How to use an Onigiri Wrapper

Update July 2013: I found a video on YouTube which demonstrates how to tear the wrapper off when you want to eat it. The vid is shown at the bottom of this post.

I often feature nori-wrapped onigiris in my bentos (especially for Takoyaki), and a friend asked me to illustrate how to wrap the darn thing. So I made a video for it. As with many other things, practise and practise. Soon you'll be wrapping onigiris in 30 secs flat!

Aaaand here is a video I found on Youtube which shows you how to peel off the wrapper to eat the onigiri.

Lots of food and less food

Takoyaki has a long day today (supp class after which she'll be helping me out at preparations for our school carnival), so I dragged myself off the sofa last night to prepare this. Only the chicken was toasted this morning.

I was amazed that the largest box can hold TWO nori-wrapped onigiris. Ok, but they mustn't be too fat. The littlest Matryoshka is missing, because I don't have anything else to give her (and I don't think she'd be able to finish anymore during her short 30min lunchtime). Aw... they're so sweet!

Two floss onigiris, beancurd chicken, cucumber shurikens and jambu

Roast Meat will also be having an onigiri, but I can't trust him to unwrap the onigiri wrapper properly and slip on the nori without dropping everything onto the floor, so his has the nori on. Soggy by recess time, too bad. The feller was ecstatic to see "so few things to eat". Means he can go run at the multipurpose court after eating. Gah.

Floss onigiri, pork jerky and cucumber shurikens

Mad rush Wednesday

It's Wednesday, and since the ingredients are all so handy, Takoyaki and Roast Meat will be having more or less the same food. This is Mr Roast Meat's.

Tater puffs, assorted tamagoyaki and apple wedges

And Takoyaki's lunch in school (not hot this time, or the tater puffs will get soggy).

She's just got one more thing - kiwifruit

New box!

Someone posted about these nested boxes on our Bento group on FaceBook and a dear friend helped me to buy them. I collected them from her yesterday and couldn't wait to use them for Takoyaki today! However, I've only used the biggest one, which is quite spacious and just right for her recess portion. And my heart can finally let go of the Bento&Co Matryoshka bento box. This cheap replacement, is good enough. Featuring the Matryoshka picks from an earlier purchase (but of course!)

Piglet, pork jerky and rose apple

I brought the boys out for brunch this morning at our heartland mall, so Mr Roast Meat requested for a bakery bun. Fine by me, I was afraid I wouldn't have time to prepare a full bento for him, plus my energy level is still at rock bottom.

Bakery bun and pear wedges

Lethargic

I have no energy nor mood to do anything fancy so replied on stash again. Roast Meat loves his seaweed chicken.

Seaweed  chicken, Ritz cheese crackers, clementine wedges and grapes

FTT

It's Friday the thirteenth! No frills, just leftovers and packet stuff. I hope to get some rest this weekend, relieve some stress and get more bento mojo back for next week.

Pizza, corn kernels and grapes.

Bento&co results are out!

No bentos today because Takoyaki is at camp and Mr RM wanted a bakery bun (I rounded if off by including a pear wedge). So it's rest day for me!

I was not very disappointed to find out I wasn't one of the ten finalists, but of course! It was fun entering the contest though. So now to wait for the discount code, muahahahaha...

Do pop over to Bento&Co's site to vote for the finalists. By July 16th.

All of them are lovely! (But can only vote for one).

What? It's only Wednesday??

I can't believe it's only Wednesday. I am already burnt out. Thankfully, Takoyaki will spend the next two days at Adventure Camp (yay!) organised by the school, and all meals except breakfast and dinner will be provided, so I only have to worry (less) about Roast Meat's bentos. Or perhaps I should tell him to just go buy food for the next two days... Hmm...

Half a pita with cheese spread and pork floss, grapes and M&Ms.

Wednesday means PV day, which means Takoyaki gets her lunch hand-delivered. The stirfry was my and Roast Meat's brunch. So thankful for leftovers which can be combined in a stirfry with rice or noodles. I don't believe much in preparing everything from scratch for bentos (too lazy), so I depend a LOT on bento stash in my pantry, fridge and freezer.

Multigrain-sausage-crabstick-leek stirfry, cantaloupe and yogurt dip (which I forgot to bring)

Mad mad Wednesday

Every school morning is a big rush - cook/prepare breakfast, eat (feed the tot), clear, prepare bento for Roast Meat, laundry on stages along the way. And on days when I have to go to school for PV duties, it's worse, because then Takoyaki will ask me to bring her lunch, so there will also be "prepare bento for Takoyaki, clear up if possible, shower/change, prepare to go to school".

