Little Moo MOo Things in a Bento Box

The Chinese New Year celebrations have officially ended. And so have most of the other festivities. In addition to that, I have also completely moved on from my job of 15 years. Looks like I have almost run out of reasons for not having the time to blog :).

There are plenty of nice photos which I have managed to take during the last month and this is one which I would like to share first. This is a little something which a very close relative brought to the house during the "tuen lin"- family reunion lunch. They were almost too cute to eat, which ordinarily the kids would have just popped them in the mouth and the adults would have just looked past them as they are rather high in cholestrol.

Ha ha.. aren't they just oh so cute. Little moo moo quail eggs. Decorated with punched out nori sheets, little bits of carrots, spring onions and ham pieces, sitting on little paper cups and all in a bento box. I would say a fair bit of effort but really a great piece of eye candy.

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Bento #19

Wah.. it has been a long while since I have published a Bento post. It is not because I have not been Bento-ing, I have :). But I have not been blogging as frequently as I use to do. Why? Coz something is brewing in and soon I will share with you what's coming up :).

So, for this Bento #19, it is somewhat a left over from dinner the evening before. I made dumpling noodles for dinner and as I had extra dumplings, I decided to keep a couple to be brought to work the following day. I only cooked them in the morning.

In the evening, these were what we had for dinner....

Dumplings with fish balls in soup

Dry wanton noodles with dumplings

For lunch the next day, I packed these which I cooked in the morning....

Left: Wanton noodles with dumplings and fishballs
Right: Water chestnuts and jackfruit

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Bento #18

Ya Ya.. I know. I have been bento-ing a lot more often then I am baking these days... so much so that my dear friend Christene of AllThingsPurple called me up to ask me if I am still baking haha. Yah I am still baking. It is just that bento-ing seems fun and lately it has started to become more a necessity as I am planning to start my 3rd project... a weight management project. Will share this once I have tighted up all the screws to my little project boat.

The other thing is also to catchup with the other bento bloggers so that I can qualify for competitions organized by my favorite bento blogger - Pat of BentoPet. So, here goes my Bento #18.


I made this bento for lunch as using minced meat that was left over from making my wonton during the weekend. I found out that I made more meat then I had wonton skin. Oh well, improve a bit to make it into another meal :D

These are the meat patties that I made. For simple meat patties you can use minced chicken (or pork), mince prawns, water chestnuts, spring onions and some shitake mushrooms. Marinade the meat with a little sesame oil, salt and sugar to taste and a dash of pepper. Shape them into a small hockey pucks. First dunk them into a beaten egg, then cover the pucks with some breadcrumbs. Fry them in a wok of hot oil and there you have it... home made meat patties.



This other tray holds my rice topped with some nori bits and sesame seeds, a rolled up plain omellete and stir fried mushrooms with brocolli.

Okie.. that is my 18th bento post.. Another 82 more to go if the qualifying criteria is 100 bento posts for next year's competition :D

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Bento #17

Last week, I put up a post on how to cook Okonomiyaki. As I had 1/2 a bag of flour left, I decided to finish it before the horrible weevils find their way to that bag of floor, especially in this damp weather. This time, I replaced the mushrooms with a little white squid and small prawns. Maybe I didn't add enough squid and prawns as I could not really taste that much of a difference, except the little bit more chewy when I bit into the squid. I think I will stick to the mushrooms the next time. Healthy and cheaper :D

Top tray : Okinomiyaki with squid and prawns
Lower tray : White rice with a sprinkling of the yummy nori bits, bonito flakes and some leftover egg furikake.
Right tray : Lovely seedless grapes

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Bento #16

Bento #16 is a relatively simple on as it is made up of mainly leftovers. The rice is from the same batch of Multi Grains Rice which I made earlier.


The meat stew is a plain one which is made up pork bits and I added a freshly boiled egg as mum says that it is not good to eat eggs which have been left overnight. Not sure why but when we were kids, she absolutely refused to let the sons eat them.



The veg is freshly stir fried as normally vegetables are all eaten up on the day they were cooked. I guess vegetables which have to be refried will be rather limped and none of the vitamins would have been retained. The veg dish was stir fried carrots, cabbage and some abalone mushrooms in a little garlic.



