Kimberly's bag collection

I found this draft in my blog. Forgot that I had intended to post this after my post on Kimberly's Peekaroo bags

These are some of Kimberly's other bags from Kimberly's existing collection. She keeps them pretty neat and proper, all in their designated slots in her bag wardrobe. Yea, sigh, she has a wardrobe that she reserve just for bags and folders alone. Her mom dont even have space for tshirts, okay! She would only condescend to use those bags that she didnt love that much.

This is the bag that triggered her love for bags. She got it for her birthday a few years back, her 5th birthday, I think.



Subsequently, a lot of other bags was reserved a special place in her wardrobe



This is an overnight bags. still brand new at time picture taken. Fortunately she was willing to finally use it when we took a flight out for my brother's wedding last year.

It's a gift from my friend, Rachel, who came back from visiting the states with her boyfriend for a holiday, because she thought we travelled to FIL frequently and Kimberly would find this useful.

This one here is Kimberly's absolute favourite. Its decorated with stones. She would only use this after Auntie michelle got her a second similar one when she came back to Malaysia. Before that, she would just keep them in her wardrobe (so that it remains "beautiful and brand new", she says)

She uses this for her ballet class.



These are from flower fairies drawsting bags.







I think these are still new, cos I havent seen her carrying them yet.










A lot of Kimberly's bags are still new. She wouldnt use them. I suppose she will only do so when she get new bags and she like one of the bags less than she like the rest. And that would be the one she would use next.

These 2 are drawstring bags for ballet shoes. She put her black character ballet shoes in one and her pink ballet pump in the other.



Yea, i know, I know.... If it isn't that obvious already..... They are all about dancers and ballets and fairies and princess... so what else is new from my little madam? Hee hee..


This is the last picture I have in my laptop. It's is also a backpack.




This one is from a site recommended by Brenda. She told me where to buy cool backpacks for little girls. I forgot the name of the site but if anyone is interested , just drop me a comment, i will dig out my old invoices in my old laptop or ask Brenda the site's name again. To ease the matters, you can email Brenda to ask her as well.

Kimberly has other bags, but Disney Princess type, which are her "not-so-favourite" anymore.

When you have little girls at home, your house get cluttered with these kind of stuff instead of Optimus Prime figurines and Hot Wheels.

Of Bento tools and kits - Part 1 of 2

This is a post about my bento kits and tools. My tools is probably not as impressive as most of the veteran bento box meal makers but I sure can't wait to use them.

Here's the low down of Bento Kits for new bento addicts like me. Part 1 of 2. I will put up the rest later when i have time.

These here are the egg moulds. You boil an egg and then gently press them down into the mould vertically while the egg is still hot. Then you plunge the mould and egg into cool water to cool it off before you unclip it.

Egg moulds comes in a variety of shapes. Hello Kitty, Pooh Bear, car, aeroplane, fish, teddy bear etc.





My Hello Kitty egg mould and my Pooh Bear egg moulds are placed upside down. This is how it should looks like from front.














These small ones are quail eggs mould.



I tried to use them for Kimberly's Teachers Day's party last Friday but after awhile, gave up after moulding one set of them, cos didnt have the patience to mould 28 quail eggs. ha ha.

End up using the moulded ones for Ashley's bento box for her snack in school.

Egg moulds are such useful tools to get your picky eater to eat. My Ashley who doesnt eat egg at all finally attempted the egg white after I made one of these in the shape of Hello Kitty.



This here are rice moulds. I got them in a set of three, Hello Kitty, My Melody and the bear.





I also use them as a cookie cutter and bread cutter because the bottom of those 3 moulds are sharper than the top.

These here below are 3 hand held onigiri moulds which come from a complete set of onigiri tools.




This is how rice moulds looks like.


The picture is not mine though. I put this here so that readers know how the rice mould that come out look like. I mean, without the colouring. I read somewhere that the colouring comes from red cabbage, carrot and green peas.

You can also get rice moulds from Jaya Jusco at RM5.90. they come in a set of 3 too. In the mould of a girl face, boy face and a teddy bear.

Kimberly's tuition teacher very kindly got me one from Jaya Jusco when she saw my first poor bento attempt, way before I purchase any bento tools. She saw me trying to squeeze boiled calrose into an ice cube tray and then trying to remove them after i have compact them down with the back of my spoon. Such pathetic first attempt without the right tools. Ha ha. Thanks to her, I got my first bento tool.

This one is a all-in-one. It's one of my favourite. I have used it just before I started packing bento boxes for Ashley and didnt bother to take any picture then because my bento addiction hadnt hit me so hard then.


It was my very first Bento tool purchase and I love it so much then. Had so much fun with it. The origini mould mentioned above being a gift from Kimberly's tuition teacher lar, she refuse to let me pay her back.





Very useful because you could make a Hello Kitty and her friends' figure just out of everything from this box alone.




There's 3 onigiri mould to mould Hello Kitty's and friends' face figure , the cutter to cut Hello Kitty's red bow out of red pepper, her nose out of yellow capsicum and the nori puncher to cut out Hello Kitty's eyes and whiskers out of seaweed.

Very "one-stop" kind of kit. Her friends,ha ha..the My Melody and the bear's accessories are in there too. Kimberly absolutely love it the first time I made that for her.


These are sprinkler plates.



you sprinkle seaweed on top of them and you get the imprints on the onigiri.

Am going to take the kids to the Pooh Bear show in One Utama now. Will post the rest later when i have time.

Happy Bento-ing folks, I think like what Giddytigers and Angeleyes says, we may have just started a bento craze here. Hee..hee..

