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.

{Featured @ inSing.com} Happy Birthday Singapore - Part 2, "National Day Bento"

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This year 09 August 2011, Singapore will be celebrating her 46th Birthday together with all citizens of Singapore as well as spectators and National Day performers at the Marina Bay floating stage. But even if you can't get hold of any National Day Parade tickets, you can still join in the celebration with friends and family members to enjoy some special holiday buffet, shop around at flea market, viewing fireworks and etc to enjoy a fun-filled National Day. (more details HERE).

Here upon the request of my boy, I have made a National Day Bento for him which I used his favourite Chicken Rice to make a rice parcel that is wrapped using red and white egg sheets to resemble the National flag. The concept of this bento is made to represent the different races and food cultures in Singapore. Example:- Chicken Rice is a well-known Chinese cuisine whereas Putu Mayam is one of the old-times Indian breakfast treat. In this way, at least my boy get to know and try the different kinds of food eaten by the different races in Singapore. If you are interested you can also take a look at our National Day Icing Cookies done by WaiFong at this link HERE.

Lastly for more details and recipe of this National Day Bento, please refer to the article at inSing.com HERE.

Once again!!! We would like to wish everyone a Happy National Day and Happy Birthday Singapore!!!!

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/

Angry Birds Bento #2 - 愤怒鸟便当2 plus Giveaway Event

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If this is your first time landing at this blog, let me introduce you to my 3rd sets of Angry Birds Bento I have made till date. Apart from the previous post on the Red And Yellow Angry Birds vs King Pig Bento (read more HERE), this week we have another new quick and easy bento set that consists 3 Angry Birds character that made of Onigiri, Hard-boiled Egg and Fresh Fruits.

Before we starts off with this week New Angry Birds Bento and Giveaway, let's take a look at the 3 LUCKY Winners from the previous Giveaway.

GIVEAWAY RESULTS!!!!!

Congratulation to all the 3 winners. Please email me your mailing address at ellenaguan@hotmail.com so that I could send out the gift by this gift. Thanks.

Black And White Angry Birds Vs Green Pig Bento serves with Hard-boiled Egg, Rice Ball, Stir-fry Spicy Pork and Kiwi Fruits as dessert. To make the Black Angry Birds Onigiri, I shape the cooked rice into semi-round shape before wrapping it with nori sheet and assemble the facial features with cheese, nori sheet, crab stick and carrot. Whereas for the White Angry Birds, all you need to do is to assemble the facial features on the hard-boiled egg that requires less than 5 minutes.

Next using Kiwi Fruit to make the Green Pig is one of the best choices due to it's nature green colour and texture prints which makes it an idea ingredients.  And I am sure this is also another good way to get kids to eat this nutritious fruits too.

For this second round Angry Birds Item Giveaway, if you are interested to win one of these "Angry Birds Item", just leave your Name and with your favourite Angry Birds game edition (Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Christmas, Angry Birds Halloween and etc) "I love Angry Birds Rio" in the comment box and I will pick the winners according to the sequence shown below:-

Blog Post Comment(s) (2 WINNERS)

~ 1st Winner gets to win the "Angry Birds Colourful Notepad"; and
~ 2nd Winner gets the "Red Angry Birds Coin Purse".

Whereas for Facebook Page (2 WINNERS) (participate thru facebook HERE)
~ 1st Winner gets the "Red Angry Birds Plastic Fan"; and
~ 2nd Winner gets the "Angry Birds Cloth Pencil Case".

To INCREASE your chances to win, simply share this GIVEAWAY either through your Facebook, Twitter, Blog Post or etc then leave a 2nd Comments on what you have did to stand a 2nd chance on the draw. Winners will be announce on Monday, 06 June 2011. This event is open to ALL readers as well as fans who "like(s)" Cuisine Paradise Facebook Page.

[Updated on 06 June 2011]

GIVEAWAY RESULTS!!!!!

Congratulation to all the 2 winners. Please email me your mailing address at ellenaguan@hotmail.com so that I could send out the gift by this week. Thanks.

[Angry Birds Item Giveaway] Angry Birds Bento - 愤怒鸟便当

I am sure for those who play Handphone/Ipad games you definitely have come across this most popular paid-for game in the Apple App known as “Angry Birds”. My boy whom is a great fan of this game collects all the different character plush toys as well as some other related items such as pencil case, mouse pad, files and etc.

