Showing posts with label Bento - Bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bento - Bread. Show all posts

Thursday 15 August 2013

[Recipes] Quick Lunch Bentos For Kids

It's past mid-week and I am sure everyone is looking forward to weekend. In this post, I will be sharing 5 different quick lunch bento (with two recipes) ideas which you can prepare for your kids or yourself in a way too. I am always delighted to create my bento with "colourful" items which brighten my day or for the one who eats it. Although I might not be a skillful bento maker like some of those experts who makes really good character (charaben) bento (example, Samantha Lee) but in a way I am happy with what I can do for my boy.

And I am sure you can make simple bento too with a mixture of bread/rice, meat and some sides with fried stuffs, fresh fruits and vegetables I am sure you can create something interesting out from the box.


SANDWICH SUSHI ROLL


Sandwich sushi roll can be a quick breakfast or tea snacks which you can prepare for your kids at anytime of the day. To make it more nutritious, wholemeal or mutli-grain  bread can be use to replace normal white bread together with addition of some lettuce and cucumber in it. And also you can choose fillings like egg, tuna or chicken mayonnaise depending on their preference.

(Serve: 1   | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
  • 1 Slice of Wholemeal Bread
  • 1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
  • 1 Hard-boiled Egg
  • 1/2 - 1 Tablespoon Mayonnaise
  • Cucumber and Salad Green
  • Side Dishes For Bento

  • Bento Tools:
  • Bento Box
  • Side Dishes Food Casing
  • Food Cutters For Decorations
  • Cling Wrap
  • Food Tweezer and Small Scissor
  • Drinking Straw and Dried Spaghetti

Method:-
1. Place all side-dish in food casings and arrange them on one corner of the bento box.

2. Put bread on a sheet of cling wrap, using a rolling pin to flatten bread slightly then spread a tablespoon or more of egg mayonnaise on it leaving 2cm free along the other end of the edge.

3. Top with lettuce and cucumber strip then lift up the bread and place it on top of the "cheese stars" (cut out from sandwich cheese using heartshape food cutter).

4. Roll up to enclose filling then cut the sandwich into 4 rounds.

5. When done, arrange the rounds on the food case and you are ready to serve it with the sides.



PANDA ONIGIRI BENTO


Have you thought of making Onigiri (rice ball) using bread? With sandwich bread that can be easily get in all household, you can use it to  make cute animal onigiri like what shown above. Instead of Panda, you can shape and decorate it to look like dog, cat, pig and etc base on your creativity.

Below is a simple recipe and step-by-step photo guide on how to make the bread onigiri.


(Serve: 1   | Preparation: 15 minutes | Cooking: 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
  • 1 Slice of White Bread
  • 1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
  • 1 Tablespoon Tuna Mixture
  • Seaweed Sheet
  • 2 Raisin/Blueberry for Panda Ear
  • Side Dishes For Bento

  • Bento Tools:
  • Bento Box
  • Side Dishes Food Casing
  • Food Cutters For Decorations
  • Cling Wrap
  • Food Tweezer and Small Scissor
  • Drinking Straw and Dried Spaghetti

Method:-
1. Place all side-dish in food casings and arrange them on one corner of the bento box.

2. Put bread on a sheet of cling wrap, using a rolling pin flatten the bread then cut a 2cm slit on each corner of the bread (refer to the step-by-step photo above).

3. Spoon 1 tablespoon of drained tuna and place it on the centre of the flatten bread (you can drizzle some mayonnaise on it).

4.Carefully hold the 4 corners of the bread together and with the help of the cling wrap, shape the bread into a panda face (oval).

5. When done, arrange the tuna bread on the food case and you can start to decorate the feature of the panda using cheese and seaweed sheet.

6. Lastly fix the panda ears using either raining or blueberry with the help of dried spaghetti stick.



ASSORTED DESIGNED RICE BENTO


[Rice Bento] Cute Tuna Mayo Onigir
[Rice Bento] Kani and Cucumber Roll
[Rice Bento] Cucumber Roll with Teriyaki Chicken
Making your own bento like the above is  actually not as difficult as you think of. You can be creative to incorporate different side dishes/fruits which you prefer. Pick a meat or veggies to go with your sushi roll and at the same time add on some simple decoration to make it look more presentation. I hope this post can give you some inspiration to make a simple bento for your kid(s) this weekend to encourage and rewards them for coming CA2 exam. Good luck and all the best for the kids who are taking the coming CA2 or PSLE Exam.

