Mothering Corner

Hubby wanted rice and dishes for breakfast, so I thought might as well serve my kids’ breakfast in lunch boxes. However, hubby decided to “drag” the kids along to the office so that they won’t watch so much TV, thus their bentos came along to our office as their lunch. The kids took bread for breakfast instead. But the thing is, I didn’t pack the food in thermal containers, and it will be cold by noon. Hopefully, my kids won’t mind taking cold lunch…

My boy wanted a baby seal because he saw one from Mari miyazawa’s bento book. This book shows how to fix bento with dividers, so I think it’s a good reference for beginners who pack rice. Too bad I don’t have a lot of dividers, so I had to form the baby seal rice ball by hand.

My boy’s bento with baby seal rice, a piece of fried chicken, salmon, wiener, some stir-fried spinach and blueberries.

My gal wanted a little lamb but since my rice is not white, the lamb looked rather weird. LOL! Besides that, I noticed that I placed the eyes in different sizes for the lamb, only after the photo is uploaded.

My gal’s little lamb bento. I should try to fix her another lamb again as this one doesn’t turn out nice.

It’s almost noon. So, my kids better start eating their bentos now!

We don’t have holidays here for Chinese New Year, but my kids shipped 2 days of school to be with their cousins who came here for CNY. All of them went back yesterday, and we started working and schooling on the 3rd day of CNY! So, I’m back to preparing bentos again after a short break.

I got Marie The Cat cutters from NST, and my gal has been asking for Marie The Cat for quite some time. I saw how cute the baby Marie is at the local bakery, and I decided to so something as simple as that, instead of the real Marie.

S&P Bakery is promoting Disney baby cakes, and baby Marie is one of the characters.

So, this is how I simplified Marie The Cat.

I used Marie The Cat cutter for its head. I didn’t use the part with imprints as I was not intend to follow the facial features exactly.

Marie’s body was cut with My Melody cutter and I cut of the excess part with the same cutter as well. You can just do this with a knife.

Here’s how Marie looks like, in the making process. I stacked up the strawberry jam sandwiches, which were cut in Marie’s shape. To prevent the bread from moving, I used lettuce to fill in the gap.

I cut 2 arms for Marie with this cutter.

Then, it’s all about putting in the details. For Marie’s eyes, cut out a piece of rounded cheese first, then I used this sparkling eye puncher to punch out some nori. I stacked up 2 pieces of nori by overlapping them together on a single eye, and then placed a tiny piece of cheese on the same eye again.

As for my boy, I did Winnie the Pooh for him again. He wanted Power Ranger, but not today ya boy? Maybe next time…

I used these cutters which I bought from NST.

So, here’s the end result…

I packed them a roasted buffalo wing each, so I won’t refrigerate their bentos at my office, like I usually do. Their fruits were packed in other lunch boxes, and I only used some grapes to fill in the gap.

Here’s a close up of their bentos:

My gal’s baby Marie The Cat, without the whiskers. LOL! As you can see, Marie is holding a piece of buffalo wing.

My boy’s bento with Winnie the Pooh, sniffing on that piece of buffalo wing. My boy likes Eeyore lately, and he is happy to see this baran.

I guess most of you are still celebrating Chinese New Year, so Gong Xi Fa Cai and enjoy your holiday! But don’t overeat until you need the diet pill that works ya?

I got more bento gadgets last week! LOL! I better stop buying so much as I’m running out of space of storing them. But then, it’s like an addiction, I just feel like collecting them first, and “worry” about how to utilize them later.

I got some cutters from NST last week, but I didn’t snap a photo of them because I was very busy last week. But I managed to do so for the batch from CP, which was brought over to Bangkok by my MIL. *thanks Arlene!*

More bento tools. CP gave me the quail egg molds! Thanks!!!

My boy was delighted to see his Shinkansen lunch box, and he wanted me to use it immediately. But too bad, we were at the beach when the photo was snapped, so I asked him to make good use of the Subway franchise outlets or those restaurants in Pattaya instead of eating bentos. LOL!

At the same time, Arlene also helped me to get some bento books, and so did CP who managed to “grab” a copy of Hello Kitty bento book for me.

I haven’t looked through every page of the books, but it’s really nice to have them added in my collection. As I said, it’s an addiction.

I thought I will be having a short bento break but then, my boy said “I need my bento to the beach!” Aiyo, this little fella is very addicted to his bentos! Both my kids love the pandas they saw in Chiangmai, so today’s theme is Panda Bento.

I think a lot of Japanese mothers have done pandas with rice, and if you look around for those popular Japanese bento blogs, you can easily find a few variations. But for me, I prefer bread as I pack the food in the morning, and my kids only eat it by 5pm. So, bread is a better choice. Besides that, my kids will have their bento meals in the car on our journey to the airport and the beach, thus bread is definitely more convenient.

Here’s how I did the panda bears.

 Gently flatten the white bread with a wooden roller. I found that bread is easier to be rolled up if it’s compact and flat. If your bread tends to tear up when you roll it, you may try this trick.

Spread a layer of jam of your choice. You can use ham or cheese too.

