Pasta in Mushroom Soup Bento

Me:  Baby, what do u wanna have for lunch?  Pasta, noodle or rice?

LG:  Pasta!  Can I have it with mushroom soup?

Me:  Why?  Not miso soup (her favorite combination => pasta in miso soup)?

LG:  Long time didn't eat mushroom soup, can I have it?

Me:  Let me go check 1st.

Ok, managed to find a can of Campbell's mushroom soup, she may have her pasta with it.  She had a wet version for lunch, which was with lot of soup.

As for her bento, I just mixed a few spoons of the soup to the pasta, added some chicken strips and blanched broccoli.  On the right is some cut orange slices.

Animal pasta, chicken, broccoli mixed with mushroom soup, and orange slices.

Butter & Sugar Toast

This is one of little girl's favorite breakfast.  A very simple toast and able to prepare in 10 minutes (plus toasting time).  Just spread butter & sugar on bread, then grill it til golden brown and crisp.

This was taken b4 they went into the toaster oven, (pls excuse me off the crumbs), just be very generous with the butter and sugar.

The sugar were melt, turned very crispy and smell extremely good too.

Kimchi Konnyaku Jelly Lunch

This was my lunch, with shredded: cucumber, bacon, chicken frank, fried egg, boiled chicken, kimchi, pear and konnyaku jelly (underneath), garnished with 1 broccoli at center.

Close up of my bowl of lunch

It was not a big portion, but after cleaning up the bowl, I felt extremely full, hope it may last me til 9pm.

Salty n Sweet Konnyaku Jelly Bento

Having konnyaku jelly as lunch?  Yes, this has been in my mind for a long time, but I kept holding it back, at last I managed to make it a reality today.

The top tier, salty version: shredded chicken frank, bacon, fried egg, konnyaku jelly, cucumber, boiled chicken, pear and 1 broccoli at center.

The bottom tier, sweet version: Shredded pear, konnyaku jelly, strawberry and 1 grape at center.

Here r the sauces to go with the bento: left - golden syrup (boiled rock sugar with water), right - cold noodle sauce (see link for recipe).

This bento meant to eat chilled, little girl enjoyed it very much, however, she couldn't finish all, as the jelly is quite stuffing, trust me.

P/s  If u plan for a diet bento, u may try this out (leave out the meat), as konnyaku jelly / shirataki noodles have ZERO net carbohydrates, ZERO calories, NO gluten and are useful for those on low-carbohydrate diets, click here for more details.

Konnyaku Jelly

I bought this Konyaku jelly sometime ago from Tesco, dug out this evening to make some desserts for little girl.

Here are the sweet jellies, in 2 big molds (heart & flower), 1 small container (a box from Ferrero Rocher chocolate) with chopped grapes and strawberry.

Here are the jellies for little girl after dinner, which look a bit like a human.  Little girl ate the head 1st, then she announced to me naively: "I'm going to eat the 'bird-bird' (man's private part) now, big n fat 'bird-bird'!"  (Notice the bottom part of the human jelly) I nearly choked myself upon hearing it and both of us broke down to a teary laugh!

The remaining of un-sweeten jelly, placed in a shallow pan, kept for some plan I had for bento n lunch :)

Milk Loaf

After started baking bread, I was totally falling in love with DIYing bread and eating self made bread.  The taste n smell are so different from commercial bread.  Also, I love the smell infusing the entire hse while baking it, feeling so warm and nice. 

Usually I'd knead the bread on Sun, at mum's place, cos mum has the proper kneading machine, and I'd let it proofed in a container and baked it back home.  

With 1 bread dough kneaded, I usually separated it to 2 half, mainly b'cos I only have 1 loaf pan, and for the other half, would usually made sausage buns for little girl.

So, here is a new bread I was trying out ==> milk loaf, little girl had been eating wholemeal lately, she requested white bread a few times, gotta satisfy her taste bud this round since she'd been a good girl.

Milk loaf

Look at the crust, I like the color and it was not so hard.

Now, lets look at the inner part, so soft n fluffy, yummy, little girl like to eat it plain too.

Pepperoni roll, with some almost expiring pepperoni n lots of cheese.

Sausage buns, requested by little girl.

My stock of breads, which will last us til Thu/Fri.

Ant Climbing Up The Tree Bento 螞蟻上樹

Don worry, there were neither ants nor tree in the bento, oso it has nothing to do with ant or tree either.  So, why using this theme?  This is bcos stir-fry glass noodle (aka tong fan 冬粉) is having this name in Chinese, don ask me why, I just know it was called this way.

Contents of bento: stir-fry glass noodle with mushroom, bacon n garlic chives; sliced tomato, fried chicken (I bought from SS2 pasar malam last week), a container of tomato sauce n mayo and lastly cut kiwifruit.

Little girl couldn't finish the noodle, they were too long for her to chew on, I should have cut the glass noodle shorter to make it easier for her.  Will take note.

I Was at 100 Yen Shop in Jalan Kuchai!

I managed to sweet-talked hubby to bring us to Jalan Kuchai's 100 yen shop last Sat.  Not only I was happy, little girl was delighted to be able to go to another 100 yen shop (besides the one in ss2) too.