For desserts, I had a banana.. yum yum :)

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Bento #15

Went over to the Japanese Store at Mid Valley The Garden again over the weekend and bought a few cool stuff. I hope I still have the packet at home as I forgot to take a photo of the bag. It was a sushi rice mix, I think the bag only had Japanese words on it. The little white sticker with the few English words on it had quite a lot of things on it... including carrots, vinegar, etc etc. I must really go back and retrieve that bag soon, if I have not already thrown it away.

Anyway, I made a simple bento for lunch using whatever that was in the fridge. I noticed that I have been bento-ing more than I have been baking.... oh, I do miss baking... but bento-ing is fun and it is quick and simple too :).

I have also started discussing a new project I have in mind with my dear bento blogging friend Pat of Bento Pet. Hope to see my proposed project take off soon. And thank you very much Pat, for giving me the time and keeping an open mind on this (hopefully NOT) a hare brain scheme of mine. Keeping fingers and toes crossed.

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Top tray : Short grain rice with the delicious pre-mix that came complete even with the nori bits for garnishing and 2 sausages (steamed)

Bottom tray : Quail eggs (bought a rabbit craft cutter from MPH bookstore MidValley but the sumo were cut free-hand - notice how untidy they are heehee), cucumbers, crab sticks and grapes.

Bento #14

Ever since I found that little Japanese supermarket like outlet at the Gardens, Mid Valley, I have been going there almost every weekend. The people there are rather nice as they will take the time to explain to me what new products they have and also how to use some of the products. I have been buying quite a few interesting stuff from them each time.

One of the items I bought recently were rice cakes (I think that is what they are called). They are made totally of glutinous rice and they come in either rectangular pieces like those in the photo below and also in small disc forms. These can be either lightly fried in a little oil or put into sweet soups like the red bean soups to give it more body.


I also got some of these Egg Furikake. Looks very nice and interesting.


With just these two ingredients, I am ready to make my very simple Bento #14.

I just had to lightly fry the rice cakes and once they are done, i used a small piece of nori sheet to hold it up. Lightly smear some Japanese mayonnaise around the 3 sides of the cake and press it into a pile of Egg Furikake. And this is how it looks.


Cut up a plum or two, wash a bunch of grapes and some cherry tomatoes and you are ready.


And this is the end result, almost hassle free.

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Bento #13

I didn't think that I will be bento-ing yesterday as I knew I was going to have a company paid lunch but when I got back, I realize that I didn't have much time for a leisurely sit-down dinner before I had to rush off for my Monday night meeting with some of my business partners. After frying the rice and taking a quick shower after that, I only had time to cut up 2 plums and 1 kiwi fruit and stuff some rice into my bento box before I ran off.

I think it was rather rude of me but I cannot help it. I arrived at 10 minutes to 8pm and the meeting is to start at 8pm. So, without too much ceremony, I just took out my Bento and ate my dinner at the office, with 2 of them eyeing my food. I didn't ask if they have eaten as there was definitely not enough to share *evil grin*

Left tray : 2 plums and 1 kiwi fruit
Right tray : Fried Thai Red Rice (recipe in the previous post)

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Bento #12

It has been raining incessantly for the last few days and eating out meant really getting drenched. Hence, I decided to do a bento on a Sunday :), just for the fun of it. Wanted to make only something simple as the later part of Sunday is really a damper as the next day is working day.

There were some chicken wings in the freezer, a tray of unagi which I bought yesterday, some cauliflower, carrots and capsicum. Alright, the menu is all set.

Whilst the chicken was left to marinade, I managed to send out 20 emails to friends, inviting them to download a free video from a website, watched one episode of CSI Season 8 on the PC and chatted with a few friends over the MSN. The rest of the stuff which I made was easy and quick. These were the results.

This first bento was for me.

Left: Chicken in teriyaki sauce, omelette and mixed vegetables in oyster sauce
Right : Rice with a sprinkling of Sakura Denbu.

The bottom set was for Tobiyama's dinner. The dishes were the same except his had unagi, as an extra dish. I suppose this sure beats running out in the rain for a decent dinner.



