Parrot (Skully) and DIY gift for Teacher's Day



Bento No. 241

Apart from dinosaurs and cars, my son's other fave is pirates!  So I created 'Skully', the parrot which appeared on the Disney Junior show - Jake and the Never Land Pirates.   It was made with two type of toast; carrot and spinach toast from Crystal Jade Bakery. Nori for the headscarf.  Separate egg yolk and white around the eyes besides the nori and cheese.  Strawberry jam for the red colour on its tail.  It was sandwiched with his favourites; ham and emmental cheese.  Along with it, he also got a checker apple, green kiwi, skewers of tomatoes and cucumbers.

 

Inspired by Alicia Tan, one of the Mom blogger of her DIY gifts for Teacher's Day, I began to work on mine too!  I went to Daiso to shop for the items needed for creating a notebook.  Unfortunately, I could not see any pretty cloth to my likings.  Hence, I settled with a cherry iron-on patch, colourful drawing papers for the insert and thicker white drawing paper for the cover of similiar size.  Using the poka dots fabric tape that I previously purchased, I sticked it onto the cover and completed with a cute cherry iron-on patch with my little helper.  Holding his small hands firmly on the tape as well making sure the boy did not get burned by hot pressing iron!  The difficult part of the task for myself would be piercing needle holes for the cover and inserts together for the sewing.  Besides giving it to his English and Chinese teachers, we also baked an eggless chocolate cake for the rest of the staff.  I discovered an easy receipe from Joy of Baking that simply just mixing and pouring.  My son enjoyed the process very much and had a good time tasting all the ingredients. :P  And we did it twice!! Why?  The original idea was making cupcakes which was not a wise choice though.  The chocolate batter dripped all over the cups as he filled it, looking real unpresentable.  In the end, he has also eaten a few that I had to bake a second one.   Instead of cupcakes, I used the square aluminium pan as instructed in the receipe. No drips and messiness.  On the next day, we made letters 'I' and 'U' with sugar flowers and sprinkles for the heart.  For a final touch, we inserted two heart foodpicks and handmade pink poka dots flags.  Lastly, a thank you card with my son's doodles and stickers all over it.  I felt a great sense of accomplishment by DIY-ing for Teacher's Day. 

 

Salute to all teachers and a Happy Teacher's day including homeschooling mum!



DIY notebooks



Eggless Chocolate Cake

 

Thank you card

Bunny Apples

Bento No. 239

Bento No. 240

This week I have been making bunny apple similar bentos.  First lunchbox consisted of baked salmon, cubed garlic toast, mixed vegetables, grapes and bunny apple.  Second bento included baked salmon sushi with cucumbers, tamagoyaki, grapes and buuny apple.

I am nursing a mild cough and flu at home.  Nevertheless, I have finished working on teacher's day cake, gifts and card with my little helper. <Phew> We gave it to them today and hopefully, they like it.  In the past, I will just pop a panadol for quick fix but it does not heal most of the time.  Often, I will consult a Chinese Physician eventually for its non-drowiness medication.  At least, I still can stay awake doing household chores instead of feeling like zombie. Another important reason, I will be able to drive my child to the school everyday safely.  Since it has been raining these few days and I am feeling cold with running nose,  I decided to try out a natural remedy; honey and ginger drink for a week.  Wish me luck!

Bunny

Bento No. 238



This bunny is made with imitation surimi and nori.  My boy has tamagoyaki, blanched cauliflower and carrots to go with soba noodles.  On top of which, I packed his favourite grapes and oranges too. I have adapted the dipping sauce receipe from 'The Just Bento CookBook'.  But I find that it is on the sweet side, quite different from what we ate in the Japanese restaurant here. 

Teacher's day is just around the corner and guess, a lot of mommies would be busy preparing and/or making a gift for the teachers.  Last year, I bought Royce chocolate and had my son drew up a self-made card.  This year, I am thinking of getting him more involve........ In the meantime, I DIY some flag foodpicks and bought the heart-shaped ones from Daiso yesterday.  These are 'ingredients' needed for the preparation. ;)

Happy Bear

Bento No. 237

 

 

The mention of 'burger' for my son's lunchbox, he will go like this - "Yeah! Yeah! I like burger and fries!".  To the extent that he literally have to report to Papa that he got fries in his lunchbag.  He was beaming with joy all the way to his school on Friday. Undeniable, burger and fries are his favourite food. Another reason is that we rarely eat at fast-food outlets.  I baked the fries and chicken patty (which I added some quick oats and seasonings).  Top it with a slice of emmental cheese, fresh tomato and cucumbers.  This multi-grain bun is great for making a bear burger; nori/cheese for its facial expression and cucumbers for its ear.  On the sides, he got his oranges, grapes and of course, baked fries.  Happy indeed!

