Duck Sammy Snack Bento (143)

Made these ham sammy while we were having breakfast, added the pearl fish balls while preparing little girl's lunch, thus not sure of the time used in total for the bento, but sure been fast :p

Heart & duck (little girl claimed they r ducks) shaped ham sandwiches, 2 cherry tomatoes, 1 kumquat and 4 sticks of pearl fish balls

Note of the day

LG: Mummy, can I share the duck sandwich with N (a girl who likes to join little girl during snack time)?

Me: Why? I tot she bring her own food too?

LG: She always likes my bento, and she wanna eat it, can I share?

Me: Only 1 piece, ok?

LG: Ok.

Boy, I'm so thrill on hearing that :)

Salad Snack Bento(142)

Finally, little girl is going back to school, not only she is feeling happy, me too, cos I know she was extremely boring staying at home. She didn't suffer much on the chickenpox, no fever, no complains of itchiness, not even a tiny bit of illness showed! For the past few days, after completing her homework (yeah, I manage to get them from teacher, phew!), I let her play, watch and eat (I tell u this girl didn't keep her mouth idle at all other than sleeping, always wanna eat, eat and eat, afraid that she'd turn into a fat little girl if her chickenpox recovery take longer), but she has oledi complained of boring on the 1st day staying at home!

She is so happy to be back to school til she didn't show any drama at the school gate while I dropped her off, hope all those drama was gone with the chickenpox :p

Made a simple salad for her today, took me less than 15 minutes to prepare & pack.

In the bento (from top left): 2 shaped cheese frankfurters, a little bowl of salad contains of lettuce, corn kennels (leftover from soup I cooked yesterday) and shredded crab stick with a drizzle of sesame dressing, some kiwifruit cubes and finally a jelly

Note of the day

Strawberry & Grape Mochi Cake

I was trying to find a mochi bread recipe which do not require any premix, I did not find it, however I stumbled upon this blog - Kirbie's Cravings (what a lovely name) with this wonderful strawberry mochi cake recipe.

I halved the recipe as I have a small cake pan at home, also since never try a mochi cake b4, it'll be safer to bake a small cake just in case those at home do not enjoy it :p

I'll list the ingredients as the original and those I used in color & bracket.

Ingredients

450g Mochiko rice flour (225 g local glutinous rice flour)

240g butter (120g)

2 cups / 480g sugar (3/4 cup)

1 can / 340g evaporated milk (170 ml)

4 eggs (2 eggs)

2 tsp baking powder (1 tsp)

2 tsp vanilla (1 tsp)

2 cups fresh strawberries, cut into small cubes (1 cup fresh strawberries and green grapes)

1. Cream the butter with sugar
2. Mix in the evaporated milk to the butter/sugar mixture
3. Mix eggs into mixture
4. Mix in the rice flour, baking powder and vanilla
5. Stir in the strawberries
6. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 pan
7. Bake for approximately 1 hour at 180 (I bake for 45 minutes only)
8. Let cake completely cool, allowing the mochi to set, before cutting and serving

This cake is soft and chewy (very Q as Taiwanese says :p) even after the next day, tasted milky too, the hint of strawberries & grapes really enhance the flavor, yum, definitely a keep recipe.

Sweet Preserved Kumquat

I found kumquats at Giant a week ago, they r very sweet while eating raw, but I love to eat it as those sweet preserved candy during CNY. I saw a simple & easy recipe at Carol's, thus without any hesitations, decided to give it a go ;p

Ingredients

300g kumquats

100g sugar (may replace by rock sugar)

50g maltose (may replace by sugar or rock sugar)

1 tbsp brandy (may replace by cointreau or water)

1. Wash and dry kumquats with kitchen towel
2. Using a shape knife, draw 4 lines at each kumquat
3. Place kumquat into a sauce pan, put in 1/2 of sugar and 1 tbsp brandy
4. Add in maltose
5. Cook kumquats in low heat, stir continuously with a wooden spoon til the maltose and sugar melt
6. Add in remaining sugar, continue simmering on low heat
7. Keep stirring the kumquats while simmering
8. Cook for about 10 - 12 minutes or until the kumquats look almost transparent
9. Put on lid, leave it cool til the next day
10. Store cooked kumquats and syrup into a clean glass container (able to store for 2 - 3 months in fridge)

Oooh... This is really good, I love the way the syrup bursting out from the kumquat in the month, yummy!

