So Very Late...

Hi everyone

It is such a very latepost from Easter bento and my dad’s birthday’s bento.

The Easter bento consists of all simple things. Even the idea came up at the very last minute.

What’s inside

·        Steamed white rice

·        Fried chicken with Indonesian yellow spices

·        Potato salad

·        Green beans

·        Quail eggs

·        Edamame

·        Fish nuggets in shape of yellow and red Angry Birds

·        Papaya

·        Watermelon

Such a yummy lunch and the kids finished it without hesitate :-D

Now lets move on to my dad’s birthday bento.

Frankly speaking, making an adult bento is more challenging –for me- than a kids or charaben bento. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I am not so often in making it. Perhaps also my genuine purpose in bento-making is to provide healthy and nice-looking lunches for my kids. However, I do believe that slowly I shall make more of non-charaben than charaben bento. When the kids are growing up, I’d love to still offer them healthy although not-so-adorably-looking lunches {^,^}

Inside the box

·        White steamed rice

·        Nori and kani on top of rice

·        Mini burgers

·        Tamagoyaki

·        Blanched broccoli

·        Carrots

·        Grapes in cup

As for mini burgers, I refer to this recipe with Japanese sauce. I made a second box (unphotographed) for my kids too. They all love it!

By the way, can you see the theme of this bento? I give you a hint, it is a man’s apparel :b

Until next time.

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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

 

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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”

Bento again

Hi all,

How are you?

We are back to office and school after long holiday due to Moslem New Year 28 July until 1 August.

It was a major holiday in Indonesia and it was a good chance for families to travel out of town. At the same time, most of people were also using this opportunity to go back to their hometown in celebrating new year. Thus the roads were all packed. We have managed to escape for three days only to Lembang, Bandung. We visited some farms and outdoors playing fields. Kids just loved it!

Here are some bento that I have made

Inside the box:

* Furikake sprinkled white rice

* Blanched broccoli

* Ham, to form piggie, hen and bunny

* BBQ chicken wings

* Sauteed green squash with sausage

* Carrots

* Green grapes

* Tamagoyaki

The ham represents the Chinese astrology of our family.

Both of us have Rabbit sign, the twins have Rooster sign and the little boy has Pig sign :)

Last week, we had a playdate with some of the kids' friends.
Again, we visited another farm, Kuntum Nursery. 
Here are the bento that I made for kids and their friends

for mister Nathan

for miss Hilary and Kimmy

for my kiddos

All the bento have the same menu. I just made an adjustment in onigiri. The brown bear was for the boy while the hello kitty was for the girls.

Inside the boxes:

* onigiri brown bear or hello kitty, decorated with chicken floss (bear), nori, cheddar cheese and kani (ribbon)

* blanched broccoli

* chikuwa (under the broccoli)

* tamagoyaki

* fried nuggets (store-bought)

* apple pieces and green grapes

* flower-y carrots

* quail eggs

* edamame

* yellow and white duckies also white sleepy rabbit food picks to add cheerfulness for kids.

I had a hard time in carving the star and love onto the quail eggs ^_^ will try to better do it Haha! Oh yes, I filled chicken floss for the kitty.

Most importantly, they enjoyed togetherness and had a great time ! yaaayyy... {^,^}

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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”

Late post (again)

Hello...

Here is (another) late post for bento that recently made.

Looks yummy? 
Hm...myself is hungry right now

This is my first time to make curry >,<

We have many Japanese restaurants in here. In one weekend, we went to Curry House Coco Ichibanya in Grand Indonesia. We love it! The big J, and of course his dad, finished each a plate of theirs; miss L shared a plate with me while little B choose kid's menu. 

So, what can I do when they want a curry in the middle of week? I went to a supermarket and bought the ingredients! LOL... Well, it turned out fine. Nothing fancy, I just put some diced chicken and carrots for curry, topped it by halved boiled egg. Voila..!

This bento was made specially upon her request :)

She once looked at similar kind of bento in the bento book of mine and suggested me to make it.

It is quite simple actually. I just made an onigiri from mixing white steamed rice with sweet soy sauce. The facial expression are used cheese and nori. Then I sauteed vegetables, such as broccoli, baby corn, carrot. Topped the sauteed veg with thin egg omelette, visualized as a blanket. Kani sheet is added only for color and style of the blanket. Aside the bear, I put ham, for extra protein. Done!

On one nice afternoon in the office, the kids called me from home "mom, we all need to bring a balanced meal as one of school projects by tomorrow morning. Could you do something nice for us?"

Well, who couldn't resist such a command request?

I made a white Ninjago bento from Lego, the Ninja of Ice

Well. the tricky part and time consuming is to make the blocks of Lego from several foods. I used carrot for orange blocks, fish meatball for white blocks and SPAM for pinkish blocks. I done all the blocks by night, patiently punched one hole with another (straw is a great help if you do not own specific puncher) and pushed up each one, as to resemble Lego blocks.