These are the items I bought:

Animal food picks, elephant baran, pink bento wrap and sauce containers.

This was found at the cashier counter, what should I call it, a hair holder, I was introduced of this thru 女人我最大 program, never thought that I may find it here.  I was so happy when I saw this.

Thanks Emily and Sharon, again, for ordering all those bentoing items.

I Got Tagged & You Have Something To Read ~ About Me!

I was tagged by Emily!

1. Do you think you’re hot?

=> It's not so important whether I think that myself, but my hubby always say so ;p! So thick skin hor?

2. Upload your favourite picture of you!

=> Sorry, most fav photo of me recently would definitely has little girl.

3. Why do you like that picture?

=> That was little girl's (15mths old) 1st international trip, I brought her to Hong Kong all by myself to meet up hubby. Photo was taken at the HK airport.

4. When is the last time you ate pizza?

=> It was Oct 2008, made by little girl.

5. The last song you listened to?

=> Couldn't recall, as I listened to Light & Easy or MYFM radio stations during my car journeys.

6. What are you doing right now beside this?

=> Nothing.

7. People you tag?

=> (1) pekchek (2) Shoppingmum (3) Javapot (4) Wendy (5) Jess

8. Who is number 1?

=> My big girlie, who introduced me to the blogging world!

9. Say something about number 5?

=> My ex-colleague, now a lecturer and mother of 2 lovely kids.

10. How about number 4?

=> Oso, my ex-colleague, now a homemaker just like me and mother of 2 lovely kids too.

11. Who is number 2?

=> She is one bentoing mum like me, but she is so creative on making her bentos cute!

12. number 3?

=> She is good at baking n bentoing, I was drooling all over with the bread she baked.

Milo Muffins with Surprises!

Make another batch of muffins today, it was a recipe I found during google searching for nutella muffin recipe, remember my previous posting on nutella banana muffin?

I found the recipe here, but I altered the recipe slightly as I don have cocoa powder, I substituted it with milo, therefore the color of the muffins are not that dark.  I cut down the sugar by 2 tbsp too and used a mix of brown n white sugar.

Also, other than nutella for the stuffings, I had some muffins with chocolate chips or with Kisses dark or milk chocolate.

Milo n chocolate chips muffins without filling

Milo muffins with nutella filling

Milo muffins with Kisses dark or milk chocolate filling

Kiddy muffins - milo n chocolate chips muffins (left) and plain milo muffin without filling (right)

Different chocolate snack in a box: almond london (top), plain milo muffin with nutella topping n colorful sprinkles (bottom left) and milo n chocolate chips muffin

Little girl and me preferred this muffin than the nutella banana muffin, it's very moist, not too sweet and yummy.

Garden of Tulips Bento

I didn't plan to prepare a bento today, however, when little girl asked for pasta for her lunch, I suggested a snack bento for her too.  I had her lunch, this bento all ready in half an hour, not bad-huh ;p

Contains of bento: mac & cheese (flower bed), chicken frank (tulips n stems), snow pea (leaves), baby corn (other flowers) and grape tomatoes.

The mac & cheese was a cheat version, I microwaved a slice of cheese, a bit of milk, the cooked pasta for 40 second, gave it a stirred and done.  Little girl used to have this for lunch during her toddler years.

I placed a pair of green spoon n fork to match with its theme, then while I was typing this post, I found them looked like a garden fork n shovel in the garden, do u think so?

P/s  I'd just posted this bento into Bento Challenge for this week's theme ==> cute and kawaii.

麥兜食飯 Mrs Mc and Mc dull ordering lunch set

吳君如 and 黃秋生 are so good, do u think u r able to follow the menu?

Shapes Bento

I thought of naming the theme as "Yogurt Bento" as I drafted out the bento (due to the yogurt salads) last nite.  But, when I slowly packed the food in, I found different shapes in the box, which was so coincidence :)

I asked little girl to name me all the shapes while she had her lunch, she managed to figure all correctly.

So, here r the shapes n food:

Square - Sakura denbu and sesame seaweed onigiri,

Oval - grape tomato

Circle - fried pork patties with okonomiyaki sauce

Long strip - stir fried long bean (leftover from dinner last nite)

Semi-circle - cucumber n yogurt salad

Triangle - kiwifruit n apple in grape yogurt

I kept the bento chilled n packed along with ice packs, thus by the time little girl had her lunch (about an hour later), the bento was still chilled and refreshing.

As I'd used all lettuce for salad on Tue nite, and the silicon dish I had r very small, I pan-fried this egg sheets to use as dishes from keeping away those sauce or moist.

Belated Valentine's Day Bento

This was a not so interesting bento, there was too much yellow and not colorful at all, I realized it only after placing everything into the bento box :(

Contains of bento was: mashed potato with quail egg (center), top with grape tomato, steamed chicken wing, egg flowers, sliced cucumber and baby mandarin.

