Friendly Phantom

I saw this really cute set of Halloween stamps at ThereSheGoes .

You know it's good stuff when it's "Out-of-Stock". Since I couldn't get my hands on this set of stamps, I thought it would be a good idea to "borrow" one of the image and include it in the boys' bento. The original phantom was holding an axe! I don't want to promote violence in school. So I have the phantom holding a leaf instead of an axe! How timely, since some of the leaves had already fallen from the trees.

And so we have, not one but two busy phantoms raking the leaves!

Ok, back to the bento ... the boys have pan fried chicken thigh strips marinated in Korean BBQ sauce. I put too little sauce when marinating the meat, and after pan frying them, I added a little more to taste. I had the leftover for lunch, and it tasted good even though it was cold. Well, the boys were happy with the phantom, and came home with an empty lunch box.

Meet The Zombies!

Meet the zombies! Eight of them in total, and each one is different!

You know, Moms always say "Don't play with your food!".

That's what my mom told me when I was young. But I had a blast creating the faces of these zombies! Guilty, guilty. And Darling son KW told me, during lunch yesterday, his friend G was so taken in by the Red Bird, he decided to create his own using the tortilla from his Hot Lunch!

My mom would say "That's playing with food!". So I asked my boy if his friend finished up his lunch after "creating the bird". He said YES, phew!

I don't want G's mom to come after me for indirectly teaching her son to "play with food".

But it may not be a bad thing after all! I mean, playing with your food.

As long as one remembers to eat it all up. It helps the boys to see things at a different perspective, and encourages them to think out of the box.

At times, when my boys request for a certain character to be included in their lunchbox, I will tell them "Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have the colour to do that. And I don't want to use food colouring". They will, most of the time, come out with all kinds of ideas and suggestions. Just this afternoon, KW suggested using the Japanese Cheesecake I just baked to create a catapult! He explained to me "See, the top of the cake is brown. Just like the stand. You don't have to worry about the colour. Just cut the stand. Then you cut a nori strip. Put them together and TADA!". They are indeed becoming more aware of the kind of pattern and figures their food can create =D

Well, back to their bento for today. It had to be quick and simple, as Darling son KW had an appointment with the Orthodontist at 815am! I woke up really early to start cooking, hoping to finish packing his lunch by 730am. These Japanese fishcakes were easy to cook. All that was left to do after cooking them was to put the expressions on the faces of the zombies. And KW came home very happy, not because of the zombies, but because the Orthodontist told him he need not wear the retainer at night till his tooth has emerged! I am happy for him too. Adults find it hard to wear it, what more kids. Getting a good night's sleep is very important for growing kids.

I really hope that his tooth come out well. Otherwise, it will be a stressful trip to the orthodontics clinic in six months' time.

"Caw! Caw!"

Watch out! Here comes the Red Bird! Caw! Caw!

Do you know that the Red Bird in the Angry Birds Game is sometimes known as the Cardinal Bird, Normal Bird, or Lame Bird?

My homework last night ... sketching the Red Bird and sticking the sketch onto the kitchen wall for me to refer to in the morning. I did the Yellow Bird sketch as well. When I compared the Yellow Bird I did for the Bento last week, and the one I drew, I flipped! What a difference! If only I had a sketch last week ....

The Red Bird didn't look too bad, huh? Oh well, the vegetables and the meat did looked kind of messy though =( Darling son KW woke up this morning, coughing badly, and I could hear the phlegm when he coughed. At the very last minute, I decided to drop the pan-fried chicken from the list, and replaced it with tofu and sausages instead. Gosh, I thought the rice bird will not take up too much space in the box. How wrong! I had a tough time trying to press the rice and compact it so that I would have enough space for the other items! It didn't help that the rice keep sticking onto my spoon.

Oh well, hope the boys enjoy their lunch as much as I enjoy drawing the birds =D

Maybe we should take a break from the Angry Birds ... Is it too early for Halloween?

Happy Pigs!

The Angry Birds are out of the picture today, and the Pigs are happy!

It's Mid-Autumn Festival today, we don't want any fighting between the Birds and the Pigs =)

With the morning rush, I sometimes tend to forgot how the characters look like. Just to play safe, I sketched a picture of the pigs and stuck the paper on the kitchen wall! There, I know I need to cut circles and ovals from cheese, and I will remember to place the eyes at the sides of the face, instead of above the nose! I love these pigs! I had fun assembling the parts of the pigs, despite the morning rush =D

Why this sketch then? Well, I changed the boys' lunchbox from a Lock&Lock box to a bigger stainless steel box. With the bigger capacity, I need to be sure that I have enough food in the container. Too little, the contents will move and their lunch will end up in a mess when they open their lunchbox. I have learnt that if I do not think about where to place the food the night before, I will end up wasting time, trying arrange the contents here and there.