I only realised I'd forgotten about Mr Roast Meat's bento at 11 o'clock. He leaves home at 11.20am to wait for the school bus. So this is what he brought to school today. All instant stuff in my pantry.

Mandarin orange wedges, pork floss rolls and seaweed crackers

Takoyaki's hot lunch in school:

Beef soboro on multigrains, cocktail sausages, kimchi and fruits

Rising to the challenge

At 5.45am, after having her breakfast, Takoyaki came and informed me that she has netball practice today, which means she needs a box. So within 15min I had to come up with something. You must be kidding girl?!

Purple wheat noodles with homemade salmon flakes, nori strips and sesame seeds. Mandarin orange for fruit factor

Mr Roast Meat was luckier, because I had accidentally made a nice batch of pitas the day before (long story). I tried out a new arrangement. It was fun, but I think I'll stick with my usual style after this.

Pita wedges with miso dip, sausage octopi and crabs, and grapes

How come there's no response from Bento&Co regarding my entry??

My entry for the Bento&Co contest 2012

In case you didn't know, the annual Bento&Co contest is here! I usually don't have the guts to go for things like this, but this year's theme is Onigiri, so I thought, what the heck! Just do a normal bento and send it in lah! I'm not aiming to win any prizes, but all contest entries get a 15% discount code... more shopping! And here's my entry, I have just submitted it.

Thai BBQ chicken,  skewers of cherry tomatoes and cucumber shurikens, onigiris and kiwifruit

It was fun making this bento, I must admit! But I sure had a lot of headache trying to decide WHICH pic to choose, and how to edit it a little so it looks better.

Bread and sticks

I use my almost 2yo tot as my excuse for not charaben-ing. Charaben is the art of decorating bentos with kawaii/cute faces or designs such as Hello Kitty, Spiderman, Transformers, etc. The truth is, I don't have such deft fingers to cut out and put all those tiny features onto the food. I'd most likely just end up shouting in frustration and throwing it all away before I'm finished. The most I can do is punch out some facial features using a seaweed cutter and gluing it onto the bread/rice.

Here's Takoyaki's recess bento for today. I asked her last night whether she'd like one today as she usually doesn't want more than 3 bentos a week. And she replied immediately with a "yes please!" That really made my day, or night, as it were.

Cream cheese and Nutella half-sandwiches, cantaloupe and guava

Yesterday's bread crusts are today's breadsticks, this way nothing gets wasted. Mr Roast Meat loves his breadsticks, today topped with seaweed flakes and furikake.

Breadsticks, edamame and taomato/grape skewers

I am thankful to my friends Li Ming and Emmem for pointing me to various apps for watermarking pics. Love ya ladies!

Pretty much last minutes

I totally forgot to pack Takoyaki a box today (long day). Too stressed over the events of yesterday. So threw this together while she was getting ready for school.

Mini shortbread, apple leaves and pork floss rolls

Aaaand... this is Roast Meat's bento. Cheater scallion and cheese omelette, sandwiched a cheese wedge between two slices of omelette, as we have a tot who is allergic to dairy.

Omelette, Ritz cheese crackers and a fat apple bunny

Crabstick rolls and a filling lunch

Crabsitck bread rolls, cherry tomatoes and grapes

I had planned to let Mr Roast Meat bring some potsticker dumplings (aka 饺子 jiaozi) to school today, but between the two of us we finished the whole pack for breakfast! So as a last minute resort I poached some crabsticks (leftover from last night's sukiyaki) and rolled them in bread for him.

And here's the box that really pleases me today. Takoyaki has an enrichment class after school, plus I'm going for PV duties, so here's her hot lunch. Hurray for leftovers!

Kimchi pork soup with glass noodles, cherry toms and kiwifruit, plus a Chewy Junior for dessert

I adore packing what I consider a "proper meal" for Takoyaki. And she can eat!

Cough cough - no heaty pls!

So kids are all coughing again (no thanks to the FIVE slices of Secret Recipe cakes we brought back from JB yesterday, of which 4 were chocolate). So I couldn't fall back on my heaty stash of Quadrattini and pork floss rolls. Here's Takoyaki's snackbox this morning.

Hardboiled egg with ketchup on the side, M&S blueberry oat cookies and apple.

I have five boxes of pretty, decorated Aluminium foil from $2 shops; I went a little bento-crazy. It's hard to control yourself when you are staring at the pretty things at the store, and your mind is telling you, you don't have these designs... it's just $2 per box anyway... you will be able to use them up...  Argh. I managed to walk away... for now.

Here's Roast Meat's healthy snack box.

Egg and scallion pocket sandwich and grapes.