Wish it was Friday Bento

This week has been another tiring week, all beginning with my kueh lapis legit obsession, and the aftermath. And the bentoing must go on! 

I'm thankful that we have some fried chicken wings from my Mother-in-law to cover the "protein" portion of the bento, because frankly speaking we're all sick of seaweed chicken. For this week. I threw in some sultana biscuits (fav from my childhood and now the kids' too), plus his usual fruits.

Soba and soup Bento Lunch

Today would have been a crazy day if the kids had not volunteered to make life easier for me by agreeing to take lunch bentos. This is one of their favourite meals at home - soba or udon in soup with pork shabu shabu slices and broccoli.

No cutesy wootsy, I just arranged all the food in neatly and added the toppings (sesame seeds and nori strips). Here's Takoyaki's box close up.

The little chick is holding the Japanese spice mix nanami togarashi ("seven flavour chilli pepper") for them to add into their soup or noodles, if they want to.

Kueh Lapis Aftermath Bento

I spent yesterday making Kueh Lapis Legit, and by the time all was completed I had no energy nor heart to think much about today's bentos. So the kids just got lots of Lunar New Year goodies plus fruits.

I am going to take a short rest, and then I'm going to go get another batch of eggs to make a second batch of the blessed cake.

Simple bentos to end this week

Mama's experiencing burnout from the last couple of bentos, so last night I made some simple pork jerky sandwiches, washed some fruits and dumped them all together into the boxes. Both Takoyaki and Roast Meat are pretty satisfied - they LURVE bak kwa (肉干)!

Valentine's Day comes early

Everything is heart-shaped for Takoyaki's lunch today - onigiri (made with my new rice mould which works like a dream), sausages, tamagoyaki, and strawberries.

She has since requested a flower theme for her V-Day bento. We shall see my dear, we shall see.

Attack of the Ninjas

"Take that!" said the first ninja.

"Ouch!" went the second one.

"And that, was for saying I'm fat!"
"Wah..." went the frogs.

 

Attack of the Ninjas bento

Starring:

Plain onigiris wrapped in seaweed as The Ninjas

Noritama (made in my new tamagoyaki pan) as Shurikens

Cocktail sausages as The Logs (for the Frogs)

Cherry tomatoes and grapes as Background Props

Tamagoyaki Pans Revisited

I previously shared about my Tamagoyaki Pan from Daiso which had been serving me well once I got the hang of the temperature control. Well, I'm sorry to say that after about one and a half months of shelving it (school holidays, didn't make tamagoyaki), it RUSTED. 

Because the silicone coating is unbelieveably thin, I scraped through it in a few areas, and over time, the exposed iron underneath (I certainly do not believe it's steel) rusted. So much for a $2 pan.

You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson but NO! I got another one, the same, from Daiso again... because I need a rectangular pan to make my tamagoyaki!! And I can't go back to round pans.

Thankfully, before I had the chance to let history repeat itself, I found a better one (although still not perfect, as I shall explain later) at Isetan today. And here are the two pans, side by side, for comparison.

Tamagoyaki pans of opposite quality and price

The ASD pan cost $10.90 (offer price from $29.90), which I chose over an Endo one that was $13.90. I'm cheapskate, I admit it. I've already tried it this evening, and the result is below.

Lovely Noritama made in my new pan

I certainly didn't have to fight so hard this time to get it right! My only grouse is, and it's important, that it's standard teflon-coated. However, I only make tamagoyaki for bentos about once in every two weeks, so I'm telling myself that the PFOAs are only very occasional. The only other teflon-coated cookware I have is my muffin pan, which only sees the light of day once in a blue moon.

My dream tamagoyaki pan would be ceramic-coated nonstick, but unfortunately, Japan hasn't really caught up with the nonstick ceramic technology yet (I may just be ignorant, please correct me if so). Meantime, is anyone going to Japan? Please carry back for me a copper tamagoyaki pan d:)

The tamagoyaki in the picture above has been packed into tomorrow's bentos.

Starry Starry Day

I was really exhausted last evening, so this bento took much longer to make than I'd expected. It didn't help that the tot kept coming into the kitchen to fool around with my stuff and also to hang onto my leg.

Roast Meat's box is made of two moulded star buns, each topped with a seaweed laver star (made with my new seaweed punch), and there are also corn kernels (in a Star cup), and sausage flowers.

Starry Starry Day

Takoyaki very kindly agreed to bring some fruits today. That's all.