No bento for lunch tomorrow as I'll be attending the company's Mid Year Business Review and there is lunch provided....buffet lunch... yummy :)

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Bentos #10 and#11

These days are so packed, just like my bentos haha.. not really. I have been seriously trying to eat a little bit more healthily but every now and then, I do cheat.

Did I mention something about the 3 Hour Diet? Oh yeah, I did. I have yet to prepare any of the recipes recommended from their diet plan but I promise that when I do, I will definitely share it here.

I am trying to design bentos which is light enough to last me the entire day since the 3 Hour Diet recommends that I eat every 3 hours. So, these bentos are actually prepared with that in mind. I can tell you though, I am really enjoying this diet. Only time will tell if I will lose weight or actually put on haha.

Bento #10, Tuna, egg and weight watchers mayonnaise on wholemeal bread, dried garlic bread which I got from the Japanese shop in MidValley, The Gardens, a plum, a kiwi fruit and some cucumbers.

Bento #11 - Crab sticks, hard boiled egg, with only 1 yolk. I gave the dog the other yolk (doggies can eat egg yolks, can they?? che-cheh?? Help me on this one please) Salad is made from carrots, cucumbers, yellow bell pepper, purple cabbage, pistachio nuts, weight watchers' mayonnaise on a lettuce bed.

I had a banana and a small apple on the way to work. And dinner was just normal. I will tell you if it works... provided I don't cheat big time... teehee.. else I will have to call my friend to find out more about the carbo blockers.

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Bento #8

I was at the Popular Bookstore last night and came across this cookbook entitled 50 Recipes for Diabetics. Flipped through it and found that most of the recipes were fashioned around all things wholemeal and oats. Didn't buy the book as most of the recipes were quite simple. When I got home and opened the fridge to decided what to make for the Monday's bento, there was hardly any leftovers...sigh! Looked up and whoa.. saw a bag of wholemeal muffins. There were 2 punnets of strawberries in the fridge. Haha..decided that I will have a very healthy bento.

I made 2 wholemeal muffins with lettuce and some chicken turkey slices. Just a little bit of ketchup on the bread. No butter or mayonnaise at all. Took some honey cherry tomatoes and some strawberries. The strawberries were a tad sour but very large and very juicy. Perhaps that is why people sometimes eat their strawberries with cream and sugar.

I made a little vegetable salad using sliced carrots, cucumbers, radish, pomelo (left over from the Mid Autumn Festival celebrations a week ago) and a bit of plum sauce.

Was checking what strawberries was good for and found a write-up on strawberries in the World's Healthiest Foods website.

Health Benefits of Strawberries

Strawberries not only look like a fruity heart-shaped valentine, they are filled with unusual phytonutrients that love to promote your health. It also has the following benefits.

• Potent Antioxidant Protection from Phenols
• Strawberry Phytonutrients that Promote Optimal Health
• Protection against Macular Degeneration
• Protection against Rheumatoid Arthritis

These days strawberries are no longer seasonal fruits (or so it seems as I think we are able to get strawberries the whole year through). So, have a strawberry a day :)

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Bento #7

It seems like it's been a long time since I cooked or baked. I do miss it but it seems there is not enough time these days to do all the things I want to do without having to give some a miss. But this weekend, I must have made up for it as I made ping pei mooncakes for the family as it was the Mid Autumn Festival, helped prepared some stuff for the Steamboat dinner we had at Mum's on Saturday, baked some muffins yesterday and prepared my Bento #7 this morning... phew... but it was really fun.

I used the bento box which Susan gave me last week. Besides that, she also gave me some yummy agar agar mooncakes and delicious cheesecake (which I ate during lunch). She gave me a bento box, knowing that I am now into bento-ing and I only have one set of boxes which was given to me by Christene of allthingspurple, plus Susan made me two lovely homemade bento straps. Oh, they are so very cute. See for yourself.



I made today's bento with some of food leftover from Mum's steamboat dinner. And there is a little bit of salad leftover from yesterday too. Haha.. and they say leftovers are yucky. I think these are quite nice.


