Loh Mai Kai Snack Bento (66)

Using all the remaining food (after packing bento 65) to prepare this little snack bento, ie from bottom left, loh mai kai in the pink silicon container, grapes at the bottom right, egg white holding ketchup at the top left, and lastly picked cucumber in the white silicon container at top right.

Duck Family in the Park Bento (65)

I didn't really time myself today during the preparation, as everything were prepared and packed in different times which I slotted in breakfast, and little girl's shower time.

Contains of the bento are loh mai kai (steamed sticky rice with chicken, left over from the food after ching ming yesterday) at center (as a muddy pond), quick stir-fried lettuce at the bottom (as the grass), cut grape tomatoes at left and pickled cucumber at right (as flowers), egg white holding ketchup & mayo (as sun) and lastly cut paradise pears (as clouds).

Daddy duck is leading the ducklings to the muddy pond ...

... while mummy duck tendering the just hatched baby duckling and meanwhile worrying on those elder duckling too 

Do u think these little duck family picks make the dull bento looked much more adorable?

Little girl left with bit of the lettuce and cucumber, overall she enjoyed the bento very much, finished within 15 min without fuss too.

Monster Bento (64)

Had been busy, busy and super busy lately, with illness, and some hse-hold works need to take care of.

It's bento day for little girl today, thought of making her a bake rice with cheese last nite (as she adores the baked rice from Kim Gary restaurant), but little girl preferred to have angel hair than rice.

I timed myself for the whole bento preparation process (using a stopwatch), most of the ingredients were pre-cooked last nite, I just need to cook the sauce, put in prawn, chicken, mushroom, cheese and pasta, then baked it for about 10 minutes.  While baking, I cut the fruits, then finally place everything into the bento box.  The whole process took me slightly less than 38 minutes, inclusive of cleaning and washing of kitchenwares.

The dirty faced monster was a combination of baked cheese, prawn, chicken & mushroom carbonara pasta (it was a cheat version of carbonara, as I used Vono mushroom & cheese soup powder to make do the sauce), with edamames as eyes, prawn as smiling mouth, ketchup as rosy cheeks and broccoli as hair.

As for dessert was skewers of a kiwifruit and 2 paradise pears.  The little tomato container hold some sesame dressing for the broccoli.

Little girl likes the monster, she finished up the pasta, left with a few pieces of broccoli and fruits.

P/s  Posted this bento to Bento Challenge with the theme of "Monsters".

Earth Hour

Yes, I'd registered myself too for the Earth Hour!

I was struggled about whether to register myself earlier, as I won't be at home that Saturday, but back to Seremban, to in-law's place, and I don think I'm able to persuade the elderly to stay in dark for 1 hour.  Then I think again, why don I register for my hse, since I'm not home, everything will be off, and when I'm at Seremban, I may educate little girl on this Earth Hour and we may stay upstair playing in dark (with candles), I believe this 1 hour will be a great fun for both of us!

I'm looking forward to the Earth Hour now!

Corn, Bacon & Cheese Bun

We felt a bit bored on Wed afternoon, so taught SIL to make bread dough. Actually, just asked her to measure those ingredient according to recipe book, and threw them into mixer to complete the rest of job.

I was busy cutting out the corn kernels from its cob, chopping 4 pieces of bacons, then gave it a quick stir-fried with garlic butter.

After the bread dough had its 1st proof, tore dough into 50g round pieces, stuffed in with lots of the corn fillings and grated cheddar.

Brushed dough with egg wash after 2nd proof and sprinkled with some mozzarella cheese, then off they went, to the oven.

Adult version: Corn, bacon & cheese bun (cheesy top), and plain bun (sesame top)

Kiddy version: Bear-bear bun (with corn fillings)

Kiddy version: piggy bun (with corn fillings)

Kiddy version: an ugly bunny with thick lips bun (with corn fillings)

Kiddy version: Elli bun (with corn fillings)

Pls excuse me of the photos, as I'd taken them with the camera from my mobile phone.

Right after the buns came out of the oven:

LG: Ma! Can I eat the bread, I'm starving! (actually she'd just had her dinner)

Me: No, dear, they r very hot now, pls wait for a while more.

15 minutes later....

