Mothering Corner

I’m back from the beach, and I’m so tanned now. I shall stay away from the beach for some time, and won’t think about another holiday soon!

We snapped a lot of photos, but I can’t post them up in Facebook yet. There are more than 600 photos! So, I need some time to select less than 200. LOL!

Anyway, I don’t look great in the photos, maybe it’s due to the messy hair, and too much sun. Having permed hair may add volume, and to me, it’s one of the other solution to post natal hair lose, other than one of the best hair loss treatments available in the market. I permed my hair a few months after having both babies just to make my hair looked better. But having permed hair on the beach doesn’t seem too great. It gets tangled and messed up all time. LOL!

As expected, I have been too busy to fix anything fancy this week. My kids have only fruit bentos mostly, but they didn’t complain about it. *phew!*

We will be expecting our guests tomorrow and after that we will be off to Hua Hin beach for our Chinese New Year holiday. I guess I will only update the blog some time next week.

I would like to wish everyone:

Happy Chinese New Year

Xin Nian Kuai Le

Gong Xi Fa Cai

My boy needs a heavier bento today after his extra lesson at school, so I packed some bread and spaghetti for him. I would have just leave the bentos like this, if I’m too lazy.

But then, it didn’t take me much time in decorating the bentos to make them appear “nicer”.

My boy’s bento, with a boy trying to kiss a girl.

And this is for my gal.

Did I mention that we have been pretty busy lately? It’s not only about preparation for Chinese New Year, but also 2 short trips away to Koh Chang island and Hua Hin beach. We had a company trip to Koh Chang last weekend, and it’s a nice 3 days 2 nights stay with friends and colleagues. The kids had a great time on the island, as well as snorkeling in the sea. Nonetheless, I felt that the sea is not as nice as Phuket and Similan Islands, but to some of the company workers, it’s their first snorkeling trip.

None of us brought along our laptops, and I didn’t even switch on my phone for 3 days. As expected, my mailbox was full this morning, and I had tonnes of unread messages by some cell phone repeater, reminding me that the sales are available as most department stores. I’ve almost done with my CNY shopping, but if I have time, I will go for another round with my expat friend this week.

So, how’s your preparation for Chinese New Year? I hope that it’s going to be a prosperous year for all of us.

I have this idea of fixing a Chinese New Year bento for some time, and at first, I thought of fixing it some time next week. But then, considering that I might be quite busy next week, with spring cleaning, finalizing on where to have our reunion dinner, packing for our beach trip (again!), preparing the guest room and move the refurbished fitness equipment away, I better share my idea now before it’s sank to the bottom of my to-do list.

For this bento, I prepared:

Some blueberries, quail eggs and mini wieners.

Then, I joined the “parts” together with tiny spaghetti strips.

Then, I placed the pieces in silicon cups and packed everything in the bentos. I cut some kamaboko (fish cake) and red artificial crab meat with an oval cutter, and added them as arms. I cut the red artificial crab meat into halves and stacked them on kamaboko as red sleeves. These tiny pieces are arranged as “gong xi gong xi” hand gesture, which is a common greeting on Chinese New Year.

Next, punch the nori and add it as “hair” on the eggs.

Add the eyes and lips.

And that’s about it! So here are my Gong Xi Fa Cai bentos:

My boy’s bento. I gently lay the characters before closing the bento.

This is my gal’s bento.

BTW, since this year Chinese New Year falls on Valentine’s Day, I think the cute couples can be used as valentines too.

I was very busy last week, thus I didn’t have time to fix anything nice for the kids. With Chinese New Year around the corner, I think I will be pretty occupied with some preparation, mainly because we are expecting hubby’s family members, who are flying here for the celebration. It’s our second Chinese New Year in Thailand, and I’m very grateful that they are willing to fly over here to join us. Chinese New Year is not a major celebration in Thailand, so my kids can’t skip school for many days, if we want to fly back.

Anyway, today’s bento is tiger again, and I hope that you are not getting bored with this theme.

I cut the smoked cheese with this teddy cutter.

Cut 4 small ovals as the noses and tummies.

Then, add some nori on the tigers and that’s it! It’s very simple and fast.

This preparation was done last night, and the cheese tigers were refrigerated in air-tight container. So this morning, I took them out and topped them on the sandwiches.

Both bentos have the same decoration to speed things up.

I “created” the word “hu” by joining bits of nori together. It will look nicer if you trace the character and cut it out as one.

Here’s a close up of the tiger year bento: