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”

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... {^,^}

read more “Bento again”

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 {^.^}

 

read more “Late post (again)”

While in Hong Kong

Hai...

Kembali lagi cerita soal kerjaan ^o^

Minggu lalu dikasi new assignment untuk area Hong Kong dan Taiwan. Sebagai marketing, assignment untuk area apapun diterima aja. So, berangkatlah gue sendirian ke sana untuk urusan kerjaan. By the way, bahasa Mandarin gue juga masih pas-pasan. Artinya, pas mau ngomong, pas bingung ini pake kata-kata apa ya... hahaha... Beberapa client memang bisa bahasa Inggris, apalagi Hong Kong kan sebelumnya koloni Inggris ya, tapi kalo bisa Mandarin akan lebih akrab saat ngobrol.  

First stop will be to Hong Kong. Last stop will be to Taiwan. Selama ini, gue bolak balik hanya transit di Hong Kong, kaga pernah keluar dari airport. Jadi, termasuk first timer juga nih... *norak dot com*

Then, biar lebih efisien, berangkat di hari libur tgl 1 Juli -by the way, Hong Kong free visa untuk Indonesian- Jadi besoknya bisa langsung kerja. Untuk urusan kerjaan sih, engga banyak yang bisa diceritakan ya. Dalam arti, engga menarik deh untuk dibaca :D Jadi, mari kita ngobrol hal lain diluar kerjaan ya.

Berangkat dengan CX direct flight Jakarta-Hong Kong. Take off pagi sekitar jam 8 gitu dan sampai sekitar jam 2. Karena airport HK agak padat, sempat terlambat landing. Trus, karena kendala tehnis, sempat menunggu lama untuk claim baggage. Jadilah sekitar jam 5 baru beres ambil bagasi dan siap keluar airport.

Di pesawat banyak keluarga dengan anak-anak yang pergi liburan (maybe...engga gue tanya juga) terasa banget lah holiday mood nya.

Sebelum keluar airport, beli Octopus Card dulu

Kartu ini bisa dipake untuk naik bus, naik MTR, belanja di seven eleven, dll. Gue beli HKD 150. Ada isi deposit HKD50. Nanti kalau engga mau pake lagi, deposit bisa dikembalikan dipotong admin HKD9. Gue keep aja lah, kalau nanti mau pergi lagi, tinggal isi ulang karena engga ada expiry date nya.

Di HK airport, ada free WIFI. Lumayan lah bisa langsung BBM-an lapor ke mana-mana (maksudnya ke suami, ortu, mertua, boss, tetangga) udah mendarat dengan selamat. Selama abroad, biasanya data service BB gue OFF dan hanya ON untuk WIFI. Memang ada paket-paket roaming overseas, tapi jadi berasa ribet sendiri ngingetin jam-jam aktifasi dan apa aja yang bisa kena extra charges *sigh* Udah kapok kena tagihan hape yang bikin shock, belum lagi siap-siap jelasin ke kantor. Dah..matiin aja beres.

Hotel uda booking di Nathan Road. Hotel itu convenient banget karena terhubung basement nya dengan MTR stasiun Jordan. Oiya, hotel ada free WIFI juga... *penting banget itu buat exist kerjaan*

Transportasi dari airport bisa dilihat di sini  

Karena gue tiba di hari libur, artinya engga dikejar-kejar jadwal meeting, gue pengen nyantai explore the city. Ada 2 pilihan yang gue pertimbangkan. Naik airport express mass transit railway (MTR) atau naik bus.  

Mari buka peta MTR

Berbekal peta, mau cobain naik airport express (jalur kuning tua) sampai Kowloon. Dari situ naik taxi ke Jordan. Karena dekat, paling sekitar HKD20 aja untuk taxinya. 

Mau lebih berpetualang? naik bus dari airport ke Tung Ching (kuning muda) line, turun di Lai King, pindah ke Tsuen Wan (merah) line sampai ke Jordan. All the way using MTR.

Kalau naik bus, ada bus nomer A21, langsung dari airport ke Nathan Road.

Final decision....gue naik bus. Ongkos sekitar HKD33 (kalo ga salah inget, karena pas naik cepet2 tapped si octopus). Pertimbangannya karena gue bawa koper dan ransel laptop. Membayangkan turun naik stasiun - walau kopernya kecil sih- rasanya ribet juga. Naik bus, pas turun depan hotel, kira-kira 30 menitan gitu deh.

