Meow... Cat Onigiri Bento

I have a new toy!!

This is the cat version of the panda onigiri maker that was all the rage sometime back. A close friend went to Japan recently (hanami!) and got this for me, as well as some picks, which I have also used in today's bento. Thank you XH, you are so sweeet! *muaks*

It's surprisingly easy to use, as long as your nori is crisp. I thought I wouldn't kyaraben again untill Mouse hit school but I really couldn't resist this d:)

Roast Meat's cat bento

Takoyaki's cat bento

In the words of Takoyaki, "that's a face palm", or to put it more aptly, a paw-palm.

TLC Bento Day

Roast Meat has no school for the rest of this week thanks to PSLE marking days, so I channelled my energy and TLC towards making a bento for Takoyaki (who, alas, will no longer have PSLE marking days holiday). Although I've lost much of my mojo for kyaraben, I'm not adverse to making use of the tools I have to sweeten things up a little d:)

Menu:

Cut and "stamped" cheese sandwiches

Taiwanese sausages

Fruits and cukes

I loved packing this box up with food. Takoyaki can eat a lot if she's in the mood. Gone are the days of trying to find a smaller bento box for the pitiful amount they could eat in lower primary. Hang on, I've got one more Mouse who has yet to hit the system...

Minnie's Recess - Cutout Sandwiches

Whereas this is no longer sufficient nor necessary (cute) for Takoyaki, Minnie certainly appreciates all her kawaii stuff d:)

Minnie's Dinner - Sesame Oil Chicken

I get to pack TWO dinner bentos today, because there's also one for my sis, who will be eating her dinner considerably later and I am a little fearful of whether the food will keep.

Minnie gets a cute little onigiri with a girl's hair and face.

Minnie's dinner bento

This is for my sister, Mummy to Minnie Mouse. My onigiris started to fall apart when I was rolling them in the furikake, so they look far from awesome d:( In addition to Minnie's food, she gets kimchi and some Korean-style seasoned soy bean sprouts.

Minnie's Dinner - Picture Frame Bento

By the shady eaves of the wood, two red bunnie graze on delicious grass as larks fly over a snow-capped mountain in the distance.

Edge of woodland scene

This is my first time making a bento picture, and I sure hope Minnie Mouse likes it! As far as I know, they're all her favourite foods, so the added picture factor will surely make her smile. Her Daddy gave me some feedback on the first bento that she didn't like the sesame seeds on the greens, so I'll take note of that. It's always important to ask for feedback from the bento diners.

The background is angel hair spaghetti tossed with chicken drippings from the boneless roast chicken thigh which forms the mountain. Sliced cheese was trimmed, placed on the chicken and toasted gently to allow the cheese to melt slightly. The trees and grass are blanched long stem broccoli while the birds are nori on the rest of the sliced cheese. Check out the How To for the tomato bunnies here.

Beat The Heat Bentos

We've been having such warm weather in Singapore these last few days that I can see my children melting by recess time. So I hope they'll be cheered up (Mother Tongue paper today, tough) as they cool down with some cold noodles.

First up is Roast Meat's. He's got some udon (the dried type) and here I've given him less noodles because he needs to lose weight (no kidding). Mixed in with the noodles are some julienned Japanese cucumber, and the whole thing's topped with some boiled carrot rings. There is a separate little container of mentsuyu (dippng sauce). Frozen.

In the other tier are some, oh dear, I don't know the English name for it, but in Teochew it's called ngoh hiang 五香, which means five spices. The filling is made of minced pork, carrot, and waterchestnut (mixed with five spice powder and a couple other ingredients), rolled up in tau kee (beancurd skin) and deepfried. My Mother-in-law makes THE BEST ngoh hiang in the world, and she gives us lots to bring back each time we visit. RM loves this.

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Next up is Takoyaki's.  Doesn't like ngoh hiang, period. Subbed with Ah Ma's fried chicken wings, that she loves. More noodles for the adolescent girl, who is really skinny.

The flower shapes are cut out using these cutters.

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.