[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!!!!!

Oven Baked Fried Chicken Bento

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Do you like fried chicken? I am sure most of you would rise up your hands and say yes. Recent years there so many fast food outlets such as "KFC", "Wendy", "Popeye Chicken" and etc selling fried chicken. And there are also frozen Fried Chicken that is available in the local supermarkets too. In this post, I would like to share with you some tips and ideas on how I made use of some CP Fried Chicken (Original Flavour) to prepare this cute little "Chicky Bento".

Fried Chicken is one of my boy's favourite deep-fried finger food that I would always prepared from scratch using chicken wings, seasoning, flour batter and etc. But with this CP Fried Chicken that can be easily grab from any supermarket it actually shorten my time on preparing these deep-fried stuffs for the family.

  The CP Fried Chicken (Original Flavour) are coated in a specially light and crispy batter that stays crispy on the outer skin even after 30 minutes or more. I choose the oven baked method to prepare these chicken as I find it more healthier than deep-fried with oil. To assemble the bento, here are the ingredients and steps:-

Ingredients:

1 Bowl of Cooked Rice
2 - 3 Pieces of CP Fried Chicken
1/4 Japanese Cucumber, cut into long sticks
1/4 Carrot, peeled outer skin cut into long sticks
Some Lettuce Leaves, optional
Some Fresh Fruit of Your Choice

Method:

1. Place the fried chicken in the oven toaster and toast it for about 15 – 20 minutes, turn occasionally to prevent it from getting burnt.
2. While waiting for the chicken to be done, cut the Japanese cucumber and carrot into long veggie sticks as side for the bento.
3. Assemble the bento accordingly; you can place the fried chicken (if too big pieces for the kid, you could cut it into bite size) together with the veggie sticks in a container.
4. Drizzle some roasted black sesame seeds on the rice if you preferred.
5. Serve the bento set with cut fruits immediately or packed it for your outing.


Do you want to have a piece of these "Mickey" face cutout dragon fruit for after meal dessert? I am sure most of the Disney fan kids would love this special treat which would change their mindset on eating fruits.To make this cute cutout from the dragon fruit you would need to have the mickey ring cutter shown HERE.(1st photo of the post)

Don't worry if you don't possess any of these bento items, you could always start off by using some simple tools that are available at Daiso (S$2 shop) or even some online bento site such as New Stylish Tokyo (http://www.nst.my/), Bento Craft (http://bentocraft.com/) and etc.

CP Food's Latest "Chicky" Products

Recently I have shared post on how to use some CP Thai Shrimp Cake to prepare 4 quick and easy finger food and one dish meal recipes. If you are interested to read more about this releated post, you can the link HERE. As for this post I would once again loves to share with you some simple ways of preparing different type of CP Chicken Products in less than 30 minutes.

These are the colleage photos of the ingredients and steps to prepare the "Claypot Chicken Rice".

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

6 - 8 Pieces of CP Charcoal-Grilled Chicken
160g (1 Rice Cooker Cup) Uncook Rice
320ml Water
Some Baby Bok Choy
1 Egg, optional
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
Dried Shallot and Chopped Spring Onion for Garnishing

Method:

1.Rinse the uncooked rice with tap water for a few rounds, drained well and add in suitable amount of water to cook the rice.
2. Place the claypot with rice over the stove, bring it to boil and low the heat to simmer the mixture till the water is half way dried off.
3. Next place the frozen CP Charcoal-Grilled Chicken starts from the middle and some baby bok choy along  the side.
4. Use can use two leaves from the bok choy to act as a base to support the egg before cracking it onto the rice.
5. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of sesame oil over the top of the vegetable and egg then cover and let it continue to simmer on very low heat for about 5 - 7 minutes till the chicken is heat through and egg is half way cooked.
6. Serve warm with dried shallot, chopped spring onion and drizzle of dark soy sauce according to your preference.

Note:-

~ You can also cook this dish using rice cooker. Just cook the rice as per usual then place the ingredient on top of the half-way cooked through mixture and let it cook and keep warm the the chicken is warm through.

This soft and tender CP Charcoal-Grilled Chicken is marinated in a distinctive Japanese-style sauce and slowly grilled over real charcoal fire. These pieces of charcoal grilled chicken is made using quality chicken leg meat that contins 0 Trans Fat and most important fact it contain no preservatives which most parents like us concern of.

