Is it almost May already?

For the last day of April, I threw these boxes together in the morning. Took less time than expected, since the only time-consuming part was waiting for the boiled sausages to cool down.

One box for each kid - Quadrattini wafers, cocktail sausages, quarter of an apple and some M&Ms in the sauce cup.

Totoro and Susuwatari

Mama was feeling rather diligent yesterday d:) so she tried two new things. 

The first is this Eggs in Treasure Bags learnt from Just Bento. One huge lesson I learnt about this recipe - not all inari skins are created equal; you MUST look for the biggest inari skins so that the bags can be tied up. Or else you use the smallest chicken eggs you can find. I had to enlist Takoyaki's help to get the bags closed up. The result is super yummy though!

The second thing I tried out was making Totoro from rice. I saw this in a pic somewhere online. Seemed easy enough.

Totoro and Susuwatari Bentos

Other stuff in the bento are the Treasure Bag Eggs, seaweed chicken, cherry tomatoes and fruits. I hope Totoro likes his grape balloon d:)

Closeup of Totoro

 

Totoro is made out of two parts of rice - one plain white and the other mixed with ground black sesame seeds. The whiskers are made of pretzel sticks (I used Pocky since that was all I had) and the eyes are from an eggwhite sheet made from the extra eggwhites that couldn't fit into the Treasure Bags, haha! The pupils, nose and markings on the tummy are cutout of nori.

Susuwatari is just a round riceball wrapped with a piece of nori and eyes same as Totoro's. On hindsight, the eyes for these guys should be MUCH bigger. Oh well.

To make the grey part of Totoro, first I had to grind up some of my homemade gomashio. I broke out this suribachi that I got from Daiso some time back. It's just an earthenware mortar with grooved sides, and a wooden pestle to go with it. The kids enjoyed helping to grind the seeds d:)

Mini suribachi from Daiso

Making this bento was so much work. I think I'll take a rest before doing something like this again.

French Garlic Toast and Unintentional Yinyang Tamagoyaki

I did not plan to make any bentos at all, because on Thursday night I had some tummy problems and was too weak to prepare anything. I figured RM could just buy from the canteen for once and his sister would also be fine with that.

So on Friday morning, I only got up 15min earlier than their morning call to prepare breakfast. And felt better enough to make a last minute decision to quickly cook the tamagoyaki (looks rather yin-yang, haha) and make the toasts (using homemade garlic spread).

On hindsight, I must have been crazy, but thankfully the tot did not wake till everything was done, except for photo-taking d:) Phew~

I quite like the look of the noritama.

Fuss-free Thursday

Two days ago, I got myself some ingredients to make something really cute that I saw on the net, but because of some unforeseen circumstances, I did not get to make it. I hope to attempt it next week. 

Same thing for both - cheese wafer biscuits (which did not receive positive reviews so we're axing further purchase), seaweed chicken and apple slices.

Bento&Co Contest 2013 results

Are out at this page and wow! the bentos of the winners are absolutely splendid (but of course). Better luck next year for me d:)

Bento&Co needs the public to vote for the 20 finalists at this other page, oooh! I am salivating over the prizes they have in store. I've voted.

RM's bento is a simple toasted pocket sandwich with sardine filling.

More Pesto Fusili

Roast Meat really loves pesto on pasta and after seeing the shot of my Bento&Co entry yesterday (which he didn't get to eat), he wanted it for today. Together with haambaagaa (beef patties) and grapes.

Takoyaki only wanted this cheese cake from Yamazaki bakery and some fruits.

My Entry for the Bento&Co contest 2013 + Pesto Recipe

I almost didn't make it *gulp* because I forgot until last evening that the deadline is today 1059am Singapore time. Hence, I spent the whole night having nightmares that I couldn't complete it and the day was overcast (bad photos). Argh.

Here's the final product, which I started on immediately after sending the kids to school.

Featuring Fusili with homemade pesto, topped with arctic surf clams and grilled prawns. In the tier on the right, there are some beancurd wrapped chicken, charred capsicum and edamame. The fruits section consists of some strawberries and grape bunnies.

After I sent the email off, I heaved a HUGE sigh of relief d:)

Recipe for Cheeseless Pesto

Ingredients:
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (or walnuts)
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
3 cups packed basil leaves
1/2 cup parsley leaves (optional, helps retain green colour)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more if necessary)

Method:
Throw everything into the bowl of a food processor and run it till the contents reach a paste consistency. Transfer to a clean, dry glass jar, making sure there is a layer of oil on the top to prevent browning.

