Field trip (School bento #10)

Dear princess has gone on a school field trip this morning. It sounds like a lot of fun visiting the aeroponics and hydroponics farms. I've never visited them myself, and had hoped that the teachers would ask for parent volunteers, but unfortunately, they didn't. So anyway, when my alarm rang at 5.30am, I pressed the snooze button and thought to myself, to sleep in for another 10mins, and there was no need to wake up yet, since hubby would take the girl down to wait for the bus. He had woken up at 3.45am to catch a soccer match. But, it suddenly dawned on me that I had to prepare her bento for her outing. So, I literally crawled out of bed, and put the pandan bun to steam. In the same boiling pot, I added the sausages which I prepared thanks to this friend's tutorial. I didn't have time but how silly of me, I should have checked out her blog before doing it, as I placed the petals on wrongly, so it doesn't have a lovely brown colour. I had used the back of the petal thus it's pale-looking. Oh well, you live and learn. Anyhow, I still think the flower was very cute. There were also three big fat strawberries to go along on the trip. The sleeping bunny looks so comfortable resting on a big cushy pillow.

I packed her a big box of snacks to share with her friends during the long ride in the bus. It contains a medley of little bites such as M&Ms, raisins, cashews, chocolate-coated sunflower seeds, coloured goldfish, sancha and Cheezels. There is also a packet of pretzel sticks with cheese dip.

All ready to go, but Mr Orange isn't too sure about going on the journey.

School bento #9

This week is bento to school week. I think she mentioned that she is on duty this week - cleaning classroom during recess. It's a real race against time all week. I wonder where the time flies. I woke up 15mins earlier this morning, having set my alarm clock 15mins before my usual time of 5.45am, but yet managed to hit the snooze button more than once. Most of the items in this bento do not need cooking, and others, maybe a quick blanch to reduce cooking as much as possible.

There is no time at all to decorate the elephant and a quick click of the camera before packing it off in the school bag.

The school bus comes really early these days and half the time, we only leave home when we hear the bus reversing. I'm afraid one day he is just going to drive off without dear princess. I need to re-adjust my wake up time as well as be more forceful in getting the girl to wake up. I am looking forward to next week when there is no more bento preparation. Hurray!

School bento #8

Wednesday's lunch is crazy. Even though girl comes home at normal time i.e. right after school ends, she has piano class the minute she is home. I pack her a bento lunch so that she can pick from it while she has her lesson. We were lucky yesterday, that her teacher arrived late, so she managed to polish off 3/4 of what was in the box. I made her cheese sandwiches and served that with cherries, a little tangerine, cherry tomatoes, some keropok french fries, a fortune cookie, a bottle of Yakult and some Smarties in the Pooh container.

School bento #7

Blog hopping is not doing me any good. I'm trying to lose weight, but the tummy is growling from checking out blogs for cookie recipes. I think I had better continue with updating my blog.

The week is full with after school activities. The girl comes home early on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. By early, I really mean 2pm. We are in the midst of preparing for ballet exams, therefore Tuesday are tied up with writing class and ballet. Wednesdays are good as we have a 45-min piano lesson right after she comes home. She had not been having piano class for a few weeks' now due to her being sick. On top of that, she hasn't been practising on her piano at all. I'm glad she still remembers her work.

I made her a bento to eat just before the teacher came, and put it at a side table so she could reach for something while her lesson was going on. Timing is tight as the teacher's schedule is also jam packed. Girl had requested for a salmon onigiri which I wrapped with a Hello Kitty seaweed sheet that I purchased in Tokyo. She also loves the inarizushi with ebikko. There is a seaweed shape of Usahana on top of the ebikko. Usahana is also a Sanrio character that she loves. There are cherry tomatoes and broccoli as well as a stick of chicken balls.

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When the girl was absent from school, her Science teacher started them on a project on growing beans. She missed the visit to the Ecogarden in school. I think she is going to enjoy Science, as there is a lot of hands on activities to look forward to, I hope.

Her partner grew some beans for her, but we prepared the cardboard for it while she was recuperating. We had fun designing and colouring her garden, and bringing the baby beans home and taking care of them. Here they are 2 days old.

By the 4th day, the beans have sprouted. Can you see the little plant? So cute. It's grown even taller now. I need to take another photo of it.

School bento #6 + CNY baking

A cutey rabbit char siew bun features in this recess bento. I had seen a bunny chocolate bun at Breaktalk but I think this one is way cuter. I got this from Four Leaves Bakery. It looks more like a rabbit than Bugs Bunny. My sis is born in the year of the rabbit and I know she will love this. Unfortunately I can't do one (bento) for her. Little oranges are seen here again (I have a whole basketful!). Normally, princess doesn't like oranges but she loves these as they are cute, sweet and seedless.

