Mothering Corner

My boy went for a school trip to butterfly farm and train museum yesterday, and he was very happy to see the butterflies. Seeing how happy he was talking about his trip gave me an idea on how to fix today’s bento with butterflies and bees flying in the garden. I wanted to come out with my own idea, so I didn’t do it the same way as I did for Bento#112. You can go to the link and check out R mama’s blog as reference.

Here’s how I prepared the bentos:

I prepared the butterfly wings with this cutter and cheese in different tones. I added pink kamaboko onto the wings to make them more attractive.

For my boy, I fixed the body with 2 quail eggs but for my gal, I cut the shapes from kamaboko. Later on, I cut out a bigger head for her butterfly because she wanted big big eyes!

The bee’s body was cut from a sausage and joined with spaghetti strip. I added nori and a heart pick to form the wings.

Here’s the end result…

My boy’s bento with sweet potatoes, mangoes, rose apples and a strawberry.

Here’s my gal’s butterfly with big big eyes. LOL! I used a divider to separate the fruits from her sandwich to avoid it from getting wet. For my toodler’s convenient, I packed a flag pick for her so that she can easily pick up the fruits.

If I still have the green lunch sheets, I might add in some leaves. But then, the garden is flowery enough huh?

I still can’t figure out how to avoid the patty from collapsing when frying it, so I bought the ready made hamburger patties for today’s bento. I smashed the patty and molded it into shapes with a kitty rice mold and froze them for a night.

When I fried them after defreezing, the mini patties didn’t collapse, but they run out of shape when the patties were cooked. Why huh?

Anyway, I forgot to simmer the mini patties with ketchup this time, so I packed some for my kids. I hope my kids can take the ready made patties which were marinated with more pepper. I’m worried that they would think it too spicy!

My boy’s bento with mini patties decorated as a kitten and a pig. I slipped in some ketchup which was stored in Winnie The Pooh mini container. There are corns, a piece blanched broccoli and a dwarf apple for him too.

My gal’s bento has smaller patties, which I cut a single piece into halves for her. She wanted a girl in her bento, so I decorated a little girl wearing a teddy suit, or something like that la. LOL!

If you are interested to know how to make your own hamburger, check out Anna’s blog. I think the ready made patty has too much pepper for my kids who can’t take “spicy” food.

On top of that, my boy is going for a field trip today, and I packed him a simple bento. He cut that little elephant by himself, and I helped him to decorate it because he had a hard time with the tweezers.

My boy’s simple bento for his field trip.

I hope that my kids will like the idea of fixing their own lunch boxes. Then, it will be another bonding activity for us!

I have a very busy morning today. Like most working mothers, I have to rush around in the house to get things ready and get everyone out of the house on time. But today, we had to leave home at least 45 minutes earlier because we had to make a trip to the immigration office again. So, I simplified today’s bentos, but still tried to make them cute.

First of all, I would like to share with you how I manage to save some time by getting the cutie details prepared at night, after putting my kids to sleep. As you know, making cute charaben with cheese, kamaboko, ham, carrots and etc will leave you a few leftovers. Some of them were eaten after packing, but I will put a few bits away in the fridge or freezer. Those tiny pieces will be cut into clouds, flowers or stars, depending on my type of cutters and how much I can get from the leftovers. The only thing you have to worry about is food contamination, and also how long will the cutie details stay fresh. I pack 2 bentos for my kids each time, so I use them up rather fast.

The cutie details in food wrapper which are refrigerated in air tight container.

Since I don’t have much time this morning, I just prepared rashberry jam sandwiches for my kids. I like to play with cutters, but there is always some leftover bread, which I eat them with my coffee. However, I didn’t have time for breakfast today, so I decided to cut the bread in halves and quarters. That really saved me a lot of time.

I slipped in an extra piece of sandwich for my boy, who has a bigger appetite. The smaller pieces were placed on top of it.

