Magewappa box (Urushi or lacquered)

Here is one of my "precious" boxes, although strictly speaking, all my boxes and tools are really precious to me. This box was brought back by a Japanese acquaintance of a close friend and mentor of mine. She refused to accept any payment, so I will never know how much it really costs.

 

And this is the box with the cover off. There is one removable divider made of solid wood. The whole thing is lacquered, which makes me very afraid to wash it. It's really light though. I have used the box only once, in this post. The capacity is about 450ml.

Barans on display

Since today is a Saturday, I thought I'd share some of my favourite bento accessories - baran or dividers.

These lovely little things are most commonly found in sushi platters or trays, the little plastic grass pieces that divide up the different types of sushi. The plastic grass types are easily found in Daiso stores everywhere, and most have "antibacterial" labelled on them. Well, they're supposed to help keep your raw fish fresh. For a short time.

But many bento'ers (myself included), prefer to use silicone barans, for a few reasons.

1. They're not plastic

2. They're washable and reusable

3. They're more environmentally friendly since you don't throw them away after one use

4. They're thicker than the plastic ones, which is helpful when you want to fill up a bento box so the food doesn't move around

5. They come in lovely designs

Thanks to an alert from my friend Diane, I got my hands on the latest arrival of new silicone barans.

The one I like best (for now) is the packet in the bottom right of the pic - the silicone grass barans that look just like the plastic ones! Boy, have I been waiting for this! I grabbed the leaf ones (top right) because Takoyaki asked for them. There were also two other packets of flower barans, but we were not interested.

And here's my entire collection of barans. Most of them are from Daiso or another two-dollar shop.

I still have quite a number of reusable plastic ones, which are too cute to throw away. They're also thicker, unlike the plastic grass, which is not made to be reused. My husband has suggested that I use the plastic ones for some art and craft work with the kids (now why didn't I think of that?).

I can't wait to use my new barans!

How To - Sausage Octopuses With Eyes

I hope this pic didn't give you a scare. But it sure gives me the creeps though!

This is how you make the octos:

With pork cocktail sausages, use a sharp fruit knife to cut down the length of the sausage to about half its length. That's two legs. Then use the knife to split each (fat) leg into 4 legs, that makes a total of 8 legs. It's ok if the legs are unevenly sized - practice makes perfect.

Using the tip of the knife blade, make two tiny slits in the head part of the octo for the eye sockets. How far apart they are from each other or how slanty they are is entirely up to you. For evil eyes, cut the slits in a V.

Dip the sausages into gently boiling water for about 30 secs. The legs will curl up immediately, but cook them the full 30 secs so the head gets entirely cooked through. Take them out and let cool till you can handle them.

Using a pair of chopsticks, pick up a black sesame seed and gently push it into a slit so that only part of it is showing. Repeat for all the slits.

For the "dead" octopuses featured in this post, cut two thin strips of nori per eye and "glue" them down with a little water, if your sausage is dry.

I know. My octopuses don't have siphons, but that is easily explained. Ninja octos!

Teddies to the rescue!

Alas! The sea creatures that were bent on world domination have been vanquished by the furry teddies, which are covered in pork floss and featured with nori punchouts as well as tomato skin cutouts.

The cucumber sticks mark the grave of the octopuses, while the joyful teddies receive their gold reward in the form of yummy wedges of clementine. Clementine wedges look like gold ingots, don't they?

World Domination by sea creatures!

I cooked up a batch of cocktail sausages last night, and since the kids were all asleep, there was time to make some fancy details. Pushing the eyes in almost killed me though!

 

Takoyaki brought the last of the mantous 馒头, along with sausages, clementine wedges, longans, strawberries, couple cherry tomatoes, and cuke sticks.

Mr Roast Meat has the evil-looking sausage octopuses, along with breadsticks, and a subset of his sister's fruits and vegetables combo.

Is it obvious that I'm clearing out my stash?

Completed under time restriction

What a long day! I've been on my toes the whole day and only just found the chance to sit down and type up this post.

Mr Roast Meat requested for garlic herb toast (recipe for the garlic spread is at my Natural Parenting blog). I managed to stuff in some cucumber shurikens, clementine wedges, pork floss rolls and a cheese wedge before he rushed off to wait for the school bus.

Takoyaki's hot lunch in school was pork slices on fresh udon, cuke and tomato on the side, and a kiwifruit. The food jar carried the soup for the noodles.

I'm going to rest for a few minutes before heading to the kitchen to prepare Takoyaki's bento for tomorrow. More cooking! When all I want to do is hit the sack!

Egg moulds

I absolutely adore these guys, because they're soooo cute! And of course they're very versatile. Other than moulding hardboiled eggs, my most common use for them is, actually, to mould bread (such as in all these posts)!

The bottom of the mould, as can be seen in the orange bunny, can be used to make cutouts from cheese and ham, and possibly a slice of bread. I haven't tried this function yet though.

The bunny, fish, bear and car moulds are all from the Yude Tama range, and are good for eggs about 55g. Any bigger and the egg white will stick out and result in a rough/broken egg (a failed example is in this post), and smaller eggs will not fill up the mould completely, which means part(s) of the shape go missing, eg. the ears of the bear or the mouth of the fish.