LG: Ma, can I eat now, plssss..... * touching the bun * Not hot anymore!

Me: Ok, which one do u want, animal or round?

LG: * Thinking hard * ..... I'll take the round one-lah, keep the animals for breakfast!

Me: *roll eyes *

Orange Muffins

Promised RX (little girl's cousin, a very pretty girl with beautiful eyes) to bake her some muffins last Sat.  As I was quite tired after the day out on Mon, I had to wake up early on Tue morning to bake this batch of orange muffins.

The recipe was from Alex Goh's "Creative making of Cakes".

Ingredients:

      (A)

200 g      Flour

1/4 tsp    Baking powder

1/2 tbsp  Milk powder

250g       Butter

       (B)

5              Eggs

175g         Sugar

       (C)

2 tbsps   Orange juice

Zest of 1 orange

I altered his method of making the muffins as I hand-beaten the batter, so here was my method:

1. Whip (B) til light and thick

2. Add (C) into (B) and mix til evenly blended

3. Fold in bit of dry ingredients from (A), mix well, then bit of melted butter, mix well, then repeat dry and wet til all blended

4. Place the batter into muffin cups

5. Bake at 190 C for 20 minutes

I added some chocolate chips to a few baby muffins as little girl adore chocolate chips very much.  So, here are the end results:

Kiddy version: Orange muffins with chocolate chips and plain orange muffins

Adult version: orange muffins

We visited RX n her family after 3pm, little girl enjoyed playing with RX, her chubby bro JX and quiet cousin QR.  Hope her family likes and enjoys the muffins.

Girls Day Out

Went out with Bento Pet, Emily and 3lilangles on Mon.

We (Bento Pet, 3liangels and me) met up at Soul Out at Hartamas at 10.30am, drove to 100 Yen shop at Tmn Desa, Emily came in while we were busy checking out the bento items there.  I was able to control myself here for not buying more bento items, but little girl wanted this when she saw it:

A Hello Kitty pouch

We left to Jln. Kuchai 100 Yen shop half an hour later, this time, I couldn't resist myself anymore, bought these:

Animal barans (forced to buy by little girl), silicon cups (those I had were small, this is bigger), front hair holders (forced by little girl too, caused she saw me using it at home, but mine was black)

These were from Emily (bag of cracker and sauce containers) & 3lilangels (3 little animal picks), thanks!

After all the shopping at 100 yen shops, we headed to Cafe@15 for our lunch, a cosy & friendly cafe with delicious food.  We started off with mushroom or chicken soup (little girl managed to finish the entire bowl of mushroom soup), followed with prawn spaghetti, dessert were sago with gula Melaka syrup & coconut milk, coffee and 6 pieces of crepes!  I managed to eat 1 crepe only (very full oledi), boy, I gotta tell u, it was very very good, soft (with nutella) at the center and crisp at the side, hmmm....  Thanks again, Emily, for the hearty lunch!

By the time we waved good-bye, I gotta pull my full tummy to the car, and kept my mouth close thru out the journey home, as afraid, food would pour out from mouth :)  I didn't have dinner that day, so u can imagine how full am I.

It was a great day out, look forward to have another one soon!  Oh ya, a little reminder here, the Jln. Kuchai 100 yen shop will have new items coming in next week, so remember to check out Emily's for their latest shipment.

U may check out Bento Pet's and Emily's posting for more of our day out.

Mash from ABC Soup

This was very popular in my house during our childhood, we - my younger sis, bro and me used to mash up the ingredients in ABC soup (usually consist of potatoes, carrots, onion, and tomatoes), stirred in a dash of soy sauce and bit of the soup and we'd eat bowls after bowls of this mashes.

I cooked ABC soup for little girl today as per her request, since I was not free to make her another surprise snack after her pre-school, I just filled up the container with some ABC soup, like below:

just the ingredients from soup without the liquid...

... mashed up coarsely with a fork, added a dash of soy sauce, pinch of pepper and bit of soup, done.

When little girl was in the car after school:

LG:  What is my surprise, mummy?

Me:  Remember I told u what I will cook for u this morning?

LG:  No...

Me:  Neh... ur favorite soup ah.

LG:  Ooh!  ABC soup!