On Wednesday, the school has an outing to Singapore City Gallery at URA and Jurong MRT station which was part of their learning about buildings and construction workers.  At the City gallery, children were amazed by the sights and sounds. While the officers had to keep reminding the children to keep their hands off the exhibit of miniature models.  The teachers, on the other hand, were trying very best to keep the groups together and at the same time, explain it to the kids. I doubt the children were really paying attention to the teachers.  The next stop was Jurong MRT station where they observed the works at a construction site right next to the station.  Children enjoyed colouring on the floor of MRT without disturbance! Thereafter, we took the train to my Mum's place in Marsiling.  My son loves to visit his grandma and plays with his cousin. 

I did not realise we travelled round the island of Singapore that day until I wrote this blog!!  East ->Central->West->North->East :P

At the City Gallery

Drawing at the Jurong MRT station



Street Art in Georgetown



In my earlier post, I covered the rocking good time staying at Hard Rock Hotel, Batu Ferringhi.  Another highlight of this trip was the hunt for street art by London-trained Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic in Georgetown -  the World Heritage Site.  It was not in our travel plan but we were glad we sighted these fabulous street art.  Thanks to Ming and her hubby who kindly drove us to Georgetown and search for these wall art under the blazing hot sun.  Apparently, it has also attracted a lots of tourists as well as locals to this quaint old town.  We managed to snap some photos but there were still a few more murals to discover.  However, my little boy was then tired and kept telling us that he wanted to go back to the hotel.  It is certainly a heaven for avid photographers and great for instagram! 

 

Reaching Up (near Khoo Kongsi or Cannon Street)

Little Children on a Bicycle (around Lebuh Armenian)

Little Boy with Pet Dinosaur (at Lebuh Ah Quee)

Boy on a Bike (at Lebuh Ah Quee)

Rocking good time in Penang!

I am going to write about my family holidaying at Hard Rock Hotel in Penang over the long weekends during the Singapore National Day, 9 Aug 2012.  Therefore, no bento-ing in this post.

This was our second visit to Hard Rock Hotel.  The main draw for coming back to this hotel is the kid friendly pool with three slides.  The children absolutely love it and the adults too! Much to our pleasure, we were upgraded to a seaview room on arrival without additional charges!  The room are modern with a contemporary feel.  It is adorned with pictures of legendary rock stars like Beatles hanging above our king size bed and another one was inside the bathroom which I did not know who he is.  But according to my hubby, he is Quincy Jones.  Those who are unable to unplug, the resort provides complimentary Wi-Fi.  However, connectivity was disappointing slow.  They offered a lot more services but we did not really go for it. 

My son literally soaked in the swimming pool for hours; morning and evening.  Going for the slides numerous time and he just could not bother to explore the beach or watersports. And it was such a small world that we bumped into his classmate, Jake, who was also holidaying in the same hotel. My boy has so much fun playing 'waterpolo' with them.  His first experience and obviously, did not know how to handle it very well.  On the last day of our stay on Sunday and just before we were about to check out, we were pleasantly surprised by the snake show performed at the pool.  The snake charmer planted a kiss each on the snakes.  My boy bravely held a baby yellow python and patting it like a pet.   He loves it!

What about food?  We had hotel food which included our breakfast and dinner at Starz Diner  Standard buffet spread style. Dinner was a let down and honestly, I would prefer to dine outside the hotel. Nevertheless, Hard Rock lives up to its name. A group of dancer interrupted our meal and began dancing at the buffet spread on Saturday night.  Cool, rocking good time!!



The Beatles



The iconic rock star, Beatles are everywhere even at the pool!

View from our room

Kid friendly pool with slides

 

Father and son enjoyed the seaview first thing in the morning

My new pet?

Beetle

Bento No. 236

My family loves braised pork belly in soya sauce.  I am grateful to Sanku (三姑) who came so often to Singapore working as confinement lady, taught me this delicious dish.  The trick is to pan-fry it without oil with lots of garlic till the greasy oil was oozing out for about 5 minutes.  This is to eliminate the distinct smell of the pork.   For the health conscious me, I sometimes bought the sweet and sour cut with the top layer of fat removed.  The leftover from yesterday dinner - I packed it into my boy's lunchbox today which was well hidden under the brown rice.  Then, I used half of the soya boiled egg to make a beetle.  Cheese for its wings, nori for the head and eyes.  Alongside in the garden, there were buttefly carrots, a floret of broccoli, blanched sugar beans, strawberries and kiwis.

In my earlier blog, I had mentioned my son started the borrowing and lending toys with one of his classmate, Oliver.  It was never ending and he kept bringing all sort of toys home.  And I believe, some of the toys are not cheap that I afraid it might get lost in the transition.  On the other hand, I was concerned if his friend, Oliver, would forget to return my son's toy too.  Too much worry but all in vain.  The two boys were doing fine.  However, I still remind my son to be responsible and accountable for the toys he borrowed.  Here is Mater from the Disney Pixar Cars he borrowed.