Roll the bread into cylinder form and gently flatten it with your hand. If you are using the bread roll for lollipop (some of you may have seen it at my blog), you don’t have to flatter it.

Cover the bread rolls with food wrapper to hold the shape for awhile. You can also refrigerate them for the next day, and I’ve tried it, the bread is still fresh.

Cut a few strips of nori.

I cut the bread rolls into halves and wrapped the bottom part with nori. Previously, I tend to use butter, but this time, I used the strawberry jam to stick the nori onto the bread. I think my kids will love the sweet jam than butter!

I used the smiley punchers for panda’s ears and eyes. I finally found a way of using these smiley punchers nicely, this time, I got the right brand of nori!!! It’s thicker than those I’ve tried.

After that, it’s all about packing the chicken sausages and tangerines. My boy has some sweet potato because he likes it. So here’s the result…

My gal’s bento. I slipped in a grape to fill in the gap.

Oh ya, I decorated one of the bread roll into Hello Kitty as if she’s wearing a panda hat. My gal beamed happily when she saw the Hello Kitty.

My boy’s bento with pandas in different facial expressions.

A close up of his panda bears. He loves the pandas too and he promised that he will finish every bit of it. LOL!

I should have decorated the bentos with picks and barans, but then, we are going to the beach for days and I don’t want to lose anymore picks and barans!!! So, the lunch boxes looked like under decorated.

Anyway, I hope you like today’s bento, which is also my 100th bento! Yippie!

Another one to go and it’s my first 100th bento! It’s exciting, but I’m not sure what should I do with my 100th bento. Maybe I won’t be packing one tomorrow too as I’ve been so busy this week, I need to catch up with my beauty sleep.

Chinese New Year is just a few days away and I’m not well prepared yet. I haven’t stocked up those drinks and cookies for my guests, haven’t washed the curtains, haven’t checked out Sferra linen for the beds and argh!!! There are so much to do!!! Did I mention that I haven’t started spring cleaning and we are leaving to the beach this Saturday once we pick up our guests from the airport? I’m rather panic on how to get things done, as some of them will be staying over at my place, and I haven’t cleaned up the whole place yet…

Anyway, I managed to fix bentos for my kids this morning as I woke up early. Since they won’t be having bread, which is pretty easy to prepare, I had to spend some time in the kitchen preparing the chicken rolls and steaming the sweet potatoes. At the same time, my boy found the airplane cutter in my toolbox and asked me to fix one for him. So, here’s how I did it:

I prepared 2 pieces of cheeses.

Use the airplane cutter to cut out the shape. Try not to do it in the middle of the cheese so that you will have bigger leftover of cheese for next use ( I managed to cut a teddy bear out from the leftover). The cheese got stuck with this cutter, so you might need to use a round pointed pin to gently push it out. I found that toothpick tear my cheese, so I prefer to use this pin.

Turn the cutter over and use it to cut out the fine details. I used the top layer of crab meat, kamaboko and high calcium cheese for the details, and you can use other alternatives. Just gently press them down so that you will get the shapes. You can do this free hand with a knife too, but I tend to use the cutters.

So, here’s the end result:

My boy’s Tomica bento with chicken rolls (topped with an airplane), some sweet potatoes (cut with a flower cutter), a sapodilla, some mangosteens, and a teddy bear peeping out from the kiwis. He likes the teddy bear peeping out in his previous bento, and he requested me to do this again.

My gal has almost the same food but I replaced the mangosteen with strawberries. She refused to try it that day and gave all to her brother. As for sweet potatoes, it’s my second attempt. She refused it the other day, even without trying out the taste! I will coax her into taking a small bite again later…

By all means, I don’t have to worry about my gal not taking her meal as her brother will most likely finish everything for her.  LOL! My boy is not as picky as he used to be anymore, and he always finishes his bento, including the lettuce! I hope to see my gal eating like her brother one day, but for the time being, she’s still very picky. The only thing she eats more than her brother is junk food!!! Other than that, her brother “wins”.

Just in case I don’t update my blog tomorrow….

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

 I’m glad that we are celebrating CNY here with hubby’s family, even if my house is not sparkling clean for our guests yet. But then again, I try not to stress myself too much as I can’t do all the chores on my own, especially after a long day at the office. I was too tired to clean the windows last night, and I decided to give it a go. Hopefully, my guests won’t be too itchy hand to touch my windows! LOL!

On top of that, we haven’t seen each other for some time, and there is a lot of catching up to do. I think they won’t be bothered much about my house condition. We always joke about who’s getting the 3rd child, as most of us have only 2 children. Actually, I really don’t have plan to get another baby as education fee is very expensive here at international schools. It’s like buying a new Honda car with cash every year, just by sending my two kids to international school! Thus, I doubt that we can afford to send 3 children to the same school! Unless hubby is a millionaire now, if not, I can forget about getting pregnant again!

But if any of my sisters-in-law is interested to get another baby, I will let them know about this ovulation calendar. They are all above age 35, so if they really want to try for a baby, they better act fast and be accurate!