The star and heart moulds are from Daiso, and they're so huge, they need at least 60g eggs to fill up the space! With smaller eggs, the shapes simply do not come through well.

For a step by step photo tutorial on how to mould hardboiled eggs with these babies, hop on over to bento guru Maki's post.

Mantou - your basic Chinese "bao"

By request, both kids want these buns today, so they get them! Saves effort coming up with different things each day.

Takoyaki will also be bringing a very ugly hardboiled egg bunny (failure) which she wants to eat with kicap manis (sweet black sauce) but we don't have that, haha! In the sauce container is just regular thick black sauce. I tried to make amends by using the same mould to make a bunny bun with Nutella filling (success).  The fruit factor is rose apple (jambu air)

Mr Roast Meat has his mantou with seaweed chicken and dragonfruit.

Sando Stamp retry

So this time I bought a loaf of white bread so the embossed designs can be seen more clearly.

Cheese sandwiches, BCH pork floss rolls, almonds and pistachios, and blanched french beans for Mr Roast Meat.

Sleep in Sunday

Both Mr RM and Takoyaki have to go out early tomorrow morning, and I don't have anything that they can prepare or eat on their own for breakfast. So these are for them, then they won't have to wake me up to ask what's for breakfast. I hate having to answer that question!

Onigiris with edamame and onigiris with homemade green tea furikake (recipe from Just Bento), which the kids love with their rice. Cherry tomatoes and BCH pork floss rolls on the side.

I WANT TO SLEEP IN TOMORROW MORNING WITH THE TOT!

Friday aka run out of steam

Takoyaki didn't want a bento today but agreed to bring some fruits since we have so many (most of them her favourites) and also so that she can spend her pocket money on other foods instead of fruits (yeah, she's like that). Featured are some rose apples (jambu) and longans.

Mr Roast Meat brought one of his favs too - scallion tamagoyaki (recipe below). Matched with some quadrattini and watermelon, which didn't make it into Takoyaki's box because it wasn't cut in time, heh!

Recipe for Scallion Tamagoyaki (makes enough for 2)

Ingredients:

2 eggs (55-60g)

1 tbsp mirin / sake / Chinese rice wine (白米酒)

1 pinch salt

One Chinese scallion (the thick kind, or the equivalent of in Malaysian/Thai spring onions), very finely chopped

Method:

Beat all ingredients well in a small mixing bowl, adding the scallions last.

Heat on low to medium heat, and lightly oil the lower pan of a HappyCall Pan (I've a Deep Ochre).

Spread the oil all over, either with a paper towel or a turner.

Turn the fire down to low and pour the egg mixture into the pan, tilting to spread out. Use a turner to spread the scallions evenly.

When the top of the egg sheet is almost set (but not yet!) quickly use the turner to flip and fold up one of the shorter ends, and roll up the sheet into a flattened log. Let cook on very low heat for about 30secs more on each side. Remove from heat, let cool for 5 min before slicing into desired thickness.

Cheater Bear Bento

 

And the bears are all picks, muahahahaha! All from stash - seaweed chicken, Ritz cheese crackers and cherry tomatoes. For Roast Meat who does not want to eat "as much as the honey mustard chicken bento day".

Mee sua soup

One of Takoyaki's favourite meals. With pork slices, 菜心 (caixin), broccoli and mango cubes.

Too many containers bento

Takoyaki loves the bagels from Yamazaki, so we got two packs (one's for the rest of us). Hence her lunch in school today (Wed), is ye olde bagel with yogurt, cranberries, half a momotaro tomato, longans and grapes. Don't ask me what I was thinking. I have no idea either.

Buses

Yup. That's it.

Honey Master

My friend JC once posted on her FaceBook about how the girl standing in line in front of her at Subway wanted "Honey Master" with her sub. And that's how I will always regard Honey Mustard Chicken (recipe below).

Takoyaki brought some honey mustard chicken to school for recess. The boneless, skin-on chicken legs were cooked in bulk for dinner last night. She's also got cute little sandwiches (cut by another new toy of mine) filled with either cream cheese or jam. And grapes.

Mr Roast Meat is bringing the same chicken over mixed multigrain rice, with stirfried leek and dried shrimps, cherry tomatoes and grapes on the side.

That's my new Magewappa box! I gave him strict instructions NOT to go and play at the basketball court after eating today, but to stay with his bento at the table, since he's coughing anyway. I warned him I would kill him if he cracked or lost my box.

Recipe for Honey Mustard Chicken

2kg boneless skin-on chicken legs

1/2 cup honey

3 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp garlic powder OR 2 cloves minced garlic

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl or pot, using your hands to rub the mixture all over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Lightly oil a grill pan or frying pan and set it on medium heat. Grill/fry each leg on each side for about 5min, till both sides are a lovely brown. Set aside to rest for at least 10 min before serving.

Alternatively, line a big roasting pan with foil for easy cleanup and bake these yummies at 180C for about 30-35min.

