I'm still at it!

Today, PF looked at my Lock N Lock box full of bento stuff and asked me (cynically) how much I'd already spent on my new hobby. After mustering all the energy I had, I gave him the dirtiest look ever and then set about trying to prove that this hobby is here to stay. Humph!

So here we have a little snack bento for DN that we brought out with us this morning. From L to R: Red Grapes (under the pretzels), Pretzels, Apple Cubes, Quail's Egg with a bottle of soya sauce.

As predicted, DN attacked the egg first. He didn't even see the seaweed tree! And I ask myself again, why do I bother?! Next, he scoffed down the 2 pretzels. He had the obligatory grape and apple cube and Mummy ate the rest!

DN hearts Breakfast

My little popadum is a funny one. Here are the top 5 phrases (arranged according to frequency) he says in the morning when he wakes up. Honest to goodness, he doesn't say anything else.

#5 : Good morning Mummy/Papa!
#4 : Mummy/Papa wake up!
#3 : Mummy/Papa stand up!
#2 : Why can't the two of you just wake up already?! I want to go downstairs!

... and the number 1 phrase...

#1 : I want cookies!

So yeah, DN wakes up ready to eat breakfast. For breakfast, he always gets a cup of soya milk, fruits, some carbo (bread/cereal) and protein (ham/eggs). All pretty easy to throw together in the morning because I can't really be counted on when I'm in my zombie state. I mean, I have served guests salty coffee before, and once I made french toast with 2 tablespoons of salt instead of sugar. :p

Here's what I made for DN's breakfast on Saturday morning. Hee! From L to R: Cereal, Quail Eggs (with a small bottle of soya sauce), Dried Fruits (apricots, raisins) and Ham and Apple Chutney Sushi Sandwiches.

On the bottom layer (L to R): Pear Stars and Flowers, Seedless Grapes, Mandarin Oranges

DN ate the quail eggs first. Then he unrolled ALL the "sushi" and ate only the ham. -_- The mandarin oranges were a bad idea because I totally forgot about the seeds in them. He chewed on one slice and spat it out when he got to the seed. And that was it, he refused to touch the rest. He ate some grapes and pears, nibbled on some cereal but left the dried fruits alone.

This bento thing is quite fun buuuuut... honestly, I don't know how long I'm going to last!

A Breakfast Bento and a Benstrosity

Over the weekend, I attempted to bento all of DN's meals. WA-HAHAHA. Yeah, I too don't know who slipped the hallucinatory drugs into my system. Sneaky bugger must have done it on Friday night. 

Anyway, I woke up all charged and ready to bento on Saturday morning. And this is DN's bento that morning. 

Besides the slice of raisin bread, DN's got sweet potato flowers (with a carrot centre that I punched out with a straw), 2 dried apricots, 4 chewy multi-vits and erm, quartered fishballs on a pick. I've decided to call it "What-a-strange-combination Bento". Hmm, at least it's colourful. 

He didn't touch the sweet potatoes. I should have figured that out already. If it causes me grief, heartache, pain and takes too much TIME, he probably won't eat it. My son is such a grateful child. Bah.

Okay, for the next part of this blog post, please make sure there are no little children around you. What you're going to see next will probably cause some of them to burst into tears or start shaking with fear. Because this is one scary looking bento lunch! When PF first saw it, he went, "Aiyoh!" Yes, I also have a very grateful husband. -___-

This is so embarrassing. I almost didn't blog about this, but I thought, what the heck, every bento has its (off) day right? I'm still amazed that DN's retina didn't spontaneously combust and is still working fine despite looking at this benstrosity (geddit?! ah, my wit kills me). I was almost embarrassed to give it to him.

 

The first thing DN did was eat the seaweed eyebrows and mouth. I quickly ate the carrot eyes because I swear, them eyes were following me around the kitchen! Brrr... spooky. After we collectively demolished the frightening face, DN proceeded to eat all the fried rice underneath. 

I haven't bento-ed since Saturday. Go figure.

Bonkers over Bento!

For the past few months, I've been avidly following some bento blogs (my fav ones are listed below) when I should really be writing my essays, planning my workshops or taking care of my child and not let him rummage in the fridge, find the bottle of chilli flakes, take out my pots and pans and start sprinkling chilli flakes like snow into all the pots and pans. Er... ooops.

Anyway, I couldn't stand it any longer and finally dragged the 2.5 year old to Daiso with me yesterday. It was such a fruitful, well-planned and well-executed 2.5 hour trip! Excuse me while I inflate my ego and pat myself on the shoulder. *PAT!*

We reached Plaza Singapura at about 11am, which meant 2 things - one, no ERP (awright!) and two, we could hit Daiso before the lunch crowd swarmed the place. And hit it I did. I'm a mature individual with more than 3 decades of life experience and yet, I still get into this oooh-everything-is-only-$2-it's-like-it's-almost-free trance whenever I'm in Daiso. I just dump stuff into my basket with reckless abandon. I don't get it! That's $18 worth of stuff you see down there!


After Daiso, both of us headed to Ichiban Boshi for lunch. Again, the timing worked out perfectly. *PAT!* We got there just before 12pm and got a great booth seat by the conveyor belt which meant 2 things - one, the food rolling past will be a constant source of entertainment for DN and he wouldn't get bored so easily and two, the food rolling past will be a constant source of trouble for me because I have to stop him from piling our table with sushi, or lifting the covers to "wahhh!" at the sushi.

DN just lurves sushi. He finished a plate of vegetable sushi - 2 pieces (fillings included julienne carrots, sea kelp, avocado, cucumber, mayo) and had 3 pieces of california roll with his BARE HANDS. So yes, our table and my son were both covered in orange roe. If I hadn't had that last piece of california roll, he'd probably have eaten it too. I figured he had had enough carbo, so I ordered a teriyaki salmon steak to share. He ate about half of the steak, so *PAT!* I congratulated myself on making the right choice there!

We finished lunch just before 1pm, and we RAN to the car, hoping that we wouldn't cross the hour and have to pay an hour's parking for 2 minutes of lateness. Guess what? We got out within 2 hours and parking was only $1.05 because the first hour is free if you're there from 10am-6pm. Oooooh... *PAT*PAT*PAT*!

While DN was napping at home, I set about making my first bento. After unwrapping all my bento gear, I wiped up the drool on the table and set about happily washing all my paraphernalia. Then I dug out my cookie cutters and made apple stars and flowers. (I dipped the apples in diluted lemon juice to slow down the browning.) Grapes went into a soft little cup and I added 2 picks and 2 dividers of smiling vegetables for colour. Ta-da! The bottom layer of DN's snack bento. :)

The upper layer was the dry layer. Here we have baby ball cookies, banana chips and some dried fruits (apricot, cranberries, blueberries and raisins). Another pick and 2 more dividers for colour.

When DN woke up, I couldn't wait for him to see his afternoon snack bento. When he first saw it, he said "wahhh!" very loudly as his mother beamed from the corner. *PAT!* (Okay okay... I made him show me the 'good' sign here.)

This is what he ate - he finished all the grapes and the baby ball cookies. He ate half of the banana chips and later finished all the dried fruits. He only ate ONE piece of apple. ARGH! And those were the ones that caused me the most grief! Inside I was shouting, "EAT MY LABOUR OF LOVE! EAT!" but of course I didn't. I ate my labour of love instead.

I'm going to try another bento tomorrow. This time, a lunch one. ;)