Sunday 31 March 2013

Happy Egg-Citing Easter!

Received some hot cross buns as take home gift after our church service this morning. So without hesitate, I decided to use it to make an Egg-Citing Easter Bento for my boy's lunch. To enhance the bento with Easter mood, I decorated it with some "chicky" design such as hen, chick and heart-shaped egg using his favourite quail eggs.

Rejoice And Celebrate!!!! Here we wish everyone a wonderful and blessed Happy Egg-citing Easter! Cheer, remember to hut for more bunny and eggs..........


Wednesday 8 August 2012

{Bento} Happy 47th Birthday Singapore

Today is eve of Singapore National Day where most of the local schools are having short sessions in the morning for Pre-National Day celebration. And because of this special day, I have prepared this easy and yet meaningful snack box for my boy to bring to school. 

This unique lunchbox is one of the items from my recent Zespri® Introductory Bag for the Zespri®  14-Day Daily Scoop Amazing Challenge event. And for a bento accessories collector like me, this is definitely a "gem" to add into my collections whereby I can prepare yummy snack plus safe keep the kiwifruit.


NATIONAL DAY BENTO


As you can see the size of this unique lunchbox is about the size of our normal sandwich bread and you can also make use of it to put mini packet of juice, cookies and etc as sides. Mostly important thing is, there is a special compartment for storing kiwifruit which is a plus point that I love. In this way I can keep the fruit as whole without cutting to retain it's freshness,  at the same time kiwifruit also helps to add extra Vitamin C to my kid's daily diet.


(Serves: 1        | Preparation: 10 minutes    | Cooking: 3 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Slices Sandwich Bread
1 Slice Picnic Ham
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
1 Zesperi® Gold/Green Kiwifruit
1 Mini Packet of Juice or Milo
Some Cheese Cubes
Some Cookies or Seedless Grapes


Method:-
1. Either blanched the picnic ham in boiling water or lightly pan-fry it for 20 seconds on each side, remove and set aside.

2. Using a 8cm pie cutter or mug, cut out round shaped from the bread slices. Repeat the same steps for the cooked ham and with a knife cut it into halve length wise.

3. Next with the round and star shape food cutters (read more on cutters HERE), cut out the crescent and five stars that represent our Singapore National Flag and use a tweezer to assemble them on the ham shown above.

4. When done, sandwich the remaining the ham and cheese(trim a bit) with the cutout bread. Top with the decorated Singapore National Flag Ham and place it in the prepared lunchbox.

5. To complete the bento box, add in some sides such as mini packet of juice or milo, cookies, cheese cubes or etc.

6. Lastly remember to put in either Zesperi® Gold/Green Kiwifruit in the special compartment allocated for it.

If you still remember, last year I also made a "National Day Bento" using Chicken Rice, Putu Mayam, Ondeh Ondeh and etc to represent the multi-races in Singapore. But this round indeed I made something more simple which I believed you can also pack something similar for your kids snack box.

One of our breakfast with Zespri® Gold Kiwifruit shared via my Instagram

Since now is the peak season of kiwifruits, you can be assured that both Zespri® Gold and Green do taste sweet when they are ripe. So remember to include this wonder Zespri® Kiwifruits which has 5 times the nutritious of apples in your family daily diet too!

Friday 22 June 2012

{Food Art} Froggy Breakfast Set


Recently I got a box of LunchPunch sandwich cutters which comes in a set of 4 different patterns. There are 5 different themed of LunchPunch cutter whereas mine is the "Sand*wishes*" themed which consists of cute "fairy princess" with a cut out star and "frog prince" with the removable crown and etc.


SAND*WISHES* CUTTERS
(product from LunchPunch)



Since it is during mid-year school holidays, where I do not need to rush madly to prepare our daily breakfast,  I can spare some extra "5 - 10 minutes" doing out some "cute" breakfast like the above. And at the same time I can do it together with my kid to create parent bonding time where he can helps me to cut out some of the shapes and arranged the food on the plate.