This is one of our quick and easy one-dish meal for lunch busy busy weekends where my kid needs to rush for enrichment classes or when I am too lazy to cook 2 - 3 courses meal. So with a pack of these delicious and charcoal-grilled chicken you can either use it for making claypot rice like me or, microwave it till done and served with blanched noodles will be a great deal too.

This small bite-size CP Chicken Cake makes a great finger food for parties or gatherings which is easier for the guest to pick up and go. The ingredients of these chicken cakes consists of minced chicken meat and corn bits as well as some stands of vermicelli for extra crunch. You can either deep-fried, oven toast or microwave it but for me I prefer pan-fried which used lesser oil but it would give it a nice golden coating.

To have something refreshing to go with the Chicken Cake I came out with some "Century Egg Salad" which goes pretty well with it.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
1 Century Egg, cut into small cubes
2 Small Shallot, thinly sliced
1 Small Red Chilli, roughly chopped
1 Medium Tomato, cut into small cubes
1/4 Japanese Cucumber, cut into small cubes
1/2 Tablespoon Frozen/Fresh Corn Kernels, optional
1 Teaspoon of Oil

Method:

1. Preheat a small saucepan with 1 teaspoon of oil and sauté the sliced shallot and chopped chilli till fragrant.
2. Toss in all the rest of the ingredients and give it a quick stir to heat them through.
3. Remove from heat and serve warm together with the Chicken Cakes.


Do you like fried chicken? I am sure most of you would rise up your hands and say yes. There are so many fried chicken fast food outlets around such as "KFC", "Wendy", "Popeye Chicken" and etc. But what about those frozen Fried Chicken that available in the local supermarkets, have you ever tried them before? Here, I have use the CP Fried Chicken (Original Flavour) to prepare this cute little "Chicky Bento" which I personally think that these fried chicken pieces taste just as good as those selling in the fast food outlets. For more details about this Chicky Bento, do check back for the upcoming recipe soon.

Pooh Pancake Bento

It has being more than a year since my last bento post on making the "Macar Garden". Usually for a traditional bento it consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables that are packed in a box-shaped container. But recent years making of kids’ bento also became a trend in Singapore under the influence of those creative Japanese bento makers. For kids’ bento you can packed anything that your kids prefer in those cute and fashion “bento boxes” that comes in various sizes and designs. (Click HERE for sample)

Here I am packing a "Pancake Bento" which I believes everyone loves pancakes despite whether kids or adults so with some quick and easy pre-packed pancake mixture and extra ingredients like milk and egg you can prepared some delicious pancakes in no time.

I bought this set of "Pooh Face" pancake pan about 2 years back during my craze over these cute bento products. So far I have only tried using it once until recently one of my friend bought me another similar set from her trip. So I decided to use it to make some cute "Pooh Face" pancakes for my boy.

These collage photos show the steps on how to cook the pancake and you could also refer to the instructions below:-

Ingredients:-
200g Pre-mixed Pancake Flour
1 Egg
150ml Fresh Milk
Oil or Soft Butter to grease

Method:
1. In a large mixing bowl add in pancake flour, egg and fresh milk then slowly whisk it with a balloon whisk till well combined.
2. Set the mixture aside for about 2 - 3 minutes, lightly grease and preheat the pooh pancake pan or any small pancake pan till hot.
3. Slowly ladle 1 small scoop of batter and swirl it around the mould/pan.
4. Cook it on low heat for about 2 minutes till the mixture almost dried up and bubbled. (refer to the photo above)
5. Carefully loosen the side of the pancake if using the pooh pancake mould, then flip it over to cook the other side for another 1 minute or so.
6. Remove from pan and continue with the rest of the mixture.
7. Keep it warm and serve with extra butter and maple syrup.


You can easily get a pack of this pre-mixed pancake mixture from any leading supermarkets or you can also use any of your reliable pancake recipes.

My Boy loves Winnie the Pooh so I have some collection of the Pooh related bento items range from bento boxes, food cutters, fork and spoon and etc (Click HERE for sample). So with this lovely "Pooh Pancake Bento" it really brings joy and excitement to him when he gets a set of this for his afternoon tea break. To make this more attractive, I also add in pooh shape butters and some maple syrup in pooh container. Mummies with similar interests I am sure everyone of you can prepared something even better than mine to bring a smile on your kids' face.