Hello 2015

Hello Everyone,

It's been a while
and within a blink of eyes, we have arrived in year 2015
In fact, today is almost the last day in January. Oh, no...

I've been busy - once again - with usual work
but managed to have one bento for Christmas day.
Alright... it is better late than never, I know...

Our family and Baymax wish you a happy holiday

This bento is eaten by my hubby.

Inside the box:

* White steamed rice, topped with tofu skin

* Baymax was made from fish meatballs, his hat made from halved cherry tomato

* The Christmas tree made from some stalks of blanched broccoli, sprinkled with furikake and topped with cheese star

* Beneath the broccoli is chicken nuggets, store bought and I just deep fried them

* Cherry tomatoes 

* An mandarin bowl of jelly 

I also put a piece of Christmas-themed mini Reese peanut butter cup, for extra sweetness.

A news flash.

Started January 2015, I've moved to a new office.

I am still adapting myself to new working environment, new colleagues including new commuting time. LOL. Previously I only need a 45 minutes to one way drive. It takes me now about 2.5 hrs at the fastest to reach office from home and almost the same amount of hours to get back. Don't ask me how many hours that I ever spent during traffic jam. Trust me, you don't wanna know about it :D I will get use to it someway and somehow.

On the bright side, I become a super morning person.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise (Benjamin Franklin)

On the tricky part, I couldn't yet get myself to make morning bento for my kids' lunches. 
I will need to delegate the task to our nanny.

But, when I miss bento making, I will make one during weekend.

Just like this one

Basically, it is a duck onigiri swimming in a curry (Kare Raisu/カレーライス)
At that time, my kids requested curry for dinner.
I had the curry based on this recipe

What else can I say...

The menu is suitable for rainy days.

It is so yummy, I already received a note from my kids, that they would love to have it again VERY soon :D

Until next time

read more “Hello 2015”

Are we there yet?

Hello all..

Christmas is coming...!
Well, we need to first pass the Thanksgiving :)
Since we do not have a Thanksgiving day in here, I can skip that and jump to Christmas :)

Inside the box:
* white steamed rice, topped with chicken floss and green trees
* flower-y carrots
* chicken meatballs
* edamame
* apples and manggoes
* jellyballs in cups

The green trees were made from egg sheet, with the help of a drop green food colorant.

Inside the box:
* white steamed rice, topped with kani (crab stick)
* sweet tamago (rolled eggs)
* boiled broccoli
* chicken lemon
* apples

The "HO" letters were made from cut-out cheese.
I was meant to make a "ho..ho..." but realised that it would be too crowded :D

Wish you all a great weekend.

= With Love =

read more “Are we there yet?”

Halloween

Hello..

How are you? 

Still can't believe that today is the end of October already.. and it is a Halloween day.

We do not normally celebrate it in our home, but the kids know about this.

Perhaps from movies, books and friends (where else, hm?)

So I did some bento with a touch of Halloween festivity for them

Inside the box:
* Pumpkins made from carrot, on top of white steamed rice and chicken floss
* Steamed baby corn and baby green squash
* Chicken sauteed with teriyaki sauce
* Quail egg
* Grape and strawberry

I made three boxes of the same design.... as usual.. >,<


Day two

 

Inside the box:

* First tier: Hello Kitty white bread, smeared with chocolate paste by the inside

The facial decoration came from nori, kamaboko (for witch's hat) and corn.

* Second tier: two cute mummies, made from boiled cocktail sausages, wrapped with kani and decorated with nori, edamame, grapes and strawberries.

Recently I bought quite a lot of strawberries. They came in 2 boxes for one price. I usually had a "headache" in storing strawberries, but lately I just froze them. Most of times, we just take some from freezer and toss them into a blender with everything else we want to, for a strawberry juice.

My girl loved the bento.

I didn't prepare ones for the boys. It would be too girly for them. LOL

See you around

 

read more “Halloween”

New box

Hello,

Everyone is excited over something new, right?

Me included.

What kind of bento should I make for this box?

Hmmm...

read more “New box”

Happy Birthday Indonesia

Hello...

It was 17 August again...and every year we celebrate our Independence day ^,^ 

This time, this is the bento that I made 

What is inside:

* Wheat bread filled with butter and rice chocolate

Decorated with kani on top, which represented our red and white national flag 

* Cheddar cheese in dark and pale yellow of flowers

* Mixed veggie salad with mayo, salt and pepper

* Pan fried sausages, with cute faces of puppy and kitty

* Colorful jellies in a cup

* Boiled quail eggs, decorated with nori, to represent our kids

Aside of jelly cup, I inserted rolled-kani, just to fill the empty gap.