She quickly opened up the container, and scooping non-stop to her little mouth, with her satisfying little voice: "Hmm... my favorite soup...."

Onigiri Dinner for Hubby

Little girl n me are having dinner at mum's place tonite, and we'll be home only by 10 pm, it'd be too late to tapao dinner for hubby.  Therefore, these r the onigiri I prepared for hubby's dinner tonite, yes, only 4 onigiri-s  :)  Those r the rice I had after making little girl's lollipops bento, notice the yellow one, it was the leftover from little girl's bento too.  

Contains of the bowl => onigiri (flavored with sakura denbu n black sesame seeds and stuffed with pork soboro), 2 not-so-pretty quail eggs, some leftover coral lettuce from little girl's bento again and sprinkled with more pork soboro.

Don know if it's enough for him?  Anyway, we still have the whole meal loaf if he find it not enough, sound so wicked hor?  Hehehe....

Avocado & Tuna Sandwich

Bento Pet and Emily had blogged about this recipe sometimes ago, here & here, the original recipe was from here.  Since I like avocado n tuna very much and have yet tried out this combination, turned it as a quick lunch for myself this afternoon.

My version was mashed avocado and tuna chunks, added pinch of salt n pepper and some lime juice.

I had it on 2 pieces of my self baked whole meal loaf, filling n yum!  

The only complaint was the avocado I had was slightly raw at the center, thus gave out a hint of bitterness after savoring the sandwiches, gotta drink lots of water to drain off the bitterness.

Lollipops Bento (63)

I didn't plan out the bento last nite, only to think & visualize it slightly b4 I slept.  It took me 45 minutes to complete this bento, I know it can be faster but I used up most of the time on shaping the onigiri.

The lollipops are actually rice onigiri with a stick of blanched french bean poked in.  I mixed some egg furakake into the rice to make it more tasty, as for the filling, I put in some pork soboro (Anna The Red's Bento Factory gave a very good tutorial on cooking soboro => here).  There r 2 BBQ chicken drummette I tapao-ed (take away) from food stall last nite.  3 little quail eggs with animal prints and more french beans and coral lettuce to fill the gaps.  The rabbit sauce container have some soy sauce for the eggs and bear sauce container have some sesame salad dressing for the blanched french beans.

As for the dessert lollipops, there are kiwifruits and paradise pear.

Little girl left 1 rice onigiri, the lettuce and the paradise pear, don know why she dislike the pear though it is small, cute, sweet and fragrance (and very expensive too!).

Instant Noodle Okonomiyaki

A simple n quick lunch for hubby today, actually he "ordered" dried instant noodle, but decided to make him this for a little surprise. 

Ingredients: 

cooked instant noodle (not too cook, still a bit hard at the center of noodle) 

2 eggs 

cabbage, finely chopped

ham, shredded

2 pieces of abura-age (fried tofu skin), shredded

pinch of pepper & salt

1. Heat non-stick pan, pour in bit of oil, stir-fry cabbage til soft

2. Stir in ham and aburaage, then follow with cooked instant noodle

3. Beat eggs, season with pinch of pepper & salt, pour into noodle

4. Cover pan, cook on medium fire for 3 minutes, flip over, cook for another 3 minutes

5. Place on plate, drizzle on okonomiyaki sauce, mayo and sprinkle lots of katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and aonori (dried seaweed powder), serve.

Ready within 30 minutes.

Oyakodon 親子丼

Didn't feel well yesterday, feeling tire n sleepy for the whole day, don know what happen to myself?

I don have the energy to cook 2 dishes & 1 soup for dinner, then remembered having a whole drumstick defrosted in fridge, decided to dig out this recipe for a quick n simple dinner.

Dinner was siap (ready) in 30 minutes, including of all washing, chopping, and cooking time!  Lucky me to have little girl's help on getting the salad done (washing the coral lettuce and cherry tomatoes), while I was doing the cooking.

Little girl's bowl of oyakodon

The bigger bowl for us

Farewell! My Wira!

It was my 1st car, 11 yrs old car.  It followed me to lots of places during my working life, the most northern area was Penang, and the most southern was Pasir Gudang, Johor, yeah, I drove it to most places by myself.

