Mothering Corner

I didn’t sleep well last night as my gal cried and screamed in her sleep throughout the night. I’m not sure what kind of nightmares she had, but by the time she’s sleeping soundly, it was about 5am. Thus, I had a hard time dragging myself off the bed when the alarm clock rang in the early morning.

Since I’m very sleepy today (and I already had 2 cups of coffee!), I decided to repeat something simple and fast, just like the previous ham and cheese bento.

I used this My Melody cutter to cut the bread, cheese and ham. Then, I used an oval cutter to cut off some part of the ham.

Stack the ham on the cheese. You may replace cheese with egg sheet too.

After that, I spread some jam on the bread and packed some mango, dragonfruit, strawberries and blueberries in the bentos.

The bentos before decoration.

My gal likes My Melody but my boy wanted to have a teddy bear in bunny suit. So, here’s the end result:

My gal’s My Melody bento.

And this funny looking teddy in bunny suit is for my boy.

 I think the teddy looks rather weird but my boy likes it.

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

My boy requested to have Pikachu in his Pikachu bento box last night and I was so thrilled about it! I’ve always wanted to fix Pikachu, but my kids are not so familiar with him. Furthermore, I saw a lot of Pikachu bentos at some Japanese blogs lately, and I’m so “gatal” to try. LOL!

So, this is my boy’s Pikachu bento:

I prepared some chicken balls this morning and packed 2 for my boy. The chicken balls are decorated as Pikachu, but too bad it’s not the right color. It looks like Pikachu has got a tan after sunbathing. LOL! The ears were cut from smoked cheese with an exacto knife and I stacked 2 slices of cheese together to make the ears thicker so that I could pin them to the chicken ball with spaghetti strips. I placed a layer of nori below the cheese (cut exactly like the shape of the ears) to avoid it from melting fast. The eyes were cut free hand too since I don’t have the right size of puncher.

I didn’t fix Pikachu for my gal because she doesn’t like frozen meat. Besides that, she said she just wanted to more fruits especially strawberries today. So, maybe I will fix Pikachu for her next time.

Renee Lim left this comment the other day:

Hi,

I was following your blog for a few months and am impressed by your bentoing efforts and childcare tips.

And I am wondering if you have any tips to help my 14 month old boy to drink more water. I have been giving him Yakult diluted with water to tempt him, but am not so sure if it is healthy to do so on the long run.

Grateful if you or the mummies reading your blog can help.

So, let’s share our mothering tips, shall we?

Renee, I don’t think I have ever really asked my kids to drink water since they are young. Furthermore, my kids are breastfed, so they would nurse if they were thirsty. Anyway, water comes in fruits and veggies too. If your boy doesn’t like the taste of plain water, some juice will be fine. As long as he’s hydrated and pees and doesn’t have constipation, he should be fine. A bottle or 2 of Yakult per day is fine for kids, my kids are taking Yakult or yogurt drinks daily.

Now that my kids are older, they will bring along a tumbler to school but I notice that they hardly drink much or finish their water. Firstly, my kids have UHT milk at school which are kept at their locker in the classroom and they take 2 (or 3 for my boy if he has Taewondo) packets per day throughout their schooling hour. There is a drinking area at the cafeteria where the kids can take the cup to fill up the water and drink by themselves during break and lunch time. Thus, my kids don’t take much from their tumblers.

But being a typical Chinese mother, I “poi tong” (boil soup) almost everyday. We drink a bowl of soup after dinner (should be taken before dinner if you wish to lose belly fat ) and it can be considered as liquid to me. Our kids started this habit quite young, maybe like one year old or after they have started taking rice almost like adults. And due to the many years of influence by my mom and MIL, I like to boil “leong sui” during the weekends. Most Chinese believe that leong sui will cool down the body and we are less likely to fall sick because our bodies are less “heaty”. Ahem…I know not all mothers agree on this practice but so far, my kids hardly get sick. *touch wood*

In short, I think water comes in all forms so I won’t be too worried as long as my kids are hydrated.

So, will you please kindly share your tips on how to encourage your toddlers or kids to drink more water? Thanks!