Good Friday Bento

I've been looking at all these fabulous Easter-themed bentos made by my friends for their children, but although my heart wants to, my body and brain are just too out of juice to make anything classy (心有余而力不足). So at the last minute, I came up with a very simple design for Roast Meat that brings us back to the bare meaning of Good Friday - the death and resurrection of Christ.

Very basic Good Friday sandwich bento

Just a simple cross made of nori strips on a triangular PB and Nutella sandwich. Says it all, doesn't it?

I managed to put more effort into Takoyaki's lunch bento since I had all morning to prepare it (but didn't till the last half an hour *gulp*) and deliver it to her at midday.

Market-bought roast crispy pork and char siew with rice, topped with stir-fried pea sprouts, and sides of kimchi and fruits.

I am looking forward to the long weekend.

Reincarnated Totoro

On Monday, My Neighbour and I made a batch of Totoro cookies (haha), so Takoyaki and Roast Meat brought one each of the nicer ones to school today. Each Totoro is lying on a ham and cheese sandwich wrapped in foil for a background.

Takoyaki's bento also includes some cherry blossoms cookies to share with her friends. Oops, I just realised I forgot to pack in a spoon for her to eat her edamame *gulp*

Takoyaki's Totoro

RM's is almost the same, just minus the flower cookies. Maybe it's a boy thing, or his classmates are just not into sharing, although he does offer from time to time.

Roast meat's Totoro

Earlier last year, before I started this blog, I carved a Totoro on an apple for Takoyaki. Here it is below, the medium-sized blue one, Chu Totoro.

Chu Totoro apple carving 2 May 2012

Last official bento day for 2012!

So it's their last day of school, and it's a combined session (meaning both AM and PM sessions function together in the morning) so again the bentos were made last night and kept overnight in the fridge.

The contents are almost exactly the same, with minor differences - the filling in the bread and the treats. Here's Takoyaki's, featuring jam-filled bunny buns, sausage pineapples, kiwi and a Kinder Bueno.

Mr Roast Meat's having Nutella sandwiches cut into jigsaw puzzle pieces, sausage pineapples, cherry tomatoes and a Happy Hippo.

Each child also brought a bottle of yogurt drink to school, as a celebration for the last day of school. I can foresee that next year on, all my photos will be this kind - yellow and dark, since Mr RM will also be in the morning session and I have to either pack the night before or on the morning itself. Natural daylight always looks better.

The secret lives of fruits and vegetables

Takoyaki wanted to buy food today but agreed to bring a box of fruits (which she shared with her clique). There's a cherry tomato masquerading as a grape which is masquerading as a balloon.

Mr Roast Meat got some fish nuggets, grapes, more masquerading cherry tomatoes, and a Nutella sandwich with a smiling striped cheese bear (I still have about 3 striped cheese slices left).

Tired. 'Nuff said.

Takoyaki's box: sandwiches, hambaagaa, fruits and fruit juice.

 Roast Meat's: cheese crackers, Happy Hippo snack, cuke shurikens and grapes.

Bats

If it's not obvious already, I'm trying to do Halloween themes all the way till it's over. I must be batty, haha!

I put in some extra effort into this bento for Takoyaki, because I was supposed to give her one yesterday, but was so exhausted the night before that I fell asleep with the tot and didn't get up! So here's her bat-on-ham-on-cheese-moon, over a Nutella sandwich, together with some bloody fingers and fruits. I had a swift thought of putting eyes on the grapes but it vanished in the wink of an eye (haha! again).

I hope her friends don't get too shocked d:)

Since I had all these tools out anyway, I made the same cutouts for Mr Roast Meat at the same time, except that I marked out the eye slits with cheese (eeeeeevilllll). Over rice with homemade salmon flakes, and matched with a Halloween pumpkin (it's actually half a clementine, thank you to inspiration from my dear friends on the Facebook EZ Bentos group, and I think the Ah Ma of the idea is Ming of BentoMonsters). To fill up the box and add some fibre, I threw in some cuke sticks and capsicum slices. 

 

Tomorrow is a public holiday in Singapore (Hari Raya Haji), so no school and no bentos. Need to brainstorm for next week's Halloween themes!

Have a grrrrrreat weekend, everyone!

Eek! A Spider! Or a Crab?

I had meant this to look like a spider! Why does the end result look more like a crab??