(Serves: 1 |        Preparation: 5 - 7 minutes |         Cooking: 5 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Slices of Plain Or Wholemeal Sandwich Bread
1 Slice of Breakfast Ham
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
1 Cherry Tomato, halved
1 Hash Brown or Some Potato Gems
Some Whole Walnuts, toasted
Some Salad Green, optional

Method:-
1. Either blanch the ham in hot water or lightly fry it on a pan for 10 seconds on each side. Remove and set aside.

2. Using your desire LunchPunch cutter (i choose the frog prince), punch out the "frog" shaped on each slice of bread as shown above.

3. Next adjust the crown of the "frog prince" cutter to fix the sandwich cheese and cut out a "crown" and "legs" to fix it on 1 slice of the frog shaped bread.

4. Repeat the same process using the cutter to cut out "mouth" and "legs" from the ham using the help of a toothpick or food stick to outline the cut out. (refer to the step-by-step photo above)

5. Lastly assemble the sandwich and place all the leftover pieces of ham and cheese between the two slices of frog shaped bread.

6. Arrange the tomato halves and features of the frog and serve it on some salad green together with toasted walnuts, hash brown and a glass of milk/coffee/tea.



Sometime with just a little more effort everyone can turns simple ingredient into something appealing like cafe style breakfast set! Look the above Froggy Sandwich Set, isn't it adorable and close to cafe standard of their Kid's Breakfast Menu. I am sure you won't resists to order one of this, right?

For more kid's menu ideas, you can refer to my other posts HERE.

Monday 8 August 2011

Mickey Bento Sets - From Breakfast to Dinner

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A few weeks back I received an email from Bee together with invitation to do a Bento related guest post at Rasa Malaysia. I was so surprise after reading her email because for so many years I have being one of her silent readers whom always drool over her mouthwatering photos and recipes which our family enjoys. And today I am so honor to be one of the invited guests to share my bento post with all her readers.

For this post, instead of Angry Birds I will be sharing two Mickey Bento which I have discussed with Bee. First bento set can be used for either Lunch/Dinner as it comes with soup, rice, veggie, prawn and fresh fruit. While the second set will be more suitable for breakfast, tea-snack or field trip outing.

Different Mickey shapes cutout from pumpkin, carrot, Chinese yam(huai shan) and assorted colour of capsicums for making the soup and stir-fry.


MICKEY LUNCH OR DINNER SET



Ingredients For Soup:
300g Spare Ribs
1 Medium Carrot, cut into thick chunks
200g Chinese Yam, cut into thick chunks
200g Pumpkin, cut into 3 portions
1 Sweetcorn, cut into 4 sections and halves
1.2 Litres of Water

Method:-
1. Blanched spare ribs in boiling water for 1 minute remove rinse and set aside.

2. Before cutting the root vegetables into chunk, reserve a small portion and use small assorted Mickey food cutters to cutout mickey face shaped from Chinese yam, carrot and pumpkin. (about 5 pieces from each item)

3. Bring 1.2 litres of water to boil, add in all ingredients except the reserved “Mickey” shaped cutouts.

4. Lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, next place the mickey cutouts on a metal soup ladler lower into the simmering soup and cook for 15 seconds. Remove and set aside in serving bowl.

5. Ladle warm soup into the bowl before serving.

Ingredients For Onigiri And Veggies:
3 Tablespoons Cooked Rice
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
1 Thin Slice of Carrot
Nori Sheet
1/4 Bunch of Baby Choy Sum
1 Teaspoon Wolfberries
1/4 Teaspoon Minced Garlic, optional

Method:-
1. Place a sheet of cling wrap on one hand and scoop about 2 tablespoons of cooked rice on it. Shape the rice into a ball.

2. Remove the cling wrap and place it on a paper cup liner while working on the two ears on the side.

3. Using the same cling wrap scoop 1 teaspoon of cooked rice on it and shaped into semi-circle. Open the cling wrap and cover the rice ball with a 4cm diameter round nori sheet to form the ear.

4. Repeat step 3 again. Next place the 1st round rice ball onto a cling wrap, using 2cm long thin spaghetti to attach the ears on the side of rice ball.