If you are wondering if there is any bento today, the answer is NO. LOL!

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in Thailand, and we have just come back from my kids’ mini concert at school. The mini concert was held in conjunction of Mother’s Day, as well as to celebrate the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand. And now, my kids are here at the office with us. Oh ya, we still have to work! But we shall take a break tomorrow and hopefully we can make a short trip out of town.

But since it’s Mother’s Day, I shall take a break in bento-ing, even if it’s just for 2 days. Hey, mommy deserves a rest, doesn’t she? LOL! I would surely hope that I can have a romantic cancun vacation with hubby alone, and let myself be free from my mothering duties. I sure miss the kind of holidays where I can pack all my stuffs in the luggage, instead of putting my kids’ stuffs first instead of mine!

But then, I guess this dream will only come through when my kids are older. Frankly, I can’t remember what is romance anymore after I became a mother! LOL!

In short, Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, even if you are not in Thailand.

I felt like doing something simple again this morning. Anyway, since when my bentos are complicated? LOL!

I’ve always wanted to fix Sesame Street bentos for my kids, but so far, I’ve only tried Elmo. I wanted to put more characters in today’s bentos, but due to time constraint, I did it the easiest way I can think of.

I prepared 2 slices of white bread and an oval cutter.

Cut the bread in quarters.

Cut an oval out from the top pieces.

Spread some strawberry and blueberry jam on 2 pieces of sandwiches, and slip in some smoked cheese on the other sandwiches.

Then, I packed everything in the bentos and added carrots as noses, and white cheese as eyes for the characters. Ernie’s mouth was cut from a small piece of artificial crab meat.

Besides sandwiches, there is a small piece of mini pizza, some strawberries and grapes in the bentos too. I proceeded to punch and cut some nori for the eyes and mouth, and thus here’s the end result:

My gal’s Elmo and Ernie bento. She cut the small piece of teddy cheese to be placed on her strawberry.

My boy’s bento has Bert and Cookie Monster instead.

Maybe it’s too simplified, so they don’t look quite like the real characters. My boy took a look at his bento and said, “Huh? This is Bert? This is Cookie Monster?”

Before I came to Bangkok, I thought Thai people have mango salad as appetizer. But then, don’t be surprised that you can’t find mango salad at most Thai restaurants here because their real salad is actually done with green papaya.

I’ve never done som tom at home as it’s pretty easy to buy som tam anywhere. But then, since some of you are interested to learn Thai dishes, I shall share my lunch at this blog again. We had som tom today, but actually, there are a few types of som tam with slight variation. Nonetheless, the preparation is almost the same, except some key ingredients.

First, slice off the skin of the green papaya.

What you need next is shredded papaya, but without a grater, this is how it can be done.

Chop a few lines on the papaya vertically. It’s like chopping and turning the papaya around so that you’ll get a lot of cut vertical lines on the papaya.

Then, slice the papaya lengthwise.

And you will get shredded papaya!!!

Repeat the same process with carrot.

It looks easy, but I tried it just now and it’s not as easy as I thought! My cutting skill is very lousy. LOL! I would use a grater instead. But the Thais will cut the papaya with a knife, instead of using a grater.

Besides that, wash and cut some long beans.

Then get a mortar and pestle, and place a few gloves of garlic, bird eye chilies, some green papaya and carrot into it. Start pounding until everything is smashed.

I prefer som tam Thai, which is prepared this way. But the rest of my colleagues like som tam Lao, which is mixed with pla rah (fish paste), and it’s a signature som tam from Isan (northern Thailand). The fish paste can be added in pounding process now, if that’s your preferred taste.

After that, add a handful of shredded green papaya, carrot and long bean in the mortar.

Add some cherry tomatoes too.

Proceed to lots of lime juice (about 3 limes used here), one tablespoon of fish sauce and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Don’t throw the limes away, but place one or 2 pieces of squeezed limes in the mortar too. (You may add some syrup too if you prefer it to be sweeter)

Then, 2 pieces of sliced hog plum (mak gok) is added.

