Fun In A Box

Woot! Finally it is Thursday! Tomorrow will be the start of the long weekend where all our Muslim friends will celebrate Hari Raya (Muslim New Year). Though I am all excited (coz hubby will be off till Monday so I can pass the kids to him!) but on second thought ‘why should I be excited about?’ Well, initially we decided to go to Ipoh (a city about 1.5 hours drive away) to visit some relatives and to pig out (Ipoh has the great White Coffee and best Chicken Rice stick Noodles or known as Ipoh Sar Hor Fun) but my dad said he can’t confirm if he will be going with my mom. So, it kinda dampen the spirit a bit. Been 3 months since I last saw the two of them. If we don’t go to Ipoh, we’ll probably rot at home! *bleah~*

Anyhow, I did not cook rice for lunch today as I wanted to finish all the bread rolls and bread in the house before the holiday starts. And here are what Darrius has for his lunch…

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Hehe… yes, froggies again! My favorite Sanrio characters is Keroppi so I always have the tendencies to do all the froggies coz I love their big eyes!

I bought a packet of the mini buns on Tuesday for Darrius and Baby G and we still have some left so I cleared them by doing some mini burgers again. However, the filling for this round is much simpler, just the patties, lettuce and cheese because I ran out of the regular size tomatoes. I did not cut the bread completely so you can see they kind of tilted. The eyes are made of green lunch sheet, cheese and nori while the cheeks are made of orange lunch sheet. For the lips, I used artificial crab meat.

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In the other box are the goodies. There are some chicken nuggets, a few endamame skewers, a red cherry tomato, some red seedless grapes and a bucket of red and white dragon fruit balls.

Not sure if I will make any bento for the next few days so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim readers a Selamat Hari Raya Adil Fitri, Maaf Zahir Batin! May you have lots of joy, laughter and fun with your family and friends during the festival.

And to the rest of my readers… Happy Bento-ing!

While preparing for dinner earlier, I decided to pan fried the 2 types of sesame seeds which I’ve just bought. My mom was telling me to do so before storing them. Then after I was done, I ground the black ones as I wanted to use it for cooking baby’s food. Mom said that it is better if I grind them as baby can absorb the nutrient from the black sesame seeds.

Then an idea struck me. Hey! I can do a koala bear using some ground black sesame! The koala also represent Baby G who has been a clingy baby of late…

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Ok, you won’t believe that this is also another speedy bento because I have to rush since Baby G woke up while I was about to start doing the onigiri! Therefore, I have to quickly wrap all the parts and assemble before she gets bored waiting for me on her playing mat.

The nose was a small portion of rice wrapped with nori and the eyes are cheese with nori. For the ears, I used some white rice too. I used some spaghetti stripes to hold the ears, nose, hand and legs. The goodies included: some red seedless grapes, strawberry, stir-fried Chinese brussel sprouts with dried prawns and steamed ribs in preserved soy bean paste.

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So happened Darrius has a koala bag given by my aunt when we visited Perth last year (just realized that it has been one year already as we went there during the Hari Raya holiday!!).

And here is a shot of the real koala at the Marapana Wildlife Park in Mandurah, Perth, Australia…

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Ah…. don’t you think the koalas are the cutest living thing???? Oh yeah, though they are called a bear but they are not a bear! They are actually a type of marsupial (like the kangaroo) as they also have a pouch on their tummy to keep their babies! Marsupials are largely found only in Australia.

Pheeeeeew! We survived the past 2 days without much incidents! It was chaotic no less! I brought the kids out groceries shopping the whole of yesterday morning and had McD for lunch so Darrius can have fun at the indoor playground. Then after Baby G had her nap we went to 100Yen to check for new stock… (*o*)

As I am expecting the delivery guy today, decided to stay home and wait for him and he came while I was typing this post! Will make another post to show you my loot!

Since we are at home, I made a morning snack bento for Darrius while Baby G was napping. Bought some butter rolls the other day after lunch with hubby and they came in handy…
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Made a simple Stegosaurus using the butter roll with cheese as the plates on the back. I just have to make a slit across the bun and slot in triangular shaped cheese bits. Boiled 2 chunky cocktails and some snap peas which acted as some ancient plants! There is a small section of pearl corn on the cob and some strawberries.

This is another of my newly acquired collapsible sandwich box which I found while shopping at the hypermarket. This one cost slightly more than one third of the price of my Suzy Zoo collapsible box since it was made in China and not Japan but good enough for Darrius! At least I won’t feel heart pain if he break it!

Have added this to WFLW Week 15 at Shannon’s. Have you add yours yet?

Before I end this post, I would like to share with you about a new bento store a fellow bento friend has just set up. She is having a giveaway on her site to celebrate this occasion. So, if you are still new to packing bento and do not have much accessories yet, maybe you can try your luck by entering the giveaway. Good Luck!

