Mothering Corner

I felt like fixing bentos for my kids before my bed rest, which starts tomorrow.

So, after some “discussion” with them, today’s theme is Marie The Cat. It’s not the same as the previous Baby Marie The Cat in Bento#101, and surprising, it’s not as hard as I’ve thought it would be.

I prepared a drawing of Marie last night to get a better idea on what to do this morning.

You can actually trace the facial details on paper, place it on a piece of nori and cut the details with a knife or scissors. But for me, I prefer to use my punchers and see if I can get the shapes as close to the drawing as possible. I used that heart puncher to get Marie’s eyes.

Since it’s school holiday here, I don’t have to get my kids ready for school. Furthermore, my mom is around to help me with them. Thus, this time, I managed to time myself on how long did I take to make 2 simplified kyaraben bentos. I started with cutting the fruits, frying the hams (some went for breakfast), and boiling a small piece of kamaboko. Then, I proceeded to cutting the bread with Marie cutter while waiting for the ham and kamaboko to cool down.

I used Marie The Cat cutter to shape the sandwiches.

Then, I used these cutters to form some ribbons for Marie.

Marie’s ears were cut from a piece of ham with the semi-circle of this Hello Kitty cutter. If I’m not mistaken, this cutter comes with rice molds too.

Then I added some details for Marie.

The nose was punched with the orange Carl’s puncher, and the eyebrows and double eyelids were punched with the pink puncher. The whiskers were cut free hand, and it took me some time to stick them on with jam. LOL! I should have cut some eyelashes for Marie, but I gave up. The eyes were cut with the tiny cutter on the right and I cut the cheese into smaller pieces to get the shapes of Marie’s eyes.

I used the circles from this shoe puncher to form the eye balls.

So, here’s the end result…

My girl’s Marie The Cat in her tiny Hello Kitty lunch box. She wanted to use this bento box from Sanrio, so I had to put her fruits in another lunch box for her. She cut the bunny, while her brother cut the teddy bears. I think she cut the tiny flowers too.

My boy didn’t place the nori this morning because he wanted to play with daddy.

So, how long did it take for me to fix 2 bentos? It’s about 50 minutes, from the beginning to the end. Most of the time were spent on Marie’s whiskers! But if I added the time I used for drawing and “brainstorming” last night, it should be an hour.

Happy Bento-ing!

I have just ordered another batch of bento tools, and I know that I have been spending a lot on this bento frenzy, and maybe I can already buy some fashion jewelry sets with the money I spent. LOL!

But then again, if we use the tools often, I guess the “investment” is worth it. Even if I slow down lately, but my kids are still playing with my tools. The only thing I have to worry about is them losing some of the pieces, and I might have to look for replacement later.

Talking about more bento tools, I have another set of tool in my wish list…

I didn’t have plan to pack for my kids today. But last night, both of them wanted to show their grandparents their “bento skills” and wanted to play with the new cutters. Thus, I kept some of their “work” away for today’s bentos. I received some samples from YouBar, which is a company based in Los Angeles and specializes in packing customized and healthy snack bars.

I’m not a big fan of healthy bars, but my kids and hubby love them. Once I see the calories at the wrapper, you can forget about seeing me eating a whole bar, unless I have some weight loss products for free as well. LOL!

The main reason why I agreed on getting the samples and trying them out is the ingredients are organic and natural, and they are suitable for kids too. You can choose the ingredients and name the bars as well. And of course, I’m not being paid for writing this post!

Hubby took the bar called PM Alternative as soon as the parcel arrived at my office a week ago, and I took a few bites. It’s really not bad at all, probably because it’s not too dry, and I like cranberries. LOL! Nonetheless, I haven’t tried the protein shakes, and I will leave them to hubby.

Thus, this morning, I decided to get my kids try the bars in their bentos. Like most mothers, I have my busy mornings too, and these nutritious bars are great for speedy bentos. For my kids’ convenience, I removed the wrappers of Honey Cashew Nuts and Great Date with Chocolate, and cut the bars into smaller pieces.

But the bars can be rather sticky, so maybe I should keep them refrigerated due to our hot weather? My boy took a few bites of Honey Cashew Nut Bar and he likes it.

