Bento #10 - Simple Meal, Interesting Art

After so many days of heavy meals during Chinese New Year, I can't think of what to cook or eat for Sunday dinner. So after much struggling and thoughts, Reyon suggest that he wanted a sea creature themes on noodles. So I run through my bento accessories boxes in the pantry and come up with this....... "Seafood Noodles".


A simple Instant Noodle can be turn into an interesting meal if you put in some time and effort. It took me and Reyon about 30 minutes or less to come up with it. First, I use a small non-stick saucepan to cook the omelet and I fill it with water and start cooking the noodles while Reyon helps me to cut out the fishes from the omelet and ham. When the noodles is cooking, I cut out the Octopus and Crabs from mini hotdog. Next I removed the cooked noodles and place it on one side of the plate, then I blanched the broccoli using the same water for a while till half cooked, removed and arrange at one side to form as the water plants.

Next I throw in the cut ham, octopus and crab and cooked until done. Removed the arrange everything on the plate with the noodles then place some black sesame as the eyes of the sea creatures. If you don't have black sesame seeds you can replace it with cut seaweed sheet.

Related Topic:
1. Seafood Melody

Moroccan Chicken Skewer

This is a very refreshing and unique dish which use Moroccan Spices for seasoning the chicken cubes. As one of my friend has returned from Australia during Chinese New Year, she helps me to buy a few bottles of seasoning spices which we can't find it in Singapore. One of it, is this Moroccan Seasoning from Masterfood.

For this Moroccan Chicken Skewer, I made some light and fruity salad to go with it. From the picture you can see that I actually add in some chopped dried fruits to enhance the texture of the salad as well as the colour. I also add in some Japanese Cucumber cubes and mixed them all together with some low-fat mixed berries yoghurt. You can served this Fruity Salad with any other BBQ dishes or served it as a snack itself.

As you can see, I actually marinated the chicken tight strips with shallot, lime slices and some Moroccan spices. You can replace the lime slices with lemon if you prefer. But lime slices will release a much more fragrant scent compare to lemon.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 Boneless Chicken Tight, cut into long strips
1/2 Lime, cut into thin slices
4 - 6 Shallots, skin removed
1/2 Tablespoon of Moroccan Seasoning
1 Teaspoon of Olive Oil
4 Cherry Tomatoes
4 Wooden Skewers, soaked in water
4 Feta Cheese, optional

Method:
1. Place the chicken, lime slices, shallots, Moroccan seasoning and olive oil in a small zip lock bag and marinate it overnight in the fridge or at least 1 hour.
2. Thread one cherry tomato, chicken strip, lime slice, shallot and another chicken strip on each skewer. (You can thread with extra Feta Cheese if you prefer)
3. Get all done, the arrange it on a BBQ rack, grill or oven rack and cooked it till done.
4. If you prefer you can brush a little bit of butter or oil on the skewer for extra taste.
5. Removed when done and serve it with the prepared fruity salad.

Note:
a) The reason as to soak the wooden skewers is to prevent it from getting burnt when BBQ or grill.
b) You can prepared the fruity salad a day or half day earlier and keep it in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Related Post:
1. Moroccan Apricot Chicken

Bento #9 - Bearish Bread

This morning, I made this Bearish Bread School Tea-Break Bento for Reyon. As I was kind of in a rush, I just made a simple and quick one as he requested bear shape bread. Luckily I have pre-cut the bread shape bread on the night before, so in the morning, I just sandwich the bread with his favour Nutella and top the surface of the bread with cheese slices as the ears and nose. And lastly, I used my newly bought mini smiley craft punchers to form the features. After the bread is done, I arrange some cherry tomatoes and grapes between the spacing in order to secure the bread from moving around and also to add more colours to the meal.

Upon seeing this when getting ready for school, Reyon even gave names to the 4 bears like: papa bear, mummy bear, ah ma bear and baby bears.......according to the different features he choose.

Bento #8 - Bear & Sausage Grassland

This Bento preparation is getting more and more interesting. I can't believed that I am actually doing it at least more than thrice a week... Yeah!!! Keep the spirit going :) Today is the 2nd Day of Chinese Lunar New Year. After long hour of house visiting, I am too tired to cook so I decided to make something instant and simple.

Upon Reyon's request, I made this Bear & Sausage Bento. I use a bear shape pancake mould to shape the rice in order, then balanced some broccoli florets in a pot of lightly salty water and arrange them like grass at the base of the bento box. Next, I pan-fry some sausage slices and quail eggs and I used a small heart-shape cookie cutter to cut a heart-shape out of the quail egg. Lastly, I arrange some cheese stars on the broccoli and cherry tomato and grape as the crown for the bear.