Mothering Corner

I fixed something simple today because my boy is starting to show some flu symptoms. Thus, I thought of giving him more fruits, and cut down on bread. So, I used the Rilakkuma cutters again to fix mini sandwiches, and packed some corn, sweet potato (for my boy) and more fresh fruits. But now, I realized that I should not have packed rambutans because it’s too “heaty”! I will probably remove the rambutans if he’s still not feeling well after school.

My boy’s bento with more fruits today.

I omitted sweet potato from my gal’s bento due to her smaller appetite.

Tools for today’s bento

 BTW, my friend Arlene said Carl’s replaced some punchers, and if you are looking for one, please go to your nearest bookstores. She’s so sweet to get another puncher for my collection. It’s the one with -_- expression, and I’ve been waiting for it for so long. Thanks for sending it all over from Malaysia to me, Arlene!!!

My boy has been asking me to fix him Ultraman Max (I don’t know why my boy calls Ultraman as Ultraman Max :P) for some time, but I really dread the idea of fixing a comic charaben, especially if you want to make it looks real, the preparation takes a lot of time. Thus, I decided to simplify Ultraman by using quail eggs as his head and body,  kamaboko as his arms, and I added cheese and nori on his mask.

Ultraman bentos, with garlic toast (I used hotdog buns), apples, grapes and oranges.

I have no idea if the arms are placed on the right, or on the left? My boy showed me his DVDs but none is showing Ultraman’s signature pose!

My boy likes garlic bread a lot and he wanted a BIG piece of garlic bread in the bentos. So, I could not squeeze in more oranges for them, and had to use 2 smaller bento boxes.

Oranges in smaller bento boxes of Pankunchi and My Melody and Piano. I got them from Sanrio.

Even if my boy is very happy with today’s theme, he asked me why didn’t I make it more real. O.o Now you know why I haven’t fulfilled his dream of having a full-bodied Power Ranger bento. It’s just too taxing for me in the morning! :P

Sigh…I think fixing a cute bentos is easier than fixing a superhero character. LOL!

My kids wanted me to pack the chocolate bread for them again, but this time, my boy picked the Mickey cutter and hoped that I could fix Mickey Mouse for him again. Nonetheless, I told him that he already had a few Mickey bentos, so let’s try something different with the same cutter.

Tools for today’s bento (please click on the photo for bigger view at Flickr).

Today’s bentos are pretty simple, and they can be easily done.

My boy’s bento with a boy dressed in Mickey hood, and some custard apple, cherries and blueberries.

My gal’s bento has a little girl in Minnie hood. My gal does not like cherry anymore, so I packed her a strawberry.

The ribbon was cut from kamaboko, with a heart and a round cutter respectively. Just join the 2 hearts together and top them with a circle. You may add some tiny circles on kamaboko, just like Minnie’s polka ribbon.

 Some of you could not load my blog this morning, but the problem was fixed by my webhost and everything is back to normal now. I was suffering from blog-withdrawal syndrome just now when I couldn’t load any of my blogs! LOL! But then, I managed to kill some time Facebook-ing, reading some weight loss pill reviews, and chatting on MSN.

I’m glad that all my blogs are up again, and I can update some of them soon. Stay tune for today’s bento ya?

I know that I’ve done some panda bentos previously (as in here, here and here), but panda is always a nice theme in bento-ing, especially if you have those cute panda picks!

I bought a loaf of chocolate and milk bread for today’s bento, and the bread is so yummy, you can just eat it on its own.

I bought it from Oishi, but the label stated In & Out Bakery Cafe.

Here’s what I did last night. I used one of the Rilakkuma cutters to cut the bread, and …

I used the same cutter to cut the cheese.

I cut 2 ovals from the cheese for panda’s eyes. I set the oval cheese aside for later use.

Now, carefully cut off the ears from the cheese with a bigger round cutter.

Try not to press the cutter down in whole in order not to break the cheese. Try to press it down on each ear separately or you can also cut off the ears with a knife.

Then, cut some circles from the oval cheese (from the previous step). The circles would be used for panda’s eyes.

I stored the bread away and refrigerated the cheese for today’s bento. What I did this morning was preparing the fruits, and continued with decorating the pandas.

I placed the cheese on the bread.

Then I added the eyes, and the noses were last a minute decision.

Punch a few circles with this shoe puncher, or you can use a normal paper puncher.

Add the nori eyes on the round cheese. Of course, I added some smiles to the pandas too.

 Since today’s theme is panda family, we can’t leave out a baby panda, can we?

So, I prepared a quail egg and 2 blueberries. Pin the blueberries with spaghetti strips to the egg to form the ears.

Then, add some nori on the quail egg as baby’s eyes, nose and mouth.

After that, I packed the fruits in the bentos, and here they are:

My gal’s bento with the panda family, some blueberries, kiwi, guava and a strawberry.

And this is my boy’s bento.

BTW, if you have plan to visit Thailand one day, don’t miss the baby panda born at Chiangmai Zoo ya? My kids only saw the giant panda parents, Lin Hui and Chuang Chuang, last year. So I hope that we can make a trip to Chiangmai again to catch a glimpse of the baby panda!

