Bentos # 150 & 151

Bento #150

Breakfast bento - MP has a much earlier start on Fridays than the other normal days (thus rushing). In this box, some rolled jam sandwich with cereal, endamame and apple. Just realised that I should have trimmed back the lettuce a little, seem to over shadow the two rolled breadmen!

Bento #151

Dinner bento - A Doremon onigri (made with black sesame instead of seaweed) with some fried chicken with black bean paste and stir fry vegetables.

It is a cute character though I am not keen on the cartoon series or hardback.

Bentos # 147-149

Bento #149

MP's breakfast bento - A little dull looking, should have used some green or red to brighten it up a little!

Anyway, a simple HK bacon sandwich (idea from Shoppingmum) with quail egg, cereal and grapes.

Bento #148

DH's breakfast bento - Bacon sandwich with some grapes. The two tone cheese are quite fun to play with.

Bento #147

Dinner bento - Face onigri with some tomatoes, curry kapitan chicken and potatoes and stir fried long beans with bean curd.

* * * *

The type of cheese used for the two tones of yellow. Tks to Amy for her suggestion (she uses Chesedale brand). Interesting to note that these Kraft cheese are made in Thailand!!

Garbage enzyme formula

Apparently there are useful uses for this enzyme - noteably to clean floors and keep away insects! I'm hoping it will keep ants and cockroaches away!!

Just sharing (if any one is interested).

Ingredients (Ratio is 1:3:10 (sugar: fruit: water))
200g raw/brown sugar
600g fruit skin, raw vegetables
2 litre water

Source: picture obtained from reading source referred below.

Method:

1. Mix sugar with water.
   
2. When sugar fully dissolved, put in fruit skin, raw vegetables etc. (Cut into small pieces first).



3. Make sure there is room at the top of the bottle for fermentation.
   
4. Don't fill it too full (leave some space/gap at the top).




5. Close cover.
   
6. Every day open the cover to let out the 'smell or gas'. Repeat until no further 'smell or gas' comes out. Give the compost a turn or quick mix.
   
7. Keep covered for 3 months. If there is mold, don't worry, continue to stir and mix it up.

For further reading including uses, click here.

I am going to start my first 'brew' soon, will report back later (3 months later that is!!).

Bentos # 145 & 146

Bento #146

Breakfast bento - Was suppose to be a 'monster' jam sandwich but evolved to an animal (maybe a dog? Even MP wasn't exactly sure what it was!! ha ha) with a quail egg in between his mouth! Used cereal as filler and some blanched broccoli for added vitamins and colour!
Bento #145

Dinner bento - Garlic rice onigri with some pan fried pork chops and vegetables.

Loving thy self

Coming back from my business trip, I realize that I've been ignoring myself.

Ignoring in the sense that I haven't been really looking after my body.

Decided to make take charge and make changes to 'rejuvenate', 're-boost', 'reinvigorate' and basically be more healthy. One step towards that other than to change my eating habits is also to drink more juice (fruits/vegetables). I am also working towards a lighter dinner option with less carbos.

Green is suppose to be 'healthy' right? Have been juicing a combination of apples, celery, cucumber with a small nob of ginger.

The other plan is also to exercise more on a regular basis (still in the planning phase, haven't really kick start this fully yet with too many set backs - work, weather and well plain laziness). It doesn't help either when you receive many emails advising women to be more careful due to the rising crime, snatch thieves and rape incidents. *sigh, what is our country coming to - these days practically have to be prisoners of our own home!!*

This is more for my own record purposes but if anyone is interested to try this out....

Gallstones Flush

1. For 5 continuous days, drink apple juice (fresh or if no time, Marigold brand without added sugar) 1 litre throughout the day (unless you can gulp down the litre in one sitting!!). During this time, avoid any caffeine and drink more water. Also eat lightly and avoid oily and deep fried food.
   