To make their bentos more attractive, I stacked the energy bars together and placed their “bento work” on top. I helped my kids with some of the parts, but my boy placed the nori by himself. He really likes to play with the punchers and tweezers now.

My boy’s speedy bento, with YouBar, some oranges and blueberries.

Here’s my gal’s bento.

These bentos will be their snack in the car later, when we send my dad to the airport. My mom will be staying with us for a while, and she will be helping me with the kids while I rest after my op. I guess my kids will insist on playing with my tools once in awhile, and hopefully, I manage to snap some photos of their work.

Edited: Both my kids don’t like Great Date with Chocolate, and so does hubby. Maybe it doesn’t suit our taste buds!

Here are some of the new bento tools added to my collection. My mom was quite shocked to see ALL my bento tools last night. I guess I have quite a lot of tools huh? LOL! My system memory does show a lot of photos of my bento gadgets.

Thanks to CP and Arlene!

I’m gatal to fix something with them, but I know I better not. Let them stay in the plastic toolbox for some time first…

I think I got my kids hooked up in kyaraben already. Even if they can only do some simple cutting with cutters and cheese, they look forward to the time after dinner, when we will discuss and fix something for the next day. My girl eats most of her work still, but I manage to “save” some up for decoration. As for my boy, he’s getting better with tweezers and nori punchers.

My boy’s fixing the eye for his bunny.

Too bad the nori smeared up when we took the bunny from the fridge this morning, so he had to redo the eyes and nose again. I’m quite surprised that he picks up this skill rather fast!

At the same time, Khongfamily asked how I do my food arrangement, and actually, I don’t have much in mind but just try to fit as much as possible into the lunch boxes. I prepare their bento meals according to how much my kids can eat at tea, and just try to slot everything in.

Today’s bentos before decoration. I managed to slot in some pears, rose apples, corn cobs, carrots, sweet potatoes and some blueberries.

But then, I guess the arrangement will look better if you plan ahead and draft it out.

Since I will be having a bento break soon, today’s theme is about mommy sleeping late in the morning starts from next week, and I hope that my kids will wake up late as well! That’s the only way I can get more sleep. LOL! But then, hubby told the kids that they should fix their own bentos during school holiday, so maybe I will be posting once in a while. Besides that, I might have some reviews and another sample review post which I haven’t posted. This blog will still be updated, but at slower pace.

Here are today’s bentos:

Mommy will be very happy if both kids can wake up late during their term break!

In my boy’s bento, I made two smiley kids because my kids will surely be happy to know that TV is allowed on weekdays during the term break. I have no TV policy at home on school days, even hubby and I don’t watch TV to be fair. So, I guess I will just “close 2 eyes” on the numbers of Power Rangers and Tom and Jerry DVDs they watch in a day. LOL! Oh ya, that’s the bunny prepared by my boy last night.

Even if I am slowing down in March, but I will still be blog hopping, and probably plant a quaking aspen. LOL!

Keep posting your bentos ya?

I can’t think of a name for today’s bentos. Frankly, I didn’t do much in preparing their bentos as my kids did 95% of the decorative part. Furthermore, I fixed luncheon meat sandwiches for hubby and I this morning, and just packed one each for them. Both my kids only take cereals for breakfast lately, and we had some extra sandwiches. In short, today’s bento is a bliss since I didn’t do much except punching the nori and packing the fruits. LOL!

So, here’s my boy’s bento, which he cut the teddy bear by himself. I just helped him to adjust the placement of its nose because he placed it at the wrong position. He also cut that tiny heart with the cutter, by pressing down the kamaboko from the bottom of the teddy cutter.

My boy’s bento, with a peace of sandwich, a strawberry, a Thai orange and some blueberries. I cut 2 more cheese flowers for him, but his sister did the tiny stars.

My gal has better control of the bigger cutter now after some practice. She chose the bunny cutter last night, and same as her brother, I helped her to place in the nose and ears.

