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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

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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

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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 at Centrepoint.

 

Tuesday

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Breakfast for lunch – rice, bacon, hotdogs, banana and oreo’s. I clearly didn’t prepare for today’s bento and just packed what we had for breakfast that morning. Drew a face on the banana skin to make it fun.

 

Wednesday

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Kid’s requested for pancake/waffles again. Filled our planetbox rover with longganisa, watermelon balls and cinnamon sugar waffles.

 

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LittleMiss is off to school this week and she specifically asked for pancakes. Prepared a bear family pancakes, watermelon balls, and yoghurt milk.

 

Thursday

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Kuya V gets off early from school every Thursday, which means that he will eat lunch at home. Inside our planetbox we have four cheese pizza, sugar cookies, strawberries and strawberry banana smoothie. LittleMiss bought the same set of food in school except for the pizza.

Follow us on instagram for our daily baon post. See you there!

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.

Lolo With Apo

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.

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It was our first time. The figures look so real, it was scary! LittleMiss was so scared and kept asking why the people were not moving. Kuya on the other hand poke each figure and had fun acting even if he was not familiar to most of them.

KuyaRolePlay

It took a while for LittleMiss to accept the fact that the figures are toys just like her dolls at home. This is the first time that Lolo and LittleMiss met and it took her a while to be comfortable around him.  She saw her Lolo Dino play golf and asked if she can play too.

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After the golf game, she now had fun role playing with the dolls.

It’s boring to just go inside and take photos with them, so we acted out scenes and had so much fun.

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We were probably one of the active group in the place. The visitors saw us having so much fun playing that we noticed them doing the same.

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She started singing when she saw Katy Perry.
She started singing when she saw Katy Perry.
Madame Tussauds

 

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Fish Tempura

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Fish Tempura

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.

Fish Tempura

Bento1505: Fish Tempura

Ingredients:

  • Fish Fillet (I use Cream Dory), cut in strips. Pat with paper towel to dry.
  • salt
  • pepper
  • five spice
  • tempura batter
  • oil

Batter

  • 1 egg
  • cold water, about 3/4 or just enough to make 1 cup when mixed with the egg.
  • 1 cup all purpose flour

Japanese Tempura Flour

Alternatively, you can use a store bought Tempura flour at your nearby Asian store. I bought this pack at Fujiya Supermarket, Oud Metha.
Sauce

  • 1 cup dashi broth (mixture of 1 tsp dashi powder + water)
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • drop of sesame oil (optional)

Procedure:

  1. In your deep fryer or a pan heat about 2 inches of oil.
  2. Mix all ingredients for sauce and cook over low heat till sugar is completely dissolve.
  3. Crack egg in a measuring cup, whisk. Add enough water to make 1 cup, mix. Strain this mixture to remove egg lumps.
  4. Sift all purpose flour on a separate bowl.
  5. Slowly pour egg water mixture to your flour, lumps are ok.
  6. Coat fish in batter.
  7. Deep fry until golden brown. Once cooked, drain oil from fish on a colander make sure you have enough space between them. When your next batch of fish are cooked transfer 1st batch to a plate lined with paper towels.
  8. Pack in your lunchbox only when tempura is completely cold.

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 Foaming Wash just on her body, 2 days into it and we noticed that she was no longer scratching her elbow. We have been using it for almost a month and her eczema disappeared. Yes, the white mark is still visible in her elbow but it is not dry anymore. She’s also back to drinking more than 1 glass of dairy daily and eating cooked chicken and no complains of it being itchy again.

Follow Kiehl’s Middle East on instagram andfacebook for more details.

 

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.

FirstDayofSchool

 

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

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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. Read More

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.

Buttercream Rose base
Buttercream Rose base
After several tries
After several tries
Final Roses
Final Roses

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.

 

Wilton Course 1 Final Cake Crumb Coat
Wilton Course 1 Final Cake Leaf border
Wilton Course 1 Final Cake

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. Read More

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.

School Bag Shopping at Centrepoint

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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.

Wilton Buttercream Skills Lesson 3

Wilton Buttercream Skills Lesson 3

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

Buttercream Flower Demo

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
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ButtercreamDaisy
Buttercream Daisy

The yellow ones were made by Ms. A and the middle was well my creation.  Final reminder is to Practice…Practice…Practice…

 

Homework for Session 4:

  • Bake a 2 layer round or square cake.
  • Bring cake to class already in its crumb coat stage, depending on your final design
  • Make flowers ahead of time.
  • Stiff consistency icing, colored
  • Thin consistency icing mix with piping gel for writing