Showing posts with label Kid's Bento. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kid's Bento. Show all posts

Saturday 26 March 2016

[Easter Lunchbox] Baked Cheesy Potato Cake

Happy Egg-citing Easter everyone! I am sure most of you are having a great weekend filled with delicious food like roast lamb, hot cross buns, colourful Easter eggs and treasure hunt games. As for us although we did not prepared any Passover feast but I did made an Easter themed lunchbox for my kid to share with his classmate during lunch break.

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.

Monday 29 April 2013

[i-Love Mama Healthy Meal] i-Love Mama Bento

Photo Credit:- iWeekly (I周刊)
Finally after a few weeks of preparations (like designing and preparing of bentos for approval, practicing, lasing and etc) we managed to complete our two i-Love Mama Healthy Meal recruitment roadshows; 1st (Tampines Giant) and 2nd (Sheng Siong Supermarket) that were hosted by Mediacorp artiste Pornsak and Y.E.S 93.3FM deejay Siau Jia Hui!

Although in between there were some hard times dealing with the coordination and etc but eventually we were all thankful that everything went on smooth and we did have fun to be in part of their i-Love Mama Healthy Meal recruitment roadshows. More photos of the roadshows could be found at our Facebook Page HERE.

Thursday 25 April 2013

[i-Love Mama Healthy Meal] Panda Bento Set

In conjunction with the i-Love Mama Healthy Meal Contest which is organised by Mama Lemon and i-Weekly, I was invited to do bento demo at the recruitment roadshows to promote their upcoming healthy meal contest. To register for this contest, grandmothers/mothers with child aged 12 years and below can team up to create a healthy meal and stand a chance to win attractive cash and prizes worth S$4,000. (more details here)

Doing the Panda Onigiri together with Pornsak (Mama Lemon ambassador)

The host and Pornsak were sharing the nutrition values of the ingredients used while Shiting and I were busying assembling the Bento.

Shiting (Lobsterpaint.com) and I busying at the i-Love Mama Healthy Meal bento demo roadshow

Samples of the Kid's Panda Bento Set during the i-Love Mama Healthy Meal roadshow demo

Adult Bento Set with same ingredients used but without cute "make-over".


PANDA BENTO SET
(i-Love Mama Healthy Meal)


This is my Kid's version of healthy meal whereby a normal homecook meal is being transform into a Panda Onigiri with accompany dishes such as asparagus bacon roll, baked honey chicken, panda quail, steamed corn kernels and some grapes. I am sure this fulfills the 2 servings of veggies plus plus to balance out the nutrition intakes for kid.

Beside you don't have to spend extra time preparing additional dishes for the bento. You could just use your creative mind and re-assemble your daily homecook dishes into something more attractive for the kids. Blow is a quick bento recipe which shows how I turn simple homecook dishes into a cute Panda Bento Set.


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

Ingredients:
6 - 8 Thai Baby Asparagus (泰国小芦笋), trim and cut into half
2 Strips of Bacon
3 Tablespoons Of Cooked Rice
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
Nori (seaweed) Sheet
Baked Honey Chicken Mid-joint
1 Quail Egg
Some Cherry Tomato
Steamed Sweetcorn Kernels
4 Blueberry / Dried Raisin
Fresh Fruits
Some Fresh Lettuce, optional

Tools Needed:
Bento Box
Side Dishes Food Casing
Heat Resistant Cling Wrap
Food Cutters
Seaweed Puncher (for facial expression)
Food Tweezer
2 Toothpicks
Bento Food Pick (optional)
Small Scissor
1 - 2 Dry Spaghetti Noodle

To Make the Asparagus Bacon Roll:-

1. Blanch the asparagus in boiling water for 20 seconds, remove, pat dry and cut them into half of equal length.

2. Arrange half of the asparagus near one end of  the bacon strip, roll the bacon strip forward to wrap the asparagus then secure the end with a toothpick shown on the photo above.

3. Preheat a frying pan with 1 teaspoon of oil, cook the asparagus wrap over low heat till slightly golden brown in colour (about 5 minutes). Remove and set aside.