Then, I proceeded to packing the fruits and added in some details. Here’s the end result:

My gal’s bento with simplified My Melody and Hello Kitty. There are kiwi and rose apple cut in heart shape, a strawberry, and some grapes too. My gal starts to take steamed carrots, so I packed some flower carrots for her.

This is my boy’s Tomica bento. I’m not sure what will he say about Hello Kitty, as so far, I know that he likes My Melody. He might think that it’s too girlie. LOL! But I was really running out of time this morning. Nonetheless, I packed mangosteens for him, and he loves them.

I think My Melody will look better if I placed a piece of cheese in oval and lighter tone as its face, but I’ve forgotten to do so today. Anyway, I like today’s speedy bento.

 My kids wake up very early these days, including the weekends. With the windows opened and curtains pulled up, the morning sun rays come as early as 6.15am, so they can’t sleep as late as they used to be. Not only that my schedule and routine are disturbed, but all of us can’t get more rest during the weekends too, and it’s so tiring!

Sometimes, I feel like going for an all inclusive vacation, just by myself and give myself a very nice break. But then again, that will never happen for the next 14 years to come. I think I will only have my “freedom” after my kids go to college. LOL!

I try to avoid walking pass the pet shops with my kids. If my kids see any pet shop, they will bug us to go in and check out the puppies. My boy has been asking us to get one, as if getting a puppy is like buying a toy for him. The only pets they had were turtles, which died after a few months. The first one was injured when it tried to escape, but the second one…We had no idea why it died. So, I don’t think my kids are ready for a dog. If we get a puppy now, it will be ME taking care of the it, instead of my 4 and 2 year old!

But when I told them that I would decorate their bentos with a little puppy, they were thrilled about it. When I was looking at my toolbox yesterday, I found that little man cutter, along with this doggy cutter. I’m clueless where and when I got them, but they are cute!

My boy’s bento with a piece of butter sliced bread, some oranges, black grapes, blueberries, kiwi (hidden), green mango, mini wiener and a dwarf apple. He likes the idea of him walking the puppy, even if it’s not real and only appeared in his lunch box.

Here’s my gal’s lunch box. I really like this Winnie the Pooh lunch box which fits her smaller appetite. But my gal complained that she doesn’t like the puppy because it doesn’t have fur. O.o

Today’s bento is speedy and perfect for a busy Monday morning. It didn’t take me long to get them prepared. At the same time, I used up the last bits of lunch sheets in my freezer, so I can’t play with lunch sheets anymore, unless CP orders a new batch! LOL!

It’s Sunday, and I thought I might as well catch an hour more sleep today, and woke up together with my kids. So, when I was packing their bentos for our outing, I couldn’t get what I have in mind as they practically snacked on my ham, corn, fruits and anything that they could get! At first, I thought since it’s Sunday, I might as well try something which I haven’t done before. I thought of fixing a little girl and boy in full body, but most of the “body parts” were eaten before I could even start playing with my cutters. On top of that, I realized that it cannot be easily done with cutters and it took me a few minutes staring at my toolbox, but I couldn’t figure out where to start. I thought of dressing the girl in a dress, with some details and etc. Sigh….

So, maybe it can be easier done with the method most Japanese mothers do, trace the shape and cut it out with toothpick on cheese or ham and also cut it out from nori.

Anyway, I decided to post my not-so-successful bentos today, as my own record.

My gal keeps asking for lollipop, but I said no because she has started coughing. So, I gave her a “fake” lollipop in ham roll sandwich.

My boy’s bento. You can easily see what I packed huh?

This is a cookie cutter I found in my toolbox. Dunno when I bought this, but it’s time to give this little man a chance to see the daylight. LOL!

I better get going, we are going out for prayers. And maybe later to the shopping mall to check out some iphone accessories. So, bye!

Have a nice Sunday.

I thought I won’t be packing bentos, but I was wrong. My kids wanted their lunch in lunch boxes, so I might as well make them more appealing.

It’s fried noodles with pea sprouts and minced pork, a piece of roast pig rib, blanched broccoli, and some fish balls. I used carrot, cheese, mini wiener, kamaboko, sweet potato and edamame as decoration.