We had fun in participating into some races within our neighbourhood to celebrate the event, such as eating crackers (makan kerupuk), fashion shows, running from one point to another, in a very short distance, while carrying a marble onto a spoon, catching baby eels, and others. The best part was, everyone got a prize! Well, winning the race was not as important as being together in our local community.

Catch you later!

read more “Happy Birthday Indonesia”

Back to school

Heyyy..

Starting this week, kids are back to school!

They have been excited about this since 2 days before.

So did I..

They are so happy to get into their new classes, meet some new friends and new teachers.

Especially for little B. He is in first grade elementary now *waving goodbye to kindergarten class* I am so touched and amazed at the same time. It feels like yesterday when I dropped little B to kindergarten ^,^

His twin siblings are in fourth grade now. I almost couldn't believe it too. LOL!

So, I took a day off on last Monday. To send them into school, get acquaintance with their new teachers and other parents. They are comfortable, of course, for they have been spending their previous years in the same environment.

In joining their excitement, I made bento for them

Here are bento for their first day

 

They had:
* White steamed rice
* Sausage in pencil shape
* Korean fried chicken
* Buttered steamed corn
* Broccoli
* Heart shaped carrot and cheese
* Edamame
* Jelly in cups

Here are bento for the second day

You can easily identify of which box belong to miss L, big J and little B, correct?

When you guess it correctly, you will get an automatic bonus answer on what are their favorite colors, too! hahaha

They had:

* Brown fried rice

* Cute "friends" made from white kamaboko and decorated with nori and kani

* Sauteed string bean and carrot, with crispy bacon

* Tamagoyaki

* Purple sweet potato with cheese

* (another) store-bought jelly in cups

Kids on general love something sweet.

Miss L said her friends were eating up her jelly, she didn't even take a piece.

That was the reason she asked for some more jelly in her second-day bentobox.

So she can share again with her friends. 

What a sweet girl she is.

{^,^} .. until next time ...

read more “Back to school”

So I have time for a bento

Hello,

School holiday is coming...!

Kids will have approximately one month of school break.

Hm..is it comparatively shorter than your summer break? hehehehe.

So, since they are happily to lie longer on the couch *I limit their TV watching session during school days* I find myself to get more of my bento lunches :D

Here is one for breakfast 

Inside the first tier:

Fresh salad from lettuce, orange pepper bell, cherry tomatoes and edamame.

Just sprinkled them with salt, pepper, a splash of lemon and olive oil.

Inside the second tier:

Pan fried Japanese tofu and boiled purple sweet potato

Sprinkled with furikake

Strawberries

Soft boiled egg

I love love love soft boiled egg

I can have it for breakfast and dinner. When I do not feel like to cook, I can eat it with a toast and whatever jam available in my fridge. 

I usually put the egg in a pan full of cold water, before to put them onto fire.

I once let the water boils before dropping the egg. Hm...the egg cracked and I got a hard boiled egg then. I realized the mistake, the egg wasn't in a room temperature. It came straight from the fridge. No wonder it cracked! Now I let the egg to rest a while before to put it into a pan.

When the water boils, I use a timer (or a smartphone!) to wait for 3 minutes. Switch off. Empty the hot water in the pan and re-fill with cold tap water to cool off the egg for a few seconds. I will still get the runny yolk :) yummm..

Happy summer break for everyone... {^,^}

read more “So I have time for a bento”

Slim lunch box

Hi..

Aren't you excited for something new?

Yes, me included

I have the new slim lunch box from Lock and Lock.

It has two tiers of box, completed with collapsible chopstick and an insulated bag.

The volume is about 240ml and 350 ml for each tier.

Here is the lunch that I have with it

In the bottom tier

* Inarizushi, topped with gari

* Tamagoyaki

* Cherry tomatoes

* Edamame

In the top tier

* Pan fried Tempeh

* Blanched broccoli

* Frozen mixed berries

The portion is enough for me :)

The good thing about this box, that they are stack-able during unused.
They will nicely fit together as one tier to save space while storing.

I still having some consideration in lending it for kids to use.

The side locks need to be in precise position to secure the box and the chopstick is quite hard for kids to detached.

Well, they can just 'throw' it into the bag, of course :D

Looking forward to have other menu within this new box *wide grin*

read more “Slim lunch box”