But tonight, I shall do my best to clean up the playroom and wash some bedsheets with a Comfort Pure fabric conditioner. Other than that, I don’t think I can do as much as I want to because Chinese New Year is only a few days away.

I had a night out with a friend from Finland last night who took transit at Bangkok airport, before leaving to Finland. Thus, all of us slept late, and I woke up later than usual. I thought of doing the ox as shown by Aichigo, but I was totally late! So, I did strawberry sandwiches again. I saw how cute and easy Kaerenmama did with her heart cutters in different sizes, and since I have the set in star shape by Daiso, I decided to give it a try. I hardly use this set, so I better make good use of it!

For the ox, I used an quail egg, just like I did for my new year bento. But this time, I cut an oval shape on the bread and slipped in the egg so that it’s embedded on the surface. I added the ears from egg white too, unlike my first ones which didn’t have ears.

My boy’s bento with an ox, strawberry jam sandwiches, another quail egg and some blueberries. I have to use the lettuce to fill in the gap.

A close up of the ox.

I only gave my gal a quail egg because I’m not sure if she will eat it, but I just feel like trying again. She has strawberries in her bento.

This is another speedy bento today. I think it’s time I pack something else for my kids tomorrow, instead of bread. They might get bored with it already! LOL!

This is not my first Piano bento, but I didn’t snap photos of how I did it step by step previously. If you are not familiar with Piano, here’s her profile:

Real Name: Piano
Birthday: July 6th
Home: Maryland
Charm Point: Her fluffy, baby pink wool.
Favorite Food: Meringue cookies
Favorite Thing: Chatting with Melody while picking flowers in a field.

So, here’s the bento tutorial for My Melody’s furry friend, Piano. I used the cutter which comes together with My Melody cookie cutter.

Cut the shape of Piano from a piece of ham.

I used this flower cutter (from the wheel cutter) to form the ears.

Just cut off the excess ham so that you get the shape of Piano’s ears. I just agak-agak, and don’t worry about not getting the exact size and shape.

Cut out a piece of cheese for Piano’s face. It’s not a full circle, so cut off the excess part with the flower cutter so that you will have a wavy line.

Then, stack the pieces onto the ham and add some nori for eyes and lips, and you will get that cute fluffy lamb, Piano.

Before I packed the bentos, I did a flower ham for my boy. He’s a bigger eater comparing to his sister, so the tiny piece of Piano shaped strawberry jam sandwiches might not be enough for him. At the same time, Ai Keat is interested to know how to cut the flower ham, and here’s the instruction.

Lightly fold the ham into half and cut off the edges.

Again, lightly fold the ham and cut the center part into tiny strips.

Then, roll the ham over and secure it when a thin strap of spaghetti.

After that, I started packing everything into lunch boxes. Here’s the end results:

My gal’s bento has strawberry jam sandwiches topped with Piano, some mangosteen (make sure you pick only the seedless ones for toddlers), some blueberries and 2 strawberries.

My boy has almost the same bento meal, but I replaced the strawberries with berry tomatoes. He doesn’t eat strawberries! At the same time, I slipped in a teddy bear in the flower ham. He’s not taking a lot of milk since he’s weaned off his bottle, so I feel like packing more cheese for him.

A close up of the teddy bear. You can slip in any character in the flower ham.

I really like the teddy bear peeping up from the ham. I should do this again next time.

Four more bentos to go and I will hit Bento#100! I have never thought that I would go this far. One of the readers mentioned that my early bentos are different from the recent ones and I can’t agree more. I really think that my bentos have “improved”, in terms of “look”. LOL!

Nonetheless, I can’t do time consuming cutie details everyday, but I will try my best. Hubby and I had to go to Embassy Of Malaysia Sathorn to certify some documents, so I didn’t have much time in preparing today’s bentos. This is something I did in a rush…

I prepared some strawberry jam sandwiches for my kids, but cut them into Teddy Bear and Bunny with the cutters.

If you are worried about wastage, always align the cutters first to get the most out of the same piece of bread.

It’s pretty simple, so I added in some cutie details onto the sandwiches to make them more “appealing”.

My gal’s bento with strawberry jam sandwich, some rose apple (yes, it’s water apple in Malaysia), kiwi and blueberries.

My boy’s Teddy Bear is holding a balloon (quail egg).

Today’s bento is very simple and speedy huh?

I’m glad that my workload is always that heavy. Sometimes, I have a lot of free time to get out from the office and do my own shopping. LOL! It’s like a habit to me to do a little shopping everyday, even if it involves grocery shopping mostly. But this week, I think I will try my best to stay in the office and finish my work as much as possible. I will have some guests next week, and we will be busy entertaining them. I don’t think I can do much for the whole week.

So, I better check out this Archiving Email Software now and see if it’s useful to us. A lot of our customers reach us by emails because my salesman put up our website on a lot of engineering forums. Thus, checking our mailboxes is very important to us to keep track of inquiry and product demands. We need to archive the emails too, especially those which ask for further information and we will try our best to follow up closely.

There is a free trial from Sherpa Software, so I might ask hubby to try it out. He has more emails than me, who is more about administration. Most customers will contact him directly since his email is listed on our website.