Shopping in Tokyo

I was very selective in the merchandise that I bought on my trip. Even though I had packed an extra suitcase for all my shopping stuff as well as a fold-up bag, I didn't want to fully utilize both, so in the end, I managed to squeeze most of the shopping into the suitcase. Shopping is not the expensive thing. It's the airport transfers and travelling 2 or 3 times in cabs in the city, tickets to Disney as well as to Puroland that put a dent in our budget. Most of the bento shopping I did, those bento books etc, were actually affordable and the books were half the price of those sold here in Singapore.

Princess was given shopping money by her granny and grandaunt in Ireland. It was supposed to be for her shopping in Disney but in the end, hubby paid for her stuff, so she spent most of it at 100 yen shops. This is her loot.

As for me, these were the stuff I picked up.

I'm sure there are other photos of things I bought but my photos are all over the place at the moment so will update as and when.

Some new toys

I'm a lucky gal. Dear friend, M, got me these on her recent trip overseas. These are a few things I've been eyeing for quite a while now, and the bonus was this Care Bear bento box. I love it, and so does she. It was tough trying to decide which colour to go for, but in the end, pink won!

Last Tuesday was a day off school to make up for the National Day holiday. We made plans with a friend from ballet to go for a movie and a playdate. As we had to leave home early that morning for my regular check up appointment at the hospital before going to meet her friend, I packed her a simple breakfast bento. I knew there was no way for us to have lunch before the movie began at 12pm.

In the bento was a lotus paste bao, blueberries, a Piglet biscuit, a slice of homemade lemon cake, a piece of Laughing Cow cheese and some pieces of bak kwa.

Okinawan goodies

Sirotan is the name of the little seal which adorns today's tea-time bento. Isn't he really cute? He shares the same birthday month as our nation. His birthday falls on 8 Aug, the day before National Day.

My sis just came back from a short trip to Okinawa to attend a conference. She picked up a few goodies for me. Thanks so much sis. I really love the cakes, donuts, t-shirt and everything else.

Too adorable. Can't bear to eat. They come in 3 different expressions.

Furoshiki printed with cute Sirotan. It's a 2-in-1 gift. :)

Mini donuts perfect for bento packing. There is also a bag of chocolate.

Bite size yummies.

Some bento accessories she picked up for me. Even though I have almost everything she bought, I still really appreciate her effort in hunting bento stuff down. :D

I'm glad that she had a good break in her dream country, and left there with great memories. She has finally set foot on Japanese soil whereas I am still counting down the days to when it's my turn. Although she has now gone back to Perth, I treasured the short meetings she took time out for, while here, to spend with me. Till we see you again, hopefully at Christmas.

Lock & Lock Eco-Life series and bento books

Today's lunch bento contained white rice, ngoh hiang, kyuri, cherry tomatoes and football sausages. In the second tier, there is golden kiwi with green grapes and a serving of muah chee.
She didn't like the ngoh hiang so that was left untouched. :(

This is the latest addition to my ever-increasing bento box collection. Have told myself and have really been going all out not to purchase any more boxes as I have really run out of space to store them, but how could I resist this very lovely collection of eco-life bento sets from Lock & Lock? They are too cute to resist and I was in love with the insulated bag that comes with each set. They come in 4 colours and I had a tough time trying to decide which to get. I had the green one in my shopping basket but somehow green isn't my colour, so was still trying to see if I preferred blue or pink when my eye suddenly caught sight of this orange, and I was in love. I knew it was THE ONE. It comes very nicely packaged in a box like the one below. I might go back and get the one that comes with a water bottle. I love Lock & Lock products and own quite a number of them. I love their simplicity in design and the neutral shade of 'clear', easily my favourite choice of 'colour'. ;P

Between the two food compartments is a divider which holds a detachable chopsticks set. Very well-designed. I like!

On another happy note, I finally received my bento books, ordered via Amazon, and carried back to me via J. Read them from cover to cover and loved them both. Can't wait to use the tips I picked up from the ladies.

New bento toy additions

Over the past weeks, these stuff had been added to my bento 'toys' collection. It helped that half of them could be found at Daiso. I'm really glad that they have brought in new bento stuff now as I am sick of looking at those which have been there for years, always repeated and boring. I do hope that Daiso picks up on the bento trend and bring in much more nicer things.

The bear cutter which I have wanted for ages. I also love the tulip sausage cutter with the leaf picks. The silicon barans are really pretty and the currently popular hat picks. The top half collection is not from Daiso.

Musical notes picks I have wanted for the longest time. :)

My all-time favourite faces picks. So kawaii!

Pretty angel wings.

Expression punchers from Daiso.

Animal and vehicle picks and sauce bottles from Daiso.

Can you believe they sell these at Daiso now??

Bento Fun

A bento I made last week for shuttling between church to ballet class. We usually eat in the cab on the way as the timing is pretty tight from after church ends at 11.30am and ballet class at 12pm. There's onigiri decorated with sugarbunnies-shaped seaweed, sun melon, corn chicken sticks, pineapple tarts, some Japanese 'kueh lapis' from a friend, and a Kinder Joy treat.