All these years, she'd been in good health, didn't give me any major problem, only minor hiccups like aircon not cold during idling (was fixed), couldn't pull the seat belt (mechanic just give it a bang n problem solved), etc.  I was blessed too, she really took good care of us, we didn't experience any accidents under her 'hand'.

As she was approaching her old age, hubby n me had been struggling whether to sell her or not, after lots of debating, we decided to let her go when she is still in good conditions (better selling price mah! :) )

At last we got a buyer, when hubby sms me this afternoon that he passed my wira to the new owner, I felt a sudden of sadness, hope her new owner will take good care of her just like hubby did.

LG: "I like mummy's car, I'll miss her!"  

Yeah, I'll miss her too.  Farewell, my wira!

Daigaku Imo 大學蕃薯

The actual daigaku imo is a deep fried version of sweet potatoes, covered in sweet syrup.  However, I think it'd be oily n I do not like deep frying food at home.  Therefore, modified the recipe to steamed sweet potatoes.

The result of course slightly different from the actual version, not so fragrant n the sweet potatoes r very fluffy til it broke up easily.  As of the taste, still yummy!  

Hope little girl will like it, I'll let her have it during her car journey to mental maths class later.

Angel Hair with Ham n Broccoli Bento

I'm definitely use to prepare bento now, with speedy and simple cooking.  I started everything from scratch this morning, washing, chopping, cutting, cooking, packing, etc, all within 1/2 an hour!  * A big clap to myself!  *

Contents of bento: Fried angel hair with ham n broccoli seasoned with some oyster sauce, and sliced kiwifruit on a bed of red coral lettuce.

Little girl left a bit of the angel hair n broccoli, as she rather rushed to her class than finished up her bento, after her school bell rang.

Garlic Chives in Box 韭菜盒子

I love snack, especially those savory snacks, this round I'm trying out this snack from Taiwan => garlic chives in box, 韭菜盒子.  I googled search for the recipe, but since I'm a bit malas (lazy) today, I just agak-agak (rough estimated) the ingredients and used the onion flavored frozen roti prata for the outer skin (Hey!  Another experiment of roti prata!)

The ingredients I used: lots of chopped garlic chives (the green color leaves underneath), chopped button mushrooms (left), dried shrimps (top), cooked n cut glass noodle (right) and minced chicken (center).  As for the seasoning, used only pinch of salt, pepper and a drizzle of soy sauce.

Here was how it looked after shallow-fried (with no oil), crispy skin and soft fillings, hmm.... yummy!  Couldn't stop myself from sampling it after taking this photo :)

With 4 slices of roti prata, makes 12 pieces of the garlic chieves in box, with 1 tiny piece of roti left (on top).

Little girl had a piece after her pre-school, dipping with ketchup, she loves it!  Usually she dislike garlic chives, but she didn't complain at all when she ate this!  

I like this snack very much too, will definitely do it again!

P/s  According to this site, may change the garlic chives to cabbage, pak choy, or any other vegetables.

Green n Red Bento

Couldn't think well last nite, thus decided of a simple bento this morning, fried rice!

I fried the rice with lot of vege (bayam 筧菜 and lettuce) and flavored it with a bit of fish sauce and soy sauce, lastly garnished with some fried bacon.

Here is the fried rice on a bed of lettuce and some grapes and tomatoes.

Little girl ate everything today, except the bed of lettuce.

Golden Sweet Corn Bread

Didn't bake bread at mum's hse last nite, played mahjong for the entire afternoon with parent n godmum, :)  Thus once home and after putting little girl to sleep, I quickly did a google search for the corn bread recipe, finally found this.  I started at 11.30, measuring, mixing, heating, baking, all done after an hour.

I altered the recipe slightly, used 2 tsp of baking powder, substituted 1/2 cup of butter to the vegetable oil, added 1 tsp of vanilla essence and I soaked the cornmeal in milk for about 5-10 minutes too.

Fresh from the oven!

Remove from loaf pan this morning.

The inside of the corn bread.

It was the 1st time we tasted corn bread, I found it ok, moist n creamy.  Little girl didn't like the texture, I think it was due to the cornmeal, she was not used to the coarse texture.  Hubby said ok and a bit coarse too.  So, in conclusion, we r not use to the coarse texture of the corn bread.