Top: Crabsticks, Honey Cherry Tomatoes (i love these) and little chicken sausages (with cheese and black pepper)

Bottom: Carrots cut with a doggie cookie cutter lying on a bed of crunchy salad, more Honey Cherry Tomatoes, cucumbers and quail eggs. Copied the little chicks design from a book. The eyes are little black sesame seeds and a small piece of carrot for its beak.

I was not sure if those would last me until the evening so I made some kaya on wholemeal bread, just in case. I bought a cute little dragonfly cookie cutter from Cake Connection recently and just couldn't resist "playing" with it. Anyway, there are lots of cute cookie cutters at Cake Connection. They have new stocks every now and then. Go have a look if you are free :)

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Bento #6

Still enjoying and appreciating the newness of my Bento Set gift from allthingspurple *smirks*.. so when it came to preparing my Bento #6, I decided that it should be mostly items that need not be kept warm.. haha.. want to keep that set in the bag for one more week.

I didn't fancy rice for my bento but love carbs (that accounts for the waistline of a whale). Decided to make a very simple potato salad and when I say simple, it is because I don't have anything in the fridge to add to the potato... not even one sprig of spring onions :(. Didn't go do my marketing like I normally would in Sundays. Too excited about baking and decorating my cuppies. Anyway, I did have some eggs. So, boiled an egg to be mashed into the potato salad and added mayonnaise and pepper. The rest of the stuff were straight out of the fridge.

Fried chicken burgers with a fried egg

Simple steamed potatoes with 1 mashed egg and mayonnaise

For veg and fruits, I washed some honey cherry tomatoes, some cucumbers and a kiwi fruit.

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Bento #5

These days, waking up early in the morning is not as much as ordeal that it used to be. Perhaps it is the thought of waking up to prepare my bento lunch that has giving me this extra burst of energy to jump off my nice warm bed :). All this is really with much gratitude to my new Bento buddies Bento Pet, Allthingspurple and LZMommy.

I am still eagerly checking out the blogs of these bento bloggers and others too but there is one particular one that I am keeping an eye on... and that is Bento Pet's blog. Why? Cause she is going to research into some low calorie recipes and I am in much need for bento meals which are nutritious but at the same time... ahem... perhaps reduce my waistline from that of of a whale to perhaps a garoupa or a siakap :)


This morning, decided not to fry anything for lunch and as there were no leftovers from last night, I had no choice but to open up the freezer to look for whatever is there. Goody, found a small tray of Unagi. Luckily of the pressure cooker, it only took about 10 minutes to steam up 1/2 a cup of rice and after that, recycled the water in the pressure cooker to just defrost the Unagi.



I got a packet of broad beans which is rather yummy. Picked it up at Isetan KLCC. Never tried it before but found that they were rather yummy. The packet read "Onishi Shokuhin - Tabekiri Shoyu Mame"

Left container: The yummy broad beans, an orange and some cherry tomatoes.
Right container, top: Unagi
Right container, bottom: Rice sprinkled with some sesame seeds, bonito flakes and seaweed. Cucumbers as dividers and 2 eggs (without yolks)

Can't wait for lunch time :)

pssst, christene of allthingspurple... if you are reading this post, I hope you win.. my vote goes to you. Why, your bento is not just about the yummy food or the lovely presentation. Your bento virtually oozes with the love you have for your daughters. Good luck :)

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Bento #4

There is a very painful story behind this Bento #4.... gastric pain that is.. hahaha. I know that most bento bloggers are normally so filled with joy and happiness whilst making their bentos.. of course, my favorite bento blogger Bento Pet did admit that she was feeling a bit frazzled whilst making her bento (but when you look at her bento, you would not have guessed it... it was still looking yummilicious)...haha but never in pain :p. If you want to know what happened, do drop in at my other blog.

Bento #4 consisted of only onigiris with chicken floss as fillings, some cherrie tomatoes and 2 kiwi fruits. It does look like a little bit too much but this bento went from being my lunch (which would have been only 3 onigiris) to a breakfast for 2 brothers :). I do hope they enjoyed it.