2. On the 5th day, skip dinner and follow as follows:
   (i) At 6pm, drink 2 tsp Epsom salt in ¾ glass of warm water.
   (ii) Again at 8pm, repeat drink of 2 tsp Epsom salt in ¾ glass of warm water.
   (iii) At 10pm, drink a mixture of 1/2 cup olive oil (first cold pressed extra virgin) and ¾ cup of fresh grapefruit juice. Add together and shake well and drink. If find difficult, use a straw.
   (iv) Lie down on right side for at least one hour or go to sleep.
   
3. You will have loose bowels at least 5 times.
   
4. But if not, next morning 6am, take Epson salt drink again.
   
5. At 8am, take Epson salt drink again.

Note - If you cannot stand the flushes or bowel movements, take bread to stop.

Tip - best to do this on the weekends where you have no plans to go out! Always be alert what your body is trying to tell you, if too stressful/demanding, stop or adjust accordingly.

Personally, I haven't tried the flush yet as I want to work on and tackle other goals first. Got it from a friend of mine who does this regularly (once a month) and swears by it.

Bentos # 134-144

Finally squeezed in some time to upload some pictures from my camera and rush through this post.

Bento #144

Lunch bento – Inspired by Shoppingmum….caterpillar fish balls with lou shi fun (aka ‘rat’ noodles). I also cut up the 'extra' punched seaweeds into thin strips to use as a sprinkle. Really love Amy's creative idea of using the spoon and fork puncher for the legs!!

Bento #143

Lunch bento – Another inspired bento from Shoppingmum. She did a better job at decorating the bao Mickey and Minnie face!! As I was rushing out, didn't have much time to make sure the ears were on properly. Ideally should have stuck it on with some jam.

Bento #142

Breakfast bento – DH's valentine bento. Difference with #141 is I added what suppose to be a lady bug! Hm, think I need to work on this a little more!! Ha ha

The bento box contains pizza bread and some sliced oranges.

Bento #141

Breakfast bento – J's valentine bento. A simple one with pizza bread and sliced oranges.

Bento #140

Breakfast bento – MP's valentine bento. A simple and quick bento using store bought bun. Peeled some pamelo (for bubbles/water) and in the centre, some cereal and cut out heart shapes.

Bento #139

Breakfast bento – MP is learning to eat nasi lemak (aka coconut rice) with some anchovies, cucumber, hard boiled egg and sambal (aka spicy sweet cooked chili sauce). Its funny to see him trying to be all 'strong' with the spiciness, denying that it is NOT hot. Then the next second, gulping down a glass of water to neutralize the spiciness!!

I suppose we (hot chili lovers) probably went through similar antics in our earlier chili induction years!

Bento #138

Dinner bento – Experimenting with leaf wrapped onigri for green dust bunnies?? In this bento is some onigri with fish cake, stir fried vegetables and stewed potatoes and chicken.

Bento #137

Dinner bento – I really love the cute seal onigris which I saw in some Japanese mama websites. Simple and yet so sweet. In this box - some onigri with meat patties, baked egg custard and cucumber.

Bento #136

Dinner bento – I love the animated cartoons by Miyazaki.

This is fairly simple bento with some dust bunnies. Side dishes are stir fried vegetables, meat patties and roast duck.

Bento #135

Dinner bento – Chick onigris (mixed some soya sauce with the rice for the brown colour) with some vegetables, skewered meat and stewed mushrooms.

Bento #134

Dinner bento - Saw Piko’s bear and thought I try it out using katsuobushi as 'fur'. In this box, some onigri with stir fried vegetables and stewed mushrooms and chicken.

MIA

There are a few reasons with the top at the list….work. Went on a impromptu business trip overseas to Hanoi. It was such a rush to re-organize my schedule,passport etc. Got back late last week but then had to clear (am still catching up with) the back-log of things, a little weary too with longer working hours, early starts and late nights!

So I am around, just browsing and enjoying the other blog sites at the moment while I recouperate and let the energy level fill up again!!

All the rushing around is so draining, gee I am feeling old already! Ha ha

Bentos # 128-133

Bento #133

Breakfast bento – A ‘boy face’ jam sandwich with some mandarin oranges, cherry tomatoes and cornflakes.