We received this fun sushi maker from Mum for Christmas. It looked like a lot of work to put together to create cute faces and decorative sushi, and it was indeed! I found it a bit too tedious and it took me an hour or more, washing it before use, and then having difficulty with figuring out the instructions, and the actual act of piecing them all together. It didn't turn out as expected, and at the end of the session, I didn't get the heart that I set out to do.

This was the end product. As the heart shape did not come out well, we decided to make them into little faces. Princess helped to decorate them. Together with the sushi, there is a wassant, seaweed chicken, pineapple tarts & a fruit and vegetable stick. I think it turned out really pretty. :)

Hello Kitty?

My girl has been bugging for pancakes ever since she spied a new bottle of golden syrup on the kitchen counter. I've, of course, been too lazy, and putting it off each time. Finally when we were at the chiller section of Carrefour yesterday, she saw the buttermilk (and that has been on my phone reminder for weeks now), and she was so happy, that I had no choice but to pick it up... hehe.

So, while tidying out my cabinet this morning, I found my Hello Kitty pancake/egg mould, and decided to make that.

Before -

After -

This chocolate was added at the last minute, literally, just as we were leaving to wait for the school bus, so it turned out really yucky, but the important thing is that there is chocolate on the pancake, no? Who cares if it's ugly? :P

My helper with the HK face. I love this stuff, just heat up and squeeze. :)

Before she left the house, I told her to hold the bento properly and not to put it into her school bag. Today's bento is very shallow and there's lots of space for the fruits and pancake to 'run amok'. I used a Lock 'n' Lock container. I love this one which comes with 4 little compartments which I didn't use today. She was very careful, till, when she was sitting on the bench and started playing with the neighbourhood kids. The next minute, I heard the bag drop and my heart broke into pieces. :(

On a happier note, I received my parcel from CP. Very pleased with the panda, duck picks. :) There's also onigiri wrapper and my much-awaited shoe puncher. :)) Got the Stitch picks as they were on sale.

Anpanman

Yippee, I finally received my wares... waited a week for them and was panicking because it was taking too long. Am truly in love with this man. Hehe. And I love the picks as well. The postman delivered them this morning, and I wasted no time in putting them to use. Made a teatime bento of donuts & golden kiwi for princess, after her ballet class. The bento turned out to be smaller than expected but it's very cute. It's also different in design from the other die cut bentos, with a piece in the middle going round the entire bento, where the cover ends. Ok, it's confusing. Only I can understand what I am jabbering about haha.

This bento below was served at dinner. A gift from a friend... the Cinnamoroll bento comes in a bag with a cooler pack, and it's really handy and compact. It has a main compartment which holds a pair of chopsticks as well. There are two smaller compartments and they all fit into a beautiful bag. I thought I had taken a picture of it but I thought wrong. Oh well... another day then.

Tonight's dinner was Jap curry, again. I know, I know, just lazy me. Cherry tomatoes adorned with a top hat and a crown. I wanted to put faces on them but princess was grumbling that she was very hungry, and why wasn't dinner ready! Too bad then. :P

We were over at my mum's place the Sunday before last, and princess accompanied her to the supermarket and tried these yummy fingers. She got grandma to buy them for her, convincing her to try them and that they were very good. Haha. Grandma bought two packets, one for each of them. I baked them today, as I didn't realize I had run out of cooking oil, and they were alright, not fantastic. I believe they would have tasted much better fried.

I didn't even keep track of my blog's birthday and only remembered it a while ago. So, happy belated 2nd birthday, dear blog. I'm sorry to have neglected you quite a lot lately. Going through the archives, I see that my blog was much more interesting and colourful in the early days. I have stopped baking and only cook once in a while now, so not much to blog about. I do miss baking, and hope to go back to it again, once my house can be rid of those creepy crawlies. Argh!!

Bento #56 & 57

Made the above bento for dinner last evening. Another day of not needing to cook for the family as hubby had to attend a workshop at school, so only made a bento for the little one. As was out in the afternoon with P & baby, I wanted to prepare something simple. Bought a packet of fresh soba & boiled that together with the chikuwa, carrots, fish sausage, kamaboko & baby corn. I then cut up some strawberries & yellow watermelon. Princess saw lady's fingers in a friend's bento & was curious about it, so fried those with some ready seasoned flour from Daiso. In the bento, there is a portion of mayonnaise & the bottle contains the sauce for the soba. I simply garnished the soba with some shredded nori & sesame seeds.

Came across a very cute caterpillar bun at four leaves bakery. Couldn't resist getting it for breakfast, so put it together with some animal biscuits, crab crisps & some apple for her breakfast today. She also had a bottle of Meiji chocolate milk which I diluted with fresh milk as I find the chocolate too rich for her.

Mum gave the little cutlery below. Isn't that cute? And most perfect for bento.

These silicon food dividers are new at Daiso. I love their size as they are bigger than the normal ones that we have. Great discovery. The big orange one is a single one, whereas the green one comes in a pack of 3.