Bentos # 121 & 122

Bento #122

Breakfast bento - Woked up late and was all agreeable with cornflakes & milk for MP. Instead, I found myself picking up some bread decided to make a bento instead. A jam sandwich with some slices of apples. We are all sniffling a little and nursing a sore throat - must be the over indulgence on cookies (I'm hooked on this particular butter cookies) and deep fried treats!

Bento #121

Breakfast bento - A simple bento with bread, fruit loops, tomatoes (hidden under the oranges), madarines and some marshmallows. No brainer what went into MP's mouth first!!

Bentos # 110-120

Even though it was CNY, I decided to make some bentos and even some to share with friends and family!! Hope those who are celebrating are having a great time eating those delicious CNY goodies, special treats, making money (gambling), playing fire works (though there are not much variety these days compared to when I was young) and basically spending time with family and friends.

Bento #120

J's Breakfast bento - This is a very Japanese 'Spring' box and have been wanting to try this for a while. Man figure is made of sweet pea, carrot, egg and seaweed. The lady figure is made of carrot, kamaboko, egg and seaweed.
The box contains custard egg butter (aka kaya) sandwich with some endamame and mandarin oranges.

Bento #119

MP's breakfast bento - A pair of cows. I think this looks better than my earlier attempt. Discovered the trick is to make sure the ears are on the side and not the top of the head! This bento contains sandwich with nutella, sausages, endamame and mandarin oranges.

Bento #118

Snack bento - Made this for a friend who we visited. She has three kids so I thought the 'kiddy' look would be very welcomed!

This is a large square red box, sufficient for 3 kids to share.

The bento box contains rolled nutella bread, endamame, sausages, quail moo eggs, chocolate nuggets, tomatoes, mandarin oranges, rolled sweet and rolled chicken sandwich slices.

Glad to see the kids were very curious with the bento box and couldn't help looking and getting something to eat! :)

Bento #117

J's lunch bento - The first meal of CNY is all vegetarian. Thought I make another MOo-bento, he he.

Bento #116

Breakfast bento - Rolled nutella sandwich with some fruit loops, mandarin orange, tomato and chocolate nuggets.

Bento #115

Made this bento to bring to my grandmother's house were we had a celebratory cny lunch. Made some quail Ox eggs. The centre was rolled kamaboko and at the bottom, some cherry tomatoes with some sweet peas on the side.

Looks like I was not the only one taken by the cute quail Ox inspired by karenmama - see here and here.

Bento #114

DH's breakfast bento - Ham sandwich, some fish balls rolled with some carrot and spring onion, sausage, grapes and fried bean curd.

Bento #113

MP's breakfast bento - Wanted to make some Moo sandwiches but I think they turned out to be more like a bunny or some other animal other than cows!! Ha ha. Was inspired by motheringcorner with her idea of using bread for pandas.

This bento box contains some nutella sandwiches, sausages, fruit loops, rolled ham slice and grapes.

Bento #112

MP's dinner bento - Chicken satay bento with some satay sauce (underneath the moo face), onions and cucumber. We ordered some nasi impit and ketupat (aka compressed rice) but unfortunately they forgot to pack them in!!

Bento #111

J's dinner bento - Fried black noodles (fu-kein mien) with some endamame. Added a 'boy- cat' motif to make the bento look more interesting!

Bento #110

MP's dinner bento - White sauce fried noodles (kong-fu chow) with some endamame. Added a rabbit motif to dress this bento up a little.

Niu Year

Wishing all family, friends and bloggers - Happy Chinese New Year.

May this OX-picious year bring you and your family good health, harmony, hope and happiness.

Bentos # 107-109

Early mornings and late nights, that basically describes my entire week. So no time for baking or cny shopping. Besides the jam around my area is a nightmare - can't wait until majority of people leave for their hometown today or tomorrow, perhaps can shop a little easier!!! *fingers crossed!!*

Bento #109

Breakfast bento - Cream buns with some animal shaped faces made of cheese, some grapes (these were very sweet and no seeds too - but unfortunately MP is still suspicious of them) and fruit loops.

Bento #108

Breakfast bento - Some pan fried prata eaten with some sugar (in the container) and a mandarin orange.

Bento #107

Dinner bento - Spaghetti bolognaise with a slice of 'Pooh-bear' face, salad and grapes.

Apple Cake with Cinnamon Streussle

This is a back dated post.

Saw a recipe for an 'apple cake' here. It looked simple and easy to make. Since I had a couple of Granny Smith apples in the fridge, thought I try it out.

I adapted it by adding some cinnamon streussle topping for added texture and crunch.

I had mix comments about this cake - majority who tasted it, liked it but not M. Maybe the green apples were too tart for her tastebuds?

Bentos # 104-106

Bento #106

Breakfast bento - Discovered a SUPER easy way to 'dress up' a bento especially if you are lazy or rushed for time or just both (like me, ahem!), using your child's favourite stickers (I'm sure you have some lying around!!).

For MP's bento, I Glad wrapped his sandwich and stuck some stickers onto it. Easy and looks good right??

In the box is a bacon and cucumber sandwich with some fruit loops, tamagoyaki and shaped apples.