As for Zane, I made from onigiri of white rice. I just put his face using egg sheet and nori. Surround him, I had chikuwa rose, edamame, cherry tomato, melon and apple.

They all love their lunches.

(Another) mission accomplished {^.^}

 

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Happy Easter, Olaf..

That greeting is for you, too...

Yeap, all of you..

Happy Easter!
Hope you had a great Easter holidays :)

On the Easter day, kids wanted to go swimming.

Knowing by heart that they must be very pretty hungry when coming out from the pool :b

So, I made this bento.

Inside the box:

* Inarizushi

some of them, formed as in a brown bunny while some others as rice-bags stuffed with different kind of toppings such as chicken floss, chopped ham and edamame.

His cute brown face, completed with color-matching long ears :) Well, I just stuffed everything with white rice. Yes, including the both ears.

* Pink Kamaboko. Love the bright color and I just feeling playful with the cutting.

* Pan-fried ham, store-bought frozen ham

* Onion rings, store-bought too, just deep fried them

* Edamame

* Blanched broccoli

* Strawberries

* Kani 

* Mini tamagoyaki

* White bunny, from white rice onigiri, with her partly-pinkish-long-ears thanks to Kani sheet, of course. She is smiling pretty with blue ribbon foodpick and holding a "decorated Easter egg" This egg was actually a furikake-sprinkled-onigiri.

I spent an hour making this bento from scratch, from blanching the inari pouches bla-bla-bla I do not have to mention all the cooking, right?..yawn :D.... until assembling them into the box. 

Three kids finished them in less than 15 minutes. 

Straight. 

Hm.....lucky me *wide grin*

Everyone...... meet Olaf..

He is made from rounded white bread filled with strawberry jam.

The button is from halved chocolate chips, this is store bought.

I used Pokky as his hands 

The eyes are from cheese and nori sheets

The nose comes from a steamed carrot

The hair and mouth are from nori sheet

Again, I use cheese sheet for his single teeth.

He has two cheese-rolled bread, edamame, blanched broccoli, strawberries and steamed egg mixture with frozen vegetables inside a paper cup.

My daughter excitedly imagining the comments from her classmates.

...Kids... {^,^}
She loves Frozen the movie. All of my kids do.

Until next time.

read more “Happy Easter, Olaf..”

Bento by choice

Hello...

Within last week, our twins had mid-term examinations. Hope they done well. 

While myself .....errr.... did I ever tell that bento making is actually calm me down during hectic days? There is some weird-soothe-comfort feeling inside every time I arrange for the box. Well, it doesn't necessarily mean my making is only due to that situation :) I can say that this is one of my heaven.

Inside the box:

* Onigiri, covered with chicken floss, decorated with cheese sheet and nori to make ear-less Rilakkuma. Hope they look cute though *,^

* Boiled green beans and baby corn, wrapped in ham

* Flower-y boiled carrot

* Grilled sausage

* Orange

Inside the box:

* White steamed rice, put the cheese cut-out of spoon and fork on top. 

Sprinkled with furikake, just to avoid blunt-color effect

* Blanched broccoli

* Chicken popcorn

Made from boneless chicken thigh, cubed, seasoned with salt, pepper, grated ginger and Kikkoman soy sauce. I love the wonderful salty smell of the mixture. Leave it all night, before to dust some flour and deep fry.

* Tamagoyaki. 

I deliberately made it sweet. Kids love it!

* Angry Bird kamaboko. Store-bought. Just boiled and done with it. 

* Jelly in the cup.

Some friends asked me about what time that I get up in the morning for bento making, since they knew I have fulltime job too.

Well, some cooking should be done by previous evening, such as in making tamagoyaki, boiling stuff and frying chicken. So in the morning, I just fit everything into lunchbox while fix minor decoration. 45 minutes should be enough time for me. However if I leave some things undone, I should be up like 1 to 1.5 hours earlier. 

Bottom line, for me, bento making is a very personal thing. 

It should be an enjoyable {^,^} activity too.

Happy cooking !

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Bento for Hinamatsuri

Happy girl's day!

Hinamatsuri is celebrated each year on March 3
We do not celebrate it in here, but I was tickled to make one bento for it.

The bento has an emperor doll and an empress doll.

I made them from onigiri. 

The emperor onigiri is wrapped with nori while empress onigiri is wrapped with egg sheet.

I put many decorations in empress onigiri with fan (carrot) and clothing details (kani in white and red colors)

Surround them, I put boiled sausages, white kani flower, carrot "sakura" flower and some strawberries.

I kinda limit myself in food preparation, by boil only, since I shall need more time to decorate the onigiri.

I prepared this bento for miss L and made just one box.
So the other two boys were asking "will tomorrow be our turn to have cute foods?"
Well, we'll see ^,^

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