There you go ... pigs, logs, bushes, and a little mushroom =)

Happy pigs wishing all "中秋节快乐!"!

Angry Birds - Maching/Turbo Bird

We have the white and black birds, and it's now the yellow bird to make an appearance! Do you know that the yellow bird is also known as the Maching or Turbo Bird? I didn't. But my boys knew! I thought they made up those names, until I did a check on the Internet.

Instead of shaping the rice into a triangle, I chose to leave it as it is, that is, a length/square of rice. Less time consuming, and definitely easier when cutting the slice of cheese to fit the block of rice. It was a hectic morning, as I tried a new dish ... Oven-Baked Lotus Root Chips. Since it was my first time trying out the dish, it didn't turn out as I expected. But the boys happily finished all the chips that were packed =) Will try baking these chips again on another not so hectic day.

This was my little boy's dinner plate from last night. He happily took the slices of pan-fried tilapia and arranged them nicely on his place. When satisfied with how it looked, he grabbed his camera and took a shot of his dinner plate. Maybe he did learn something from all his bento lunches =)

Angry Birds - Black Bomber!

The boys were so happy with the Egg Beater Bird yesterday, they requested for all the other birds for today's lunch! After some thought, they finally settled on the Black Bomber =)

Can you spot the pig hiding in the strawberry?

The green pig dyed himself pink!

It's Summer Pig-nic for lunch today!

In the bento, there's blanched cabbage (seasoned with a little sea salt), oven-baked soy sauce chicken thigh fillet, strawberries, and rice wrapped in nori (the bomb).

I used a thin slice of Japanese fishcake for the eyes. Cut out a circle using a cutter. Half the circle and you get two semi-circles. That's a pair of eyes! Punch out some circles from a nori punch, and place the black circles onto the semi-circles. Done! The brows were made from a grape tomato. You can use red pepper or the red part of crabmeat too.

Question: How do I "stick" the eyes to the rice ball wrapped in the nori sheet?

Answer: I used a short length of angel's hair to secure the eyes/brows to the rice ball. Do not use toothpick as you don't want your kid to choke. You can also use some grains of the sticky rice, or a little mayonnaise. For me, the stick of uncooked angel's hair works best =)

I wonder which bird or pig the boys want for lunch tomorrow .....

Angry Birds - White Bird

It's September, and it's Back-To-School for the boys!

And it's Back-To-Bento-Making for mom!

Yeah! It means that I have more time to do things at a slower pace.

Much as I miss having the company of the boys at home, I really need those "Me-Time" to recharge my batteries =)

For the new school term, I bought lunch boxes for the boys. The ones that they were using last school term were in quite bad shape. Plus they are also eating a lot more, especially after a summer of everyday swimming.

The boys were introduced to the Angry Birds Game on the iPad this summer. And so, they were allowed, and had been playing, since they were very disciplined when it was time to do their Math workbooks. I was very pleased with the effort they put into the Math this summer vacation. The elder boy would take out his workbook, set the timer, and start doing his sums. The little one would follow. It was a great improvement from last summer. Last summer, every Math session was filled with their protests and complaints ... It's vacation, why do we have to do work? It's too hard.

I don't know how to do. I don't want to do.

Hopefully, this Angry Bird Bento lunch can help cheer up the little one, since he is alone in a new class this school term. He has been quite miserable for the last two days of school. New teacher, new classroom, new friends, new routine. He has been pushed out of his comfort zone. His new teacher is a very nice lady, who notices some tears in his eyes on the first day of school. I'm sure she will help him settle into his new environment very quickly.

In today's lunch, we have cauliflower and broccoli, and panfried Japanese fishcake. Since the lunchbox is bigger, I put in two strawberries instead of one. The sauce for the fishcake ... 1.5 tbsp soy sauce, mixed with 1/2 tbsp each of sake (or shaoxing), mirin and sugar. Pour the sauce into a heated pan, or the pan that you use to fry the fishcake. When the sauce starts to bubble, return the panfried fishcake to the pan and glazed the slices with the bubbling sauce.

And what's for lunch tomorrow?

Another AngryBird-theme bento =)