Mothering Corner

My gal is back to school today after a long rest. I packed her something simple, just toast bread and white bread in her bento, which were topped on a piece of corn and rose apple. I try not to introduce too much fruits in her diet now as advised by her pediatrician.

Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma toasts bento

It will take a few more days before she can regain her normal appetite and back to her normal diet. As for my boy, I packed more fruits and added a piece of cheese in his bento.

Kiiroitori cheese and toasts bento

Actually, yours truly here has caught the bugs from my gal, and I’m not feeling very well. I hope that I can speed up my work, finish off printing the reports with the office brother printers, and try to head home early for a nap before picking up the kids from school.

Changed of plan again. I’m leaving this week and will be away for a week with a heavy heart. This is the first time I’m leaving the kids behind with hubby, who keeps assuring me that everything will be fine but I still don’t believe him.

Anyway, I can only pack one bento this week for the kids, and they requested French Toast with honey. I cut the bread with Rilakkuma cutter and pan fried them with some egg. Then, I spread some honey between the French toasts when packing the bento. On top of that, I packed some nuggets and fruits for the kids too. Today’s bentos are quite speedy since I only needed less than 5 minutes in decorating Rilakkuma.

So, here are the bentos:

My gal’s Rilakkuma French Toast bento

This is for my boy.

Ok, I’ll have a short break from bento-ing, and I sure miss my kids! And thanks for hubby for helping out.

I’ve recently bought some bento boxes and bento tools from Bentocraft.com and NST.my, so I’m trying my best to use them all, at least once.

When my kids saw these bento boxes of Rilakkuma and Korillakkuma, they were not too excited. To them, it’s just another teddy bears. But I found that these bento boxes are quite “tall”, considering that the gap is higher between the box and the lid, so it would be great for packing cute food without squashing the details.

So, I cut some bread last night and stored them away for today’s bentos. I toasted some teddy shaped bread and decorated them as Rillakkuma (the brown teddy). Kiiroitori was cut from cheese and topped on mini sandwiches, while Korilakkuma was just the normal white bread spread with jam.

As usual, I packed some fruits for the kids, and used some lettuce to fill in the gap and prevent the food from moving around. The tiny details of carrots and kamaboko were pinned with spaghetti strips onto the bread so that they would stay in place.

Hence, there are the bentos:

My gal’s Korilakkuma bento box

Rilakkuma bento box for my boy

Both kids were thrilled to see a full theme bento.

These bento boxes came with transparent lids.

The kids even reminded each other not to swing the bentos so that all details will be in placed when they have their tea after school. I’m so glad that they like it.

It’s the last 2 weeks of my kids’ summer holiday, and hubby enrolled them into summer camp this week, after hearing numerous complains from me about how naughty they were at my office.

Our kids have been tagging along to my work place for almost 2 years, but it’s only one or 2 hours each day after school. However, during this holiday, they had to spend the whole day here, thus I can’t blame them for being bored and mischievous after a few hours.

Both hubby and I pitied the kids that they had to be at school or summer camp throughout the year, so we thought of giving them a short break. Who knows, this was a very bad idea as they are pretty noisy at my work place. So in the end, they have to spend another week in summer camp (sort of like going to school for activities instead of studying), and my parents will fly over to babysit them next week.

It’s public holiday in Thailand today, but I’m working as usual. Hence, the kids tagged along with me again, and I prepared a simple lunch bento for each of them.

I prepared some egg sheets last night, by using the same steps as in this bento. Instead of using Hello Kitty and Pooh bear cutters, I used the cutters from Rilakkuma and friends. I used 3 eggs in total. For Rilakkuma, it’s egg white mixed with brown food color, and for Kiiroitori, it’s egg yolk mixed with orange to intensify the color. The smaller pieces of egg sheets are the cut out from 2 normal egg sheets. After all was done, I wrapped the egg sheets in food wrap and kept them refrigerated in air tight container.

This morning, I cooked the rice, fried some chicken nuggets and reheated the ABC soup prepared last night. Then, I wrapped the rice with egg sheets, and packed everything in their bentos. I didn’t  pack the soup but only the ingredients such as bits of potato, carrot, onion and tomato.

So, here are the bentos:

Kiiroitori and Rilakkuma Lunch Bento for my gal.

I’ve accidentally deformed the egg sheet while wrapping it over the rice, so Rilakkuma looks weird here. LOL!

Kiiroitori and Korilakkuma Lunch Bento for my boy.

Today’s bentos are inspired by miho nao chin. I saw the sandwich cutter at Daiso some time ago, but never really thought of buying it until I saw how cute Mihochin’s bento is. Just take a peep and you will know why!

This sandwich cutter is quite big, but I managed to grab a loaf of white bread which fits it quite well. Only the crust was cut off, and I can easily cut the bread into 4 different shapes at a go. Besides decorating the sandwiches as Pikkachu, Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma, I created a tiger, a koala bear and a kitten too.

So, here are the bentos:

My boy’s bento with Pikkachu, koala bear and tiger.

My gal will have Rilakkuma, Hello Kitty and a kitten.

The koala bear and Rilakkuma were cut from brown eggsheet. I mixed some dark soysauce, a pinch of sugar and a table spoon of mirin into the egg mixture to create that color. As for tiger, it was cut from “egg yolk” sheet.  The other characters were cut from cheese and I topped all the characters on the sandwiches.

