Mothering Corner

I found 2 new items which I wish to have…

They are pre-order items by NST.  Check them out if you are interested! Mmm…should I order too? LOL! I’m tempted, but I shall put them in my bento wish list first. I won’t be fixing bento for some time, I guess. So I won’t need any bento tools yet. Nonetheless, these pre-order items take a while to reach you once your payment is made, so check out the details from NST blog.

Ok, I shall stop looking at bento stuffs and go enjoy my “char tua pan”. Gosh, I might need to get something like puristat after my stay here for a month, if I eat like I’ve never eaten before. LOL!

 We arrived safely in Penang this morning, and rushed all the way to Kedah to see my grandpa. He’s been sick for awhile, and he’s eager to see my kids. So, the first thing we did was to pay him a visit.

I’m glad that my kids were behaving well even if we dragged them to the car at 5am. Both of them were semi awake but they didn’t fuss at all. Furthermore, the airport was quite crowded in the early morning. Mmm…are there a lot of cheap travel deals to Bangkok lately? I was so surprised to see a busy airport before sunrise.

In short, I’m quite happy with their “performance” even if hubby is not around to help things out. I guess I’m more confident to fly around with 2 young kids now, as long as they behave well.

Hubby will have a long day at the office today, so my kids need their after school bentos. My boy gave me the green light of fixing him another Halloween bento, provided that it’s going to be cute. He still can’t take the idea of having an ugly or scary character in his bento.

I came across this devil character at 555paperplus paper store. It’s a store where you can get a lot of assorted papers and scrapbook stuffs. I like to go there to check out the cute characters, but too bad, they don’t allow camera. So I “memorized” that cute little devil and tried to fix something similar.

Cut the wings from nori, and stack them on a piece of cheese. Gently cut out the cheese with a toothpick or exacto knife.

This will prevent the nori from curling up after long hours. Or alternately, you can use some jam to stick the nori on the sandwich or any food.

Cut a quail egg into halves.

Cut the body and heart from tofu and kamaboko respectively with cutters.

Next, join the pieces together as shown:

 Please click on the pic and go to Flickr for more info on how this is done.

After that, punch some nori and add some facial details for the little devil and little dracula. There you have it! Another Halloween bentos by shoppingmum

My boy’s cute little devil. He said NO SCARY stuff in his meal, so I made him a friendly devil.

My girl didn’t complain when she saw her little dracula. Maybe the eyes made it look cute.

So, do you like the little devil and dracula?

 You may have noticed that I hardly update this blog or fix any bentos lately. Partly it’s because I was pretty busy for the past few weeks, but the main reason is I’m getting lazy as my kids’ long term break is approaching. This week is their exam week, and after that I will fly home with my kids, and leaving their daddy behind. LOL! He has to work, so he  can’t take a long holiday back home with us.

Thus, I will start packing and cleaning some part of the house to ensure that it stays clean for as long as possible during our absent. I’m not sure if hubby will even sweep the floor for weeks when we are away! Furthermore, I know he’s too lazy to operate the vacuum cleaner nor the Ladybug steam cleaner.

Frankly, I can’t wait for the break as I’m eager to be home and feast on all my favorite food. Since I won’t be bring any tools back, I don’t think I can fix any bentos either. But since one of my friends is asking for her kids, I shall see what can I do…:P

I didn’t do any grocery shopping this week since I was pretty busy, so my fridge is almost empty now. Nonetheless, I had to fix lunch for my kids today, so I could only come out with a minced pork stew dish. But to make their lunch slightly more attractive, I served their lunch in bentos.

My gal’s lunch with stew and a bunny rice ball. I added 2 cherry tomatoes in their meals too.

My boy had a monkey rice ball, with a small piece of minced pork as its nose.

The monkey was fixed with white jasmine rice and roselle rice by B-Herbs. I still need more practice in forming fancy rice balls. It took me a while in joining 2 different colors of rice together. But I guess, practice makes perfect.

I haven’t seen most of my friends for many years, especially after I moved to Ipoh with hubby. Partly, it’s my fault also for not making the effort of meeting up with my friends when I’m back to Penang or travel to Kuala Lumpur. Thus, when I knew that my old friend CK is coming to Bangkok for exhibition, I was very eager to meet with him. He’s working in medical equipment line, and there is an exhibition of equipments, health insurance leads and other health related products at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.

Since he jokingly “requested” a bento, I fixed one for him.

My friend CK with his first bento.

Too bad the banana cupcake was a bit moist after 12 hours! *he’s a such a drama queen. LOL!*

I fixed the bento in the morning, and I was out and about with the pressie. By the time we met at Siam Paragon, it was 12 hours from the preparation time. So, the cupcake was moist, but my friend walloped everything. Thank god he didn’t complain.