At first, I thought of packing Spam sandwiches for my kids, but the less-salty-less-fat version of Spam is a bit costly, so I bought a can of luncheon meat from Tulip as an alternative. However, I had a hard time opening the can and got to ask my hubby for help. He too had a hard time opening it, and after a lot of “struggles” with the can opener (we broke the key of the can :P), he managed to “dig” out the pieces of luncheon meat, which were all smashed and ugly. LOL! I could not cut them into thinner slices, but had to fry the luncheon meat with eggs for breakfast and pack some for my boy. My gal is very picky with eggs, and so far, she eats hard boiled quail eggs, and rejects the rest. Thus, I packed strawberry jam sandwiches for her as usual.

You may click on the photo for bigger view at Flickr.

Today’s bento, with sandwiches and grapes. I added some striped cheese into their bentos since my kids love it so much.

My boy’s bento with a teddy bear holding a balloon (which is a grape).

My gal will have a bunny instead.

Today’s bento is pretty simple huh?

My kids like to “check” their bentos every morning.

Most importantly, I hope that they swipe them all clean after school. LOL! But one lesson learned, I better just stick to Spam because the can is easier to be opened!

Occasionally, I pack lunch bento for hubby on Saturdays since he has to go back to the office for a few hours. On other working days, both of us prefer to eat out, or just “ta pao” our lunch, and I don’t have much time for “serious” cooking in the morning. If I would to pack adult bento everyday, I can totally forget about decorating my kids’ bentos, unless I am willing to sacrifise my beauty sleep. LOL!

Some of hubby’s lunch bentos, which I managed to snap photos before he rushed out to work! LOL!

That’s why I really admire some Japanese bento-ers who pack charaben bentos and papa bentos everyday. Some of them pack for 2 or more children, and another adult bento for their husbands. It’s amazing to see how determined and dedicated they are in packing home cooked meals for their love ones. I joked to hubby once that if we can pack our lunch everyday, we might save up a lot in eating out, and he might be able to get me some nice presents or bring me holiday on European cruises in the near future. LOL! But both of us enjoy going out for lunch, so I will only pack for him when he asks for one.

Thus, thumb’s up to all the bento-ers who pack kids bento and papa bento everyday! You guys are amazing.

Oops, it’s Sugarbunnies again! LOL! I just have to use the Sugarbunnies rice molds, which I bought recently at Sanrio. Besides that, I think Sanrio is promoting Sugarbunnies here as there are a lot of new items with the 2 cute bunnies, and even Sanrio shopping bags are printed with Sugarbunnies, instead of Hello Kitty.

So, I used the rice mold as a bread cutter again, and trust me, you can easily cut the bread with it! I cut the bunnies from white bread and milk bread, since I planned to pack both types of bread for my kids.

Tools for today’s bento (please click on the pic for bigger view at Flickr)

Their noses and ears were cut from cheese and ham last night and stored away. If you ever wonder what will I normally do with the leftovers…

I let my kids “play” with the cheese and ham. My boy likes to cut the shapes and keep some away for his bento.

As for my gal, she prefers to slip all in her mouth. LOL!

There’s hardly any food wastage as most of the leftovers were eaten. As for the leftover of fresh fruits (after I cut them in shapes for my kids), I will pack them in another bento box for hubby and I at the office. The shapes might not look good, but we don’t mind about it.

Hence, here are today’s bentos:

My boy’s Shirousa sandwich bento with kiwi, watermelon,grapes and cherries. The milk bread sandwich was stacked behind the white bread.

And my gal’s Kurousa sandwich bento, with the white bread stacked behind as well.

I decorated the sugarbunnies with some flowers (my boy helped to cut some), just like what I saw on Sanrio’s shopping bag. They look lovely with the flowers huh?

It’s Friday, so have a nice weekend ahead!

I found this stripe cheese idea when I was blog hopping the other day. Thus, I got myself busy last night by preparing the stripe cheese. It’s pretty simple, and it won’t take much of your time.

I cut the cheese in halves.

Then, I started stacking 2 different color of cheese alternately.

Here’s the cheese layers, when it’s almost done…Leave them in room temperature for a few minutes so that the cheese will stick on together.

Then I started slicing them into thinner pieces vertically.

I wrapped the slices of cheese with cling wrap.

Here’s the stripe cheese slices which I refrigerated away in air tight container.

You can try stacking cheese and ham too! The yellow and pink stripes should be very nice for bento.

So, there are today’s bentos:

There are stripe cheese, sweet potatoes (wrapped with nori and ham), rose apples, corns and rambutans.

Here’s a closer shot of the stripe cheese.

My kids love the cheese effect, and they ate the leftover pieces as soon as I had done decorating their bentos!

I hardly pack rice for my kids as most of the bentos are meant for after school tea. Thus, most of my rice molds are kept in the box, and I hardly use them. But today, I decided to use one of the rice molds as a bread cutter, and I picked the triangular onigiri mold, which I bought from Daiso.

Tools for today’s speedy bento

It’s quite easy to cut the bread with the mold as the edges are rather sharp. After some simple decoration, here’s how the bentos looked like:

My boy’s onigiri sandwich bento, with mini cheese wieners and lots of cherries.

And my gal’s onigiri sandwiches, decorated as a chick. She will have papaya and kiwi, instead of cherry.

Coincidentally, I found a cute chick bento by R’s mama this morning. Do check it out!