 

Bus nya nyaman banget dan bersih. Selain itu, ada free WIFI nya juga...yay!...lanjut posting-posting....

Setelah check-in, langsung keluar lagi untuk cari makan dan cuci mata. Itu udah jam 7 an gitu....

Asli, laper banget. Karena berangkat pagi, gue engga makan banyak. Jam 6 pagi begitu perut rasanya engga pengen diisi banyak. Pas di pesawat, dikasi makan sih...pilihannya nasi ayam atau pasta seafood. Gue pikir, pasti ada sayurnya lah ya, jadi gue pilih nasi ayam. Jreng-jreng...dapetnya yoghurt, roti croissant, buah (nanas, melon dan pepaya - masing" sepotong) dan nasi plus ayam kecap. Alhasil, gue cuma makan yoghurt, roti dan buah. Ya masih laperlah...Ngebayangin nanti late lunch aja after landing, ternyata jadinya dinner >,<! So, saking laparnya, engga foto-foto makanan yaaa...

Kelar makan, masih sempat ke Ladies Market

Naik MTR dari Jordan, turun di Mong Kok. Deket banget koq, sebenarnya bisa jalan kaki dari Nathan Road.

Market ini on weekdays buka dari jam 4 sore-11 malam. Jalanannya ditutup untuk kendaraan, jadi untuk pejalan kaki aja. Jadi di jalan itu banyak kios-kios kaki lima dan toko-toko di kiri kanannya. Jalanannya panjang banget dan barangnya juga macem-macem, jual suvenir, kaos/t-shirt, dompet, tas, jam tangan, usb lucu, magnets, casing hape, baju, headphones, dll deh.

Rame banget, bener-bener pasar malam gitu. Sambil lewat, kedengeran orang-orang ngobrol dalam berbagai bahasa sampe sering juga kedengeran bahasa Indonesia :b

Di sini, pinter-pinter nawar aja. 

Nah, dari tengah jalan, sempet keliatan toko yang jual ini di pinggiran jalan

Dueh...mata gue rasanya bling-bling gitu.

Di sini, Hello Kitty dan figur2 Disney lainnya lumayan beken. Rasanya mereka punya apapun dalam Hello Kitty. Gue pernah lihat panci, rice cooker, setrika dan semacamnya itu deh. Kalo ga inget kapasitas koper, rasanya kepengen borong.

Akhirnya gue beli souvenir buat oleh2 orang rumah aja 

Satu piece nya HKD10 (1HK=Rp 1,200an)

Lumayan deh, engga makan tempat di koper :D

Pulang ke hotel, besoknya langsung kerja *skip aja ya cerita tgl 2*

Tgl 3 udah flight out ke Taiwan.

Sambung nanti ya....

read more “While in Hong Kong”

Having a friend stay over

Hi...

It is a long school holiday for the kids now. Not so long, actually, about one month. As we do not yet have plan to travel around, we invited their friend to spend night in our house. He is a bit younger than the twins but older than little B. Perfect age to be their playmate :D 

One thing that I noticed, kids are always hungry \>o</

We had breakfast before we went out for Sunday morning mass. But after the mass, they said hungry! So we went to have bowls of noddle. Each of kids have one bowl, except miss L and little B got half-shared a bowl. That's consider lunch for us. 

Pretty much like 2 hours later, they were hungry again and requested fried rice.

I made fried rice with scrambled egg, frozen vegetable and button mushroom mixed. Later on added the crispy bacon bits and sausages. Yummm... all the kids including hubby finished well the rice.

When everyone had full stomach, we strolled along in a shopping mall.

 very sweet, eh..?

Feel like having five four children to attend to. LOL. 

All of them behave nicely and enjoy their togetherness.

Later in the evening, his parents came to pick him up.
I concerned that he will be hungry during the way back home.

Inside the box:

> Hello Kitty wheat bread, filled with cheese sheet and chocolate rice

> Fried sausages wrapped with egg sheet

> Few strawberries and sweet mandarins

It was very nice to have you in our home.

Looking forward to welcome you again.

read more “Having a friend stay over”

Mari Membuat Bento

Hai hai...

Liburan sekolah udah dimulai dari minggu kemarin. Belum ada rencana traveling nih.

Kebetulan Little Bento House (aku singkat LBH aja ya) mengadakan bento workshop. Minggu ini girls only karena temanya Hello Kitty (HK)! *yang excited koq aku yah..?* Mungkin minggu depan gantian temanya untuk boys --> menunggu kabar dengan sabar.

Bento yang diadakan adalah kyaraben/Charaben bento. 

