Bento #22 - Panda Panda

Em... this weekend Bento is...... Panda theme and ... one of Reyon's favourite movie is the Kung Fu Panda which I brought him to watch during last year school holiday.... Since today he wanted rice to be include in the bento, I decided to make him this Panda Panda Bento.

As you can see from the picture below how I roughly arrange the layout of the items in such a small kiddy bento box. I used some curl lettuce to put on the base of the box for decoration as well as lining purpose. Next I secure one side of the box with two Taiwan sausage wrapped with lettuce and I put a food cup containing poached shredded chicken breast with corn kernels.

Don't worry if you do not have a mould to make the shape of the panda head. You can used a piece of cling wrap and scoop about 2.5 tablespoons of sushi rice on it then wrapped it tightly and mould it into a ball shape then shape it according in order to fix the space in the lunchbox. When you have, cut out oval shape from the Nori sheet and cheese to form the features of the panda. You can also decorate it with some cut fruits and extra accessories like panda pick or panda chocolate cookies.

Related Posts:
1. Hidden Treasure
2. Salmon Onigiri
3. Bear & Grassland

Features Of My Exclusive Recipes

Dear readers of Cuisine Paradise, thank you for your support during these years. Today I have a good news to share with you, the Author of Cuisine Paradise, who is me, Ellena, has being invited to be a featured recipes contributor for a Singapore leading kids and parents magazine name "Parents World".

I have never dream that my blogs writing hobbies can bring me so far to such a stage that my recipes can actually be published on a local magazine. All these credit to the editor, Daniel Goh who is willing to give me such an opportunity to feature and published some of my very own exclusive recipes that is not posted in my blogs. So if you happen to find this Magazine in your kids school bag or at any newsstands or bookstores do give it a flip through and you will find that it acutally contains a lot of useful information and tips on parenting and kids issue.

Furthermore, you might also find some of my exclusive recipes in the magazine too... :0



p/s: So sorry I won't be able to post the recipes from the magazine here as due to copyrights issue.

Lotus Seeds & Cod Porridge

Cooking and making sure that our kids have the best nutrition of all is always the tougher job for a mum. Although I love to cook and bake but then my son was rather a picky eater when it comes to food. He won't eat rice that is too soft or too dry. He wants his porridge to be cooked in certain standard.... As far as I know I didn't impose all these eating habits to him but I don't know why he is so particular when it comes to food so with his problem it's always hard for us to feed him with stall food. So whenever I can, I will cook porridge for him because it is the best and easier way to incorporate more items in it so as to get all the nutrition in one pot.

Today's dinner will be Lotus Seeds & Cod Porridge, in order to make the porridge come with a nature, fragrant and sweet taste I added some sweet corn, carrot slices, wolfberries and lastly some Chinese barley. As you know Lotus Seeds strengthen the Heart, Liver, Spleen and Kidneys and also energize the Qi and promote blood cell formation. So sometime is good to add it into porridge or soup to promote good health. And I always cook something like this in two person portion so that both my dear son and I will get to enjoy the same food.........and this is one of Reyon's favourite Porridge dish.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1/2 Cup Uncooked Rice
120g Cod Fish Fillet, cut into thick slices
1/4 Section of Sweet Corn, cut into halves
6 - 8 Slices of Carrot, cut into 0.5cm thick
1/2 Tablespoon of Wolfberries
8 Dried Lotus Seed, pre-soaked in hot water
2 Tablespoons of Chinese Barley

Method:
1. Wash the rice and add enough water for making porridge then bring it to boil.
2. Add in the sweet corn, carrot, lotus seeds and barley; simmer over low heat till the rice grain is soft.
3. When the porridge is almost done, remove the barley bag and add in the cod fish slices and wolfberries.
4. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, switch off the heat, covered and let the porridge rest for about 10 - 15 minutes before serving. (this will allow the grain to slowly absorb the fish flavour and as well expand into much softer texture, but if you prefer whole grain porridge you can serve it immediately)

Note:
1. As you can see I place the Chinese Barley inside a disposal tea-bag before putting it into the pot to cook with the rest of the ingredients so that the cooked barley will not be mixed into the porridge.(for this case, i just want the barley to make the porridge more fragrant)
2. Rinse and soak the dried lotus seeds with HOT water till soft. (DO NOT use tap water to rinse first or else it won't be soft easily)

Related Post:
1. Cod & Wolfberries Porridge

Bento #21 - At The Beach

Today's Bento theme has being a long waiting one for my dear son. As most of the reader from my blog will have read about that my dear son loves to go picnic at the seaside. And I have also tried making a few of his meals on seaside theme before. But today's challenge will be a little difficult for me because he wants the real sight of the seaside atmosphere being present in his little bento box.

I have being scratching my head for ideas on how to make this seaside bento appear real..... so after much thought and some brainstorm chat with another bento mummy, Amy(from mothering corner website) I decided to give this bento a try. Last night, I have draft out the idea of the layout and what are the animals that I would want to include in it.

For the colour layers, I have used egg white with some blue food colouring and spinach juice to make scramble eggwhite represent the sky and ocean. As for the sand, I choose multi-grain bread and tear a zigzag layer to form the beach with some cheese stars(as starfish) and since I do not know how to make a seashell, I place a small seashell on the bread. My dear son was thrill when he saw this...........

Related Post:
1. Seafood Noodles
2. Seafood Melody