5. Shaped these three parts of the mickey features tightly using the cling wrap and your hands.

6. When done remove the wrapper and place it on the paper cup liner into the assigned box and start adding the facial expression using mickey shape cutter, cheese and carrot shown above.

7. To make the eye balls and nose, use a craft puncher on a nori sheet to get small oval shapes and paste it on the cutout cheese.

8. For the vegetables; preheat a small saucepan with 1 teaspoon of cooking oil sauté the garlic till fragrant before adding vegetable. Give a quick stir and cook for 30 second, toss in wolfberries and cook for another 5 seconds. Remove and arrange in another paper cup liner at the side of the Mickey onigiri.

Ingredients For Tomato Prawn:
1/4 Red, Yellow And Green Capsicum
5 Slices of Carrot
5 Medium Shrimps, shells removed
3/4 Tablespoon Ketchup
1/4 Teaspoon Minced Garlic, optional
1/4 Brown Onion, optional

Method:-
1. Using small assorted Mickey food cutters to cutout mickey shaped from the assorted capsicum and carrot. (about 3 cutouts from each items, remaining cut into long strips )

2. Next preheat saucepan with drizzle of oil, sauté garlic till fragrant add in assorted capsicum and onion cook for 30 seconds before adding in the shrimps.

3. Give the mixture a quick stir, add in ketchup mix well cook until prawn changed colour.

4. Turn off the heat, dish up and assemble it on bento container.

Ingredients For Fruit Platter:
3 Slices of Dragon Fruits/Melons
4 Lychee/Cherry, seeds removed

Method:-
1. Using a big Mickey food cutter, cutout mickey head shaped from the dragon fruit and set aside

2. Arrange the serving bento with mickey head dragon fruits and some seedless fresh lychee of any fruits of your choice.


MICKEY BREAKFAST SET



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Apart from the full set of Mickey Dinner Bento shown above, I have also made another Quick and Easy Mickey Breakfast Set using some of the "Bamboo Charcoal Bread" that comes in just in time to shape the face of Mickey. But if you cannot find any Black Charcoal Bread you can always replace it with chocolate bread too.


ARRAY OF MICKEY SHAPES FOOD CUTTER



These are the Mickey Shapes Food Cutter that I used used in making these two bento shown above. If you are interested to get hold of these cutters, you can either purchase them from online bento shop or for those living in Singapore, you can get it from Kai Kai Gift at level 2 of Chinatown Point. Lastly, I hope you would like these two set of Mickey Bento which perhaps could bring back some of your Disneyland trip or childhood memories.

For the FULL Recipes of these Mickey Bento, you can refer to my Guest Post @ Rasa Malaysia HERE.


Monday 1 August 2011

Spooky Bento Featured @ inSing.com

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A few weeks back I was approached by Javan from inSing.com on whether I could do a bento base for their 7th Month, "Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival" theme. Upon reading his email I was actually stunned for a few minutes and I even "text" a few friends for their opinions and most of us feel this is quite a sensitive month and topic to handle.

So after much considerations and drafting we decided to settle with something more kid's friendly that resemble "Halloween" theme just for some fun and spooky chill on this Chinese 7th month. But before this, initially I have a few design such as using charcoal bread/squid ink pasta to form a black coffin or well with "pool" of tomato pasta sauce to create a bloody effect with accompany ghostly images or broken hands and etc. And Javan even suggest that whether I could do a "paper talisman" sort of design but I find it rather "Spooky" to use for bento especially in this Hungry Ghost Month.

For more details and recipe please refer to the article at inSing.com HERE.


Tuesday 21 June 2011

Penguins Bento and Bento Making featured in ZaoBao(联合早报)

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Recently my boy was fascinated with "The Penguins of Madagascar" showing on #kto(here) every Monday - Thursday at 6.30pm. He loves those 4 crazy Penguins known as Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private who rule the roost at their Central Park Zoo home with thier all-new adventures together with King Julian. And with his favorite show he has always wanted to make a Penguin Bento.

So finally last Sunday, I managed to come up with this Penguins Bento which is similar to his favourite Madagascar Penguins using Charcoal Bread(read more HERE) bought from "Lavender Bakery" at City Square Mall, Johor. He was so excited when we cut out the penguins shape from the charcoal bread using the cutter and assemble it featured with cheese and carrot. I am sure no matter who you gave this Penguins Bento to the receiver will definitely be thrilled.