To Assemble the Panda Onigiri:-

1. Spoon about 2 - 2.5 tablespoons of cooked rice on a piece of heat resistant cling wrap. Using hand, shape it tight into oblong shape to form the panda body.

2. Open up the cling wrap, wrap a 1cm wide nori (seaweed) sheet near the bottom the rice ball to form a belt (refer to the photo above). Next place the rice ball with nori sheet back onto the cling wrap and shape it tightly so that the nori sheet will stick to the rice ball.

3.With another piece of cling wrap shape 1/2 teaspoon of rice into a triangle shape to form the nose of the panda.

4. Using Scissor, cut out 2 oval shapes from the nori sheet to form the black eye circles of the panda.

5.With either a food cutter or drinking straw cut out smaller oval shapes from the sandwich cheese to form the white part of the panda eyes.

6. Next using a facial seaweed puncher to punch out facial express from the nori sheet and assemble it on the panda (refer to the photo above).

7. To decorate the "belt" below, you can use any small shape cutter like star, heart, flower or etc, cut out shapes from the sandwich cheese and place it on the nori belt.

8. To fix the panda ears, use either blueberry or dried raisin and connect it to the rice ball with the help of the dry spaghetti noodle in between.

9. Above shows the close up look of the Panda Onigri plus the asparagus bacon wrap.

10. When done, assemble the bento box together with the rest of the side dishes and fruit shown above.

For this coming Saturday i-Love Mama Healthy Meal roadshow, I would be doing a similar bento which I hope it resemble the Lion Mascot of Mama Lemon  shown above. Also I would like to delicate this MAMA bento to all mothers on coming Mother's Day and wish everyone a fruitful and healthy Mother's Day! Between if I would to conduct Mother and Child Bento Workshop(s) (like what i did previously here) during this coming June school holiday, I wonder would there be anyone interested to join?

Lastly I would like to thank ShiTing from Lobsterpaints.com who takes her time to come and support plus assist me during the bento demo roadshow. Thanks sis! More photos of the roadshows could be found at our Facebook Page HERE.

Wednesday 17 April 2013

i-Love Mama Healthy Meal Contest

[Tea-Break] Cheesy French Toast with Cute Bunny and Granola
Hi Morning! It's mid-week again and I am sure everyone is looking forward to weekend to have some family time or gathering with friends and etc. Here I have four different design of Bento Meals which I hope it would bring in some ideas for you while preparing your daily meal for your kids or loved ones.

Also two days back while flipping through the iWeekly(I周刊) and 8Days, I happen to see an interesting advertisement on i-Love Mama Healthy Meal Contest which I would like to share with you. But before that, let me run through some of the bento meals which I have made for my boy.

[Tea-Break] Mini Milk Bread with Assorted Cheese and Fruits
Cheese and milk are important for growing up kids to provide them with calcium that needs for growing bones and teeth. Furthermore cheese is also a source of protein, vitamins and minerals which are essential for growing so it would be good to add in some cheese while preparing your snacks or dishes in a way to encourage your your kid(s) to eat them.

[Lunch] Lovely Garden
For lunch I made a lovely garden theme using sweetcorn for the flowers and assemble the garden with mushrooms and butterfly from the ingredients in the stir-fry choy sum. With this lovely layout it actually turns the "boring" green vegetables into something artistic which I am sure your kid(s) will be delighted to try them out.


My boy who loves underwater world creatures always get excited when he see an ocean theme deign for his lunchbox. Here by adding some fish and star cutout carrots to my stir-fry broccoli with mushroom, I managed to assemble something that he likes with sausage octopus and baked cheesy salmon to complete the healthy meal.

So if you love to cook, have creative ideas to assemble your healthy meal, perhaps you could consider to join this i-Love Mama Healthy Meal contest and form a team with either your kid or grandchildren (12 years and below). Come friends,  let's try our luck and send in our healthy meal recipe :) Who knows any of you might be one of the lucky winner to win the attractive prizes shown above!

