Compilation

Hello...

I am so so busy lately (it is a lame excuse, I know...) but it was genuinely tricky to find some time for me to sit down and update this blog.

About a week ago, all 3 of our angels fell ill at the same time. They got stomach flu. A kind of disease that many kids have recently. They slowly get well now, while one kid has faster recovery speed than another. However, I find bento-making is really help me to ease the tension. 

So, here they are

I being told about a bakery that sells white bread in cute form aside from regular bread and cakes. They have in form of Mickey Mouse's face, Winnie the Pooh's (the one that I bought) and Hello Kitty's. That's what I saw. I don't know if they are making something else. The shop is nearby my house so I just looked around and purchased one pack. 

I just smeared one piece with mayonnaise after buttered-pan-fried for few minutes, then to put chicken floss, before to sandwiched it with the second piece. Kids just love it. I am not sure if they love the shape of bread or my choice for bread's filling. I hope it is both :)

 

The plan to do bibimbap was stored quite some time in my agenda, I meant for adult. Because in previous time, I made bento bibimbap for kids.

So, my hubby is lucky enough to get this for his lunch.

I made it with all quick sauteed of beef minced, bean sprout, string beans, carrots, baby corn and red bell pepper on top of white rice. They are nicely covered with sunny side up fried egg. He definitely love it and to eat it with gochujang.

I just forgot to sprinkle sesame seed for final touch >,<

Another bakery that I found in my house's area, is selling purple and green toast bread. They are made from purple sweet potato and pandan leaves.

Whenever, I passed it by, I like to buy them. During one hot afternoon, while everyone is taking a nap, I made this for my big boy. 

The bread is stuffed with chicken floss. From purple bread, I made a cute bear, while from green one, I made a silly frog. The rest of the facial expressions are using cheese sheet and nori. On their side is a couple of gyoza and halved of quail egg.

Get well soon, my angel *kiss kiss*

--I blame my shaky hand for the blurred picture--

It is time to return to school after the sick leave.

Since I still have some purple and green bread left, I just add some tamagoyaki (I love making tamagoyaki, don't know why..), cherry tomatoes and grapes.

Wish you a nice day in school.

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Then to Taiwan

Bersambung....

Hari ketiga, pindah ke Taiwan, tepatnya ke Taichung.

Beberapa tahun yang lalu, pernah sih ke Taipei *kerja juga* trus ga pernah ke Taichung.

First timer lagi deh...

Dari Hong Kong airport, take off harusnya jam 12 siang.

Penumpang semua dah duduk, tutup pintu, pesawat mundur.... eee, balik lagi lho.. Pilot bilang ada masalah di mesin sisi kiri, mau dicek dulu, mungkin delay 30 menit. 

By the way, gue pergi ke Taiwan bareng sama manager dari representative office di Hong Kong. Anyway, gue juga punya kebiasaan aneh kalo naik pesawat for business travelling. Begitu pesawat bergerak mundur, gue langsung doa dan langsung pules, even saat pesawatnya masih di runway. Jadi gue jarang merasa pesawat lepas landas. Maybe karena selama gue trip, kadang masih ngantuk karena kepagian bangun atau kecapean pindah-pindah kota, gue jadi punya 'hobi' tidur di pesawat waktu take-off.

Jadi, waktu itu gue pules beneran. Pas bangun sejam kemudian, colleague gue -yang duduk di samping gue- bilang "kita masih di Hong Kong airport" wkwkwkwk...! Dua jam kemudian baru kita take-off beneran. Selama nunggu, penumpang engga ada yang ngomel-ngomel lho...mereka duduk aja diem2. Ada juga beberapa yang jalan2 ke toilet atau sekedar mondar-mandir. Ada 1 keluarga yang gue perhatiin, connecting flightnya pasti kena karena delay. Mereka lapor ke pramugari nya trus mereka langsung urusin reschedule gitu. Engga jelas juga lah ya gue ngupingnya karena gue juga sambil ngerasa laper.... >,<!

Sampai di Taoyuan airport, naik shuttle bus NTD30 ke Taoyuan 桃園 train station untuk naik Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR = 台灣高鐵) NTD540 ke Taichung 台中 train station. Dari situ, kita naik taxi deh ke hotel.