This photo shows the tools and steps on how to assemble this cute Penguins Bento.

Ingredients:
1 Slice of Bamboo Charcoal Bread
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
2 Thin Slices of Carrot
1/4 Portion of Sweet Corn
Fresh Fruits of your Choice
Some Prawn Crackers
Nori sheet
1 Toothpick

Method:-
1. Blanched Sweetcorn in boiling water for about 2 - 3 minutes, removed and add in the carrot. Cook for 30 seconds, remove and set aside.

2. Using a Penguin shape food cutter to cut out two penguins from the bamboo charcoal bread.

3. Next with the same cutter cut out another two penguins from the cheese and using toothpick and drinking straw to cut out the stomach, mouth and eyes of the penguins.

4. Place the cut out cheese features on the prepared bread (give it a gentle press to stick the cheese on the bread), before securing the legs(you can use a flower shape cutter to cut out semi-circle from the carrot) of the penguins using carrot and thin spaghetti strips.

5. Lastly, assemble the sweetcorn, fruits, crackers and penguins bread into the bento box and serve.



FEATURED in 21.06.2011
ZaoBao(联合早报), Family Page


Here is a screen shot of our bento making featured in today's ZaoBao(联合早报), Family Page which might be an encouraging article for working parents to create a bonding time with kids by making bento as a food art and educational theme for them.

Although bento making in Singapore is not as popular as in Japan and Taiwan but there are still a lot of bento makers and bento item collectors in Asian countries. And my bento journey starts with a group of bento friends whom always inspired me with their creative ideas where you might be interested to take a look and read-up their fabulous bento from their blogs shown below:-

1. Mothering Corner @ http://motheringcorner.com/

2. Bentolicious @ http://www.mybentolicious.com/

3. Susan Yuan @ http://susanyuen.blogspot.com/

4. Hippomum @ http://www.wretch.cc/blog/hippomum/11108126

5. Tona Mummy @ http://ourfirstbabykimiboy.blogspot.com/


Sunday 17 April 2011

[Sandwich Sealer Giveaway] Bread Pockets Bento Set

Thanks to those of you who participated in the "Gyoza Mold Giveaway" event which is ending on coming Monday, 18 April 2011. Here I am having another “Giveaway” which consists of a “Sandwich Sealer plus Heart Shaped Food Picks”. With this sandwich sealer you can make your favourite sandwich with all kind of fillings from sweet to savory without worrying that the fillings will drop-off from the sides and etc.

If you are interested to win a set of this "Sandwich Sealer plus Heart Shaped Food Picks", just leave your Name and with a type of your favourite sandwich filling (tuna, egg mayonnaise, jam) "I love xxxxx" in the comment box and I will pick ONE Lucky winner on Wednesday, 20 April 2011. Do check the result after Noon, 21 April 2011.

I have a few different types of Sandwich Sealer/Cutter at home which we usually use to rotate around when making sealed/opened sandwich for our breakfast or picnic. Here I use the sandwich sealer shown below to make some ham and egg sandwich serve with chocolate chips cookies, chocolate, apple and drink for a quick lunch before my boy goes to his Sunday class.

Method:-
1. Warm the bread in the microwave oven according to the instruction menu (shown at the back of the sandwich sealer packaging). Place the bread onto the center of the frame, then place your desire filling onto the bread. (refer to the step by step photos above)

2. Warm another slice of bread in the microwave oven, cover the first bread and filling with this bread by aligning its placement with the first bread.

3. Place the bread cutter onto the bread.

4. Carefully press the bread cutter downwards.

5. Hold up the bread crust while holding down the bread cutter to see if the crust has been thoroughly cut.

6. Remove the bread cutter and the entire crust from the mold and the sandwich should be completely sealed.

Ok, that's all for this simple post. Have a great weekend everyone and if you are interested to win a set of this Sandwich Sealer plus Heart Shaped Food Picks, do start leaving your comments now :) Have Fun everyone!


[Updated on 21 April 2011]

GIVEAWAY RESULTS!!!!!






GIVEAWAY RESULTS ARE OUT! Are you the Lucky One!!!!!

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