M had her close girlfriends and kids over last night for dinner (to ‘lau sang’ aka celebrate and wish each other good health, wealth and prosperity during this New Year period). Decided to contribute my share by making some bentos for them. The dinner bentos (inspired by various Japanese bento-mamas) all contain the same food accompaniments comprising duck, stewed chicken with mushroom and ear-wood fungus, broccoli, cucumber, endamame and kamaboko.

Bento #132

My first onigri Winnie the Pooh bento. The rice is mixed with hard boiled egg yolk to obtain the colour.

Bento #131

A cat seaweed cut-out (erm, the original request was for a Hello Kitty but....evolved, ahem!! He he)

Bento #130

A pair of sweet onigri bunnies munching some veggies!! Ha ha

Bento #129

This is an ‘adult’ bento filled with small flowers (made with endamame and sakura dembura).

Bento #128

Another ‘adult’ bento with some simple carrot and seaweed cut-outs for decorations.

Bentos # 126 & 127

Bento #127

Breakfast bento - Some cheese stick bread with cherry tomatoes, pineapples, mandarin oranges and marshmallows. My first Snoopy cheese cut-out! Another favourite character of mine influenced by M from a tender age!! Hm, looking at the picture now, missing Woodstock - should have tried to make one up with the pineapples huh? Next time.

Bento #126

Dinner bento - Thought I make another MOo Onigri. In the box is a slice of quiche, broccoli, celery, carrot bears, moo onigri, sauce for the vegetables in container (hidden behind some green foliage) and some jelly agar-agar.

Other CNY bakes

I've been giving my oven a rest during this CNY period. Originally intended to bake some cakes/bread but ended up making these instead as the weather was rather hot. Also I've packed everything away to make the kitchen look 'neater'.

Peach cheesecake

Pumpkin butter. First time making this and burnt my finger from the spluttering hot pumpkin! *I'm still nursing the scar, sob :( * Anyway, if you are interested, you can find the recipe here. I would advise adding the spices slowly to suit your taste so as not to over power the pumpkin taste.

Rainbow jelly. For recipe, please refer here. Takes patience to make perfect layers; erm I'm still working on that trait!!

:)

Bentos # 123-125

Bento #125

Dinner bento - We are trying our best not to get sick. Doesn't help with the erratic wet weather and festive food/treats, not to mention lack of sleep!!! Yesterday was the 9th day of CNY*. Usually all the Hokkiens would pray and 'celebrate' by light noisy fireworks in the wee hours of the morning. I took some medication earlier and was all set for a good night sleep but sad to say, I kept waking up every hour to each noisy and thunderous BANG, wheezing and PoP!!

*Updated - Found out this day is significant for all Hokkien Chinese as they celebrate their ‘liberation day’. According to the ancient tradition, many years ago, the Hokkien people in the Fujian province in China were under bondage to some bandits and didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate the Chinese New Year. To flee from the bandits, the village people successfully hid themselves in the fields/plantations of sugarcane. Following their victory over the bandits, the Hokkien people celebrated CNY which coincided with the birthday of the Jade Emperor (aka “Teen Gong”). Symbolically, it is believed that the Jade Emperor had spared their lives and so on this special day, Hokkiens would offer sugarcanes as offerings to the Jade Emperor for his blessings and mercy. Sugarcane also carry the meanings of tian tian mi mi (sweet and blissful). For more details on the worship, please read here.

Anyway, we've been having rice porridge the last few days. Its difficult to 'bento' porridge so this is the best I could do which is also my first Monokuro Boo bento! Top tier consist of porridge and seaweed cut outs. Bottom tier comprise of some fried fish and anchovies, fried egg, broccoli and some preserved salty vegetables.

Bento #124

Breakfast bento - Some rolled chocolate bread, fruit loops, mandarin orange and marshmallows.

Bento #123

Breakfast bento - Ham sandwich with a cheese imprint of a cat face, some sausages, kamaboko rabbit, tomatoes, mandarin orange and marshmallows.