Robot boy (my version)

Bento No. 235

It's good to be home after a short holiday in Penang over last weekend.  It was a pleasant and nice break away from Singapore.  And especially away from the hustle and bustle of city life!  The best part of it was no household chores for me!!  We were surrounded by sandy beaches, palm trees, kids-friendly swimming pool and delicious mouth-watering food.  I shall reveal more about the trip when my hubby uploaded the pictures.  Perhaps, it was so relaxing in Penang that my body did not adjust very well when we were back in Singapore.  I felt extremely tired and sleepy for the first two days instead of recharged!  Now, I regain the momentum and back on track as a 'stay-at-home mum' dealing with the daily routines. 

I kept the airline egg sandwich (which we did not finish it) for my son to bring it to school for his lunch on Monday...Shhhh...  After dropping my son at his school, I did my marketing and pick up Nitro from the pet shop.  We miss him a lot though!

The above robot boy was created on Tuesday using fishballs and I secured each parts of the body with dry-fried angelhair.  He has some blanched shanghai greens/carrots and somen as well as kiwis and strawberries.

Happy 47th National Day Singapore!

Bento No. 234

Yeah! Tomorrow is Singapore 47th National Day and I am going to Penang for holidays over the long weekends.  (Finally, I got my break !!) We are going to celebrate the special occasion at the Changi Airport for the first time.  My boy is more excited about the trip to Penang than anything else.  We have been discussing about our national flag and the National Day Parade lately (which I did every year). Last Sunday, I even bought him a red/white T-shirt and shorts which has the letters "SG" printed on it together with Singapore icons like the merlion, flyer and skypark from Kiddy Palace.  He wore it for his 'Culture Day' in school today.   

Needless to say, the bento's theme for today would have something to do with our country - Singapore.  The flag is carved on an apple wedge sitting nicely on top of cara cara oranges.  Not perfect but at least the stars were more visible than last year's bento ;)  What does a toddler knows about National day?  I queried my boy and the answers were 'helicopter and parachute'.  So I decided to make a helicopter with brown rice onigiri.  Strips of cucumbers for the rotor blades and secured it with a musical note foodpick. Stars carrots to mark the celebration.  In addition, there were also blanched cauliflower and french bean to fill the gaps.  Lastly, a lion foodpick that represents Singapore is a Lion City.

Happy Birthday Singapore!!

Baby Triceratop

Bento No. 233

This triceratop has took me a long time to shape using orange cheddar and yellow emmental cheese.  I first sketched it on a paper in order to get the look I wanted. Then, I worked on the cheese itself.  My son was not impressed and only casually mentioned that "it's a baby triceratop".  *Phew*  I thought he was going to say rhinoceros.  Anyway, he has white bread fried egg sandwich topped with tomato slices and cucumbers.  The fruits of the week were dragonfruits and grapes. Ideally and a healthier choice, I would prefer wholemeal bread over white bread.  But my hubby disagreed and argued sandwich should use white bread :0  That was why he bought white bread instead.   Anyway, we have a lot of differences with regards to feeding wholesome and healthy food to my child.

I took a picture of our master bedroom this evening.  Realising evening rays sets in reflecting the greenery outside the window makes the room so cozy and inviting!




Aeroplane and somen

Bento No. 232

Besides soba, we also love somen because it does not become too sticky and dry when left it under room temperature.  It is perfect to pack into his lunchbox.  I first steamed some chicken drumsticks with a bit of bottled chicken rice sauce.  Once it was cooked, I used the stock (from steaming the drumstick) to stir-fry caixin, carrots, crabsticks and prawns.  Then, I added the cooked somen (only after rinsing with cold water and ice cubes) and gave it a good stir.   Tata, a meal on its own topped with bite size chicken drumstick meat! On the upper tier of the panda lunchbox was some dragonfruits in the shape aeroplanes and grapes which I decorated it with a handmade flag. 

"Got mail for me?" My son will ask every time I open the letterbox.  And the next thing, he questioned "Why there is no mail for me?"   Not to disappoint him again and again, I actually requested my mum and my nephew to deliberately post a card to my son once. :P  He was, of course, excited to receive his first mail.  Very happy indeed!  But he still cannot understand why he does not have any mail.  I was so glad when one of his classmate, Oliver, passed him a pink envelope addressed to my son.  There was a tiny piece of paper with colourful doodles on it.  And I exclaimed "Ooh, you've got mail!".  His face was instantly lighted up with joy.  What a better way to start a pen pal!!  Together, we made an envelope and my son did the writings and decorating with stickers yesterday afternoon.  This morning, he brought it to school and 'delivered' to Oliver.