Mothering Corner

My kids have been spending their summer holiday for almost a month, but start from today, they have a new schedule. Hubby and I don’t want them to spend too much time in front of the idiot box, so we enrolled them to holiday art class. They will go almost every weekday morning until their summer camp starts after Songkran. Songkran is a major festival for Thai people, and it’s like a water splashing event where people splash water on you as a sign of blessing.

Anyway, back to their schedule, it seems like I’m going to be very busy driving them to classes, and also waiting there until their lesson is over. Besides that, I will have to decide if I should bring them back to office until hubby and I leave work, during this period of time. If my kids agree to it, I might have to pack lunch for them once a while. Today is the first day, and we ate out. Frankly, my kids just ate “char siew pao”, and that’s all. If we are going to eat out often, I can foresee that they will not be eating well for lunch. They are quite picky eating in Thailand, maybe it’s due to the food selection.

Furthermore, my housekeeper stopped working for us start from tomorrow, and hubby and I will have to do all the chores on our own. I’m still fit to do the chores, but I can’t bend too much on my tummy. I’m not having anything serious like Mesothelioma cancer, it’s just a small procedure.

But seriously, I really don’t know how other working mothers manage everything on their own. I can see myself getting totally exhausted with the chores, and if I would to prepare bentos for my kids in the morning, I will have to keep it simple! That reminds me about my early bentos, which I have never blogged about. It’s all like rice, with 2 other dishes and a soup. Then, I used the 3-tier thermal container to bring their lunch to the office. For our first 2 months here, our kids followed us “to work” and they spent the whole day with us. At that time, we had not set up a kids room for them, and they had to sleep and play on the floor by our tables in a very small office room shared by 3 other office staffs! Poor kids…

I talked to my boy about the possibility of them taking nap and spending time at office again, but it seems like he’s quite reluctant about this. I can totally understand his feelings as he wants to be at home, which is more comfortable. My gal will just follow her brother because she’s still too young to decide on this. So, I might have to drive them back home after class, spend a few hours working from home and go pick up hubby from our office again in the evening. No doubt, I need to drag my kids along and I hope that the traffic during that hour is BEARABLE. If you stayed in Bangkok before, you should know what I mean!

No matter what, we still see how things go this few days and see how we can cope.

So, will there be any bento this week? I hope so to. I will try my best to fix a dinner bento with the kids tomorrow. I can’t think of anything to do yet, and my kids haven’t come out with any bento request. I guess everyone is very blur and tired with the new routine. Sigh….so busy.

My kids love pandas, especially the 2 giant pandas they saw at Chiangmai Zoo. Thus, we wanted to fix pandas again, but by using rice. If you are new to this blog, you might want to check out Bento#100 which featured pandas too.

At first, I suggested that we fixed Kungfu Panda or Terapanda, but my boy didn’t agree with it. He just wanted a simple panda. So, as soon as I’ve prepared the lunch dishes and bento ingredients, we got ourselves busy with preparing the bentos. I don’t know why my boy is so keen in fixing his own bentos these days. I joked to hubby before that our boy’s girlfriend will be very lucky to get bentos from him, if he is still interested in bento-ing when he grows up. Ok ok, I’m thinking too much. LOL!

Back to bentos…Here’s the simple drawing I did and some of the ingredients and tools needed.

I prepared 2 different rice molds because both my kids have different appetite. The pink rice mold is smaller and that’s for my gal.

After explaining to them on how to fix the pandas, my boy started on his own. He could easily fix the blueberries onto the quail eggs, with 2 tiny strips of spaghetti. I had to help my gal with this.

You can use blackbeans too, but I was running out of beans.

Then, I helped them to fix the eyes. I used artificial crab meat, instead of cheese for the white part. So, it will be easier to reheat the bentos, if you prefer hot meals.

My boy took over and added the noses and mouths.

My gal got herself busy with rice molds. Sorry about her messy hair, I should have tied it up.

Then, it’s all about putting in the dishes and food arrangement. Here’s the end result:

My boy’s lunch bento with pandas, chicken and potato stew, and stir-fried spinach with minced pork. I decorated the bentos with some steamed carrots.

My girl’s lunch today. She started to take some eggs, but she didn’t finish everything in her bento just now. But I’m glad to see her eating more already.

Both of them had lunch with soup, so I don’t have to worry about the rice getting cold after fixing the bentos.

If you are interested to see other blogs with pandas, check out this and this.

My mom likes to bake, and she wanted to bake some cookies for the kids before leaving today. Thus, all of us, except hubby of course, got busy with baking cookies and cupcakes last night. I didn’t manage to snap any photo throughout the process as my hands were messy all the time, and we had to supervise the two kids who kept creating mess! LOL! However, it’s a fun activity for them, and they like their cookies and cupcakes.

