Farm loots

These are the loots she came home with for free...

1) 2 heads of lettuce;

2) cherry tomatoes to munch;

3) A cherry tomato plant in the foreground.

She bought...

1) A bottle of Honey Aloe Vera for mummy;

2) A little plant to reduce electromagnetic waves;

3) A little bottle of peppermint crystals to perk her up during class.

Barcook Bakery

My plan for today was to go Burger King and take advantage of their $1 burger deal. I had been looking forward to this promo since last week when I received a message on whatsapp from an ex-workmate of mine.

However, while waiting for friend to confirm if she can meet me, my plans were thwarted by a post I saw on FB. A friend was raving about these super decadently delicious cream cheese raisin buns from a certain bakery which has branches at Hong Lim Park and UOB Centre. Yup, that's right. For you Shenton Way peeps, if you don't know yet, tucked in the basement of UOB centre is a bakery by the name of Barcook. My curiosity aroused, I was out of the home in 2seconds to make my way there. While there, I love to browse a certain favourite shop in the same building, but before that, I had to get my hands on these yummies. I heard the queue can get quite long. Read this. While on SMS with a good friend working there, she shared that she loves the floss hotdog buns and could devour 3 at a go. That's it! Number 2 on my list of buns to try. She also said not to miss the bubble tea from a certain shop there. Oh how I envy these Shenton Way peeps. They get all the best foodstuff, all tucked in little corners that only those in the know, will know. ;P

Fortunately, when I got to the bakery, there were only 2 customers ahead of me. The staff were nice and friendly (maybe at this particular outlet), and even thanked me for my purchase. Wow, ok. The shop space is occupied by an open kitchen where you can watch the pastry chefs go about their job. The choice of buns were not that many, but I guess if they are all winners, there isn't a need to make a wide variety. I saw trays of buns on cooling trolleys waiting for their turn to leave the bakery.

I love love the plastic bags. :)

For myself, I ordered a red tea with sour plum as suggested and it's awesome! The pearls are of a really good quality and has a lovely bite to them. I can't stand those cheap ones which taste mushy. I believe these pearls are of the same quality as those you get at Koi. And for the girl, she gets a green apple ice-blended (non-tea based).

The hotdog buns were yum too but I don't think I could eat 3 at a go. I love the bread, but I find them quite solid as in not airy, which is excellent. Or maybe, I was already full from breakfast to begin with. The cream cheese raisin buns were lovely too, but I would have liked the cream cheese to be a little less runny. Give it a try when you are next in the area and you won't be disappointed.

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.

A birthday gift

I made these two bentos for a friend's kids. It was meant to be a birthday gift for her girl, but I didn't get to meet her till a week after the day. I'm glad the kids were thrilled with them.

For CJ, I coloured her rice a shade of pink. The seaweed stood out against the light background and you can actually see it looked like an elephant. There were cherry tomatoes, a piece of seaweed chicken, baby corn, and some edamame on a pick resting on a bed of lettuce.

In the bottom compartment, there is broccoli, a fierce-looking Doraemon fishcake, and a lobster fishball. To finish off the meal, there was a packet of chocolate, a gummy worm, and some sweets.

JD had the same things except that his rice was coloured a greenish shade (I was going for a grey look but did not have the appropriate seasoning). JD's little elephant didn't stand out that well.

These were made in February but I had forgotten all about them till I was transferring photos out this morning. Stay tuned for another bento post coming right up.

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!

Happy Valentine's Day

I made bento dinner for us all. The first bento is for the girl. As my fridge wasn't well-stocked and I had limited time to prepare, this was the best I could come up with.

In her bento, there is heart-shaped rice with minced meat filling which I had prepared earlier in the day, 2 pieces of ngoh hiang, cherry tomatoes, tulip-shaped strawberries, a small tangerine, hamburger biscuits, broccoli, tofu fishcakes, and edamame, as well as a packet of apple juice.

Hubby's portion has a can of beer instead of juice.

This is my portion with exactly the same things, minus a drink.

This is what the bento box looks like, a CNY gift from a friend.

A lovely gift from hubby... my new Canon Ixus 130 camera and a rose each for the girl and me.

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.