02.03.09 / Bento, Bento Kits, Family, Parenting, QQ, Twins / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (16)
Tags: Bento, nori, puncher, seaweed
It is not that difficult to make nice bento lunch box with cute faces, if we have the proper tools. Still remember the “ugly paper doll” I posted earlier? These are done and decorated freehand too…
Mr and Mrs Rectangle Sandwich
Cheese on porridge for lunch (QQ thinks the mixture taste funny though)
Miss Kitty sitting on a bed of egg sandwich
The above still considered presentable yeah? But it is really tedious to handle little eyes and mouth which is so tiny and delicate. Most of the time they will stick on my hand since it get moist very easily. After thinking for a long, long time, I decided to invest in a good Japanese Nori Puncher that can be easily opened from the bottom! See more photos of puncher here.
My first investment on Nori Puncher. From Bentomarket.com
As a result, I get cute faces with my job done faster too. I hope with this, I would be able to make prettier face for QQ in future. She loves what I design for her in the morning before I pack them into her bag too. Must go learn more about Kyaraben (character bento) to make my food presentation looks more interesting.
Bento-in is really an expensive hobby, agree ladies? No kidding man….*sweat*
27.02.09 / Bento, Bento Kits, Parenting, Pre-school, QQ / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (10)
Top: flowery cut sausages
Left: Egg sandwich with a decorative doll on top
Right: Cut apples
I almost laugh my head off when I look at my creation in the above picture. Seeing so many nice bento creation from other bloggers out there, I decided to try to make a little girl for QQ using cheese and sausage. Since I do not have a cutter for body part, I just had to do freehand. It ended up look like those Chinese paper dolls for prayers instead. (I think you know what I mean)
My poor girl, I am not sure if she still have the appetite to eat what I have created for her! I tell myself I should improve and I did. Done with all my interim and will post some of them later on….*going to zzzzz now*
27.02.09 / Bento Kits, Pre-school, QQ / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (1)
Tags: Egg, Tart
After getting the wrong egg tart, poor hubby went to buy egg tarts again the next day. This time he got it correctly for his little girl, after rushing to renew for our car insurance. As this Mr Egg Tart has got a smoother face, I decided to play around by making some a face and hair to it. I cut out some seaweed since I do not have a puncher to do it. Quite ugly, I would say, but at least she is excited. No more additional bread this time. Instead I gave her some peeled oranges.
Will be getting myself a nice puncher from CP very very soon, so that those faces will look more presentable in future.
27.02.09 / Bento Kits, Parenting, Pre-school, QQ / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (0)
Tags: container, Egg, Monkey, Sauce, Tart
Kids are easily influenced. When QQ saw one of her friend brought egg tart to school for snack, she requested the same too. However hubby got her the Portugis egg tart instead of the normal ones. She was not very happy when hubby brought it back. Luckily she forgot about it the next morning, until she saw Mr Egg Tart who flown all the way from Portugis to her school.
She can really eat like a crocodile when she is hungry. Since she does not like vege or fruits (that’s why you don’t see any fruits or vege appear in her box), I added some cut out flower shape bread for her. Instead of applying jam for her, I gave her some strawberry jam and placed them into the little Monkey Sauce container.
Probably it is too difficult for her to handle such delicate small item. She asked me to apply the jam in advance for her instead, really lazy hor? sigh…
Am going to take a break in decorating my girl’s lunch box this coming holiday. Am going to check if I can find a good bargain in one of the Dallas Texas hotels for our vacation.
27.02.09 / Bento Kits, Family, Pre-school, QQ / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (3)
Tags: face, Kitty, Pooh, sandwich
Cut out bread skin was used to cut Kitty’s eyes and nose. For the ribbon, I add a chocolate chips in the middle surrounded by some blue and purple heart shape sprinkle. I added some little Pooh Sandwich on the left.
After getting her first Kitty Face sandwich for the first time, she wants the same too on the second day. She asked me to add in more bread for her, saying that one set is not enough. Since the Kitty lunch box is too small, I used this Mickey and Friends lunch box since it is bigger. Instead of putting two sets of Kitty sandwich in it, I cut some smaller sandwich using my Pooh vege cutter. I am surprise to see how much I have invested to make my children happy. Nothing for poor Mummy, but definitely worth investing than to let hubby buy his tv stand for his plasma :p
27.02.09 / Bento, Bento Kits, Parenting / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (0)
Tags: Bento
Although I have a considerable amount collection of the bento accessories (see my collection here and here), I still do not have the courage (or the confidents) to post what I have been producing for my girl. That is why today you can hardly see any bento post on my blog.
QQ has been bringing her own lunch box to school for snack break starting this year. I was telling CP it would be a good chance to practise my bento skill since I have to prepare snacks for her everyday in the early morning. However taking care of these 2 little monsters isn’t easy as it seems. The moment I leave the room, surely one of the boys will sense my dissappearance and starts to make noise. Normally I ended up stuffing non-decorated bread or snack into her pretty lunch box, and there she goes!
