Happy Weekends Chicken Kara-age Bento

I'm reposting this again because I found the link to the tutorial of making cherry tomato rose！I'm gonna share with all of you here！Enjoy！
Last night before bedtime, I asked the girls what they want for tomorrow's bento and both of them wanted bread again. I guessed they wanted the imitation crabstick (kani) mayo buns (I have yet to post) that I made for them yesterday again. 
Hmm... gotta crack my brain for new designs using the same ingredients again haha...
While getting all the things ready, I saw my new Alphabet cutters and my inspiration strikes me！TGIF！TGIF！No school tomorrow！So I cut out 'HAPPY WEEKENDS' using the pandan flavor bread and stacked with 2 different colored cheeses to make it looks more 'fun' and nicer. I used a mini straw to cut holes in certain letters to make it more visible.  

Messy's Chicken Karrage Crepe Wrap with Mayo. In 2nd tier : A food cup of Kani mayo, Rabbit molded hard-boiled egg & Cherry Tomato Rose resting on a piece of crepe.

Closed up of the Rabbit molded hard-boiled egg & cherry tomato rose decor. I learned to make the rose from one of the Bento Mama's blog but I forgot which blog (browsed too many blogs on that day) and can't find thru all my bookmarks, will keep on searching for it and update here once I found it.  YES！ YIPPIE！I FOUND THE BLOG！IT'S HERE  

I made a total of 4 different designs molded eggs and let Messy choose. She's lucky to choose the Rabbit because its the nicest among all... 

A bear W/O ears！Nice visible features though...

A Hello Kitty W/O ears too！Even the details are not so clear... 

Today there is no bento for Cheeky because she has got slight fever so I decided not to let her attend school but she ate the Star molded hard-boiled egg that turned out to be a Flower. 

Cheesy Farm Animals Pasta Bento

The girls are having sammies for their bentos for the past two days so today I decided to cook Mac 'N' Cheese for a change. I didn't use macaroni here because I just bought 2 boxes of cute colorful animals shaped pastas and can't wait to use them！ This is the 2nd time I cooked Mac 'N' Cheese after my cousin gave me the recipe. Messy requested to have it again but NOT TOO CHEESY PLSSS... The 1st time I added ALL the cheeses because they have very short life-spans and I don't know when I'll be cooking this again as the responses are not very good due to TOO CHEESY... heehee 
So today, I cut down all the cheeses by half, add slightly more water and fresh milk (so it won't be too dry few hrs later when Messy eat for her recess break in school) hoping it taste just nice.  
I add a few of her favourite Sandwiched Tofu in flower shapes with Decor Blue Pearl Glimmer Gragees in the middle and fried spaghetti as the stalks but no leaves... Haha    

Messy's Cheesy Farm Animals Pasta Bento

Organic Farm Animals Vegetable Pasta

There's no bento for Cheeky because she prefer tomato sauce pastas. Anyway it don't really matter as more than enough foods are provided in her school. 
For me, I still prefer MORE CHEESE for this pasta (I'm a cheese lover) and find today's Mac 'N' Cheese too bland for me. When Messy came back from school, I noticed she didn't finished up her pasta, only those flowers are gone and asked her why? She told me it's too bland for her too！ Maybe her taste buds haven't return yet after recovered from fever. Hopefully she'll be better in a few days' time...   

Flower Sammies Bentos

Hi friends, it's been a few days since I last update my blog. Actually I'm here everyday but went around viewing and reading posts from other Bento Mamas. Hee hee... 
Poor Messy has been sick from Good Friday (Easter Day) till now. She got slight fever suddenly on that morning when she woke up. Normally I'll have Paracetamol for stand-by inside the fridge so I gave her a dosage. Few hours later, her fever subsided but I still continued giving her the medicine according to the timing apart for the next dosage so that the virus would go away completely but this virus is so reluctant to leave her body！ It went on and off for 2 consecutive days and on the 3rd day, Sunday, her temperature shot up to 39 degrees and accompanied by cough！Me and my Mom hurried brought her to the nearest 24Hrs Clinic. The doctor prescribed some medications and put Messy on medical sick leave from her school the next day to make sure that she had adequate rest. 
Luckily the fever virus finally went away on Monday and Messy was well enough to go back to school on Tuesday although still has got slight cough and running nose. 
Her appetite wasn't so good after recovery so I decided to make her some sammies with canned salmon tuna which is her favourite and she only wanted that for the fillings.  