Bear pocket sandwich

Here's a new tool! It's a pocket sandwich maker. It's much smaller than I expected, but it fits just nice onto a normal slice of sandwich bread.

So since I have this new tool, I must use it right? Mr Roast Meat will be having a pocket sandwich made using the super kawaii bear sando maker. It's filled with leftover roast chicken mixed with some Jap mayo (not sweet), and the features are 2 M&Ms, a dollop of Nutella for the nose and ketchup for the mouth. On the side are some salad (kosong, he doesn't want ANY dressing, weird boy), and grapes.

I hope you eat properly Mr Roast Meat!

My Bento&Co order has arrived!

From top left, clockwise: Naseba Naru bento, bear sando, yude tama egg moulds and sando stamp.

Ahhh............

Yachaejeon again

Using leftovers of crabstick, spring onions and shredded cabbage. Roast Meat complained, the first time I gave him yachaejeon, that he was still hungry after eating, so there's more this time d:) The animal forks are sitting on apple bunnies.

Sushi mania

I brought lunch for a friend today. She's working at Takashimaya for a period of time and is heartily sick of the food there. This is all pretty straightforward stuff, and inside the onigiris are just homemade salmon flakes and sesame seeds.

And guess who benefited from the above? Mr Roast Meat, of course! He got to take some of it to school for recess (and they're all his favourite sushi).

Run of the mill bento featuring Chocolate Buns

Takoyaki loves these chocolate rolls. These happen to be from Four Leaves bakery as, unfortunately, I have not learnt how to bake them. Yet. Anyone has a recipe to share with me? I heard from my sis that they were first made and popularised by Provence bakery.

She'll be having them with some ham rosebuds, kiwifruit and grapes, the last which, from my experience, will be shared with her clique. So I always give her more grapes for recess.

Whenever I need lots of space to pack food, especially for bulky stuff such as bread rolls or sandwiches, sometimes even big cookies or biscuits, I will invariably turn to this Lego lunchbox. Love the headroom and the simple square shape which allows me to play around with my numerous silicone cups and dividers. Here, I've also added a piece of wax paper with heart motifs on it just to make cleanup easier (hate washing oil off plastic) and to add to the decor. Great contrast against the dark tone of the box.

Matryoshkas on display

Here is the full set of the Matryoshka nested boxes my friend Diane helped me to get from Cash Converters. If I recall correctly it's only $3.50 for the entire set. A few details: they are made of polypropylene aka PP, food safe but preferably do not fill with hot food (same goes for all other plastics) to prevent leaching of plastic into the food. The lids are tight-fitting, which is a big plus, since I have another nested set (part of which I used in this bento) where the biggest lid is loose. And they are Made In China.

The capacities of the boxes are, from biggest to smallest: 500ml, 350ml, 200ml and 120ml. These boxes are a joy to pack; they always make me smile! Takoyaki loves them too, especially when I use my Matryoshka picks (bought separately) in them. The smallest box can also be used as an inner container in the biggest one - great for when I want to put something with sauce or that is wet eg. fruits.

Pasta mania

Other than the pasta and edamame, everything else is leftover from dinner last night. Meat sauce (bolognaise), roast chicken (leftover), cherry tomatoes and grapes.

I'm making Mr Roast Meat eat a little more these days. He didn't want meat sauce so the pasta is tossed with yummy (and fatty) chicken drippings.

Takoyaki's having hers with meat sauce. I have to get ready to leave for school to pass her her lunch as well as to go for PV duties.

Just to make do, alas.

I really don't have any protein for Takoyaki, but she has said before that she doesn't mind. So here're two fish buns, both filled with the strawberry jam (I think) that she made herself at the Singapore Science Centre, sitting next to one sliced kiwifruit, and waiting to be eaten after the seaweed rice crackers in the other tier.

And I'm afraid I could only give Mr RM a bakery bun plus some grapes, since we went to the market before school and could only get back in time for him to get ready for school.

Mouthless relations of Hello Kitty

I ran out of pre-punched nori mouths! But these stars from HK world still look cute, don't they? Both boys (but of course, Mr Roast Meat wouldn't like anything pink or girly). Click here for the How To on making mini buns with egg moulds.

Time to make up a new batch of nori feature punch outs.

Yummy tummy filler - a very Japanese meal

The week-long September hols are over. I'd originally planned to post a few bento-related articles, but what with our mini staycation and subsequent happenings (the tot got a very bad case of heat rash), I clean forgot about it. Okaaaay..... so I will find some time to post them, perhaps on days when I get a bento break.

Tomorrow Takoyaki will have a (super) long day, because netball training resumes and it's going to be a longer session from now on for the rest of the year. She said she prefers a lunch bento, so I'm going all out to give her lots of sustenance. Check out that huuuge mound of somen in the bigger Matryoshka box. Oops, I forgot the shredded nori! To go with it are cuke sticks and shabu shabu pork slices, which were cooked in the soup that will be in the Foogoo jar tomorrow. Sides are *ahem homemade ahem* radish pickles that she loves, noritama, and clementine wedges. I'm low on fruits.