Bento #105

DH's breakfast bento - Similar food to MP's bento. Bacon, cheese and cucumber sandwich (opps, should have turned the bread to the soft side, perhaps more presentable??) with some tamagoyaki and red apple.

Bento #104

Dinner bento - Noodles with ham, egg, vegetables, fried fish and mandarin orange.

Bentos # 101-103

Bento # 103

J's breakfast bento - Pizza bun with some endamame and mandarin oranges.

A tip to share - best to crack quail eggs in a bowl first before pouring onto frying pan. Reason is that the shell of quail eggs are slightly tougher to crack and tiny compared to normal chicken eggs!!

Bento #102

MP's breakfast bento - Sausage bun with a cat face (?) with bacon and endamame bites and mandarin orange.

Bento #101

DH's breakfast bento - Nutty bun with some endamame, bacon bites and mandarin orange. Since DH also wanted some bacon, I rolled some for the 'ears'.

My 100th bento!!!

Can't believe I have reached a '00'-milestone! I must say that it certainly has been fun and interesting thus far.

Updated - thanks to all the fellow bento bloggers for their kind support. Without their invaluable input and willingness to share I am sure I wouldn't have started bento-ing, so thank you all!! May we all continue to inspire each other with our bento boxes!!

Bento #100

Lunch bento - Chicken rice shaped faces with roast pork, roast chiken and some green apples.

Bento #99

Breakfast bento - Cream crackers with egg custard jam (kaya), apples and endamame. Used some cheese slices to make some Little Men and Little Miss faces.

Bento #98

Breakfast bento - MP shared this with his cousin who stayed overnight with us.
Bacon sandwiches, some sausage with endamame and mandarin orange.

Bento #97

J's breakfast bento - A simple pan fried egg centred sausage with some fruit loops and mandarin orange. I was actually trying to do a pattern twirl with a sunny side up egg. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as planned.

Bento #96

Breakfast bento - A sandwich with pork jerky (aka bak kwa) with a red apple and endamame. Got the cute idea of shaping the bread from shoppingmum!

Weekend baking

Can't believe Chinese New Year is only 6 days away. It only seems like yesterday we were celebrating Xmas and then New Year and now....CNY.

As expected, there are lots of things to do, buy, clean and prepare.

This year, I've decided not to unduly stress myself and have limited my festive baking based on one rule of thumb - it must be easy and fuss-free!! :) ha ha

This is what I have baked so far:

Fruit cake with rum


Cornflake cookies - my first time making this.

Almond cookies

Also had time for Feta Olive Bread, you can get the recipe here.

One of the loaf is for a friend of mine who is down visiting. This time, I baked an extra for the house! It was certainly a wise decision!

The bread was very addictive and tasty!

Bentos # 88-95

Bento #95

J’s breakfast bento – Was planning another face but it turned to a flower instead. Not complaining. Underneath the ‘flower’ is commercially bought pizza bread. Other side foods are the same – sliced oranges and endamame.

Bento #94

DH’s breakfast bento – It seems that not only kids and teenagers are conscious about their ‘image’!! DH refuses to use any of MP’s cartoon/cute boxes. And well, MP prefers only to use the macho/boy type bento boxes. None of the Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty, My Melody or pink boxes please! Maybe at home ok but DEFINITELY not for school!!

Anyway, DH’s box contains commercially bought nutty bread. Not sure what to do with it so decided it could perhaps look like a snail? Ha ha – used a tau sar peng for the head. Other side condiments are the same – sliced oranges and endamame.

Bento #93

MP’s breakfast bento – Using commercially bought sausage bread with a bear (??) face accompanied with some endamame and sliced oranges.

Bento #92

Lunch bento – Hamburger face with oranges for ‘nose’ and grapes for ‘cheeks’!

* * * *

The bentos below contain the same food – fried rice and cucumber. Was experimenting with some cut-out decorations inspired by akinochigo. It was indeed a tedious and time consuming plan!! But since I started, I could not abandon halfway.

Anyway, here's what's boxed.

Bento #91

Another dog motif.

Bento #90

Some baby chicks.

Bento #89

Could this pass as a yellow Boltz? Ha ha, probably not. Besides, Boltz has a lightning symbol not a 'star'.

Bento #88

My favourite character, Totoro. The seaweed was 'warping' when I left it on the egg for a few min. Not sure of the reason - maybe too warm when I placed it on top?? :(

Bentos # 85-87

Bento #87

Breakfast bento - Some rolled bread with chocolate jam, shaped sausages, endamame and sliced apples. Was rushing with this bento as we all slept in!! Yep, got in a little late this morning :(

Bento #86

Was thinking twice about posting this since it doesn't look too attractive and only consist of onigri and leftover pasta sauce. This was my dinner - not pretty but was nevertheless tasty!! Also didn't have any of my bento tools with me and there is only so much one can achieve with a fat pair of kitchen scissors!!

Bento #85

Dinner bento - Cubed rice with some fish cake, string beans and mushroom. Was rushing this bento as MP had an activity that evening. Was surprised MP managed to finish his bento as I thought I had given him a lot of compressed rice!