I've also been busy baking for CNY gifts. I really marvel those who bake to sell. Just making tarts for gifts and own consumption yesterday already zapped me of all my energy. From making the dough (thank you Kenwood), to rolling out the jam balls (no KW or KitchenAid can do this job unfortunately ;P), to wrapping dough over jam, to glacing, to finally baking. Remember those who eat tarts - think of the person doing them, the amount of hard work that goes into one ball. Please don't pop them like peanuts. It's a plea from bakers like me. Savour every bite and eat them with love, as much love as was put into making each and every ball, then you will feel the love of those who made them. :D

To get the ball rolling on my baking, I started with the very simple chocolate chip cookie. It was quick to prepare, bake and cool, thus making them great as a night time bake, which was the only time I had in the past few days. Afternoons are occupied these days with homework, tons of it. I'm glad that the girl has finally caught up on her hw. There is still one major compo to do and 3 short ones. Those are optional as she only needs to choose one out of 4, but she hopes to be able to complete all 4 at her own pace. Her bedtime has also been adjusted to 9pm, not by choice, but by her heavy workload. She has been quite good last 2 days as I was busy with work (my hubby will have you know that staying home is not work) - cleaning house, doing laundry, baking, cooking etc. Although having to do lots of hw, she did complain once or twice about her aching hand, but I just let her rest a few minutes here and there before continuing. There really wasn't enough time to waste. She sometimes completes them around 8-9pm, and it's off to bed. She gets a sheet of Maths problem sums to bring home every day, and that is on top of a few sheets that they do in school! For Chinese, there are also pages of hw. :( She doesn't have a life anymore! Why do they push them so hard? :(

Well, anyway, so here is my chocolate chip cookies. A big portion = two recipes.

My first batch. :)

This is the reason I hate making pineapple tarts... rolling them jam balls. They are sticky eeky and so time consuming.

Perfect circles.

Here they are, all ready to be packed.

School bento #5 + Muffins

This bento was very hastily put together in minimal time. The only things that needed to be done in the morning were to put the McDonald chicken nuggets in the oven and cut up some dragonfruit.

I had baked some muffins for the girl the day before. Had planned to do them to put in her bentos, and I so happened to receive a mini silicon baking tray then, so it got me excited to try it out. The muffins were really cute, definitely mini! I made them in three flavours - blueberry, chocolate chip and banana. It's literally bite size so just pop them in your mouth and they are gone.

Thank you for the gift, dear friend. I love it to bits! Making more today to take to the nurses at the hospital as a thank you gift. :)

School bento #4

Good morning. :) A new week has begun. I'm really not used to waking up at 5.45am. It just makes me so tired, with zero energy, but the thing with me is that unless I am super exhausted, I can't fall back to sleep after sending the girl off in her school bus. So here I am, with time to spare, updating my blog.

The girl starts her conversational Malay class today. She had showed some interest in the language when we visited the Peranakan Museum a couple of years back, and had picked up a book on learning the language. This is an optional MOE programme to get pupils to learn another language other than their mother tongue. I think it's a great move. Costs are covered by MOE. Being half a baba, I never was spoken to in Malay. My maternal grandmother spoke Hokkien and English to us, maybe for the fact that it was easier for us since we had a Hokkien paternal grandma. Therefore, I was glad that my girl showed an interest, and decided to sign her up for the class. I hope she has fun, and can soon be my teacher. :P

In the picture above is her lunch bento for after school. Malay class begins this afternoon for 2hrs after school. I decided to boil her some cha soba and put the sauce separately in a covered container so she can dip the noodles in. The instruction is for her to throw out the sauce after she is done. Hope she remembers. Sitting atop the noodles is Snoopy. There is a cuttlefish ball panda, leftover from a birthday party we attended yesterday. A little Mandarin orange, a cherry tomato and a packet of sweets from the goody bag complete the bento.

This below is the section for recess. There are two slices of leftover pizza from party, 2 pieces of homemade chocolate chip cookies, a food pick with several blueberries, and 2 pieces of papaya.

Have a great week everyone!