OMG! It's Chicken Pox!!!!

While I showered little girl this morning, I found plenty of tiny red dots at her body, some of it with blister too, little girl said they r itchy so I tot it must be some insert bites from school. I applied some calamine lotion to the red dots and off we left to the dentist. I didn't pay much attention as little girl was active, fine and complained on the slight itchiness only.

I checked the spots again before little girl left to school, they were not as red as earlier, so I applied more calamine lotion and even sprayed mosquito repellent to her body and feet.

After school, when I showered little girl again, I found more spots on her back & body, and suddenly, chickenpox jumped into my mind, I yelled for hubby to check it out and since both of us were not sure, we decided to visit the pediatrician right away.

After careful checks from the pediatrician, she confirmed that little girl has infected by chickenpox and she has to stay at home until wed. This was our conversation after the confirmation:

LG: Mummy, can I go to school 2moro?

Me: No, baby, u have to stay at home until next wednesday, no school, and can't even go to po-po's (my mum) house

LG: Then what about my homework, mummy? Then I will have lots of homework when I get to school again? * a worried look *

Me: I tell u what, I'll go to see ur teacher 2moro, check whether I can get your homework from her everyday until u goto school, ok?

LG: Ok but I want to goto school...

Oh... she was so worried of all the homework being piled up soon, even the pediatrician was surprised to hear that, and commented that our education system really wrong to put all the stress to kids, sigh...

I remembered during my days of having chickenpox (know what, I got it just 2 days b4 CNY when I was in my 20's, I suffered so much on the itchiness, gotta hide in the room as I don wanna showed my ugly face to the relatives and unable to enjoy all those good food for the entire CNY), I gotta followed all the Chinese believes on:

• cannot get out of the house
• cannot get blown by the fan/wind
• cannot eat bean or pea
• cannot eat egg
• cannot eat dark soy sauce
• cannot eat seafood
• cannot drink cold water or eat cold food
• etc

However, the pediatrician told us little girl don have to 'kai hao' (stop from eating any particular food) at all but if we preferred to follow the believes, she won't against it. She even encouraged us to give ice-cream to little girl when she eats the medicine later, as she has to take 8ml of it and ice-cream will soothe her from not throwing up. Hubby & I were like o_O ice-cream??!!!

So, what is the rules or believes in ur part of world for chickenpox? Love to hear from u.

Porridge Snack Bento (141)

Was up early today, got everything ready (prepared 2 nutella sandwich bentos, 1 for breakfast and 1 for school) , then waked little girl up to be at dentist's door by 9.30 am, as I couldn't get an appointment, gotta be there b4 the 1st patient entered. Little girl had another wiggling tooth again, the tooth was so disturbing that she couldn't even brush her teeth properly and she was complaining of pain too, we decided to have it extracted to safe us from all the troubles.

The job was completed in about 5 minutes, fast & tearless. Little girl told me she wanna have some porridge for lunch, I bought her pork porridge while on the way home. Exchanged the nutella sandwich bento to this porridge since she enjoyed it so much.

Of course this bento is a speedy one, was packed in less than 2 minutes :)

Pork porridge with a teaspoonful of fried garlics & shallots

3 grapes, a jelly and a kamquat

Note of the day

It was a very eventful day, little girl gotta visit 2 doctors! The dentist & the pediatrician! Will let u know why the pediatrician at the next posting... sigh...

Strange Looking Chicks Snack Bento (140)

We had an everything white dinner last nite, udon, pearl fish balls, white mushrooms, quail eggs and cabbage in white soya bean soup, it was very 'ching' (non greasy) and delicious. I purposely kept some for today's bento, it was suppose to be a speedy bento until I played with the quail eggs. It took me half an hour to assemble the bento and those chicks turned out so strange looking * shake head *

Contains r mentioned above, added 2 grape ballons and a cherry tomato lantern

Note of the day

Nothing much to add today, am death tire after all the twisting in yoga class, will go watch TV for a while & hit the sack soon, good nite!