Little girl like to eat cucumber whole, especially the seed part.  However, to make something cute for her, I seeded the sliced cucumber with a heart shaped mold today, and she refused to eat the cucumber without the seed!  * slap forehead *

LG: Is this a Valentine's day bento, mummy?

Me: Yes, dear.

LG: But Valentine's day is over!

Me: Yes, I know, it's a belated Valentine's day bento, ok?

Kid really wanna be "specific", don play-play with them!  :)

Heart Rosti

A quick snack little girl had during her car journey to mental arithmetic class - rosti in heart shape.  I cooked her 2 pieces of the rosti, deco with mayo, ketchup and grape tomato.

I forgot to add some salt to the rosti, little girl complained a bit of the taste, but she managed to finish all, phew!

Ip Man

I'm not a movie person, especially those action kungfu movie, however, bro has strongly suggested this movie - Ip Man, watched it last nite with hubby.   Ooh!  I'd say it is a great show, the scenes and martial arts were astonishing, the story lines were good, logic and blood boiling, a thumb up for this movie.  The actor Donnie Yen was so cool in the movie, seldom see him smile in the entire show, the martial art performance from him was really breath taking.

If u r asking, who is this Ip Man / Yip Man?  In simple, he was the sifu of Bruce Lee.

Here is the official link of the movie, enjoy!

Hello Kitty in Mud Bath Spa

Hello Kitty decided to go for a mud bath spa yesterday ;p   

I made it using 2 slices of wholemeal bread I baked.  Very simple, just spread nutella on 1st bread, cut a hole from the 2nd bread and placed it on top of 1st bread, spread more nutella, lastly get Hello Kitty (biscuit I bought from 100 yen shop) to sit in.

Have u enjoy a spa lately?

Cheesy Pork Burger Bento

The challenge on Bento Challenge for this week is very interesting, it is You must see...

So, here is my bento for little girl following the guidelines:

• something from can - button mushrooms
• something fresh - tomato
• something from frozen - corn, edamane, chicken frankfurt, pork burger
• something made from scratch - wholemeal bun, pork burger
• something savory - cheese
• something sweet - baby mandarins, honey dew

I oledi have the idea of baking this little bun when I made the minced pork patties last Fri, little girl always fancy things in smaller size, I believe a little burger would please her.

The burger combined wholemeal bun, honey mustard, pork burger, cheese, tomato and ketchup.  As for the button mushroom, I microwaved them and mixed with some mayo and pepper.

I molded 6 pieces of honey dew into heart shaped, and scattered 2 peeled baby mandarin all around, I thought of including grass jelly, but it seemed quite a lot for little girl, thus I left it out.

Little girl ate her lunch by herself in preschool this afternoon, after her school, she told me she like the burger, seemed like the magic of small in size worked again.  She left a few edamame and 1 chicken frank during her lunch, but she finished it all during our car journey home :)

Annie's Macaroni & Cheese

Oh!  3lilangels, I finally understand ur feeling when I found this bunny pasta and DW pasta with cheese at Cold Storage 1U.  I have 3 big bags of pasta at home, but when I saw this, although the price is quite expensive, I just couldn't resist buying them.

Still haven't try it out, hope little girl will like it.

Minced Pork Patty Snack Bento

Bought some minced pork yesterday, decided to cook something for little girl as snack b4 she goes to her mental arithmetic class.

I remember I saw a burger recipe from Cloud9food sometime ago, a very simple recipe, but she used beef for the burger, I improvised it to whatever I have on hand.

The ingredient I used:

300g    minced pork

1           small onion

2 tbsp  ketchup

1 tbsp  soy sauce

1 tsp    honey mustard

1          egg

1 pcs   wholemeal bread (chopped into crumbs)

dash   pepper and salt

Here r the mini size pork burgers / patties / balls

Poked a grape tomato along with the pork patty in those cute animal pick

4 mini snacks and some ketchup (in yellow bear container) to go with

We had this conversation while she was enjoying her snack:

LG:  Mummy, what is this brown color thing under the baby tomato?

Me:  It's pork patty

LG:  Oooh...  Where did u buy it?

Me:  No, mummy cooked it

LG:  This pork woh?

Me:  Yeah!  I cooked it (she disbelieved that I cooked it  * rolled eyes *)!  Do u like it?

LG:  Hm....  (answering while munching on it)

Nutella Banana Muffins

I was browsing thru the net on Tue nite and came across that it'd be The World Nutella Day 2009 on 5 Feb!  Since we r a big fan of nutella in this hsehold, I decided to google search for some muffin recipes, found this site with a gorgeous muffin photo.

Tried out the recipe yesterday, I baked 2 batches of muffins, 24 small baby muffins for little girl to bring to her pre-school and 8 medium size muffins for ourselves.

This is the tiny muffin ...

These r the medium size muffins, I stuffed a Hershey's Kisses chocolate (used 2 types, milk chocolate and dark chocolate) into each of these muffins, as a surprise :)

But due to my greediness on pouring the muffin batter, I got the following result, which made me kind of sad :(

dare not show it big, so malu-lah!

Thus, didn't bother to decorate the muffins.  Anyway, although they looked so awful, they tasted marvelous, is a must try recipe.