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!

My boy requested meat balls and pasta yesterday, so I prepared a bigger portion and kept some away for today’s bento. My kids love pasta, and they are delighted to have pasta everyday, if possible. Besides that, I prepared some egg sheets too, by separating the yolk from egg white:

White and yellow egg sheets

Try to mix a tablespoon of corn starch (mixed with water) into your egg mixture so that the egg sheets are thicker and less likely to tear. You can freeze the egg sheets for next use.

This is what I did this morning:

I placed the spiral pasta and some tomato sauce in aluminum cups. I normally use Prego Organic Tomato and Basil Italian sauce.

Top the pasta with more tomato sauce and add a small meat ball in it.

I prepared the meat balls with minced pork and chopped onions, and mixed the meat with an egg, some soy sauce and corn starch to make it more consistent for patty or easy to form into meat balls. Then, I fried the balls until golden brown, served some for dinner last night and refrigerated a few balls away for today’s bento.

I topped the meat balls with a piece of smoked cheese. I added some mixed veggie and starry cheese on the sauce too.

After that, I baked the pasta in the oven for 10 minutes, and 5 minutes before they were done, I placed some meat balls on the baking tray to heat them up as well. The extra meat balls would be used for decoration.

Here are the reheated meat balls. I purposely formed them in 2 different sizes.

I used tiny spaghetti strips to join the smaller meat balls to the bigger ones.

Then, I packed everything in the bento boxes and here they are before decoration:

I added the egg sheets as Rilakkuma’s nose and ears.

Then, I proceeded to add some nori, punched with the following punchers:

The punchers for today’s bento.

 So, here is the end result:

My gal’s bento, with baked pasta, Rilakkuma meat balls, and 2 strawberries.

And this bento belongs to my boy.

 Let’s not forget about Kiiroitori, which was initially the piece of smoked cheese on pasta.

Kiiroitori on meat balls and spiral pasta.

Today’s bento meal is slightly heavier because my kids are more occupied on Wednesdays.

I bought the set of Rilakkuma cutters from Bentomarket.com some time ago, and I decided to use them for today’s bento.

I bought a loaf of chocolate milk bread yesterday, and I thought it would be nice for Rilakkuma. As for Korilakkuma, I cut it from normal white bread (leftover from yesterday’s bento) and Kiiroitori, the yellow chick, was cut from cheese. This preparation was done last night to speed things up in the morning rush. Then, I stored the bread away in air tight container, and refrigerated the pieces of cheese.

Tools for today’s bento, but I left out a small oval cutter in this photo.

I steamed some corns for breakfast, and packed a few pieces in the bentos. At the same time, I packed some persimmons and custard apples for my kids too. So, here are the bentos:

My gal’s bento with Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori lying on the corn. 

And here’s my boy’s bento. You may click on the photos to know more about it.

I think the chocolate milk bread is too dark for Rilakkuma, so you may use wholemeal bread or sesame bread as an alternative. But this chocolate milk bread is too delicious, even to be eaten alone, and my kids love it.

BTW, if you are packing custard apple, please make sure that the bento is kept cool at all time. I keep the tea bentos refrigerated in the office, and only take them out to room temperature before picking up my kids from school in the late afternoon. If you are packing the fruit for your kids to school, please pack along a cooler gel to keep the bento cool in  insulated bento bag. Most cooler gel packs can last for 4 hours, and if you need longer hours, go for ice bricks (I love those from Coleman!). If not, the custard apple might be watery and it won’t taste nice.

It’s just my two cents!

I received a notice last week that my kids have to be at school at least 15 minutes earlier. They are rehearsing for Teacher’s Day, so until then, we need to rush out from the house earlier than usual.

I prepared part of today’s bentos yesterday, such as boiling some carrot and broccoli stem (which were cut into letters), preparing the Bolognese sauce (can just heat up the next day) and boiling the penne until it’s almost done. So, I only had to spend some time cutting the fruits, reheating the food and decorating the bentos this morning.

Here’s how I prepared the baby elephant and Rilakkuma:

I cut the elephant ears from a piece of ham with this wheel cutter. Make a cut at the ends of the mini wiener and gently slip in the ears.

With the same cutter, try to cut out a trunk for the elephant. Cut off the excess ham with a knife so that you will get the shape of the elephant’s trunk.

Pin the trunk to the wiener with a spaghetti strip.

As for Rilakkuma, I cut a tiny piece of egg sheet with an oval cutter for its nose.

Cut off the ends of another piece of mini wiener, and use both ends for Rilakuma’s ears. Pin the ears to its head with spaghetti strips (sorry, I’ve forgotten to snap photo of this step ).

So, here are today’s bentos:

My kids’s bentos with apples, kiwis, penne Bolognese, mini wieners decorated as Rilakkuma and baby elephant, and blanched carrots and broccoli.

Here’s a closer shot of the mini winders:

A baby elephant and Rilakuma on Bolognese Penne.

The last but not least, I pushed the wieners down before closing the bentos:

Even if I managed to get everything done in lightning speed, but my kids were still late for school. We were caught in a bad traffic jam on Monday morning, so my kids were 30 minutes late! LOL! I think we have to be ready earlier tomorrow morning. Sigh…there goes my 30 minutes of beauty sleep. I wonder if I can lose some weight by sleeping lesser? LOL! Then maybe I won’t have to check out the liporexall review.