I got the cookie recipe from Ellena, and googled for a simple cupcake recipe. We didn’t prepare a large batch, but only a small quantity just for fun.

Some were taken as soon as they cooled down, and my kids really like their “creations”. As you can see, there are Mickey, Minnie, Marie, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and My Melody.

I packed some cookies in their bentos for a quick snack on the road. We are sending my mom to the airport and might go to a big indoor playground, somewhere in Bangkok city.

My boy has Winnie The Pooh in his bento. He finished all the Tigger cookies before they could even have a chance to go into his lunch box. There are black plum, rose apple and some blueberries in his bento too.

My gal’s bento with My Melody cookies.

Oops, I got to go. Have a nice weekend everyone!

 I upload most of my creations at Facebook lately to share with my friends, and some times, I will take a peep at how my friends are doing from there. It’s nice to know that most of my friends already have kids, and some newly weds are trying for a baby.

Comparing to my friends, I got married quite early. Then, my boy came along in the second year. I’m not sure what’s the reason, but I felt like starting a family early so I planned for my first pregnancy. I remembered that I started reading about pregnancy before I got married, and I started taking supplements months before I got pregnant. LOL! Then, I read about breastfeeding and joined a forum when I knew that I was carrying my boy. I think I was trying to be a super mother and I wanted to do my best.

But for my second baby, things were very different. It’s partly because we didn’t plan for her, and she was a surprise baby to us. Furthermore, my plan of breastfeeding during pregnancy and tandem nursing didn’t work due to a lot of complications in my second pregnancy. I had low lying placenta, lots of spotting incidents and I almost lost her when I bled a lot one night. It was a scary experience to me, especially hubby was away on a business trip that time. I had to lie on bed at the hospital alone, praying for her to be safe and breathing in my womb. I guess a lot of mothers who had experienced this know how it feels to be so helpless at that moment. I felt like I was not prepared for motherhood, even when I was not a first-time mother. It took me a while to enjoy the pregnancy, and not to mention, I had another complication during child birth! Sigh…

So, if you ask if I would like to have another baby, I will really think twice, unless God decides to give us another baby. But no matter what, I am glad that I read a lot before motherhood. Do check out gurgle pregnancy if you are planning for a baby.

Sorry that this post is totally unrelated to preparing lunch boxes. But then, it’s my 2 wonderful kids who inspire me into fixing cute meals for them.

I kept some of the cutie details away from Bento#138, and used them as decorations today. Thus, the preparation was speedy and my boy could have his bento as breakfast. My gal is down with fever, so she has lost her appetite. I told my mom to give her the bento later today, if she feels like eating.

My boy’s breakfast bento with corn and sweet potatoes. I packed some rose apples and kiwi for him in a separate lunch box (not shown).

My gal has a smaller portion in her bento since she does not feel like eating.

Due to the size of the mini Hello Kitty lunch box, I couldn’t pack an angel Hello Kitty for my gal. Thus, she can only have a smiling Hello Kitty, without the wings and dress. I hope that she will regain her appetite soon. Gee…

I think my kids miss me a lot after me going back to the office. My boy glued to me as soon as I got home yesterday, and he even insisted that I go swimming with him. I was just soaking in the pool, but he wanted me to be in the water instead of hubby.

Then, he wanted to fix bento together last night, all 4 of us! That was the first time hubby got involved in preparing the cutie details, so I briefed him on how to guide the kids.

I did a simple drawing of two angel teddy bears. I saw these cute teddy bears from a tissue pack.

Then, I prepared the cutters. Please ignore that pink Hello Kitty cutter because it’s not shown in today’s bentos. I kept it away for other days. As you can see, I arranged the cutters together for the teddy bear, so that my kids could have a better idea of how they should cut the cheese.

After that, they got themselves busy with the cutters. Hubby helped our gal by choosing the cutters for her as our 2-year-old was not too sure about how to make the pieces.

On the other hand, our boy understood better about what he should do, and he even managed to join the pieces together. I told him that it’s like a jigsaw puzzle, just join the pieces according to the drawing.

As usual, we kept all the pieces away in air tight container and kept them refrigerated until this morning. So, here’s the end result:

My boy’s bento with peanut butter sandwiches, some mangoes and 2 strawberries. That’s the angel teddy bear he cut last night, and I added his wing and let him sit on the clouds.

Here’s my gal’s bento, with a flying angel teddy bear.

Both my kids had the bentos as breakfast, but they didn’t finish the fruits. When I was leaving for work, they told me that they will finish the fruits later today. BTW, they said that they love the angel teddy bears. Yippie!

I’ve started to go back to office today, after removing my stitches in the morning. My kids will still be at home with my mom for a few more days. To make them feel better with “mommy’s not being at home”, I fixed something speedy and simple for them as their afternoon tea before leaving to work.