Actually, we missed out 2 ingredients, which are dried shrimps and peanuts in our som tam. If you have them, mix them in too.

Then, start pounding everything again! But this time, don’t pound too hard on the papaya so that it won’t disintegrate.

Besides that, don’t forget to stir the ingredients after every few pounds  so that they will mix well in the mortar.

Your som tam will taste better this way, and the juice produced is sweet, sour and spicy.

You may try the taste first and add more lime juice, sugar or fish sauce, as according to your taste bug. Just make sure that you pound and stir each time something is added.

By then, the som tam is ready to be served.

My som tam.

And this is som tam pla rah (with fish paste). It tastes different, and has a stronger smell.

So, are you willing to try this at home?

Some of my friends are amazed that we actually have home cooked lunch at office.

Today’s lunch included curry squid, mixed veggie, steam egg custard, som tam, blanched veggie and ABC soup.

But actually, it does not take a lot of preparation time because…

Everyone is such a great helper and cook here. LOL!

Everyone except the camera woman who’s too busy snapping photos. I guess I better stop taking photos and put my hands into preparing our lunch. I’ve covered tom yam, som yam, and cha om omelet. Enough or not?

First of all, I would like to clarify that I don’t allow links in my comment section and if you place any links there, the comment will be held for moderation. The main reason why this is done is I don’t want any bento store owners to “simply” place their stores here for free advertisement. Bear in mind that I shall link to your store, if I buy from you or if I find any interesting products there. Please, no free ads, but if you pay, I shall put your links on my blog. LOL! Hey, I’m not being mean, but do you like to go through a lot of comments with free ads on your comment section or not? Fellow bloggers? But of course, some of the comments with links are approved, if you are meant to share something great. Good things are meant to be shared, right?

Sorry that my first paragraph sounded so harsh as the air conditioning in my offce room has officially broke down this morning. It has not been functioning well for a few days, and it’s been fixed numerous time. But this morning, it decided to take a long long rest, and I’m soaking wet in my own sweat, “enjoying” sauna at the office. How good is that? LOL! It’s too hot, and I’m out of my mind now.

Ok, let’s get back to bento. I bought the Snoopy and Woodstock rice mold set from NST some time ago, and I’ve only received the parcel this week. I’m quite excited to have the molds as I used to be a big fan of Snoopy! However, I might have bought the last set from NST, and thus I can’t seem to find the link to the rice molds just now. So, if you are interested, contact Veronica @ NST if she will reorder the molds.

I used the rice molds as bread cutters.

I cut some nori as Snoopy’s ears.

Then, I punched some nori with these punchers and proceeded to the facial features. Use some jam or butter to paste the nori on the bread.

After that, I packed their meals in bento boxes.

My boy’s Snoopy and Woodstock, and some corn, apple, cherries and blueberries.

This is for my gal. She has some pineapples and guava but not apple in her bento.

Actually, I prepared some white and yellow cheese last night for Snoopy and Woody, but I’ve totally forgotten about it when I was packing their meal. LOL! That’s why they looked so white in the bentos.

My kids wanted 2 different themes in their bentos, so I started the preparation last night. My boy wanted chocolate milk bread again, while my gal wanted Piglet and Pooh (my new cutters). Actually, it didn’t take a lot of time to do a simple preparation the night earlier, especially if you are a working mother or one who needs to rush out of the house just in time, like yours truly here. LOL!

I did the preparation at the dining table, while coaching my kids with their homework. Frankly, my kids’ school does not give a lot of homework, and their work is pretty simple. It’s totally unlike most schools in Malaysia, which are quite hectic and stressful. Maybe that’s why my kids love to do their homework, which is pretty fun. While I was cutting the bread and cheese, my boy was doing his cut and paste homework on letter “Q” while my gal did her coloring and tracing.

For Kuromi, I cut the chocolate milk bread (from yesterday’s bento) with a round cutter for her face, and two diamond shaped bread for her ears.

Then I cut a circle from cheese.

Cut off the crescent at the top of the circle so that the cheese looks slightly oval now. You can also use an oval cutter, but I can’t find the right size in my toolbox.