Note: I didn't add any traditional grated Parmesan cheese, partly to prolong the shelf life of the pesto in the fridge, but mainly because my #3 is allergic to most dairy, including cheese. With this recipe, he can eat it, and the salt content has been increased for better flavour. I sometimes have some Parmesan on the side for the others to sprinkle on if they want.

And here's Roast Meat's simple bento for today - a bakery bun he chose for himself yesterday, some grapes and chocolate fingers.

Roast Duck Sandwich Deconstructed Bento

Easily prepared last night, this bento for Roast Meat required him to make his own sandwiches on the spot, what fun! He also used the lettuce leaves to wrap the duck in Oriental fashion. The brown stuff with the many layers is some of the kueh lapis legit I made for Lunar New Year. Keeps very well in the freezer.

We love roast duck in our bentos!

Takoyaki wanted to buy food from the tuckshop today so I just packed her a box of fruits.

Simple fruit bento

Too Simple

Yesterday's bento for RM was just a matter of toasting up leftover (bought) chips and prawn paste chicken or harcheongkai (虾酱鸡), and putting them all into the box with fruits in a lettuce cup.

And both kids got the same salmon and furikake mixed rice onigiris today, with half an apple each. I'm rather rusty at apple carving these days, so it was fun and easy and fast to do up an exclamation mark and a question mark.

Apple carving of punctuation marks

Fishes Out of Water and Flower Bentos

I relaxed a little this morning and just gave Roast Meat some ham and cheese sandwiches plus grapes. 

Had a weird, disturbed sleep last night, dreaming  that my alarm clock was ringing, only to check my handphone and find it was only 12.30am. Then some time later, I jerked awake thinking someone was calling me, but it was RM (who sleeps in my room) talking very loudly, and for a long time, in his sleep! Argh. Plus the usual wakings of the almost 3yo for milk and pee. I'm concussed but today's not over yet!

Fishes out of water bento

Today, I got to bring Takoyaki lunch again, which means the photo can be taken in natural daylight (yay!). Flower shaped onigiris, noritama, blanched shanghai greens, edamame as well as flower-shaped apple cutouts.

Braised Chicken and Egg Bentos

I spent the weekend checking out some new recipes to use for bentos, and have found a few, including my friend Emmem's pork floss tamagoyaki and JustBento's treasure bag eggs. I have also been gathering ingredients for my pasta bento entry (which is just for fun, I know it won't win anything), and hope that I can get it done this week.

Consisting of some planned leftovers, some regular stash and freshly cooked rice, this bento was easily prepared and packed into boxes for both kids last night. The food will be nicely warmed to room temperature by their recess time.

The two boxes on the left are for Roast Meat (who will end up eating his at home because he suddenly started coughing till he got breathless this morning) and are holding some seasoned spinach, half a braised egg, some leftover braised chicken, and rice with spring onions on top.

Braised Chicken and Egg bentos

Takoyaki will be having the same except for the spring onions which are replaced by one of her favs - seasoned seaweed.

The eggs could have been braised longer for the colour and flavour to penetrate deeper, but I was out of time. Was looking for a new Korean drama to watch with hubby (Time Slip Dr Jin) but had problems trying to watch on our new smart TV.

Bento&Co Contest 2013

Woohoo! I forgot to blog about the Bento&Co Bento Contest earlier. This time it's a pasta theme, so I've been planning what to prepare. There's still some time left, so I'm gathering ingredients.

For today, both kids got simple sandwiches and toasted chicken pieces.

Takoyaki's

Roast Meat's

It's the weekend. Happy weekend everyone!

Last resort - instant noodles

This only happens once in a blue moon, when I run out of bread, am too tired to cook rice and don't want to give biscuits. Mr RM gets his favourite kind of instant noodles - Korean-style soy bean paste noodles aka jiajiangmyun.

The noodles are topped with boiled shrimps, kimchi and some nori strips. There are cherry tomatoes and grapes in the little box.

Takoyaki happily brought some pork rib lotus root soup, to complement her canteen-bought rice or noodles.

Leftover Roast Chicken and Spud

Planned leftovers are such a heaven-sent bento solution. Here's another chopchop prepacked bento-style that was easily completed last night after dinner: Our favourite roast chicken, roast potatoes and more of the spinach tamagoyaki.

