kid's breakfast is another kid's lunch

As today is Wednesday again, which means hot lunch for Takoyaki in school delivered personally by Mum herself, I saved some time by cooking double portions when preparing brunch for Roast Meat, and packed it in after finishing my own breakfast. So while Roast Meat will be bringing a box with stuff just thrown in.

Red bell pepper, grapes, quadrattini and cheese

Takoyaki will be having a hot, nourishing udon soup, matched with some leftover cabbage and sesame sauce on the side (the kind for tonkatsu) and her favourite fruits.

Udon noodle soup, cheese sausages, cabbage with gomadare and strawberries

Egg sandwiches day

I made the same thing for both kids the night before and put them all in the fridge. Just hardboiled eggs mashed with butter, pepper and chopped spring onions. And here's a tip for peeling hot hardboiled eggs quickly:

Drain the cooked eggs and transfer them into a plastic/metal container with a watertight lid that is 1/3 filled with cool water. Replace the lid and shake the box gently but firmly for about a minute. With a little practice you will know how hard to shake the box. Remove the lid and gently peel off the shells which should be cracked and falling off by now. I learnt this from a cool Japanese show.

I used my nifty little Daiso pocket sando maker to form the things. Takoyaki had some fruits to complement the meal.

Egg and scallion sandwich, strawberry and canteloupe

Roast Meat had two little apple bunnies to go with his sandwich.

Spinach quiche

Takoyaki had the inspiration to make spinach quiche over the weekend, so she did! It was her first time too (having watched me make it numerous times), and although it was a tad too salty, the rest of it was perfect. There was one wedge left, so she brought it for recess today.

Spinach quiche, cuke sticks, cherry toms and grapes

Roast Meat is helping me to clear out the fridge and pantry (although he doesn't know it, haha!) and all I had to do was toast up the chicken, add a few pieces of decor and that was it.

Corn snack, beancurd chicken, cuke sticks, skewers of cherry toms and grapes

Can't get enough of them Matryoshkas

Mr Roast Meat was unwell yesterday, so he stayed at home, and Takoyaki had a short day so I didn't prepare any bento. Was kind of a short break for me as well.

After racking my brains at 5.30am for a suitable silicone cup to hold the pork floss rolls separate from the biscuits, I realised the smallest Matryoshka box was perfect since it has a lid. In fact, any nested boxes set can utilise this method since they all fit into the next smallest container (took me so long to realise this, sheesh).

This is Takoyaki's box. Easily and quickly thrown together since everything's from stash except the fruits which had to be peeled.

Pork floss rolls, cow ear cookies, seaweed crackers, cherry tomatoes, clementine and longans

Mr Roast Meat is bringing a simple meal today. Rice with whatever I had on hand (luncheon meat, french beans, eggs, spring onions), with two cherry tomatoes and apple bunnies thrown in. And I warned the boy that if he cracks this bear (a gift from a close friend), I am going to crack his HEAD.

Yakitori

Update: The recipe below has been edited to include instructions for Teriyaki chicken.

While Takoyaki just brought a box of watermelon cubes to school, Roast Meat will be having some cold somen with chicken teriyaki kebab (aka yakitori), which I made last night to keep.

Somen, yakitori, blanched french beans and watermelon cubes

This is how I made the yakitori. I based it on Maki's recipe (Just Hungry).

Recipe for Yakitori and Teriyaki chicken

Ingredients:

4 deboned, skin-on chicken legs (drumstick + thigh), each cut into 6 chunks

4 tbsps mirin

4 tbsps cooking sake (aka ryorishu) or you can substitute white rice wine

1 tbsp sugar (I don't like my teriyaki too sweet)

pinch black pepper

(Only for Yakitori)

8 bamboo skewers, mine are about 5 inches long

Method:

Combine all ingredients and marinate overnight or at least 2 hours.

For Yakitori:
Skewer 3 pieces of chicken on each skewer, folding each piece in half with the skin on the outside.

Heat frying pan / grill pan, grease pan slightly and grill the skewers on medium heat till meat is cooked through and nicely brown on outside.

Note:

I did try roasting in the oven but the results were unsatisfactory, so after 20min I took out my pan and goreng-ed them for a few minutes till they were right.

For Teriyaki chicken:
Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat and add chicken pieces, skin side down.
Cover and cook over medium-low heat for about 5-7 mins, till skin is brown but not charred.
Flip chicken and continue cooking with lid off for another 3-4 mins, or till chicken is cooked through.
Remove from heat and let chicken sit for about 5-10 min before serving.

Too many Korean dramas leads to craving for Korean cuisine

I set the alarm for 15min earlier this morning because the requested japchae cannot be made the night before, but the tot woke up as well so I ended up wearing him and bentoing at the same time. Argh. I hate that. I am so thankful that I had the foresight to prepare the fruits box last night, else it would just be a mess.

Takoyaki wanted japchae, so I blanched leftover sweet potato noodles (aka tangmyun), some chicken meat from Ah Ma, added sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar, then added leftover cuke sticks (thinly sliced) and spring onions and tossed them all together. Boiled up last night's lotus root soup and poured it into the Foogoo. Time taken: 25min. If the babe had not been on me, it would have taken me probably 15min, since everything is precooked/precut and only reheating was necessary.

Japchae, lotus root soup, kiwi and longans

More leftovers for Mr Roast Meat - fried rice from leftover rice, leek and crabsticks. Lots of spring onions on top, this guy is the king of spring onions.

Leek and crabstick fried rice, and apple wedges

Leek omelette

After rummaging through my fridge (at the last minute, again), I suddenly had the inspiration to make something I haven't made for some time (for Roast Meat's bento). Leek omelette! Well ok, it's a rolled omelette, not quite Japanese tamagoyaki, which has multiple layers, but still heavenly with all the alcohol content. No sugar, but sweet.

And I've put in some longans for him again. One really great thing bento has done for him is introduce him to new fruits. In the past he would only eat apple and orange.