Mothering Corner

I did a mouse bento previously, and I felt like fixing this theme again because it’s quick and easy. But this time, I used 2 quail eggs for a mouse, instead of one like the previous bento. Today’s bento are quite light, with only kiwi, mango and a piece of jam sandwich. Thus, I packed 2 quail eggs in each bento.

I didn’t manage to snap the step by step photos on how I decorated the mouse’s head, but I shall explain in detailed.

The mice, decorated from quail eggs

1. Cut a line diagonally on the equal egg and slip in the ear. You can cut the ears from kamaboko, with the orange cutter as shown in this post. This cutter comes with the quail egg cutter set.

2. Then, I added the eyes, nose and lip punched from nori.

3. Break 2 tiny bits of spaghetti strips and pin them on the mouse as whiskers. I only added whiskers at one side since I wanted to create a “side-view” mouse.

4. Pin this pick on another quail egg as the tail.

5. Join the quail eggs with spaghetti strip. (Tips on Spaghetti Strips)

Then, I slipped the mice in the bentos, and here they are:

A Mouse Bento

There’s lots of gap in today’s bento, but the mouse should be stagnant in the silicon cup, unless you swing the bento around.

This mouse belongs to my gal.

I haven’t packed buns (pao) for quite some time because my kids don’t like them anymore. Their taste buds change from time to time, so it’s best to pack their “preferred” food at the moment to avoid food wastage. I’ve always wanted to fix Hamtaro again since it’s so cute. But without using pao, just like the previous Hamtaro Char Siew Pao Bento, I resolved to using cheese with this cutter:

Rilakkuma cutter

It’s a last minute decision, so I didn’t have time to snap the step by step photos. Hopefully, you can figure out how I did the cheesy Hamtaro.

My boy’s Hamtaro and garlic bread bento, with lots of fruits too.

My gal’s Hamtaro has a smiley expression because I was running out of time to cut the eyes.

From the way I arranged the fruits, I guess you can tell that I was packing these bentos as fast as I could. LOL! I was trying my best to slot everything in before running late. It’s been awhile since I last pack papaya too. My boy doesn’t like papaya and kiwi, and he will only have them at school due to teacher’s pressure. I hope that he will finish his papaya and kiwi today!

A friend told me that she can tell if my hubby is working away for days. I would normally pack less bentos that week, and hardly update my Facebook. She’s right, whenever hubby is away, I don’t need to pack much, and I don’t have time for FB. You can easily tell that I’m too occupied with work, kids and chores and I’m trying my best to keep my sanity. LOL!

Hubby came back from Malaysia with my latest purchase from BentoCraft. I love the Tomica Fire Engine bento, and so does my boy. So, I packed something simple for the kids today.

My boy’s Tomica Fire Engine bento, with cheese sandwiches, a mini wiener and fruits.

My gal has smaller sandwiches.

Very simple huh?

I fixed something simple and easy this morning. It’s been awhile since we last had SPAM, so I felt like having SPAM sandwiches. I cut the SPAM with a flower cutter before frying it.

The bread was cut with the same cutter too.

Cut some cheese with this Rilakkuma cutter.

Then, I stacked the cheese on SPAM sandwiches.

Some details were added with bits smoked cheese and kamaboko.

More details are added in, including punched nori.

After that, I slotted in some corns and fruits in the bento, and here they are:

My gal’s bento

This bento belongs to my boy.

Most of my friends are still enjoying their CNY holiday, but over here in Thailand, we don’t have public holiday during CNY. Our kids can’t skip school for too many days. Their teachers reminded us that they will be having their exams next week, and it’s best to be back to school for revision. As you know, our kids are in Thai school, so we rely on the teachers to blush up their Thai language. I certainly can’t help them much with their school work!

So, we’re sort of like getting back to our normal routine, in a holiday mood. I was having a hard time getting out of bed early this morning, even the stainless steel drums won’t wake me up because I’m still pretty tired after the trip to Hua Hin. But anyway, today’s bentos are not complicated, and I managed to get them ready just in time.

What I had in mind  was Humpty Dumpty, and I fixed the character with quail eggs. I added a heart candy in the bentos, and my kids were thrilled with it.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall in my boy’s bento.

My gal’s Humpty Dumpty

As you can see, I was going through some blog diarrhea these 2 days. I’ve almost done with all my pending blogging job, so next will be my office work.

If I have some time this afternoon, I will start sorting out the 700++ photos taken over the weekend. I’m in charged of creating and printing our annual family album again, and distributing them out to other family members. What a heavy task huh? LOL!

It’s going to be a busy busy day for me.

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.

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:

I packed something simple for the kids today. It’s just sandwiches cut and decorated as sugarbunnies. The bread was cut with sugarbunny rice mold and sugarbunny veggie cutter respectively to avoid food wastage (tools are shown here and here). For a piece of white bread, I can cut out a big sugarbunny, and 2 smaller ones. The tiny flowers were cut from striped cheese and artificial crab meat with these plungers, and my boy helped me with it. He enjoys playing with these new tools. LOL!

So, here are the bentos:

My boy’s sugarbunny bento

My gal will have the tiny bunnies instead.

I topped some jam with a toothpick for their ears. They are tiny and cute huh?

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Oh well, not exactly fruity as I packed some sweet potatoes too.

Some times, I will just pack fruits in my kids’ after school bento, especially on busy mornings. My kids are not so into greens, so I’m making sure that they have enough fiber and vitamins from fruits. I really missed those days when they were not so picky about veggies!

Most of the time, I don’t decorate their fruit bentos. But since I had some time to kill this morning, I fixed them a nicer fruity bento as shown below:

My gal’s fruity bento.

This bento belongs to my boy.

I left a lot of gap between the fruits so that I could easily rearrange them before closing the lid.

Ah…again, it took more than half an hour to upload these 2 bento photos.