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Bento #3

Didn't need to take lunch to work on Monday and Tuesday as I had lunch appointments lined up but I knew that today, Wednesday will be a working lunch for me as I will need to do some final checks on my presentation materials for my meeting in the afternoon. Wanted to make a very simple, almost vegan bento lunch for myself as I reckon that I've been taking a bit too much meat lately.

So, last night, before I went to bed, I looked into the fridge to see what I have in there that are either leftovers or has to be eaten before it expires. Ha.. spotted a packet of Chuka Wakame (soft seaweed in vinegar sauce, with sesame seeds), some left over homemade terayaki chicken and some cherries with skins starting to look like my grand auntie's. That's what I decided to make as my bento lunch for tomorrow. Steamed some rice in the steamer before calling it a night.

This morning, preparing the bento was quite fast and easy. Just had to re-steam the rice ( and found that i do have rather a lot, enough to make 2 bentos) whilst preparing the rest food. Decided to do one for my friend Tobiyama, letting him have the teriyaki chicken pieces. This is my bento lunch, complete with some soup in a cup :)... I really needed the soup as it has been quite cold in the office lately.

Rice topped with some seaweed, bonito flakes and sesame seeds, Cucumbers, scrambled eggs which I fried this morning and wakame.

Cherries

Hot soup in a cup

This is the bento for my friend, Tobiyama. The only difference is the chicken pieces.

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Bento #2

Some of the food that I used for my #2 bento are in fact leftovers from yesterday's dinner. Ha Ha.. is it about non-wastage or just being lazy to really make fresh food for the bento ;).

Woke up a little earlier today as I knew that I had to boil the egg and roll up the cheese and chicken ham rolls. Found out that using the toothpicks to hold up the cheese & chicken ham rolls served 2 purposes. One, it prevented the rolls from unfurling and two, the top few can be held intact by piercing them against those at the bottom :). It is also great for holding onto the cucumber pieces and cherry tomatoes.

The black pepper chicken sausages were from last night's dinner. What a great way of getting rid of left over food. And also great for stuffing between a bit of corn on the cob (also left over from yesterday's dinner) and the sliced kiwi fruits.

Luckily I decided to pack lunch today as it is raining now. I am sure that the rain will carry on for a bit as the entire sky is covered in dark stormy clouds. Lucky lucky me :D

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Bento #1

This is my very first Bento and I must firstly thank Bento Pet for all her encouragements to me to start this Bento journey :). I hope to be able to qualify for her next Bento competition similar to the one she is currently organizing "Bento Pet's Bento Competition". I do so love her Winner's Haul.

I have taken the liberty of checking out some of the Bento bloggers who will be taking part in the competition. I am so glad that I'm will not be the one deciding on the winner. To me, each of them is a winner and most are clearly mummies and wives who have put so much love and care in each of the Bentos. I will be going back to many of their sites to learn and also to get more ideas as to how to fill up my own Bento box.

These are the few Bento bloggers whom I shall be stalking from now on....haha

Allthingspurple of Allthingspurple
LZMommy of BabiestZ
JustBento .. i love the little comment on the side bar which reads "Eat healthier, save money, maybe lose some weight with bento!"
And a whole lot of others.. and if you are interested, just hop over to Bento Pet's comment list here to find out who those other Bento bloggers are :)

At the moment, I do not have any of the nice bento boxes that some if not most of the Bento bloggers are using. I went shopping the other day at that outlet next to HomeFix at 1 Utama's new wing (cannot for the life of me recall the name of the outlet) and spotted several beautiful laqueured bento boxes.. the most expensive one costing RM999. Ha Ha.. this is definitely not a box that I can afford this lifetime. So, I ended up with a Lock'n Lock box which I reckon will serve its purpose for the time being.

Went home yesterday night to prepare some sushi rolls for today's lunch, washed some cherry tomatoes and lettuce leaves, cut up so carrot sticks and peeled some longans which I bought on Sunday. This morning, got up at 6am thinking that it would take me some time to prepare my bento box but I think since most of the work was done the night before, I only took less than 10 minutes to fill the box up (and that was because I had to cut up the sushi roll).

Wallah... my first Bento box....yum yum.. :)

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