Pork Soboro Bento

Same thing for both boys. Both reported satiety and happiness ^^

I used the leftover soboro to make a porridge with the leftover rice, cos I actually bought and cooked everything in these bentos especially for them. The resulting soboro porridge was incredibly delicious, especially when topped with (more) leftover ginger scallion sauce.

Leftover Sukiyayi Don

Although that's not very accurate, given that Sukiyaki should be freshly cooked and the soup/stew should be accompanying.

I just cooked the remainder of the cabbage and pork belly that we had in the sukiyaki soup/stew and topped the rice with these.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Finally something new! I made these at the end of the dinner and although they kind of dried out in the fridge (inside the boxes), I found that leaving them at room temperature for about 10 to 15 minutes rehydrated the skins due to condensation.

Takoyaki has hers with some (thumbsucking delicious) homemade garlic fish sauce dip.

And Mouse, who doesn't like the rolls, got two 叉烧包 char siew bao.

Natto again

So Takoyaki came home yesterday to discover that the boys had natto and she wanted HER turn today. Ok lah, I give lah, as long as I have. And Mouse was just too happy to get it again with his rice.

Takoyaki brought some leftover Mille-Feuille Nabe in her thermal jar. This is something we love, that is in our regular rotation of soups/stews for dinner. It takes a little time to prep, but the steps are really easy. And leftovers are always fought over the next day!

Korean Japanese Mish-Mash

Japanese: Onigiri with furikake, chuka kurage (seasoned jellyfish), Japanese cucumber

Korean: chokbal (pork ankle), LocknLock bento box d=P

A Very Chinese Bento

And it's for me, yay!

I had to attend a Parent Volunteers committee meeting and had already cooked dinner for my brood, so I decided to pack some of it along.

Menu:

Sesame oil chicken soup (麻油鸡汤)

Pork chop (in strips for easy eating)

Stir fried pea sprouts

Steamed rice

So gooooood.......

Mee Sua Tng (Rice Vermicelli Soup)

Takoyaki is super thrilled to bring this today, cos this is absolutely one of her favourite foods of all time. Especially topped with crispy, crunchy, slightly sweet anchovies contributed by her Ah Ma... summer weather or rainy weather, she will always accept this. I bet she'd even eat this in the desert.

A traditional dish my family loves, method courtesy of my mum, who is a Teochew. The mee sua tng that my Hokkien MIL makes is very different, and involves frying lots of ginger in lots of sesame oil. We like that too, but I don't know how to cook it. This method is healthier but no less yummy.

Nabe (Japanese Hotpot) On The Go

This was packed right before everybody was seated for dinner last night. It was really nice to get the bentoing settled early.

What's in it:

Chuka kurage (jellyfish)

Shabu-shabu pork slices

Enoki mushrooms

Choy sum (菜心) vegetables

Rice

What's not shown:

A steaming hot jar of the soup, packed this morning.

Everyday Bento Week Day Two - Japanese Curry

Other than my having to wake up at 5.45am just to heat the curry and pour it in, today's bento was easy peasy.

The meat this time is pork shoulder/collar, which stands up to slow braising (1.5hrs). Cooked with carrots and potatoes. Yum.

台湾卤肉饭 Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice Bento

We love this once in a while and there are always leftovers because I cook a huge pot. Takoyaki is a huge supporter of this. And of course it must always include a braised hardboiled egg.

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.

Planned over Onigiri and Pork Jerky

Weird, eclectic selection of foods. Who cares? They're all yummy.

Quinoa Stir Fry with BBQ Ribs

I finally managed to persuade RM to try this quinoa dish which I served last night at dinner together with the tender, oven-baked pork ribs. A very quick stir fry, I chopped some onions, carrot, olives an broccoli and tossed them into the wok with the quinoa. Seasoned with salt and pepper and it was done!

I've been trying to get him to eat alternative carbs to help him control his weight. Previously, RM only accepted quinoa when it was in my Quinoa Patties. 

Onigiris

For when I don't want to do anything fancy and there's lots of plan-over rice.

Finally Friday - Pressed Sushi Again! (Real this time)

After yesterday's rather failed attempt, I decided to give my new toy another go, but this time, without the nori and with better fillings.

Oshizushi with egg sheet and pork floss

The middle layer is a thin egg sheet seasoned tamagoyaki style. So it's just one layer of rice, then the egg sheet, then more rice, and finally pork floss on top. My cutting skills suck though.

Takoyaki's oshizushi bento

We will know whether she liked it or not tonight.

Plan-Over Monday - Miso Hotpot

Except their miso hotpot is actually a thermal food jar, hahaha! 

We had miso hotpot for dinner last night, so I made sure we had some pork slices and mushrooms left over. Just heat up in the morning and throw into the jars. Chopchop. Only extra thing I had to do was boil some dried udon for Roast Meat since he didn't want rice (the fussy feller). Oh, and I also blanched some green beans.

RM's miso hotpot bento

Takoyaki's miso hotpot bento

Pork Ribs & Radish Soup

This will probably be Takoyaki's last chance to bring this soup to school, since this is the last time I'm cooking it before we move house. Yes, we are moving to a temporary abode in mid-March, and I am still contemplating which of my (numerous) bento tools and boxes I'm going to bring!

It's hard to leave any one piece out, since they are all like my precious family members, haha! But I do acknowledge that some of them have become rather "distant relatives" since I don't use them so much, so I'll just have to put them into long-term storage i.e. packing boxes, till we move to our new home in end June.

Although it will be tough, I do still hope to bento as much as I can while we are living out of suitcases (literally!).

Thankful Tuesday - First Kimchi Soup of 2014!

Here's another from my bento food list, which Takoyaki loves. I topped her rice with the braised pork slices, some brown mushrooms and more kimchi!

Post Nice Long Break...

From bentoing that is, since there was no school the whole of last week thanks to four days of PSLE marking and one PH, but it was revision for exams week! Well ok, we did take two days off to go for a day trip to Johor Bahru and the Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb exhibition, so it was kind of relaxing.

And now back to exams week! For Roast Meat, who is pretty blur at times so I am rather worried. Yes. (Can any mother not be?)

There are 4 packages in the Lego lunchbox but the sandwiches inside are exactly the same, heehee! All are pork jerky with green oak lettuce sandwiches. I used up some small pieces of precut foil leftover from previous bentos to wrap them up. On the side are green grapes and cherry tomatoes.

RM wants to buy wantan mee from the tuckshop tomorrow and Takoyaki does not want a bento, so I'm free to do some of my other stuff tonight, such as catching up with blogging about homeschooling on my other blog, and preparing materials for said homeschooling.

Fancy Thursday - Two Completely Different Bentos

First up was Roast Meat's recess bento - leftover chicken raisin rice from dinner last night, with Basil Grilled Chicken and a veg salad.

I was pleased to have a chance again to deliver a hot lunch to Takoyaki in school. Hot somen in soup with pork slices and 菜心 (cai4 xin1) or choy sum or yu choy.