Chong Fan Snack Bento (139)

Please excuse me of the dullness of this bento, it was rather difficult to get nice colors from the sweet sauce and leftover food :p

This bento was completed within 15 minutes, easy & speedy.

6 tiny pieces of chong fan in sweet sauce & sprinkle of black and white sesame seeds, 2 leftover stuffed bean curd puffs with fish paste, some fish ball noodle, 4 pieces of cut heart shaped strawberries and a container of white sugar (for the strawberries)

Note of the day

I'd make a time-table last nite, for little girl to practice at home, it will train her better into the new routines of the day and make her understand the important of completing tasks in given time. She has followed it this morning and was doing great ;)

Sesame Seaweed Onigiri Snack Bento (138)

It's a speedy bento today, all ready & packed within 15 minutes, :)

Korean sesame seaweed onigiri, a cheese frankfurter, 4 sticks of long bean & fish ball noodle and 2 strawberries

Note of the day

LG: Mummy, a lot of people saying my bento is pretty today!

Me: Oh ya? Who was that?

LG: Everybody passed by the table, they walked back & said to me my bento is pretty! It's all bcos of u, mummy!

Me: Thanks, then u must appreciate the bento and finish up everyday, ok?

LG: Ok.

I was at mum's place this afternoon, while busy with the CNY cookies baking, I heard the tragedy of Chung Ling High School from 988, after reading more from the newspaper (here and here), feeling terribly sorry and sad (almost cried, can hardly talk after reading the newspaper), for the teacher & boys, for the families, for the friends, for the students, for the school...

May them rest in peace and hope time can heal all the pain of grief from everybody.

Tiger & Tigress Sandwiches Snack Bento (137)

I'd seen plenty of tiger bentos at few neighboring blogs, since CNY is in less than a month, I'd like to please little girl with this cute charaben bento. It took me more than 1/2 an hour to complete the bento, sigh... really not easy to make do a charaben bento.

The tiger & tigress is a combination of 2 color egg sheets: egg white & egg yolk + mayo (act as glue) + bread + nori

The rest in bento: white & yellow flowers (made from remaining egg sheets, notice the white flower turned out ugly as I fried it too thinly), cheese frankfurter, 2 grapes & a baby cherry tomato.

Note of the day

HK Choo has suggested a sticker rewarding if little girl do not cry in school, as stickers come too easy to her (bought by us previously), I tot of changing it to this stars & stamps collecting game. This is how it goes:

• earning stars in all ways, eg. be polite, not crying & nagging, finish homework fast, eat fast, help set table, finish bento & water in school, brushing teeth twice a day... etc
• deducting stars if behaving terribly, crying & nagging too long b4 going into school... etc
• earn a stamp for every 5 stars collected (in a day)
• get a reward by the end of week for earning at least 5 stamps, eg. going to McD, Wendy's... etc (don wanna get too much of fast food, gotta discuss this more with hubby)
• get a big reward by the end of year for earning more than 200 stamps, like traveling... etc

I don't know if this will help to discipline her, she did show some interests on it. Though drama again over the school gate, she still earning 6 stars (plus 7 stars and minus 1 star) by the end of the day :)

Chocolate Chips Cookies & Orange Snack Box (136)

I was quite reluctant to post these photo up earlier as this is not a bento at all, well, as a record of remembrance for little girl, I tot I should better post it :p

I brought these chocolate chip cookies back from mum's yesterday, this is one of little girl favorite CNY cookies. She requested to have it as snack today, and as my lazy bones kick in, I said yes to her.

Chocolate chips cookies

Orange slices

Note of the day

Yeah, u saw baby there, u know what happened yesterday, another drama at the gate again, sigh...

Don know what happened to little girl today, ate only a piece of cookie, a few slices of orange and didn't drink much of the water at all... worry... worry... worry...

Now, something to make me happy, received this award from Bentolicious, as it does not have any rules to follow, I'm more than happy to post it up. Thanks again, Lia Chen! Love ur blog very much too, love the color & creativity of ur bentos and all the details u shared.

Cucumber Sushi Snack Bento (135)

Another simple & speedy snack bento, reheat the rice, cut the cucumber, spread the rice, pork floss, mayo, roll it, then cut into bite size, washed some tomato & grapes and threw all into box, ready in less than 15 min :)

Didn't prepare to make sushi until little girl said she don wanna the pie for bento, phew, luckily able to think fast to make do this sushi.