My gal has a little bunny peeping out from her sandwich. She almost cut off the bunny’s left ear with her cutter. LOL! So I hid that part with hams…:P

 And of course, I was the one who punched and added the nori. My boy wanted to do this by himself, but he woke up late this morning, and I couldn’t wait for him. LOL! Maybe next time ya, boy?

Some mothers mentioned that their kids won’t eat bentos with a funny blend of taste, such as cheese on the fruit. I thought about it, and maybe you can try placing a thin layer of baran on the fruits first, before putting on the cheese. Just cut the barans into smaller sizes, if you can’t find them in appropriate size. Most importantly, make sure that the lunch boxes are kept cold as cheese melts very fast and when it melts, it might affect the taste of the fruits. But for schooling children, they might need cooler bags.

And about processed food like ham and sausages, like most mothers, I have my concern too. But still, there are other options. Go for the expensive premium types, if you are alright with that. If you stay in Bangkok, you can find a lot of varieties at Siam Paragon and Tops (mostly).

I only buy them in small quantity, like 2 sausages or 4 pieces of ham at a time, and I can use them for a week’s bentos, unless it’s something like Bento#129 where the pigs already occupied one whole piece of ham. If not, use other alternatives like carrots, zucchini (if you want white and green colors),  different colors of white bread made from yam (purple), potato (yellow), carrot (orange), chocolate (dark brown) or wholemeal (brown) and etc. Over here, I can get a loaf of white bread in 4 different colors, which is great! As for cheese, I only use the cheese from Chesdale, which comes in white and yellow (hi-calcium). I found another brand here with premium cheeses and there is a type of sliced cheese in orange! Too bad it’s selling at double the price of those I usually get, that’s why I haven’t bought any yet.

I think there are still a lot of possibilities when it comes to food decoration.

Oh ya, check out my latest Carla’s punchers. *Thanks Ellena!*

My boy has an idea on how to use them already…

I got this idea from Ellena when we were chatting about fixing some story bentos for her boy. Then, I felt like fixing a bedtime story bento for my kids too. Both my kids like stories involving the big bad wolf, especially Red Riding Hood, and The Wolf and The Lamb (it’s a Chinese story where the wolf made a lot of excuses to eat the lamb). I can’t find the story about The Wolf and The Three Pigs in their book collections, but I told them briefly about it. I will try to get that book when we go to Kinokuniya again.

I have always tried to keep things simple in bento-ing, so I did a simple version of big bad wolf.

I prepared some sandwiches and cut them into mini triangles to form the faces of the wolves.

The eyes were cut with this wheel cutter, and then I cut them into halves.

Here’s how I cut the ears.

After that, I placed the cheese on a piece of nori, and cut out an outline for the cheese to make the facial parts more obvious.

The eyes and eyebrows were punched and cut with these Carla’s punchers. Just cut off the wings and tail of the airplane to get the eyebrow.

All the ham and cheese were cut last night, and I only had to cut the fruits (mangoes, oranges and a black plum), pack everything into lunch boxes and work on the details this morning. So, here’s the bentos:

My gal’s bento with the Big Bad Wolf who ate the poor Lamb. I’m not sure if there is an English version of this story, but the book we have is in Chinese. As you can see, the poor lamb is KO with the eyes crossed. I don’t know why my gal likes this story so much…Oh ya, I cut a tiny piece of crab meat to form a tongue for the wolf.

 This is my boy’s bento with the Big Bad Wolf and The Three Pigs. The house was cut with the yellow cutter in Bento#114. He said he likes the pigs and the wolf.

Hubby said the wolf is not bad enough and I should make the ears stand up. O.o Let me think about how to fix that first…

Since my kids love their bedtime story bentos, maybe I should try other stories next time.

I’m going to get my new tools soon, but I’ve decided not to buy so many of them now. The economy is getting pretty bad, and lots of people are running out of jobs here in Thailand. I think the money should be kept or spent on other important areas, such as my kids school fees! School fee is quite expensive here, considering that my kids will be in private school from now till high school.

I’m not going to invest the money into anything, including Monex. There is a lot of uncertainties right now, and cash is really useful at bad times like this. So, I hope that I won’t see any cutie bento tools too frequently. LOL!