Luncheon meat-and-leek multigrain rice stirfry (what a mouthful), which Mr Roast Meat also had for brunch this morning (time-saving tip). Together with cocktail sausages and grapes.

Oh Mighty Mummy!

Today's design is almost a failure. It barely looks like a mummy. I didn't have any bread or rice for Mr Roast Meat so I quickly fried an omelette to make a base for the cheese strips.

The eyes are black sesame seeds on cheese circles. The rest of the food is red capsicum, peanut butter cookie sandwiches and golden pear.

Jack Skellington Bento

I want to say first of all that I really love the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. My husband and I have collected some paraphernalia over the years.

It's exam week for both kids, so there won't be any lunch bentos for school. Takoyaki brought rice, leftover beef stew and some grapes today for recess. That's a mobile phone pouch I found some years back. And nope she didn't bring it to school d:)

Jack Skellington Bento round

Mr Roast Meat brought an onigiri with salmon flakes filling, grapes and some pork cocktail sausages.

Jack Skellington Bento triangular

Jack's features are all cut out of nori by hand.

Drained Friday

There's just this day of school this week and boy, am I thankful! My tot and I are not well yet, especially me. It was all I could do to churn out Mr Roast Meat's bento today.

That's a rather failed breadcup holding some BBQ baked beans and topped with a cheese flower. The French madeleines from that day are all gone, so I made another batch yesterday. He ate one right before heading out the door, so there's only one for his recess, together with pear and some red capsicum.

Enough of Charaben...?

Here's a normal bento for Takoyaki's recess. Old cucumber soup with onigiri and kiwifruit.

And another plain one for Mr Roast Meat.

 

All right, maybe I spoke too soon. But I did want to use the striped cheese and it can't be a faceless bear, right? Unfortunately though, the bear split his pants d:)

RM is having onigiri - one plain and one mixed with edamame, a slice of honey baked ham, a cheese wedge and watermelon.

Children's Day 2012

And here is my very first from-scratch charaben. Meaning I cut the cheese and nori from scratch. And all because Takoyaki requested for a Children's Day themed bento, but girl, why couldn't you have said so BEFORE we left the supermarket? I didn't have any sausages or ham to fool around with, so I had to come up with something that would look ok on cheese and nori.

To keep the girl safe, I wrapped the entire sandwich with clingwrap. I also showed it to her this morning before packing the box into the bag. She was thrilled d:)

Butter and sugar sandwich, cuke flowers, pork floss rolls, grapes and goodies to share with her clique.

Mr Roast Meat will be having a simpler design - just a frog face on a pocket sando (buttered and filled with crispy anchovies from Ah Ma), cuke flowers and grapes.

More of the Savannah

We went out for brunch at the heartland mall again. Mr Roast Meat told me LAST NIGHT that he has to bring a photo of himself to school on Thursday for Art lesson, so we had to make a dash to the photo store to get some pics developed. What's with children and last minute must-dos?

On our walk back, I thought this bento out in my head, so the minute we got home I timed myself and started cutting, etc. Took me exactly twenty minutes! Much less time than I expected, although I guess with a little better planning, it could have been even shorter.

It's a simple cheese sandwich, cut to fit the box WITH the box itself, so only the bottom crust is "leftover" (which will go into my bread crusts box to be ground into breadcrumbs for meatballs/patties at the end of the week). The cheese elephant and hippo are cut out with some cookie cutters, and features were pre-punched with my $2 Daiso nori punchers and kept in a pill box in the freezer (to keep them crisp).

On the spur of the moment, I decided to cut some of my leftover nori (from the feature punching) into simple shapes and add them to the picture. They are "glued" to the bread with a dab of kaya each (or you can use jam, butter, even water). Don't ask me what a fruit tree is doing on the savannah though. At the back are some seedless grapes and some peanut butter filled M&Ms. Oooh! said Mr Roast Meat.

I used some clingwrap to wrap up the Rilakuma silicone cup holding the M&Ms (to prevent them from rolling all over), and another sheet of clingwrap to cover the entire box before putting the lid on (to prevent the cheese from sticking to the box during "transportation"). That's it! Twenty minutes. If you can read Chinese - 绰绰有余.