Cut a V with an exacto knife or normal knife. 

After that, I wrapped the cheese and kept it refrigerated. I boiled a small piece of kamaboko and ham too.

I trace a small circle on kamaboko, and cut the shape of a skeleton.

 The ham was used for Kuromi’s nose and tongue, and Piglet’s ears. Please refer here for Piglet’s tutorial . The whole preparation took about 15 minutes, but if you are preparing one bento per day, you should take lesser time than me.

So, this morning, I just had to wash and cut the banana, oranges, strawberries and blueberries, which were all packed in their bentos. Thus, here’s the end result:

My boy’s Kuromi Bento. I think her eyes are too small since I punched it with nori puncher.

My gal’s Piglet and Pooh bento.

 If some preparation is done a night before, you might need to spend just a few minutes more on punching nori and decorating the bentos. Most importantly, the end result is all worth it.

P/S: If I’m not mistaken, Kaerenmama showed a tutorial on how to fix Kuromi some time ago. Please go through her archive if you are interested. 

During my early weeks in Bangkok, I didn’t have a car and my SIL was very kind to drive me to the wet market and supermarkets. But being a new “cook” (ahem, I never cooked for the past 9 years) I kept repeating some common dishes which are easy and quick to be prepared.

But one day, I thought of preparing something new. I went to the wet market with hubby, and both of us could not speak Thai then. So, we were like chicken talked to ducks to the local sellers at the market throughout our “shopping” experience. LOL! That’s the first time I bought cha om, which is a type of Acacia leaf and it’s quite smelly.

It smells like our petai back home, but it’s less smelly if you fry it with eggs. It’s called cha om omelet, and it tastes quite nice. However, my first cha om dish was a disaster as I didn’t know the right way of cooking it. I thought it’s just like normal veggie and I stir-fried it with garlic. I didn’t know that we can’t eat the thorny stems and thus hubby and I could not chew the veggie at all even if it’s really cooked. In short, we dumped the dish away!!! LOL!

Only the top part is edible and there are thorns on the stems, so be careful when you are preparing the veggie.

Cut off the stems and use the top leafy part only.

Most Thai people like to eat blanched cha om with nam prik, but the smell is too strong to me.

Blanched Cha Om

I snapped some photos on how to prepare cha om omelet when the office staffs were preparing it.

Break the top part into smaller pieces and give them a good wash.

Beat some eggs and season the mixture with soy sauce.

Mix cha om into the egg mixture.

Make sure that the veggie is well covered by the eggs and let it soak in for a few minutes.

In the mean time, heat up the wok.

I feel that more oil is used when the Thai people are frying their eggs. It’s more like deep fried eggs to me.

When the oil is hot, stir in the egg mixture.

Deep fry it for a few minutes and turn over to the other side.

When it’s done, drain off the excess oil and serve.

There you have it! Cha om omelet.

Even my boy likes this dish, so it’s suitable for kids too. It will taste nicer if you eat the omelet with nam prik. Nam Prik is Thai chili paste and there are a lot of different types of nam prik.

Today’s nam prik, with pea aubergines (makheua phuang)

A closer shot of makheua phuang.

Maybe you have tasted pea aubergines with makheua (apple aubergines)…

…which are very common in Thai green curry.

I honestly think that today’s lunch is superb, especially the green curry and nam prik cha om omelet. Here’s a glimpse of today’s lunch…

If you are wondering, the first pic was yam (Thai noodle salad) which is sour and spicy and yummy. LOL!

I know I should have blogged about Thai green curry huh? But this post is way too long….maybe next time. Thanks for reading all the way to this full stop.

Ya, I have some new tools arrived yesterday. Some are from NST.my and some from bentomarket.com. I haven’t used any of them yet, obviously, and maybe I will try them out soon. As you can see, I didn’t buy a lot this time. LOL! I have to be frugal in collecting tools as I’ve spent quite a lot, even if it’s not as close as a nice trip to any Florida vacations. But then, the amount of $$$ on this hobby is quite significant now.

Nonetheless, as long as I try to use most of them, the “investment” made is not a big waste huh?