White Tiger

Bento No. 79

I made a tiger bento per my boy's request.  It's a white tiger with a cute cap and a letter "T" for the tiger! :)  Just pure coincident.  I have been using my new foodpicks I purchased from http://jmamababy2.blogspot.com/. And I realised these foodpicks are more pointed and has sharper tip.  He has blanched broccolli/carrot, baked salmon and green grapes.

Snail

Bento No. 78

Have you ever spotted a snail in your neighbourdhood?  That is what I always did together with my son.  Snail is a rare sight in housing estate and I snapped this picture immediately when we saw a moving one here. 

I intended to just make a sushi bento for my boy and in the last few seconds after I have almost assembled everything in the lunchbox.  He said he wanted a snail lunchbox.  So I inserted two strips of Japanese cucumber to the tamagoyaki as its tentacles. I asked him "does it look like a snail?"  With a big smile, he said "yes!".   Guess, we do not need too much of decorating a bento because the image is in his tiny head.   Accompanied in his bento, he has watermelon (with leaf picks), baked salmon sushi with Japanese cucumber and edamame.

Acrobatic Pandas and smiling flowers

Bento No. 77

I have been reading about Japanese dish called soboro (means finely chopped meat) and seems that most kids grow up eating it.  And I like it because of the contrast of colours used in this dish.  Well, overall verdict from my little boy is not so good.  I guess so because the chicken soboro does taste more gingery.  Probably due to the fact that I reduced the amount soya sauce and sugar.  Oops, wrong judgement!  The only consolation is that the lunch looks pretty with the acrobatic pandas and smiling flowers:)  I shall try again next time.

We were holiday-ing in Melaka over the vesak day weekend.  It is dry and hot in the city and the locals told us that it has not rained for a month.  Luckily, the Philea resort (Ayer Keroh)  is air-conditioned and has a nice pool.  The water is warm as a result of the hot weather and my boy had so much fun at the pool nonetheless.  Best part for me, of course, no housework, cooking and washing! 

Now back to reality.  Chauffuer my prince to school and upon returning home, my car started to wobble and was creating loud knocking noise on the rear.  Scary and I stopped on the road shoulder along PIE.  Upon checking, a flat tire!  My first experience of flat tire too!

Dinosaurs - Stegosaurus

 When I was searching ideas for dino cakes for my son's 3rd birthday in April, I chanced upon this website http://www.abakedcreation.com/2009/12/how-stegosaurus-birthday-cake.html using fondant to make little cute dinos.  I decided to try my hands using the brown rice to mould a similar one as below.  I did not used a lot of rice becauce I knew my boy could not finish it (based on past experience, so why waste it!) So I made a little one but apparently, mine is too small and looked like it is being squashed!  The orange plates and spikes on its tail can hardly been seen.

In the bento, I put in the baked salmon with teriyaki sauce, blanched broccolli/carrot, grapes and a strawberry.





Bento No. 76






Check out my new addition benton accessories that just arrived today.  Hehe, I love collecting them and it is an addiction before I know it ;)

Fried rice with ham

Bento No. 75

Fried rice with ham and I had added long bean and carrots too.  On top of that, two broccolli florets together with some watermelon and grapes.  I learnt the fried fried rice with ham from my elder sister-in-law in Perth when my son was still a seven month old baby.  This is a quick fix for any leftover ham.  My son love anything other than white rice.  Guess this would certainly suit his palate.  I tried to sprinkle some pork floss to make a star but it does not produce the contrast that can be visible. 

Choo Choo Train

Bento 74

Polling day fell on the 7th and Mother's day was on the 8th concidentally!  Not much of excitment on polling day.  I went in the morning and people were steadily streaming in.  Very quickly, I crossed the box and left swiftly  for my dimsum breakfast at Changi Village.  Thereafter,  we headed to Serene Center for the ice-cream at the Island Creamery shop and also had our lunch at a French eatery. A new discovery.   Nice, no service charge or GST !  Guess this is my proper Mother's Day celebration.  The next day I was busy cleaning my house because my part-time cleaner did not turn up due to a tooth ache.

I prepared a similar or looked alike choo choo train bento previously.  The filling for the sandwich is ham, cheddar cheese, tomatoes slice, spinach and some cucumbers.

Froggies

Bento No. 73

   

 

I boiled some green and red carrot soup and it gives me an idea to make two froggies from the green carrot using the bear rice mould. The eyes are made from cheese and the rest is from nori.  The two lovely frogs are resting on brown rice drizzle with some char siew sauce.  For the first time, I roasted my own char siew yesterday evening and it turned out surprisingly good.  Thanks to "JUST BENTO" where I saw the receipe.  And the leftover, I packed it in my boy's lunchbox.  I also added some carrot flowers and round cucumbers together with dragonfruits and crimson grapes. 

Gingerbread man

Bento No. 72

Gingerbread man not in a biscuit or cookie form but in my son's bento!   Ya, I cut it from the emmental cheese using the cookie cutter.  Simple!  And look, his eyes dazzle with a smiling face.  Today is bowtie pasta with tomato sauce and some green peas and corn kennels to make it more colourful.  My boy also has orange and grapes to go with it.

Elephant

Bento No. 71

Today we celebrated Mother's Day at the preschool.  My little boy massaged and did hair spa for me :)  There are four season fragrance for the organic oil used for massaging.  I chose Autumn and coincidentally, three other mommies in the same class as my son had selected the same as me.  We had lots of fun and the little ones too! 

For his lunch, I made an elephant onigiri and stuffed it with minced meat and egg tofu and I added cauliflower on the side but to my disappointment, he did not eat it.  In addition, he has also blanched caixin, dragonfruits and crimson grapes. 

Sushi Bento



Bento No. 70

 Another sushi bento and meatless! I love packing sushi bento for my son lunchbox because it is less oily compared chinese stir-fry. Although it is meatless, little prince still need some protein.  Therefore, I prepared some tamagoyaki and put some in the filling of sushi which has imitation crabstick and Japanese cucumber.  On the side, he also has edamame, oranges and grapes.

Polling day is just around the corner and the PAP visited our block yesterday.  Having stayed here for more than 10 years, this is the first time, we have a handshake with them (Mr Sin Boon Ann who is retiring and a new face, Mr Heng Swee Keat).  I hardly seen them around our neighbourdhood except Irene Ng, who is a more familiar figure because she appeared in a lot of community activities at the Round market which we always 'makan' there.  My hubby is more thrilled than me though.  And our little boy, not so sure, who are these 'Uncles' but was privilleged to get the handshake.