Today is the first day of mid term school holiday so I’ll be stuck with 2 screaming kids for the next few days until Friday which is the Muslim’s New Year when hubby will get off till Monday.

This morning hubby called asking if we would like to have lunch together? I agreed as I intended to bring the kids out shopping so killing one 2 birds with one stone. Since I don’t know where we’ll be eating so I thought I’ll just pack something for Darrius since I won’t know what is suitable for him.

When we reached hubby’s office, the storm came and every where was so jammed packed with cars going to places with sheltered parking. There were limited sheltered parking here so you can imagine the long queues! Since we have a baby so we have limited choices when it comes to places to dine so ended up at the cafeteria in one of the shopping malls. The place was so crowded and queues were long for most stalls. So, was really lucky that I decided to pack a bento for Darrius!

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I steamed 2 plain mini mantou well as some endamame. Also packed a slice of pork patty with 2 meat balls with home made terriyaki sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds which I purposely made into elongated shape so I can use those bone picks. There was a strawberry and a red cherry tomato for Vit C. It was a speedy bento as I don’t have time to do much decorations (baby was screaming while I was packing) so I used some cute vege barans to brighten the box up.

That’s all for today… wishing you a great week ahead!

Last night I did not cook dinner as hubby wanted to bring me for beef noodles at a near by restaurant after our trip to the city to purchase moon cakes. Darrius who took almost 1.5 hours to finished his lunch earlier was still full then so he refused to eat the beef noodles.

Later in the late evening he asked for some bread with Planta so I decided to pack him a bento instead with some of his favorite items in it…

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I bought some wieners/frankfurters so decided to make those sunflowers which I have been wanting to do for a long time after seeing them in some Japanese blogs.

I use the flower cutter and cut out 4 flowers from each slice of bread (used a total of 2 slices) and stacked them up with Plata spread on every slice. Then I cut out some nectarines using the same flower cutters and used them to top the deck of flower bread. Details of eyes and mouths are cheese and nori.

As for the sunflowers, I used half of the wiener (as the petals) on each flower wrapping half a chicken cocktail which I cut the surface into small squares. Secured the wiener using a pick. There are 2 strawberries which I cut and make flowers out of them with a small dried blueberry to act as the centre. There is another slice of nectarine flower at the far end which I decorated with nori.

I would like this opportunity to share with my readers here about the up coming festival that related to eating moon cakes, the Mid Autumn Festival here in Malaysia. This is the time of the year where the Chinese will buy moon cakes to celebrate the occasion. Mid Autumn is celebrated on the 15th day of the Eight month on the Lunar Calendar which normally falls on September.

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Besides the moon cakes, another item that comes hand in hand is of course the lanterns! Normally the adults will savor the moon cakes under the full moon while the kids lit their lanterns and go around the neighborhood. It is indeed a very fun time for the kids especially during the olden days when most are staying in ‘kampung‘ or villages. However, kids these days don’t get to enjoy as much since most of them stay in the cities and are being locked up at home most of the time. They only get together with relatives on the actual night for dinner and later enjoy the sight of full moon while sipping tea and nibbling on moon cake.

At our place, most of our neighbors are adults and Darrius is pretty lonely when it comes to festival like this. We will try to bring him to community centres where they hold community functions to celebrate the festivals. We hope to bring him to some this year since he missed the one last year as I was pregger with Baby G and we were in Perth during the 2 weeks leading to Mid Autumn.

Here are some colorful sights of the beautifully made lanterns on sale…

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Hope you enjoyed the sharing of the Mid Autumn Festival!

Last night I did not cook any dinner as my hubby bought some food from the hawker as well as to finish the pot of ‘chue-keok-choh’ (pig trotter in black vinegar) that he cooked the previous night. I dare not eat too much so I opted for the ‘char-kwey-teow‘ or CKT and assam laksa instead. Hubby bought a packet of asam laksa for Darrius too but for don’t know what reasons, the soup was exceptionally spicy yesterday so I decided to make some sandwiches for the boy instead.

Not much ideas flowing since I spent the earlier part of the day doing the Merdeka bento!

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Ended up doing the froggies based on the new table runner I found at 100Yen. I made 2 bread onigiri filled with egg mayo. The onigiri were not round enough as I was lazy to cut into round shape so it was a square piece hence can’t really hide the sides well. I dare not squeeze too much else the egg mayo will be squashed out from the bread.

I cut the froggies from lunch sheets (heads, mouths and cheeks) and the eyes are from the boiled egg white used for the egg mayo. Details are nori cut-outs.

Goodies in the box includes some seedless grapes, broiled broccoli, a small sections of pearl corn on cob, a strawberry and a cheese cube.

Can’t believe it is mid-week already! Another 2 more days and it is weekends again! Woohooo!

Merdeka!!!