To participate:-

1. Send in your healthy meal recipe (in Chinese or English) with ingredients list and step by step cooking instructions;
2. In less than 100 words share the nutritious value and design of your concept behind the dish;
3. Attached a photo of you and your child/grandchildren with the dish along with your full particulars (Name, Age, NRIC, Contact Number) to mpbcontest@mediacorp.com.sg (indicate in subject header: i-Love Mama Healthy Meal) or VIA;

Snail mail:
i-Weekly Marketing Department
i-Love Mama Healthy Meal
Andrew Road Caldecott Broadcast Centre, Singapore 299939



In line with the i-Love Mama Healthy Meal Contest, there are also 4 recruitment road shows to demonstrate how to make a healthy, tasty and creative meal on the following dates and locations shown below:-

Saturday, 20th April 2013
Time: 1 - 3pm
Venue: Giant Tampines, Level 2

Time: 4 - 6pm
Venue: FairPrice Xtra, NEX, Level 3


Saturday, 27th April 2013
Time: 1 - 3pm
Venue: Sheng Siong Supermarket @ Block 88 Tanglin Halt Road

Time: 4 - 6pm
Venue: FairPrice Xtra, AMK Hub, B2


On top of the cooking demonstrations, you could also take part in games to win prizes or enter the grand lucky drawn when you purchased S$6.00 worth of Mama Lemon Anti-bacterial products on the road shows.


*Photos taken using Canon EOS M, M18-55 lens on Manual mode

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Quick Easter Bunny Bento

With Easter Sunday coming up this weekend, I prepared a quick Easter Pizza Bento for my boy as his breakfast.  Actually there are nothing complicated about this bento, what I did was transformed the pizza toast which I had made previously into something Easter themed with Bunny and Easter Egg.

After which just use your imagination to decorate the bunny as well as the oval shape so that it would resemble Easter egg design.

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!

Sunday 8 April 2012

{Lunchbox} Easter Chicky Bento

Happy Easter Sunday! I hope you would like this Easter Bento post that I have prepared you. Since our family would be attending Sunday church service plus a house warming event, I won't have enough time to prepare something special for my boy on Easter, therefore I decided to make this Easter Chicky Bento for him yesterday.

For this bento I have used 3 cleaned empty egg shells to act as food containers instead of the usual bento paper/silicon case. And with these shells, I have created some Easter theme such as "3D Pumpkin Rice Chick", "Hard-boiled Egg Chick" and "Artificial Egg".

Friday 16 March 2012

{Lunchbox} Aglio e Olio and Homemade Teriyaki Chicken

Since this week is the March School Holiday break, I have more control over the timing and presentation while preparing our lunch menu. Here we have something different from our usual school day lunch where I spent an extra 15 minutes plating up the dish in cute lunchbox with appealing decorations.

I think most of the kids might not like green vegetables, sweetcorn or even root vegetables such as carrot or onion. So in order to get kid's enjoy their meal, as a parent we can make something appealing for their eyes using simple tools and decorations. With a flower food cutter and cute food picks I managed to come out with this quick and simple lunchbox which I am sure even the adults can't resists having some for themselves too.

Friday 2 March 2012

{Photo Friday} Garden Theme Bento

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It's not everyday that I would prepared nicely decorated Bento for my boy. But since this week is his school exam week, I decided to make something special for his lunch in order to cheer and reward him for the stressful week.

Since it is for lunch, I have prepared something more filling and yet quick to serve up when my boy gets home. Here with his favourite fishball and sausage I managed to re-create them into "mouse", "caterpillar" and "friends".

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Sweetcorn, potato and carrot porridge that is decorated with sausage to form a little "mouse" in the garden with "carrot" flowers. I am sure this presentation would win the heart of kids who dislike having vegetables in their meal.


SOME OF MY BOY'S FAVOURITE BENTO


Penguins Bento

Angry Birds Bento

Pooh Pancake Bento

Mother's Day Bento

Bear Bread and Hamroll

My Buddy

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!


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