School bento #3

The girl has gone back to school! Her MC ended yesterday and she was back today. As her health isn't that well yet, I decided to pack her bentos starting today, after all the beatings that her body has taken lately. Somehow, I can't trust canteen food, especially when the body is still weak. It still isn't as clean as when we prepare them ourselves. It was tough getting up this morning to prepare this, but thank goodness I did most of the preparation last evening. The onigiri was made after dinner and I made her some fresh salmon flakes in teriyaki sauce. While at the supermarket, the salmon looked really fresh, thus I decided to do that since I couldn't find any canned ones on the shelf. It was really easy to do. I just put them in the oven to bake, then flaked them and cooked in diluted teriyaki sauce till dry. She loves that. And I'm glad. :)

This is a new bento box which was a gift from her godma. So pretty it is.

She has to stay back at school three times a week, so not only do I need to prepare snacks for recess, I also need to do a lunch one as well. For recess, I made her a jam sandwich wrapped up in Stitch foil, some fruit balls using honeydew melon, papaya and dragonfruit. They are so adorable. I want them for myself. :) All three fruits fit nicely into the bean silicon cup. Spy the little piggy? That's a homemade pineapple tart which didn't turn out all that well, and was a lot of work. Doubt I'd be making those again in a hurry.

Sick + School bento #2

Sunday was the start of our nightmare that has lasted till today. She had high temperature the entire Sunday and Monday, at times reaching up to 40.2deg C. I took her to the paed first thing on Monday morning, and with suppositories and panadol, managed to clear the fever by Tuesday, which was her birthday. However, that wasn't the end of it. She woke up with a very bad nosebleed which lasted from 8.30am till 4pm. It wasn't heavy flowing all the way, but because of her runny nose, it seemed to go on forever. That was also when her cough and runny nose started. :(

Poor dear was ill throughout her birthday but at least we managed to get her a cake and she was able to eat that. She went back to school on Wednesday and Thursday but when she got home from school that second day, she looked really terrible so I decided to take her to the GP for anti-biotics. She wasn't getting any better and was suffering terribly. She couldn't do her homework and was listless. There was no way she could have managed to absorb what she was taught at school. Thus, we got the anti-b and started on one dose. That night, she threw up a few times. It was really worrying so I took her again to the paed and this time he prescribed supps to stop her vomiting. The medicine did not work, so again I rushed to the paed that same evening, 7hrs after he had last seen her, and who thankfully had a night clinic 10mins from my house. He gave her a jab and poor girl cried. She normally is good with jabs but her senses must be really sensitive as she hasn't consumed anything or drank any fluid for a day. Poor child. She slept through the night without throwing up, except sleep was disturbed by coughing.

Hubby started her on 7-Up, which is what his mum used to give him growing up. So far, fingers crossed, she is responding well to it. She has just been sipping that slowly the whole afternoon. We hope that she will be well enough to start on some soup or soft food by tomorrow.

Everything has been on hold since this illness started. The house is in a mess from Christmas, till New Year till her birthday. I had hoped to do some tidying up after the girl went back to school and hubby went off back to work. I really hope everything goes back to normal soon. This has dragged on for too long and is draining me of whatever energy I have left.

This second bento was for last Wednesday when she returned to school after being sick. There were tuna pizzas made with half a hotdog bun, blueberries, strawberries and some flower biscuits. She usually wipes her bento clean but on that day, she returned with one slice of pizza, 3 pieces of strawberries and one biscuit, and I knew something wasn't right. She never leaves fruits.

I hope to return to do more blogging, but meanwhile, the most important thing at present, is to get the girl back to health. I also can't wait to start baking pineapple tarts and some CNY cookies. Have you started your baking yet? 20 days to CNY.

11111 + School bento #1

This is my very first post of the year 2011. But of course, the date's been rigged. How could I not take advantage of this date to remember my girl's very special birthday. :P The year has started off not too well, with the princess being sick. It all started with a high fever on 9 Jan. She woke up with a grouchy face and I asked her what was the matter. She refused to answer me at first but later said that she wasn't feeling well. We took her temperature and it registered high, somewhere around 38-39deg C.

I wanted to cheer her up, so while I was out to run errands, got her a cake from Four Leaves (she had requested for a strawberry cake for her birthday but I had no time or energy to bake her one). I had ordered Jewelpets icing a few days earlier thus I decided to improvise on the store-bought cake by decorating it with the sheets. It turned out a success except that I should have placed the sheets on just before serving the cake, as they had started to sag in the 3hrs the cake was left to sit in the fridge. But at the end of the day, it was still a joy for her to see her favourite pets greeting her on top of her favourite cake. :)

For this new school year, I made her 2 bentos. On the first week of school, this was what she got... a mini bagel with ham roll and a slice of cheddar, strawberries and a cherry tomato.

Happy birthday princess. Get well soon!