Today, we celebrate Malaysia’s 53rd year of independence. Though I am not that patriotic myself but I do have the duty to instill patriotism into my little boy’s mind. During the week leading to today, he has learned a little the meaning of  independence from his school and they even did some exercises and craft work to celebrate the occasion.

The theme for this year is 1-Malaysia which simply means, we as a nation should live as ONE. As most of you know, Malaysia is a multinational country and we live harmoniously as one nation and respect each other cultures and beliefs. Malaysia is made up of three main races; the Malay, Chinese and Indian. We have other minorities races too but they are small in numbers.

Today is indeed a historical day and how could I miss this opportunity to make my boy a Malaysia Independence Day Bento?
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I made Darrius 2 boys and one girl onigiri (that is the max amount of rice he can take!!!) and packed with some goodies. The 3 onigiri symbolises the 3 main races in Malaysia. There was a small section of pearl corn on the cob, 2 skewers of endamame and 2 skewers of meat balls, some broccoli and strawberries. Added soy sauce to the rice for the onigiri. For the boys and girl’s hair, I used some black sesame to do the job since cutting nori can be a tough job! I only cut out nori for the facial details. They have dabs of ketchup on their cheeks.

Was really lucky that I found some Malaysian flags at my regular baking supplies shop which is so app for today’s theme! And those hat picks added colors and brighten up the bento!

And here is the boy with his 1-Malaysia bento and his Merdeka cap…

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Wishing all my Malaysian readers a Happy Merdeka Day!

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Update:

I have added this to WFLW at Shannon’s. Rememeber to add yours!

You know, when you shopped too much, it made you lazy!
I’ve been so busy checking out all the stuff at 100 Yen that my head started to spin! Not that I am buying that much but I have been doing a lot of planning for Darrius’s up coming birthday end of this year (gotta plan ear coz my kids’ birthdays are only a week apart!). So happened 100 Yen has some of the stuff I intend to get for his birthday’s goodies bags so I have to go from shop to shop to get them! *phew* This is hard work! Want to thanks HK for helping get some of them and passed to me at my door step!
Anyhow, there was not much inspiration last weekend (spent all my time shopping and eating out!) so I did not do any bento until this morning after I managed to put Baby G to nap. Since I still have some of the burger patties left, I decided to do a triple deck sammy with double layers of cheese. Darrius has not been taking much of his milk so I upped his cheese intake recently.

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Between the 2 cheese sammies I add a burger pattie with a slice of Romaine lettuce and topped it off with a pan fried half a chicken cocktail flower. Added endamame as the leafs. The other goodies in the box - a small section of pearl corn on the cob, 2 skewers of endamame, some red seedless grapes, strawberries, broiled broccoli and a cocktail heart. A very simple meal.

I’m using my new lion table mat which I got a few weeks back but forgot all about it which I used a lion pick to go with… so cute right?
That’s all for today… hope you are having fun bento-ing!

Ok, so sorry peeps for not able to post this up earlier as yesterday was a public holiday here so Darrius was off from school. However, most of the MNCs do not observe this particular day as a holiday so my hubby still has to work. Therefore, I am stuck with 2 kids from morning till hubby came back around lunch time. And you can guess how havoc that can be coz Baby G woke up at 6.30am and Darrius at 7am!

Darrius bugged me for the PC the moment he sees me. This boy… to him holiday means is computer day! To ward him off I have to send him to watch the idiot box and asked him to clean up the mess he created the night before. Baby G on the other hand was crying non stop and refused to play any toys… *sigh* her voice is so husky now and when I called my dad, he asked if she has been crying… Then I have a few writing jobs to be completed hence I was totally knackered last night!

Anyway, I was supposed to post some of the photos I took at 100Yen Sunshine Far Lim where I got my loots the other day. The lady boss was kind to let me snap some of the bento stuff that they have just brought in upon our conversation a few weeks back. Now she has more sections in the small shop dedicated for bento gadgets. YEAH!!
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Though I have most of the items but I still can’t resist buying… especially picks!!! My tool boxes are full again and now I have to get another to put the new picks!!!! ~$~

Also, good news for 100Yen Loyalty Card holder. They are having Merdeka Sale from today (28th August) till Malaysia Independence Day (31st August). Members who bought RM50 and above in a single receipt is entitle for 5% off their purchases and also get a free shopping bag, a chance to enter their Merdeka lucky draw to win a 4 feet high Penguin stuff toy!

And here is my loot…

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Ooops!!!!

Looked more like I was being robbed instead!
Well, about a month back, when I was in one of the store I met up with the store’s owner and asked her why the bento section of the store has only limited stock? She told me she tried to order and bring more items but unsure what to stock up so I told her about my find on another fanchise in KL and told her to take a peek.

And I was more than happy to discover what she managed to stock up when I popped by this afternoon after lunch.