Year: 2015

pancake bears and watermelon balls

2015 Bento Week: September 6 – 10

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Second week of school and we are getting into the groove. I should really plan a week worth of packed lunch for the bunch but still procrastinating in doing one, hopefully before the month ends. Here’s our bento baon for the week. Sunday We had fish tempura for dinner and the LittleOne’s loved it, they requested that I pack it for their baon this week. My one concern is how to keep tempura crispy by lunch time, recipe and tips on how to keep it a bit crispy, here. Inside our goodbyn we have fish tempura + ketchup, sweet corn, mandarin oranges.   Monday Kuya V shared over our tea time that most of his friends only pack 1 food in school while he has lot’s of choices and thanked me for giving him a good baon. I told him that his bento today will remind him to always eat his school food or else Mama’s mood will be grumpy. We packed sweet ham, rice, boiled egg and waffles inside our smash box containers bought …

Madame Tussauds

Meeting Hollywood Stars at Madame Tussauds

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After a few days in Los Angeles we took a road trip to Las Vegas to meet my Uncle B, Ceasar Palace is our home during this stay.. He’s the younger brother of my Papa and took on the role of being a father for me and my siblings since my Papa passed away. Spending time with him was the main reason why we decided to spend our summer in the USA, he’s planning to retire soon and want to show us what was life like there. He is Lolo Dino to my children and he does a good grandpa job. Oh how he spoils them. We initially planned to just spend 3 days in Vegas but he convinced us that the kids will have fun with all the theater shows so we extended our stay to five days. I think that he just really want to spend quality time with them where it’s only him showering them with attention. He planned our itinerary, first stop was Madame Tussauds. It was our first time. The figures look …

Fish Tempura

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We like crispy crunchy food. My picky eaters tend to eat vegetables it’s cooked tempura style. Kuya V has been requesting to have tempura packed in his bento, but I always have the issue of keeping them crispy by the time he gets to school. I read somewhere that the secret to make tempura crispy for a long time is to drain the oil as much as you can and pack it the container only when it’s in room temperature. Fried and drained them in a colander then to a paper towel. Kuya V came home happy to report that the tempura was still a little bit crispy on some side.

Kiehl’s Baby Collection

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LittleMiss developed a rash in her elbow before we left for summer vacation. We initially taught it was because she was consuming too much chicken and dairy – we are still waiting for the result of her allergy test to confirm this. After a few days the small rash became bigger in her left elbow, we went to a Dermatologist and had it checked. The doctor said she developed an Eczema and ordered a allergy blood test to rule out food related concerns. He also prescribed a milder soap and lotion, it did help and she complained less of it being itchy. We came back from our vacation and still using the same product when she once again complained frequent of her eczema. Kiehl’s Middle East surprised us with a package of their newest Baby Collection – Gentle Baby Hair and Foaming Wash. They use shea butter, botanical oil blend (rice bran oil, olive fruit oil, apricot kernel oil), and Vitamin E to formulate both their wash and lotion. I started using the Kiehl’s Baby Hair and …

2015 Bento Week: August 31 – September 3

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First week of school. Yay! Goodbye summer. Boo! It was a tough first week of school for this Mama, my mind and body was not ready for the super early wake-up alarm. Boohoo!  Kuya V is definitely excited to see his school friends and to learn a new language – French.   We survived the first school week and back to sharing our weekly baon / bento. I post our daily bento on our instagram account, make sure you follow us. Monday Kuya V requested to bring pack rice in his thermos container because he wanted to have warm food for school. Today’s baon consists of steamed jasmine rice, vegetable meatballs, teriyaki sauce, apples and chocolate chip cookies. Lunchbox used goodbyn and thermos.

Wilton Method of Cake Decorating Course 1, Day 4

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Last session for our Wilton Course 1 is all about buttercream roses. Since it’s our last day we were also asked to bring our final cake which we get to do final design in the class. I had a hard time getting the roses done the Wilton way, it took me more or less 10 tries to get an acceptable rose. For the class I bought 2 kinds of buttercream – store bought and homemade, the obvious difference between them is the store bought ones have smooth petal edges while the other is not.   On to a my final cake, I bought a 4 layer 8″ cake in it’s final iced stage to school. I initially planned to make buttercream flowers a week before class but was not able to even make one. I piped leaves as top cake border and placed the roses I made during class, ran out of time to make more flowers to make it look like a bouquet cake. Anyway, I’m still happy how my cake turned out.

Getting ready for school with Centrepoint

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This school year we have two students in our household which only means twice the chaos every morning. I am still having a hard time accepting the fact that our LittleMiss will no longer be my constant shadow. She still has 6 more days with me before nursery school starts and I have been giving in to most of her requests. LittleMiss is beyond excited for nursery school to start, she has been playing teacher and mommy to her toys. “Baby, you will go to play school and mommy will wait for you outside.” “Mama when I go to play school you be a big girl and not cry, ok?” To not cry. That I cannot promise. I was still holding back tears when Kuya V left for his first day of 3rd grade. The day came when it was time to go back to school shopping.

Wilton Method of Cake Decorating Course 1, Day 3

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Day 3 of our Building Buttercream Skills course was all about flowers. We were asked to bring 8 treats that has a flat surface and shaped either round or rectangle. Ms. A taught us to pipe Bead, for borders Leaves Grass Star Drop Flower Swirl Drop Flower Daisy Sunflower Zinnia As always, while Ms. A did a demonstration on how to make each flower it looked so easy. I had a hard time specially with making daisy and I made use of the leftover buttercream from day 2 which still works fine in piping but we noticed that it was already oily and a lot of air has been incorporated into it. Lesson’s learned: Use a medium soft icing consistency Turn flower nail anti-clockwise. Place nail on the 1st line of your finger and move with the help of thumb towards the end. Consistent pressure control Let the piping tip do it’s work The yellow ones were made by Ms. A and the middle was well my creation.  Final reminder is to Practice…Practice…Practice…   Homework for …