My friend and me.

It’s great to see him again after 14 years! Ya, 14 years!!! I must say, he doesn’t change much, except gaining some weight *ahem!* He’s still the same guy I know from high school, and best of all, he LOVES SHOPPING! We had a nice dinner, and great fun shopping together. Nice to see you again, CK!

It’s a bit too early for Halloween, but a few blogs have started this theme, so I felt like fixing one too. However, my Halloween bento is not a successful one as both my kids dislike the theme! Both of them don’t want to have scary decoration in their meal, thus I could not add any skeleton, ghost, witch or etc in their bentos.

My boy’s bento with fish roe sushi rolls decorated as pumpkins and a mini wiener decorated as a friend ghost.

There are rose apple, strawberry, grapes, blueberries and cherry tomato in the bento too.

This is my gal’s bento with a carrot decorated as the pumpkin. The sushi(s) are bought from Oishi.

Since I’m meeting a friend this evening, and he requested a bento, I packed something simple for him too. I should have packed some nuts and seeds rich with conjugated linoleic acids but I’ve only realized that now.

His bento has a banana cake decorated as a teddy, and that’s the little ghost I cut for my kids, but rejected.

I packed some fruits for him too, and hopefully, he will like it even if it’s very childish and girlie in pink. LOL!

A bento pressie for my friend.

BTW, I would like to congratulate Ellena on winning the Singapore Food Blog Award. Ellena, you rock!

 I haven’t fixed any bento this week and my kids started making noise already. Hubby is super busy this week, so I bring the kids home after school. They don’t need any bento because they are not staying back at office with us as usual. But last night, my gal gave me the “hoh lian” look, asking me “where is my bento?”

Furthermore, we had a great weekend by the beach last week, but I’m still pretty tired after the trip. So, to avoid myself from getting an outbreak and go for acne treatment *ahem!*, I try my best to get as much sleep as possible. LOL!

Anyway, I shall try my best to fix her something nice this week. Gee… This mommy is still hoping to enjoy her break as much as possible.

I’ve been pretty busy for the past few days. My kids’ preschool was taking part in an inter-kindy sports day with a few preschools, and my boy participated a few events, while my gal was picked as one of the cheerleaders. They had been practicing hard for the past 2 weeks, and I was busy “shopping” for their stuffs needed on sports day and making sure that they are “fit” for the day. My boy is very tan now, after all those trainings under the hot hot sun! Frankly, both kids came home exhausted, and they were more grumpy than usual. It’s a “struggle” to them as well as to us parents, and I’m so glad that it’s all over now!

I woke up very early this morning to prepare their bentos because my kids had to reach school before 7.30am. The bentos consisted of a piece of milk bread sandwich, some SPAM decorated as pandas and Rilakkuma and  Korilakkuma, quail eggs, some corns and fresh fruits packed in the lower tiers of the sandwich basket.

My gal’s panda family bento.

My boy’s Rilakkuma and friends bento.

Since both bentos are repeated ideas, so they didn’t take much of my preparation time. We had to wake up the kids at least at hour earlier than their usual time, and my gal needed some makeup! LOL! In short, we were rushing to get the kids ready for the big day.

The sports day which was participated by 7 kindergartens and held at the army base in Bangkok city.

My kids had their bentos as brunch while waiting for the games. They shared some of their food with their friends.

It was so sunny today, and with so many children taking part, the events dragged until 2pm but interrupted by a heavy pour. So, my boy took part in some events but not kiddie football. Their game was canceled due to the rain, so I guess their “training” is somehow “wasted” this time. But still, there is always next year!

I felt like fixing mee goreng tomato (fried noodles with ketchup) for my gal as breakfast this morning, and I packed some for the bentos. My boy only likes cereals or toasts as breakfast, so he didn’t want to take the noodles. Nonetheless, he won’t mind having noodles as after school tea.

Besides noodles, there are oranges, blueberries, strawberries and champagne grapes in the bentos too.

The bentos looked a bit plain without decoration, so I decorated a piece of fried fish tofu (cut into halves) as smiley faces in each bento.

My boy’s bento.

This is my gal’s bento. I lose the pink ribbon pick, so if you have seen it at 100Yen, let me know!!!

Before closing the bentos, my boy reminded me about the cheese he cut last night. He wanted to add some cheese in his bento, so he prepared them a night before.

He insisted that he must spell his name and added the three teddies in his meal. LOL! Thus, his bento is a bit too “crowded”.