Contains of box (left to right): cucumber, pork floss & mayo sushi, cherry tomato and grapes

Freeze this last nite to act as ice pack & a yummy cold drink

Note of the day

So u know what happened when u see how I addressed little girl here, :) Yes, she didn't cry yesterday!

Turkey Pie

Bake the pie this afternoon with leftover turkey from X'mas party, oh yeah, I kept it that long ;p

I used AG's short crust pastry recipe:

Ingredients

250g flour

150g butter

pinch of salt

60-80ml cold water

1. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix it with the flour til crumbly
2. Add in salt and the water. Mix to form a dough. Shape it into ball and press it flat. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes

Filling ingredients

1/2 onion, diced

200g roast turkey meat

200g frozen baby green peas

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp flour

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

200g water (I boiled the water with turkey bone)

1. Heat a tbsp of olive oil in a pan, add in onion, stir fry until fragrant.
2. Add in turkey meat, cook for 2 minutes
3. Add in flour, cook for 30 seconds
4. Pour in water and season with worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Cook until it boils and thickens. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool

To make the pie:

1. Roll out the pastry to 3mm thickness and line a greased ovenproof pie dish with it. Prick the pastry with fork
2. Put in the turkey filling
3. Top it with another piece of pastry and press the sides with finger
4. Cut a few holes at the top. Brush top with milk, and decorate with cut/mold out pastries
5. Bake at 200C for 35 minutes

Little girl had this for dinner

Kept this for 2moro

Verdict: yummy turkey filling with the buttery and crusty pastry. I'm regreting for not keeping more leftover turkey now.

Animal Pasta & Leftover Snack Bento (134))

This bento is a combo of leftover dish from last nite & pasta cooked this morning. The cooking, reheating, cutting & assembling took me less than 15 minutes, satisfied with the speed, :)

Animal pasta, fried broccoli and fake meat (store bought from vegetarian food section)

Cut kiwifruit

Note of the day

Hurray! Little girl neither cry nor showing any drama today, :) She complained of tummyache at the gate, after brushing her with vicks, she pull off with a smiling face & a few waves, what a relieve...

Usually while driving little girl to school, my heart was feeling very tense, like pressing down with some rocks, think I'm either too worry of little girl's drama or I am actually the one having separation disorder... hahaha...

Cocktails Snack Bento (133)

Cooked some burger patties yesterday, bento was ready within 10 minutes. Used a little tray recycled from Ferrero Rocher chocolate to hold the cocktails.

Left: burger cocktails with layers (bottom to top) of bread, cheese, burger and lettuce.

Center: tomato cocktails with layers of bread, cheese, cherry tomato and lettuce.

Right: fruit cocktails with layers of watermelon and grape.

Notes of the day

When I dropped off little girl at school this afternoon, at the beginning, she was fine, talking to me at the side of the gate, until a lady standing nearby said this: "噢！ 你今天沒有哭哦！(Oh! U r not crying today!)" Yeah! Thanks for reminding, little girl started cling to me and tears dropping non-stop later... sigh, was so angry...

After school, little girl told me she ate most of the bento (she left the tomato cocktails) & drank more than half from the water bottle, which made me really happy.

LG: Mummy, why r u calling me baby (in the notes)?

Me: Bcos u r my baby!

LG: But my friends r laughing at me!

Me: Ok, I'll put something else once u stop crying at the gate, and stop acting like a cry baby, can u do that?

LG: I don know... I don want u calling me baby...

Me: Tell ur friend u r my baby, and she is her mummy's baby too, there is nothing to laugh to, alright?

LG: ...

Star Sandwiches & Fish Balls Snack Bento (132)

I am going to prepare small & simple snack bento now as little girl kept telling me she didn't have enough time to finish her bentos during recess. I will slowly increase the volume once she is able to justify herself with the time.

2 nutella filled star shaped sandwiches, 2 fish balls and some cut watermelons

Note of the day

Little girl has fever yesterday, but has no sign of it this morning, I let her attending school, hope that the fever won't return and disturb her learning in school.