Kira-kira kaya gini deh train station nya

 

Trainnya bersih banget. Transportasi ini efisien sekali. Untuk perbandingan, kalau naik mobil, dari Taoyuan ke Taichung bisa sekitar 1.5 sampai 2 jam deh. Dengan THSR, cuma 38 menit saja. Cepet banget ya. 
Kita berdua udah kelaperan banget, sampai di Taichung train station kita makan dulu deh. 

dessert

dinner

Itu nasi, warnanya pink dari saos tomat, trus ditutup telur dadar tipis. Sisi sebelahnya disiram krim. Di atasnya ditaburi kacang polong dan kismis. Di pinggirnya ada brokoli rebus dan 2 potong pepaya! kombinasi yang aneh emang ya...tapi enakkk... *entah beneran enak atau sebagian alasannya karena gue uda laper berat*

Oya, karena gue engga makan daging, colleague gue kadang bingung, makan apa kalo lagi trip? yaa..gampang aja ... kaya gini lah breakfast gue di hotel
 

Selain itu kan masih ditambah telur, roti, pancake, dll. Survived deh pokoknya :D

Makan siang ... enak :)

salad sayuran dengan tomat, keju dan jambu biji (di paling kanan)!

Pumpkin soup with zucchini. Bread roll with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

tart blueberry and mango

Gue demen liat cake di Taiwan.
Cake shop mereka artistik banget bikin kue-kuenya

tart cake with green tea macaroon and white chocolate (left) and mango mousse with cubed mango (right)

Bikin ngiler gak sihhh... *nelen ludah*
Harganya sekitar NTD110 (1 NTD = Rp. 330)
Kelihatannya kecil, tapi pas dimakan, bikin kenyang juga :b

Waktu di Hong Kong, sempet melewati cake shop kecil di area Jordan MTR

Sama aja kan? sama-sama bikin ngiler 

Kelar kerja, dinner sama customer.
Kaga sempet foto, karena tengsin *hahaha* kalo mau foto makanan. Sebab, makan bertujuh, gue doang sendirian cewek. Colleague gue uda bapak-bapak alias lebih tua daripada gue. Sisanya 5 cowok-cowok itu brondong semua.. 

Beres makan, diajak ke tempat original bubble milk tea (珍珠奶茶 = zhēnzhū nǎichá) pertama kali buka di Taichung. 

Enakkk...

Tempatnya seperti restoran biasa. Gelasnya pakai beling, kecuali untuk take away, dan yang gue minum itu size regular. Coba dibayangin gimana yang size large....pake gelas serupa gelas beer dan yang pasti lebih gede lah ukurannya dibandingkan yang ini.

snack tumis jamur, ham goreng dan spicy edamame

Lucunya, di situ juga ada menu snack. Jadi tamu di situ minum milk tea sambil ngemil dan ngobrol lama.
Bubble nya ternyata ada 2 pilihan, mau yang kecil atau besar. Tentunya sedotannya juga disesuaikan :b

Udah segitu aja cerita soal trip nya.
Setelahnya pulang ke Jakarta via Hong Kong lewat rute persis kebalikannya.

See ya in next trip 
:-)

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Bento for Field Trip

Hi dear....

Today their school is having a field trip for elementary students. They will go to Pinisi Edutainment Park. It is a theme park designed for 2-16 years old. We never been to the this park before but it sounds fun! The idea is to entertain the kids while at the same time to introduce and preserve Indonesian heritage.

The twins were excited. This morning they admitted to have less-than-sound asleep, waited to have morning be arriving very soon. For days before, they have been talking about this trip frequently. They have no idea whatsoever about this particular park.

I will get their point of view some time later in the evening. 

These are the bento that I have prepared for their exciting trip. 

for miss L

for mister J

What's inside:

Kaiser rolls (frozen bought) with garlic n herb butter (in colored cups), edamame pieces (in animal cups), blanched broccoli and flowered carrot, pan fried chicken nuggets and flowered sausages, some cute kamaboko (Hello Kitty -not shown, behind the nuggets- and Pokemon), an apple, mini oreos and M&M's (in silicon cups).

I imagined they will have a more lengthy road-travel than normally they do. They can open up their boxes on their way and share the foods with some friends. That is another reason why I put bigger portion than usual and all -considered- finger foods inside their boxes.

for mister B

Mister B doesn't join them to this field trip, but it just makes sense for me to prepare the same bento theme for him. I just reduced the portion a little bit. He will finish it well.

it's mine. Meatless version

Call me lucky, to get some left-overs, that I named this as my breakfast.

See ya later alligators  {^,^}

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Breakfast on birthday

It is simply said, today is my birthday...
Oh it is 29th already? It was yesterday, then.