I used white bread and wholemeal bread to fix a cat and a teddy bear each for their bentos, and packed some fruits for them too. So, here are the bentos:

My boy’s bento with a teddy bear. Too bad the wholemeal bread is not dark enough for color contrast. There are some green mangoes, strawberries and kiwis too, besides his peanut butter sandwiches.

My gal’s strawberry jam sandwiches with a sleeping cat.

If you are wondering how the sandwiches are done, please refer to Bento#80 because it’s something similar.

For those who’s been asking about me, I’m fine. Thanks! It will be days before I can remove the stitches, but I’ve slowly “gone back to my old self”.

Today’s bentos are meant for dinner, but I started preparing by noon. I had Little Red Riding Hood in mind for my gal and my boy wanted The Lamb and The Wolf (the same story as Bento#129). So I drew and colored the wolves first and my kids helped me to stick the wolves onto the toothpicks.

When my kids are taking their nap, I continued with the cooking part. When it’s about time for dinner, I started packing the food into bentos. I managed to snap some photos during the process, but I could not remember to show all the tools used for Little Red Riding Hood bento. Sorry about that…

For Little Red Riding Hood:

I prepared the rice with a sushi mold and wrapped one of them with nori and the other one with a layer of artificial crab meat. The onigiri on the left Little Red Riding Hood, who had fringe cut from nori, and the other one is her granny.

Then, I packed some soy sauced chicken (deboned for my kids’ convenience), a piece of blanched broccoli and a mini wiener.

More details were added for the Little Red Riding Hood and her granny too.

For The Lamb and The Wolf:

Here’s how I started packing.

I cut a piece of ham for the lamb’s face with this cutter. Just turn the same cutter over to cut off the ears of the bunny ham and you will get the oval shape.

I added fluffy wool and eyes with cheese (you can replace cheese with egg sheet).

More details added for the lamb.

So, here are the bentos:

My gal’s Little Red Riding Hood, with her granny. The wolf is dead, just like in the story.

My boy’s bento with The Lamb and The Wolf. His wolf is smiling cunningly because it ate the lamb in the end.

As you can see, I packed some blueberries, carrots and baby corns as fillers and decoration too.

I would submit the bentos to Kid’s Bento Contest by Susan Yuen. If you are interested, let’s join in the fun! The contest ends by March 31st, 2009, so you better hurry up! Please check out the link for more info ya?

I have a collection of rice molds, but I hardly use them. Some times, I let the kids fix the shape of their rice at dinner, but there are still a few more which we haven’t used before, such as these 2 rice molds from 100 Yen Shop.

I guess most of us are familiar with these rice molds, which you can easily place some furikake on the rice. I don’t have furikake at home, so I placed cheese on them. I know, not everyone can take the funny blend of cheese with rice, maybe it’s only my kids’ weird taste buds. LOL! So, maybe you can try egg sheets which go well with rice.

So here are their lunch bentos today…

My boy’s bento with teddy rice molds. I decorated them as kids wearing the teddy suits. There are fried chicken cubes, and mixed veggie, prepared by my mom. She insisted that I stay out of the kitchen for a week.

My gal’s bento with two flower girls and the same bento meal. Both of them had some soup too.

Pretty simple huh?

I know that I should be in bed, but after lying down for more than a day, I wanted to get up and be myself again. LOL! Actually, the main reason why I was in bed yesterday was the anesthetic faded off and it was painful. That’s why I didn’t feel like doing anything. But I’m feeling better today, and I am not the type that can be confined to bed all day, unless you tie me up on some automotive lifts and I can’t touch the ground. LOL!

So, I decided to do something with the kids this afternoon. We bought a packet of white bread premix some time ago, but I didn’t how to knead a bread. Since my mom’s around and she’s willing to teach us, we decided to give it a try. BTW, my kids are rotting at home since their holiday starts, so let’s have fun together!

Hovis Bread Mix

My boy did a dragon (if you are wondering, it’s the first one on the top left) and a turtle, while I did the rest on this tray. We used black beans as eyes but it was a mistake as the beans were very hard after baking and inedible.

My gal did a bee, with my mom’s help.

I had a great time snapping photos while learning how to knead the dough and having fun with my kids. The buns were stuffed with shredded pork.

So, here’s the end result….after baking, of course…

My boy’s bento with a koala bear, and my gal had a piggy. I gave them some strawberries too. Actually, I wanted to packed their creations but they were too big!

But too bad, the buns were kind of hard, and my kids don’t like the “skin” and asked us to peel it off. They like the shredded pork stuffed inside though, oh well, who could resist shredded pork?

We should try this again, but make the buns smaller. I have to search for some bread and bun recipes online because the bread mix seems kind of hard. I probably need a lot of trial and error to get it right.

P/S: Don’t worry, I’ve just got back from my check up and I’m fine. The stitches are healing well. If you have bread or bun recipe, please share with me! Thanks!