Messy's Flower Sammies and Friends Bento

Cheeky's Flower Sammies and Stars Bento

I make some sammies with butter and kaya fillings for Cheeky as she don't really like salmon tuna. 

Fried Udon Bento

On Thursday, 21st April, Messy is craving for one of her favourite fried Udon. It's been 1-2 months since I last cooked this. Hmm... I find Messy's likings in food somehow are slightly different from most of the kiddos. For my info, all the kids and most adults I've known don't like Udon as it is tasteless and you really have to add lots of seasonings and strong flavoured ingredients to make it delicious but still they won't like it. Haha...
I just add any ingredients Messy likes, light soy sauce and mirin when frying Udon. She like it so much and will have it for her breakfast, recess break-time in school and after school when she reach home. 

Messy's Fried Udon Bento.

Enlarged view of the quail egg flowers. 

These quail eggs are molded using flower shaped cookies cutters. I learned it from one of the Bento Mamas in Facebook. Here are the steps :

1. Boil the quail eggs and peel them while still hot.
2. Use a small cookies cutter (those metal types with deeper hollows) with the cutting part facing downwards. 
3. Put in one quail egg, press on it gently with your thumb or the back of a blunt plastic utensil for about 2-3mins or as long as you like. 
4. Now you have an egg flower w/o a mold！
5. Pop it in the fridge until it is completely cooled and done！

Easy uhh... Have fun trying this out and you can use other shapes！

This is cooked on 18th Feb 2011. 

Cheeky's Fried Ee-Mee Bento on 18th Feb 2011.

Messy's 10th Birthday！

Today is Messy's Birthday and we're bringing them to East Coast Park beach for picnic, build sand castles, blowing bubbles and playing with some fireworks together with my parents, my closest cousin, her family and 2 of our friends with their family. After that we'll go to MacDonald's for dinner. All the kids are so excited！
Usually we'll just had a simple celebration dinning out and a small cake for her at home on different days but this year Messy wanted something different, wanted more people to share the joy and fun together with her. 


On Friday (15th April) morning, I made her a surprised Birthday Cake bento and she was very happy！

Messy's Birthday Cake Bento.

The night before, I prepared another surprised food for her and it was Molded Chocolates！I bought a packet of dark and white cooking chocolates each few days ago, intending to try melting and molding into shapes I wanted after reading Tips on Bentolious Blog. It seems to be very easy but once I started doing it, it wasn't at all！
The first method I used was using microwave on a little bit of white chocolate I intended to add some red coloring to make it pink. That was successful but once I added the color, it turned slightly hard so fast！So I tried using another method, double boiling. This took SO LONG and when it started to melt, I noticed some dark yellow oil forming so I stirred it, but no matter how much and how long I stirred, it just won't mixed well, not smooth！
ARRGGH！I gave up and hurried pour into the molds as it was getting very late, around 4plus in the morning, I had to wake up early the next day to prepare other things for the celebration. No choice, I'll just had to leave it as it is... 

Although this is not successful but I'm already contented because Messy was very happy with all the surprises I gave her on this special day.

I'm still wondering why is my chocolate melting unsuccessful, where have I done wrong and did I missed out any important steps?

Unagi Maki Flower Bento

As Messy only wants a small piece of Unagi in her Angry Bird & Green Pigs Bento, there's still a big piece of Unagi, some mashed edamane and quite a lot of sushi rice left, I decided to make Unagi Maki for Cheeky. 

Cheeky's Unagi Maki Flower Bento.

Added a cute silicon Penguin Food Cup of rice with a lil Unagi to her plain looking flower. 

Cheeky shared the maki with her friends in school and they love it！Even requested to have it again！

Angry Bird & Green Pigs Bento

OMG！All my posts are saved as drafts until I've got the time to complete and publish！ Due to busy planning and preparing for Messy's Bday celebration recently, I only have the time to type in the titles and save... 
I did this Angry Bird & Green Pigs Bento not because Messy wanted or requested for it, because I felt so incomplete just making the Angry Bird Babybel Cheese W/O those Green Pigs！ 

Actually I wanted to make edamane rice again but after I mashed the boiled edamane with a pounder and was about to mix into the rice, I kept looking it, the texture, it does looks like mashed potato eh... only color difference. I changed my mind and decided to mold the pigs outta the mashed edamane itself.  

Messy's Angry Bird & Green Pigs Bento.

2nd Tier consist of a small piece of Teriyaki Unagi and 2 Tempura Prawn Flowers. 

When Messy woke up in the morning, she was surprised to see me preparing for her because I didn't tell her the night before and she was so happy to see this bento specially for her.