Takoyaki's

Roast Meat's

Recipe for Lulu's Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

1 chicken (1.5kg), neck, bottom and feet chopped off (keep for boiling soup another time)

(You can substitute with dry herbs, use one pinch of each or any combination you prefer)

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 sprig fresh oregano

1 sprig fresh basil

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1 pinch ground black pepper

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Rub all the ingredients onto the chicken and roast in a 150C oven for 1h 15min. Let sit at least 15min before carving.

Spinach Tamagoyaki Recipe

I saw this recipe last week on Just Bento and love it because it covers veg and protein all-in-one so I don't have to bother about other meats if I don't want to. It's featured in Roast Meat's bento today. The bread looks rather mangled though; it was tough packing it in.

Recipe for Spinach Tamagoyaki in a Tamagoyaki pan (serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 packet fresh spinach

1/2 a medium onion

2 cloves garlic

salt and pepper to taste

3 medium eggs

1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp light soy sauce

Method:

Wash and trim the spinach. Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch the spinach for about 30 secs, in batches if your saucepan is small, like mine. Rinse and cool the spinach immediately under tap water. Squeeze all the water out with your hands and cut into small pieces with a pair of scissors, draining again after that.

Mince the onion and garlic.

Heat the tamagoyaki pan on medium-low heat and add a tsp of oil. Saute the onion and garlic for about a min, then add it to the spinach in a bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. Mix as well as you can.

Add another tsp of oil to the pan.

Beat the eggs, mirin and soy sauce in another bowl and pour about half the mixture into the pan. Immediately turn the heat to LOW and spread the spinach mixture evenly over the egg. If your pan has a curved further edge, like mine, flip the edge of the egg on the curved side over onto the spinach to form a lip. Pour the rest of the egg mixture gently over the spinach, gently poking the spinach to let the egg mix in. Cook about 2-3min. 

Flip the whole thing and cook another 2-3min over medium-low heat till the egg is completely set.
Remove from heat and cook before cutting into bite-size squares.

Introducing Gomashio

I made gomashio for the first time (recipe from bento guru Maki @ JustBento) and discovered that toasted black sesame seeds taste very different from toasted white ones. And from Wikipedia - 

"Sesame seeds come in many colours depending on the cultivar harvested. The most traded variety of sesame is off-white coloured. Other common colours are buff, tan, gold, brown, reddish, gray and black."

Ye gods. I've only ever known white and black.

It's the same (more or less) for both kids today. Roast Meat will have this box for recess: rice with gomashio, hambaagaa (to use up the bread crusts from the last two weeks), cherry tomatoes and apple slices.

And Takoyaki, who has finally begun netball practice for this year, will have strawberries instead of the apple.

She commented, "Isn't that rather too much sesame seeds, Mum?" My hand slipped.

Cutouts to end the week

Low on energy. Did the most I could by giving them cute cutouts and carving some of the apple wedges.

Smoked Duck Bento

I've been waiting to make this for the kids to bring to school and finally here's my chance.

Some lovely black pepper smoked duck breast to go with freshly cooked rice and some cucumber pickles. Takoyaki is so going to enjoy this at lunchtime.

Roast Meat's recess was a simple ham and cheese sandwich, as this was done early this morning, before the duck was defrosted and the rice was cooked. He got his smoked duck for lunch.

Simple Bento for this Wednesday

Just a furikake-filled onigiri with boiled corn, sausages and grapes. I could have added some hair for the face, but I need some fresh nori first.

I don't have a round onigiri rice mould and didn't want to use my hands, so I took the tip from Just Hungry and used a piece of clingwrap, which will also help to keep the rice from sticking to anything else in the box, and keep it form drying out in the fridge.

Cold Somen for Hot Tuesdays

Roast Meat's long day again, so he brought both recess and lunch together this morning.

Recess was popcorn chicken (cold, he likes it), longans and biscuits.

Lunch was somen topped with salmon flakes (learn how to make your own at JustBento), cherry tomatoes and pork dumplings. The dipping sauce was in another container.

And now, back to my Korean drama! d:P

Chicken Pie Monday

Yes! It's those yummy mini chicken pies from our neighbourhood bakery again, this time for both kids (to save me some brain-cranking early in the morning). And some BBQ pork jerky again (got a huge pack cheap from across the Causeway).

Nothing much to say. It's the end of the day (and I've been busy watching Korean dramas again. Oops!).