However after reading tips from this expert on how she prepared everything a night before, I start to plan earlier so that I do not to rush like mad in the morning. Will post what I have been doing for her soon, but promise me, don’t laugh your head off yeah…..*cross your heart yeah!*
27.12.08 / Baking/Cooking, Bento Kits, Parenting / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (16)
Tags: Butter, Christmas, Cookies, Mickey, Minnie
I was so afraid that I might fall sick again, and guess what, I am down with bad flu again. My body is so weak after the confinement and whenever any of the kids at home fall sick, I will surely get their bugs. Even today, someone told me that I have got a very weak womb and it is so obvious shown on my face (dark dull skin around my mouth area).
It is really not easy to take care of the boys although they are almost 6 months now. I have been going through sleepless nights and constantly fall sick after sending my Confinement Lady off home with the Newark Airport Car Service. Luckily there is maid to keep an eye on the sleeping kids in the afternoon so I could steal a short nap. At least home are cleaned and meals are prepared with another helper around.
I was so looking forward to attend one gathering with some old friends but so sad that I could not make it last minute. Nevertheless, QQ and I had some fun baking with our new oven during the long holiday.
Mickey & Minnie Mouse Butter Cookies
Although we did not celebrate Christmas, we still did some Christmas cookies (recipe of butter cookies) to give away to our neighbours (QQ’s friends). See how crowded my table top is now with my HUGE new oven and read some of our funny experience with our new oven.
13.12.08 / Bento Kits, QQ / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (8)
Tags: Bento, ice, kits, pop
QQ and me were so surprise to receive so many gifts (ice-pop maker, furikake case, mayo container, cute picks, antibacterial food sheet) from this mummy today today. Although I did not tell her earlier, funny, she sent me things that I have always wish to have, adding to all my collection. *weird, wonder how come she could know*
And this QQ was so excited, cannot even wait to open and use the Ice pop maker. Since I do not have any juice at home, I had make Milo Ice-pop. But guess what, our poor Milo did not even have a chance to freeze, as she demanded to see her “ice pop” every hour!
Thanks to QQ, I guess our poor Ice-pop will continue to sit in our freezer till tomorrow morning. If you are interested to get some of these cute Bento kits like the above, go vist her online Bento shop. Even if you cannot find, don’t despair. Just write to her and this Japan craze mummy could import specially from Japan, just for you! Excuse me and I am going to check out the vacation rentals available in Japan now:)
24.10.08 / Baking/Cooking, Bento Kits, Parenting, QQ / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (15)
Tags: Bento, kits
Although I hardly do any bento now, I have almost completed my bento kits collection over the months.
Lunch boxes: Kitty Face & My Melody, Mickey & Friends.
So far, QQ only brought bread to school with her lunch boxes. Prefer bigger box as I can place more variety of foods into the container.
Egg mould shape: Kitty, Heart, Star. Egg Tulip cutter and Kitty& Bear Rice Mould
It is easy to shape rice using the rice mould. QQ loves could just eat her plain white rice like that. But for the egg mould, I only used it once as QQ dislike hard boiled egg. Maybe I can use the heart shape egg mould for my nasi lemak dish one of these days.
Cutter for bread, cookie and sausages: Mickey& MInnie, Pooh, Kitty.
Few days back, I made shaped Chinese pasta (”mien fen kau” in mandarin) with them! Shall use them again to bake my first badge of cookies very soon.
Silicon cups. Only used them for jelly. It is cute!
Dividers & Cute Picks
My doubts on bento-ing:
Although I have got an almost completed collection, I am still blur about using these stuffs. Hope to get tips from sifu out there on these:
1. Are bento that I see online mostly decorated for meals at home such as lunch, dinner. Otherwise how do I close them with the picks and stuffs?
2. Good one from Liz. I also find that by cutting out breads or fruits using the shape cutter, we are indirectly teaching our children to eat only the nice part, but discard or worst till, let parents eat the ugly unwanted parts. Therefore I find that cutting bread into shapes is not a good idea after all. Unlike for baking, we can use the pastry and reshape them again. Any tips to help deal with this issue?
3. Although imported from Japan, most of them are made in China. Haha….really can’t help but worry if the plastic can withstand the high temperature, such as making muffins with the silicon cups as on the packing instruction. Personally I think I only dare to use them for decor purposes.
*I got most of the items above from CP’s site (except the Mickey box is from 100Yen shop).
24.06.08 / Baking/Cooking, Bento Kits / Author: chinneeq / Comments: (25)
Tags: cutter, Kitty, one-bite, Pooh, sandwich, vege
Poor heavy hippo here is so restless waiting for the arrival of the boys until she has nothing to do everyday except gluing herself to the computer and this!
Since I so “wu liao” (in Mandarin said got nothing better to do now), this is what I come out with for her meals at home with the kits I have. Instead of using the Kitty bread cutter (which is a bit too huge), I prefer using the little Vege Cutter to get this one-bite little sandwiches. Find them more useful as it can also be used to create little Pooh cookies with face, and even tarts! How nice if these there are sales sale for these kits!
Even QQ got creative to sprinkle her colourful love on her mini Poohs!
See: Pooh vege cutter that I use