Worried Onigiri

This was Roast Meat's lunch as he had supp classes today: A plain onigiri, seaweed chicken, leek scrambled egg, two cherry tomatoes and fruits. In the other Peanuts box I got from the toothpaste purchase.

Cabbage soup

We had this soup for dinner last night, thanks to my dear friend Yee Fun who shared her recipe on our Facebook Bento group. Takoyaki's hot lunch will be pork rib cabbage soup over rice, and fruits. I added a couple of cherry tomatoes as an afterthought.

Cabbage Tomato Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

500gm pork ribs

1 clove of garlic

1 handful silver fish or ikan bilis

1 large tomato, chopped into large chunks

half a head of cabbage, chopped into large pieces

salt to taste

Method:

Bring a big pot of water (about 3 litres) to boil. Add silver fish (place into a stock bag if desired).

Once water boils, add pork ribs, garlic, tomato and immediately turn fire to low. Set timer for 1 hour.

After 30 mins of simmering, add cabbage.

At the end of cooking, add salt to taste, stir and serve hot.

Pocket sandwich in a new Snoopy box

Cute new Snoopy box

The evils of advertising... A box like this comes free with every purchase of two boxes of Darlie toothpaste. We got two boxes d:)

It's a good size, 600ml, one which I've been wanting to get from Daiso for quite some time, for packing bigger stuff such as pocket sandwiches and toast. Love the headroom on this one, same as my Lock&Lock boxes, which means longer picks can stand upright. There's a steam vent for microwave reheating (which we won't use, of course), but there's no silicone or rubber seal, so the box is not watertight.

Roast Meat brought a Nutella-filled pocket sandwich, some seaweed chicken, cherry tomatoes and grapes to school this morning.

New tools plus Nori Puncher Review

Found some cute rice moulds, and got two nori punchers, $2 per packet. I set the punchers to use right away.

These punchers are made of plastic, with a metal spring, and are much bigger than the Daiso ones. What I like best about them is - they're dismantleable (is there such a word?). In the picture below, I've taken them apart for washing, and the various nooks and crannies are waiting to dry.

Now for the actual usage. As long as the nori is crisp, the cutters punch clean and sharp about 9 out of 10 tries. (To make soggy nori crisp again, simply toast a single layer in a toaster oven for about 2-3 min.)

It should be noted that the punchouts are about 1.5 times bigger than the Daiso ones, which is especially obvious in the face punch. But that's no problem for me.

Overall, I give these punchers 5 out of 5 stars.

Just in case Snack Bento

Mr Roast Meat will be out with his friend's family till the afternoon, but I'm not sure if they will bring him for lunch, so I packed this just in case (since I don't want to say or insist on anything to them).

Pinwheel crackers, oreos and a small clementine.

Friday of the longest week ever Bento

This week seemed more like a month, mostly because I was waiting for some results to happen, and we all know what it's like to wait for something that takes quite some time but you can't do anything to hasten it.

Takoyaki's long day again (poor girl, three times a week now she's in P6), and I hope this box will keep her in good cheer - some rather peppery chicken fingers with mayo to take the heat off, pineapple pies (another CNY goody), strawberries and longans.

Roast Meat didn't eat the beef stew yesterday, so he's having it over rice for recess. What a sad-looking picture after his sister's bright, colourful box.

Imitation Tiger thermal bento set

This bento is my cheapskate, low class version of the Tiger Thermal Bento Set (below).

Beef stew bento

I was very pleased to prepare and deliver this to Takoyaki (who had supp class) at lunchtime today, when I went to pick RM up. Thankful I didn't have to pack it early in the morning, phew!

 

Beef stew, macaroni, mango and grapes. I came up with my own recipe for this stew, because I was in a hurry and didn't want to bother with using the computer. I used fresh herbs from my container garden.

Lulu's Beef Stew (revised)

1 kg beef muscle, cut into bite-sized pieces
5 tbsps plain flour
1 large onion, finely chopped or sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 sprig fresh rosemary (or pinch of dried)
1 sprig fresh oregano (or pinch of dried)
1 sprig fresh thyme (or pinch of dried)
1 bay leaf
1 litre beef stock
2 large carrots, chopped into large chunks
1/2 cup red wine
dash pepper

Method:
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat for about 1 min. Toss beef in flour and dump into pot. Try to brown all sides of beef, about 3 min.
Add onion, garlic, herbs (including bay leaf) and continue frying for about 2 min.
Add all the rest of the ingredients, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
Lower to gentle simmer, simmer at least 2 hours, or till beef is tender and tendons have turned into "jelly". Taste and adjust seasoning.
Remove herbs and serve hot.