Selama ini aku terlanjur hobi bikin bento. Dari sejak si kembar Luna dan Jov masuk Playgroup, sekolah menyarankan membawa bekal *iyalah..kaga mungkin banget anak PG udah dikasi uang jajan ajahh* Mulai dari situ asal muasalnya aku bikin bento. Keterusan deh sampai ke adiknya. Selain itu juga punya alasan supaya anak-anak makan menu seimbang dan engga jadi tukang pilih-pilih makanan :b Puji Tuhan, mereka bertiga gampang banget makan. 

Soal bento tools, waktu aku mulai, juga engga punya banyak alat sekaligus. Sekarang ini relatif makin gampang dapat bento tools ya. Di supermarket besar dan online shop banyak banget tuh yang menawarkan. Walau begitu, menurut aku sendiri, lebih penting isi bekalnya dari sisi nutrisi dan cara packing (misal tidak mudah tumpah atau bocor). Soal kreatifitas, buku bento bisa membantu, tapi ternyata ide bisa datang dari mana saja >,<

So, pas dapat info dari LBH, jiwa ini merasa terpanggil. Ternyata Luna-nya juga mau, aku cepet-cepet daftar ikut dan duluan bayar Rp. 180,000 *ketahuan banget deh siapa yang napsu semangat* Tinggal datang aja ke tempatnya di rumah Little Bento House (LBH).

Sharing foto-fotonya nih yaaa...
Oya, workshop juga diliput @NetTv_MediaTama. Sukses selalu ya untuk Net TV.

Total peserta 5 anak. Syaratnya memang usia diatas 5 tahun. Eeehh...itu ada anak cowok nyempil, siapa yaa..?? hihihi...maklumlah, pas aku berangkat, Jov dan Bas mau ikut juga. Tapi uda aku pesen "nonton aja ya...engga ikutan bikin lho..." Tapi tetap, Bas pengen coba juga. Dia cuma toel-toel dikit sana-sini. Menu pertama bikin onigiri (nasi) bentuk HelloKitty dengan brokoli, tumis sayuran, bakmi goreng dan potongan melon. Yummm..!

Seru juga ngeliatin anak-anak dengan apron dan talenan HK, masukkin nasi ke cetakan, menata selada, tempel nori untuk mata dan kumis dan pasang jagung pipil rebus untuk hidungnya. Biar tidak jatuh "hidungnya" dipakai spaghetti goreng. Pelan-pelan ditancapkan spaghetti ke jagung, dan disisipkan persis di tengah muka HK. 

Aku kadang pakai pasta spaghetti/angel hair yang mentah saja. Kalau ditusukkan ke dalam nasi, dalam beberapa jam kemudian, pasta akan melunak karena hangatnya nasi. Jadi bisa dimakan sekalian. Udah sering aku coba koq... Karena kadang engga sempet lagi untuk bikin pasta goreng ya *dilema working mom nih... alesan deh*

Untuk usia balita, sedapat mungkin, bahan bento bisa dimakan semuanya. Untuk menghindari ketidaksengajaan tertelan (misalnya) bila kita memakai tusuk gigi.

Sudah jadi onigiri HK, sekelilingnya dihias dengan bunga dari keju lembaran. Hmmm...potongan sisa keju setelah mencetak bunga, boleh masuk ke mulut...hop! Di atas bunga keju, ditaruh jagung juga, supaya lebih terlihat manis. Biar gampang nempel, jagung dikasi "lem" dari mayonaise.

Nah, beginilah penampakannya setelah selesai membuat bento HK. Mata dan kumis dicetak dari lembaran nori (rumput laut kering, banyak di supermarket besar). Pitanya dari wortel rebus. Ditambah bakmi goreng, tumis sayuran dan buah melon...nyammm... Disematkan pula foodpick (tusukan makanan) sebagai pemanis. Foodpick ini juga mudah didapat di supermarket. Kalau aku sih suka pesan ke anak supaya foodpick jangan dibuang dibawa pulang setelah bekal habis dimakan "nanti bisa dipakai di bento lain kali kan..." Isi bento bisa sesuai keinginan anak, so anak senang ...moms juga happy karena anaknya dijamin makan sehat seimbang. Komposisi komplit nasi, sayur, lauk dan buah. 

Menu kedua adalah membuat sandwich HK.