After packing for them, I felt like packing one for hubby too. I saw Jacss packing for her hub, and my friends told me that they would do bentos too via MSN, so let’s join in the fun loh. LOL! Here’s hubby’s bento…

A bento for my Valentine (BTW, what’s the pick in Japanese says? )

I’m not sure what will he think about this bento, but I try not to make it too cute. I don’t think him can take cutie stuffs as much as our kids do!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

If you dropped by this blog yesterday, maybe you bumped into the blog in total mess during its “reconstruction period”. I asked Sasha to design a new header for me, and the first design didn’t fit my blog. I thought of changing the template, and I chose a few designs which are meant for discount furniture website, pet blog, cooking blog and etc, but my posts were totally messed up in alignment, and I couldn’t find the codes to fix them.

In the end, I had to mah fan Sasha to redesign the header, and used it on the old template. I think it fits well to my blog, considering that its niche had changed from breastfeeding blog to bento blog. I hope that you’ll like it. And if you are interested to get a new header design, go to Sasha’s blog and ask her more info about it. This is the 3rd header she designed for me, and I love them all!

Thanks Sasha!

 All the while, I don’t really have special plans for Valentine’s Day. Before we have kids, hubby and I would go our for dinner on Valentine’s but most of the time, it would be uneventful because I complained too much about the slow service and lousy food. Thus, we could not be bothered to make plans anymore, but just give each other a simple gift.

Maybe I haven’t gone to those New York Restaurants or any fancy restaurants that were given good credits for their food and services, so I haven’t had a pleasant Valentine’s dinner. Anyway, it’s impossible for hubby and I to go out alone, unless we have babysitters to watch our kids!

Ellena asked me if I have a flickr badge for my bento collection, so I set one up for her. I should have done this earlier, but my flickr is very messy without tags and tonnes of photos. I uploaded some bentos in Facebook too, so it should be easier for you to check them out now. Nonetheless, I still need some time to work on this as I only managed to upload a few bentos yesterday, and I will try to update the badge and Facebook album whenever possible.

Back to today’s bento…I saw this cute bunny girl (a girl in bunny suit) from the chocolate stall where I got the Valentine’s Day chocolates and candies from. So, I thought I might just decorate the bentos with the bunny girl. Here’s how I did it…

I prepared 2 bunny cutters. This is the first time I used the green cutter because I don’t like it…Why?

That’s why. This cutter will cut into the whole piece of ham or bread, so I don’t feel like using it. But then again, the flowers can be used for decoration. To make things easier for me, I prepared the same bunny for both bentos.

I used this bunny cutter (which is also a furikake divider) to cut out an oval shape. You can just use any oval cutter, but I don’t have any.

This yellow cutter comes in the same set as the green cutter. I used the Christmas tree part to cut out a zig-zag line on the cheese.

Then, I placed the eyes in.

BTW, I’ve always wanted to make a heart shape with wieners, but I can’t find any in red so far. So, I had to settle with smoked chicken wieners, which is slightly brownish.

I wanted the heart to lie flat, so I cut the COOKED wiener in half. Then cut them into quarters, in slanting line. Joint them together and you will get a heart. You can use a spaghetti strip to joint them up, if you wish.

Ok, then I started packing everything into lunch boxes. Not to mention, mingling with breakfast and kids at the same time too. But my hubby is very helpful most of the time, he helps to set the table, make their milk and fill the kids tumblers for school.

I packed corns, sweet potato (for my boy), cherries, rose apples, strawberries and oranges for them.

Here’s the bentos with decoration:

My gal’s bento. Totally pink…

My boy’s bento with carrots added. For obvious reason, I didn’t pack carrot for my gal.

I just like to see how my kids smiling happily every morning when they see their bentos.

My little gal at breakfast…Oh ya, she didn’t finish that big portion of macaroni la, if you are wondering. LOL!

That’s my inspiration and motivation in bento-ing.