Simple ideas to make your lunch box attractive

Since I was away from the bento-ing scene for quite a while, I did not shop for bento stuff as often as before. In fact I have not visited 100Yen for a while. The last time I was there was back in September last year when I went to search for something for a bento pal in Singapore.

Honestly, I have so many gadgets where 50% of them I’ve not use before. Many of them are still in their packaging tucked away in the many boxes in my house. My hubby has threaten to throw them away if I have no intention of keeping them properly!

Anyway, I have ordered this Elmo bento box from CP sometime back and I asked her to hold on to my order till I can see if there are other stuff I could order so she can ship my stuff together to save on shipping charges… hehhee

When I knew I’m going to have a girl, I was pretty tempted to get the Hello Kitty box but my hubby warned me that there should be no Hello Kitty craze in the house! Thus, I decided to get the My Melody box instead. Initially, CP and a few other bento supplies online stores are out of stock for this particular box but was fortunate enough that CP still has one which she hold for another client which did not reply her. And thanks to CP, she gave the box as a pressie to Glennedine!

After a loooooooooooooooooong hiatus, I am finally back into the action again! It has been soooooo long since I last pack a decent bento with a little more decorative stuff. With a baby, there is always lack of time to do all the luxurious stuff but I think I am beginning to get the hang of things now after we are back in Penang for a month after my confinement.

When I discovered that I was pregnant with Glennedine, I was struck with yet another awful morning sickness drive which lasted almost 4 months! Horrible eh? Well, what to do… that’s my body!

So, due to all the unexpected stuff, poor Darrius was deprived of all the cute bentos I once spent hours doing for him. At one point of time he told me he misses his bento and asked when I can make bento for him again? I did decorate a few but it was really the bare-minimal type which don’t even qualify to be posted up!

Now that he is going to kindy full time, I felt the need to go back to bento-ing as I am not sure if he is full from the snack provided by his kindy. His kindy has extended an hour from the previous 3 hours so he spent another hour there. The kindy provide a standard weekly menu so from there I can estimate if he will get enough food to fill his little tummy as he has really good appetite now.

I started packing for him since last month but only the simple ones as I dare not decorate them too excessively as I am not sure if he will bring back all the cute stuff! So, I tested water a few times and found that he did brought back all the picks and dividers I packed in.

Since I know more about Glennedine’s schedule now, I can spare some time to pack a more elaborate bento for Darrius. And so, today I tried to be more creative (creative juice dried up when I got preggy!) with his bento…

Darrius will be having fried beehoon in kindy today so I thought the extra ingredients in the bento will compliment his beehoon. There are 2 mini chicken sausages, an egg in star shape, 2 cherry tomatoes, some snap peas and ketchup in the sauce container.

I just hope he don’t make a mess with the ketchup!

After suffering almost 5 months of painful morning sickness and 4 months of backache and sleep deprivation… finally we received our little bundle of joy on 2nd of December 2009.

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our Lil’ Princess… Baby Glennedine…

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*Photo courtesy of TwoPixels Photography*

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However, bento-ing won’t resume until I can get my schedule/routine back on track when I return to Penang after new year…

Wishing all bentoers a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010!

I’ve to cook dinner almost every day except Friday but mostly doing steaming. Too lazy to do heavy cooking as I need to clean the kitchen… hehhee getting very lazy!

This bento was done last nite for dinner. I’m trying to clear all those frozen stuff in the freezer (especially the meat balls!) and some cabbage I bought last week which I have totally forgotten! That’s the problem when you have a big deep fridge… things are hidden from the eyes! PiggyBeng will record what he puts in and what he takes out but I’m too lazy to do that!

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Since I’ve opened the tofu skin pouch, I’ll have to clear them soon too. Therefore, I decided to make sushi for Darrius topped with two different furikake flavors. One is egg and another is shrimps. Cut two rabbit apples as Darrius really likes apple now after seeing my MIL takes them everyday. And he wants to have the skin too since my MIL ate the skin! Kids!

In the portion cup are some stir-fried cabbage with protein balls. Ok, it is a kind of vegetarian stuff (imitation meat balls) which I bought from Tesco. It is a good substitute when I forget to defrost meat for cooking. Just need to soak for 15 minutes and they are ready to use. Some carrot flowers and peas for deco. On the other end is a cherry tomato. On the top is 2 pieces of meat balls that goes well with the bone picks!

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I gave Darrius some steamed fish which I did not include in the bento as it is too sticky and don’t look nice! Darrius only ate one of the sushi and refused to eat the cabbage but he finished the protein balls! I even gave him the other half of the apples which he asked me to cut into bunny shape.

That’s all for now… happy bento-ing!

It was raining cats and dog this morning so obviously I was lazy to get out of the house. I have some wholemeal bread left from the weekend and a whole tray of eggs (I have stopped taking cupcake orders) so decided to make some French toasts for lunch. Yeah, lunch is either eat out or bread now…

I cut using the small star and heart cookie cutters which I bought from Jusco. Darrius adores anything in the shape of star….

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After I was done arranging the little stars and hearts bite size French toasts, I dribbled some Black Honey Syrup which I bought from 100 Yen shop on them. They tasted quite nice with the toasts…

Then I cut some Green Skin mango and some strawberries for vitamins. Mangoes and strawberries are two of Darrius’s fav fruits.

As expected, Darrius cleared everything except for the Butterhead lettuce.

That’s all for now. Hope all of you have fun bento-ing!

Due to my laziness I have not been posting up my bento. I did not do that many since I don’t cook that often now. Sometimes Darrius wants me to feed him so I don’t decorate his dinner too. I think it is the ‘baby‘ thing that he is getting a little sticky lately.

In fact this bento was done last week. Darrius saw me doing my ‘ME BENTO‘ and insisted that he wanted a bento too. So, after I was done with mine I used all the balanced ingredients and put up one for him.

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One thing I am glad is that Darrius is never demanding about his bento. He won’t ask for all the cutesy stuff but instead he is more to ‘what is inside my bento?’. His eyes will sparkles when he sees food that he likes and will give me one of his ’sly’ smile and start jumping up and down happily before he waits for me to put him onto his high chair.

Like me, Darrius likes the chicken wing and the strawberries which are the first two items he cleared. The only thing that left was some of the fried rice and all the lettuce.