LBH ternyata punya roti tawar dengan bentuk wajah HK *histeris*

Kotak dialasi selada keriting. Sebelumnya dilap kering dulu ya -sehabis dicuci- dengan tissue. Supaya warna selada tetap hijau bagus saat waktunya makan. Berturut-turut disusun roti tawar, ham lembaran goreng, tuna, oles mayonaise sedikit, tomat iris, timun iris, keju lembaran dan tutup lagi dengan roti tawar.

Susunannya tidak harus seperti ini ya. Kreasikan saja dengan bebas namun gizi seimbang dan sekali lagi sesuaikan dengan selera anak. 

Aku di rumah suka bikin sandwich dengan isi telur dadar dan keju selain selada, timun dan tomat. Ditambahkan sedikit mayonaise dan saus tomat *duh, koq jadi lapar yaa* Kebetulan anak-anak memang suka telur juga ya. Jadi ada beberapa alternatif supaya tidak bosan.

Permukaan roti yang paling atas bisa dihias serupa dengan wajah HK. Karena di permukaan yang kering, bahan mata dan kumis dari nori, bisa diberi "lem" olive oil sedikit supaya menempel dengan bagus. Pakai pinset akan lebih menolong supaya nori tidak menempel di jari kita *yang telaten ya nak...biar HK nya cantik*

Terakhir, tinggal cetak wortel rebus dan disematkan dengan spaghetti goreng. Disekitarnya bisa ditambahkan tamagoyaki (telur gulung), brokoli dan keju lembaran. Mau ditambahkan kesukaan lainnya juga silakan.

Taaa..daaaa.... jadi deh  \{^.^}/

Selain membawa pulang hasil bento, peserta juga mendapatkan jepitan (engga terfoto), pin dan sertifikat. Aiihhh...lucunya... *mupeng*

sebelum sampai rumah pun, bento sandwich sudah habis dimakan.

mommy aja yang simpen ya...takut hilang kan? *alesaaannn padahal mommynya yang demen*

Foto dokumentasi kiriman LBH

all pinky stuff!

*usap-usap air mata terharu* --> mama lebay

senyum manis peserta

thank you Little Bento House for the workshop....

Sebagai penutup, aku share strawberry cheesecake video -yang jelas seru!- saat workshop. Singkat aja karena engga tahan downloadnya lamaaa ...

Bagaimana acara liburan kalian?

See ya....

read more “Mari Membuat Bento”

Mantou again

Good day....

I have a half-package mantou that I need to finish. 

However, frankly speaking, I did not have any idea what to do with mantou other than the usual deep fried and steam them.

For deep fried, I usually dip it with sweet condensed milk. It is yummy definitely, but I wish to have something else.

So these are what I have came up with

The content of box
* 2 pieces of mantou that I slitted on top part, to get flat surface.
smeared them with salted butter, dust the cocoa powder and fine sugar.
* rolled egg sheet
* star boiled carrots
* cherry tomatoes
* edamame

I should try to re-make as to have smooth cocoa images.

 

For some others, I put them on a plate.

* Mantou with chocolate rice and sprinkled parmesan

* Mantou with chocolate rice and cheddar star

* Mantou with scrambled egg, mayo and sprinkled furikake

* Cherry tomatoes

* Flower-y mango pudding

Mister J took the salty (egg-filling) mantou while miss L and mister B grabbed the sweet (chocolate-filling) mantou. 

They are officially start school holiday by today ....

By mid July, the twins will be third graders and the little boy in kindergarten.

Time flies so fast.

read more “Mantou again”

Hello Kitty Apple

Hi there,

A talented friend of mine, Meilita, is right now enjoy herself in baking cute Japanese deco roll cake. While seeing her works, I found the web of Ochikeron's. And this bento was inspired by her work in here.

 

 

What's inside:

*HK onigiri using hellokitty rice mould, completed with punched nori for eyes and whiskers. Also red bell pepper for her ribbon.

*Pan-fried tiger prawn, wrapped with bacon, in butter lemon.

*Stuffed red bell pepper with minced chicken. Flavoured with salt pepper and garlic powder. On top of minced chicken is cheese sheet and few black sesame seeds.

*Blanched broccoli

*Mango pudding in clear cup.

For stuffed bell pepper, I just pan fried for each side until brownish, then added few spoonful of water and covered the pan, until water was gone (to steam it). 

It smells wonderful.

In early days, I have made her some Hello Kitty bento, as with chicken nugget, christmas edition, missing her whiskers, on top of sandwich, in pink color and HK stencil

I enjoy so much in making HK bento since myself a big fan.

Happy lunch :)

read more “Hello Kitty Apple”