How I wish someone warned me earlier that this Hello Kitty crust cutter is a little bit too small for our local Gardenia bread size.  The only time I get to use the cutter is when my eldest Sister bake me some home bake bread.  Nevertheless, they are very cute.

Left to right:  Wholemeal mantou, carrot stick with kewpie mayo in blue side dish and checkered apple.
Bottom:  Cream cheese spread on home bake wholemeal bread.

We don’t get to use this two tier bento box very often.  Usually we just utilised the bottom tier but it sure comes handy today.  Sometimes owing two tier compartment box give us the flexibility.  You decide when you want to use them separately and when to use them whole.  Same concept as the portable laundry hamper.

Some of the weekdays when it rains and I can’t get down from the car to tapau (pack) for the kids, we will have instant noodle.  Instant noodle are not exactly unhealthy. I always make a point to obsolete the seasoning by replacing it with ketchup and dark soya sauce.  Kids love it this way.

On closer look:

My usual way is to crack an egg to the boiling water but this time, I did a sunny side up.

Just pop the Unagi that I bought from Jusco for a quick 2mins in the microwave and I’m done with my meal.

Lately I got the hang of stuffing my kamaboko with Japanese cucumber. You should try them. The cold and refreshing cucumber balance up the savoury taste of kamaboko.

Just incase if you still think serving instant noodle to kids is not a good idea, how about if I throw in a cultured drink?  And that two slices of sweet and pesticide free home grown mango?  Will that change your perception?

Dinner has been fun these few weeks with kids looking forward to eat from the bento tray.  And now they will ask, “who’s turn today?”  So it’s Di-di turn today!

Lately, I realised that yee mee has been the most favourite noodle with my kids.  Not late to found out.  And fish paste is one of my favourite food.

We had this meal on a weekday and I took less than 20mins to get this done. In the morning before I left for work, I boiled anchovies  soup and leave them in the thermal pot.

In the evening, I discard the anchovies, drop in kamaboko and crabsticks, remove them, shape or scoop with spoon the fish paste in the stock, crack an egg or two, lastly the yee mee.  Kautim!

In between cooking or while waiting for the stock to boil, I stuff some japanese cucumber in the kamaboko, arrange the crab stick, etc.

Dessert, we had plum and mangoes from the neighbour’s tree. Fully organic and no pesticide at all. Waitaminute,  they don’t even put any fertiliser.  How can it be organic?   I bump into the Husband while he was plucking mangoes from his tree.  Since already face-to-face, I can’t just walk off right? Have to strike a conversation lor.  So I go, “Wah, your tree bear so many fruits.  One of the day you must climb up and pluck all the mangoes or else later the bees will sting on it or eaten by crow (wtf, crow eat mango meh?) then very wasted.” He just smile and ya-ya at me and before I go in to my house, he gave me a plastic bag full of mangoes!  Muahahaha!

The Prince had 2nd helping of Yee Mee.  The bowl is kinda small.  Maybe I should look for a slightly bigger size.  Good to the last drop.  It sure makes me happy when they enjoy the meal I cook.  I don’t usually cook dinner on a weekday but when I do, the kids is the most happiest lot.

Daddy bought a Japanese lacquerware tray during his recent flight transit in Hong Kong.  I was more than happy to have another gadget added to my already bento mania collection.  Without wasting any time, I started using them the very next day.  I’m not sure how kids (I have three children!) will react when they see meals serving in the lacquer tray but only one of them will get to have them .  And of course, this means that the Mummy will have to be bias   .

So…… I pick………. Jie Jie.  Reason is because she always give way to her younger siblings and I didn’t want her to think that I have not love her enough.

And guess what happen to Di-di?  He was freating and refuse to eat his dinner.  He wants the bento tray too.   I have to pacify and coax him.    I promised him every one will get a chance to eat from the tray. And he still refuse to eat .  Now you know why sometimes I have to spoon feed a 7 years old!  >.<

Closeup on the dishes:

Pan grilled Fish Fillet with other grilled vegetables like baby corn, japanese cucumber and tomato.  Foreground is wakame.

Steam Organic tofu with bonito flakes and a dash of seaweed powder

Seaweed soup with egg drizzle.

Dessert consist of plum and a slice of apple.

If you remember a while ago I baked some cupcake during eldest Princess  9th Birthday.  Along with the paper mould, I have some of them baked using the silicon cup so that the kids can have them for their next day bento.  All I have to do in the morning is to pipe some cream cheese on it, sprinkle some Thousand and Hundred and perfected it with a candy heart.

In the evening, Princess came home from school asking for more cupcakes.  Whoa!  Didn’t know it was a big hit!  Guess I’ll be baking cupcakes more often from now on.

Left:  Checkered apple (I used Fuji apple as Rose apple is out of season)
Right:  (what you see) Grilled sausages, edamane & narutomaki (kamaboko) aka fishcake
(what you can’t see)  Nissin noddle at the bottom.

I love my Lock & Lock container.  When I am in the mood for neat arrangement and dislike cutting food into odd shape for decoration purposes, this is when I turned to my faithful Lock & Lock.

Top:  Flower bun, omochi and peanut butter in monkey container to compliment the flower bun
Bottom:  Rice with black sesame seed and crappy looking teddy bear.  Their eyes is like a vampire. Yikes!  But taste good lor.

This back dated bento was somewhere way back around February.  SIL bought this teddy bear fishcake from the wet market for our CNY steamboat and I just hijack a few pieces from the buffet table. *ngek, ngek, ngek*

I love my Mum’s version of french bread.  Her secret recipe was to add one teaspoon of condensed milk to an egg.  But I add a large head of tablespoon of condensed milk for 2 eggs.  And instead of using oil, I substitute it with butter.  That way, you get a sweet and buttery bread.  Yummy!  This was a big hit with my kids.

This bento consist of french bread, mangoes and cherry tomatoes.  The teddy bear silicon cup is from Wilton.   The silicon cups are quite bulky they almost filled up most of the gaps in your bento.

Initially, Princess wanted toast but toast are best eaten while they are still hot.  It is definitely a no-no for bentos.  I’m glad she is not fussy about food.

Top from left:  Buttered corn, assortment of fish cake
Bottom from left:  Mini pears, chocolate flavoured mantou

Mini are good.  But mini is always expensive.  I am refering to both food and electronic gadget for example the palm size mobile phone, the netbook, pns camera, etc.  I am always feeling excited when I see mini food cos they are easier to pack into bento box.

You can tell that the pears are mini cos they are no where larger than the mantou.

Post dated bento consist of individually packed rice + chicken floss . Dishes is fried egg (using egg white for the face, cincau jelly for the eyes and whiskers *haha!*, egg yolk for the nose and carrot as the ribbon), blanched broccoli and cauliflower and pan fried salmon slices.

This is how I prepare the rice:

Filled onigiri mould with rice and make a well at the centre. Position chicken floss in the well before closing them with more rice. You can mix rice vinegar to your cooked rice or just leave them plain.

Place your rice ball on the centre of plastic wrap and wrap them up.

As for the pan fried salmon slices:

Cut salmon in slices. Marinate them with teriyaki sauce, dash of pepper, honey and dark soy sauce. Melt a little butter on non-stick pan and fried them. Make sure you do not overcook the salmon.

As for the Hello Kitty egg:

Separate egg white and yolk. Fried them separately. The rest is all cut out from the Hello Kitty cookie cutter.  I really respect those amateur bento blogger. How did they find time to do all those cutesy bento? I took near to 1 hour to prepare this bento. I think this is the first and last time I EVER use the cookie cutter for bento’ing. Really  so much work!