#249

 

What's inside

Vegetable omelette with bacon, croissant and purple sweet potato pudding.

OK, the breakfast was actually be eaten by kids. They are in Easter holiday right now.

 

Nothing beats a love letter from a daughter as the coolest birthday gift!

She aware for missing the "h" but I simply love it :)

Thank you for all the good wishes received by short messages, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

I feel so blessed

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Bento - some late posts and his diet

Hi there,

The net connection was down since last Monday.

I wonder why it has problem when I had many things to post. LOL

Well, to begin with, I made bento for kids' late lunch during last weekend. 

I made an extra box -just like this one- for a friend since we visited their house for playdate.

bento 246

What's inside

Baked salmon in alu foil, blanched broccoli, fried rice, Hello Kitty kamaboko and apples.

Lately, I love to bake this and that.

For salmon, I rubbed it with salt, pepper and mixed dried herb (parsley, oregano, thyme - didn't notice what else inside- found this ready bought package in a supermarket). I drizzled the salmon with olive oil and inserted a sliced of lemon on salmon, just between the skin and alu foil. I did it all onto foil surface, then just wrapped it and put into the oven. Using 200 C in about 20 min, the salmon will be done and smell wonderful.

In middle of baking time, I put sliced red and yellow bell pepper in tin pan next to the wrapped salmon in oven.

While waiting for the salmon, I made fried rice. Simply done, using white rice, some bites of vegetarian ham, egg being scrambled and shredded bell peppers. At the same time, Hello Kitty kamaboko and edamame were being boiled, also some sliced apples being soaked into salty water.

When all done, put salmon, bell pepper, broccoli, lettuce, fried rice, edamame and apples in place. Voila! it's so yummy {^,^}

Next ......

Bento for some lazy busy mornings

Remember my story about the Bakery and Meat shop? 

I got some chocolate rolls and croissants in store, frozen of course. They needed to be re-heated by oven within 5 minutes on 180-200 C.

bento 247 mister J

bento 247 miss L

What's inside

Chocolate roll, butter croissant, a cup of sliced rock melon and grapes, two quail eggs, purple sweet potato and garlic n herb butter in tiny cup. 

I let the kids know that they can smear the butter onto croissant. They came home and told me that some of their friends have bits of croissant. Some preferred the croissant while others preferred the butter. Some even said to my kids "you always have the 'strangest' lunches" I take that as a compliment \>,</

As a bonus, mister J loved his lunch. 

He normally didn't like to find bread in his box.

Last one for today, I promise.

Hubby is thinking to get himself into a diet program. Well, it is about time, I suppose. He is currently very overweight. Although looks healthy, I am deeply concerned for his general condition in the long run. I couldn't force him to change his way of eating until he decides himself to do so.

A type of diet that he is considering now involving 2 steps.

First step is to have 2 weeks free of carbohydrate meals. Meaning, yup..no carbohydrate at all, including pasta, potato, and friends. Fruits are out from meal-plan too. Basically, vegetables (except carrot and tomato), legumes, olive/canola oil, white egg and other kinds of protein (like tofu, tempeh, we have the list) are allowed. Oh yes, no sugar too! You can cross out tea and coffee, only plain water. You can have garden salad without dressing. Looks tough? How about if I say, you can get rid from 4 to 6 kg of your weight, within 2 weeks time? \^o^/

I do not yet put too much attention for second step, since he is in doubt if he can manage first step very well. He is quite hooked with carbohydrate, none of his days will be passed on without any white rice or noodle. So....he is not firmly decide yet to follow the program, but he would like to try.

Bento 248

What's inside

Baked skinless boneless chicken breast (using the same method as salmon's on above-omit the lemon), stir-fried (with just some drops of oil) veggies: green beans, baby corn, yellow and red bell peppers, steamed white egg with frozen corn and green peas in papercup, some edamame and lettuce.

Both stir-fried veggie and white egg were seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper only.

I added both yellow and red bell pepper to give a color highlight (carrot is usually my rescue) otherwise his box will be too dull.

It looks yummy. 

It smells delicious  

Most importantly, he loved it *yay...dancing around the kitchen*

So, if he sees carb-free meal isn't so bad, perhaps he will SERIOUSLY consider the program. Hahaha...

When he says yes, I will partly participate just to support him.

I don't have problem with my weight and to get carb-free meals but I care so much for sweets. When the time comes, ehm..bye bye my cappuccino and cheesecakes...Ouch!

How is your day so far ?

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