Simple ideas to make your lunch box attractive

Initially I was so lazy to wake up this morning coz Glennedine was fussing a lot last nite so thought I’ll just forget about bento today. However, my alarm woke Darrius up and so to keep him in the room till his wake up time, I told him to sleep again while I go down to prepare his milk and bento.

The two loafs of bread were gone since MIL has been eating them so I don’t have any more bread to fix bread bento. Luckily after checking my freezer, I found a packet of twist chocolate mantou which I picked up last week when I was at the market.

For cuteness, I added 2 chicken cocktail with little bear finishing. Added some orange slices, strawberry slices, half a corn on the cob and pamelo (hidden under the bears) to complete the bento.

Darrius came down and was extremely happy when he sees the bento. He told me he loves the bear-bear.

Ok, that’s all for today. I am going to put this bento for the B.O.M.B Challenge too and see if I’ll have the luck to win!

Happy bento-ing!

Great to know today is Wednesday already which means only 2 more days to go before the weekend… where I don’t have to wake up so early to prepare for school!

MIL can’t wake up this morning so she has to miss her Tai-chi class at the Botanical Garden. Normally when she is around during the morning rush, my timing would be upset so I opted to do a simple bento today.

Today’s bento is a mixture of both white bread spread with grape jelly and Raisin Oatmeal bread with cheese fold into heart shape… idea from Karenmama. Added some strawberries and some pamelo to fill up the box.

Darrius will be getting fried beehoon (vermicelli) for snack in school so I don’t want to pack too heavy stuff for him since I did not do any cute characters… he might not finish it even…

Finally get to use my new Car’s Lightning McQueen bento box.

Ok, that’s all for today… happy bento-ing!

Phew! Finally it is Tuesday! Yesterday was a little chaotic at home as Glennedine was quite cranky the entire day. She refused to nap and woke up easily if she does managed to sleep. Darrius is not helping either as he was laughing so loud when he watches Ice Age 3. *hhhmmmpppmmmm!* It is extremely tough when the hubby is away!

Luckily both kids slept early as I was so tired after a whole day of minding them myself. MIL was supposed to help but she was not feeling too well and we suspected she got food poisoning.

Well, all these events will not deter me from packing bentos of course! hahaha In fact I got this cute ideas while flipping some of the bento books in my collection. It is also a chance to put some of my cutters to use! Saw KDW using one of the Kyaraben cutters which I bought many moons back but never really use them.

I just adore cute stuff! These 3 little monkeys are so darn cute! hehhehe Ok, ok, I’m not trying to praise myself but I just can’t resist their cute face! I was doodling on Darrius drawing block last night and he asked who drew those monkeys? I told him I am going to make him a bento with monkeys inside. He yelped excitedly and asked me back ‘who is a monkey?’ Then I replied him by asking him back ‘oh yeah, who is a monkey huh?’ Guess what? ‘I’m a MONKEY lor!’ he said happily

We have been referring him as a monkey cause he acted just like one!

The loaf of bread I bought the other has almost finished so I went to get another loaf last evening. This time I bought the gardenia Raisin Oatmeal which is also another of our favorite. The brownish color is perfect for the little monkeys of course!

So, using 2 slices of white bread cut into a rectangular shape to fit into the bento box as the backdrop for the little monkeys. I cut a small slice of cheese and put it on the back of each monkey head so they will stick to the backdrop. The face is cheese cut out with an ellipse/oval cutter. Added some strawberries, cheddar cheese stars and some mini pretzels to fill up the box.

I am going to enter this bento to this month B.O.M.B Challenge over at Hapa Bento!

The other day I went to collect some biscuits on my hubby’s behalf and it was an opportunity for me to check out what the 100Yen store there might have. Their stock was pretty low the previous week so I did not get anything except a place mat for Darrius. However, I was surprised with their new stock!

There were quite a lot of Thomas boxes in various sizes but I did not get any as I already have one and the others were quite small (save some $$$ there). I only ended up getting a Thomas cup. Then there were Cars’ McQueen in two different designs and I ended up getting one of it. I am still thinking if I should get the other design as well…

Last night I dropped hubby off at the airport and that is also another opportunity to check out the other 100Yen store in Bayan Baru. Found 2 Mickey bento boxes and I got one of it and still considering if I should get the other design as well… I think I am having too many boxes and finding it tough to keep them! Anyhow, I can’t resist not getting anything!!

Well, I’m a bento gadgets collector/addict to some extend so the itch will always be there!! Now, let me see if I should get the rest…

*sigh*

The weekends are often so short lived! Not that I don’t like Monday but when I have to wake up on my own (hubby will normally wakes me up before he leave for work every morning), it is such a dreaded thought! Hubby left for his business trip to Brazil last night and I’ll have to be on my own with the two kids for the next 2 weeks. What’s more, next week is school holiday and the thought of having Darrius for the entire day for 5 days is scary… not that I don’t want him to be home, it is because he will stick to the idiot box the whole day if I’ll let him!

For the record, he is so into Ice Age 3 after his daddy accidentally played that movie yesterday afternoon and he has been bugging me to let him watch over and over again! However, I’m not going to make him any of the characters in that show just yet.

I was flipping some of my bento books while feeding Glennedine yesterday and found one bento that uses quail eggs (I’m trying to finish up my stock of quail eggs!) and thought I might just copy that! Yeah, something look rather easy but when I am actually do it (trying to strike for perfection since I am copying the whole idea), it turned out harder than I thought!

I did not have all the ingredients that the book used so I substituted with what I have.

The book actually used white radish for the hen but I used white bread with cheese sandwich instead. I think they cut the shape free hand too but I used a heart shape cookie cutter… making life easier for me!

After boiling the quail eggs, I soaked them in water mixed with turmeric powder. The color looked pretty nice… from far! Instaed of using carrot for the beaks, I used the excess chicken cocktails to do the job. Added some pea pods to fill up the empty spaces and strawberries for the comb (the head) and another to fill up more space… Bought these strawberries from Cold Storage which came from Egypt (hubby asked me: Egypt so hot can grow strawberries ah?) which tasted quite awful… they have a bitter yet sourish taste.

Well, that’s all for now… happy bento-ing!

This is a back dated bento I made for Darrius somewhere last week for his lunch. Have wanted to post it up but kept forgetting so I better do before I forget again!

I cooked some instant noodles for myself (I’m a instant noodle fancees!) so I have to cook for Darrius too. Normally I will make the dry noodles for him as I do not want to use those flavor sachets that came with the noodles… I’ll just add in some dark sauce, light sauce and some olive oil into his noodles.

I bought some quail eggs a while back and kept them in the chiller and forgot about them! Before they turn bad… I better cook them!

Nothing special about this bento but just as a record I made this for Darrius’s lunch.