Bento # 10

This is Ashley on Friday.

I have made it a habit to snap a picture of her everyday either just before i drop her off at school or when i picked her up from school. I have realised that while Kimberly has a photo album per week till she was like 5 years old, my Ashley has very little photos. And we are only talking about digital snaps, not printed yet.

The Hello Kitty thingy is a car tray for kids. The tray is very near to Ashley cos I pushed the front car seat further back so that Ashley could have easy access to the food on the tray. She ate the food that she didnt finish in school on the drive home just before that.

I know, there are 2 trays. One is for Kimberly and one is for Ashley. So that they dont fight. They proved to be very useful. The tray has 2 slots for juice box and/or water bottle and space in front of the slots to place food. One of my most utilised purchase, actually.

Anyhow, this is Friday's bento. That will be the last of bento for awhile since its school holiday next week.




Put them in this Tinkerbell container. It must be the kid in me. I just love those Disney character. My 7 year old Kimberly actually prefers Bratz, Winx, Barbie and the Japanese character Love&Berry to those Disney characters that her momma likes.


Friday's bento is leftovers from the party finger food that i provided for Kimberly's Teachers Day party in school. Except Kimberly's one has 3 food on one skewer and Ashley's have only 2. Ashley's skewers are shorter, you see, shorter than satay sticks. I love those musical notes food picks !!




Its quail eggs, weiners (groan, again ! Wish i dont have to, but its convenient cos of the party food leftovers) cherry tomatoes and zucchini.

The white Pooh Bear container has, you guess it, ketchup.




For carbo, she has this "choco pie". She didnt eat the pie, cos her classmate , Cha Mi, gave her a Korean version of the same pie with marshmallow inside it, and she ate that instead of her own.

Montessorimum have asked me to put up a post about my bento kits and tools on my blog. Since my first bento post, I have received some emails asking me to share them on my blog as well. I will make some time to post it up these few days.

And with school holiday starting, here's wishing all you parents have a blast during the holiday !! Hope the kids dont drive you up the walls. Mine does. Ha ha.

Bento #9

The kids are in bed so I can finally afford some me time. Never mind that its almost 3 am. Tommorrow's Saturday.

I find having a little bit of time for myself is so important. It keep me sane. Ha ha. I think everyone need that little bit of me time to energize themselves doing things that relaxes them.

Anyhow, this is Bento #9, Wednesday's bento



It's heart shaped chicken nuggets with boiled egg moulded in car shape.

The little pink Bunny container has ketchup in it.

Those 2 tiny square box has a mini piece of chocolate chip cookie inside each. The boxes were mayo sauce/ketchup containers.

But I put the cookies in them so that the cookies remain crisp, cos the boxes seems airtight.




I was given a jar of home made chocolate chip cookies by my kid sister, Yannie, cos Ashley loves them. The cookies are small enough to fit in those mayo and sauce containers. The regular shaped cookies like Famous Amos wont be able to fit in.

I think I should bear in mind when making frozen meals in batches to make them small enough to fit into bento boxes. It might be a good idea to build up a food stash for quick bento packing.



Between the green box and the car shaped eggy are some boiled baby carrots. I have peeled its skin off so much that the carrots looks really itty bitty.

Yea, carrots again. Wanted to put cherry tomatoes instead but Ashley picked them off her dish the day before yesterday, so I went back to carrots.

There isnt any carbo in the bento box, so i added this piece of cake with custard filling into her schoolbag.



And that's the Bento #9 .

Happy Bento-ing, my fellow bento addicts !!!

Bento #7 and Bento #8

ASHLEY'S BENTOs




This is Ashley's Bento #7, last Friday's Bento




It's pasta with cheese cut out in Hello Kitty cookie cutter on top.

Grapes peeled , halved and skewered on the side.

I cheated on it. It isn't homecooked.



I open up a can of Heinz's Can range of baby food for Stage 2 , ie. chewable pieces, Spaghetti Hoops and Sausage.

Hadn't any carbo to go with it either. So packed this into her bag as well.



This mini pack cookies comes in a variety pack of chocolate sprinkled cookies, Dinasaur shaped one sided chocolate cookie with smarties on top and etc but I thought this vanilla plain ones are the least messiest.

Whatever Ashley didnt finish in school, she would normally eat it on the way home from school.

This Tuesday's Bento is somewhat better. Bento # 8.



Its mini doughnut fried and topped with shifted icing sugar, with stripes of steamed carrot on the side.


The Hello Kitty baran divider was to divide the somewhat damp carrot strips from the other food but i pushed it to the back to take this pic.



There's milo balls cereal underneath the Hello Kitty shaped cheese pieces. She finished the whole lot in school yesterday, save for some leftover carrot strips.

The good thing about packing bento for your picky eater toddler is, you can ensure they eat at least a portion of your food instead of rejecting all the food offered in school.

Will post Thursday's and this morning's Bento when i have time.

Been up since 5 am preparing agar-agar as well as skewered weiner, zucchini and quail eggs sticks for Kimberly's Teachers Day party in school. Drove over and dropped them off at the school's guard house for the guards to bring them over to Kimberly's class, and then scoot home quickly because I left Ashley with her dad and her dad couldnt handle her if she woke up crying.

Fortunately Ashley didnt wake up during the whole time I was preparing food for Kimberly, else I would have been hindered from contributing party food on KImberly's behalf. I think her teachers are making a good effort to guide my lazy child and this is one way I can show my appreciation. I could have just bought 2 dozen doughnuts from Dunkin Donut like last year but I thought it would be nice to have a home made feel to the food.

Hokay.... now to draft that defence which I have been procrastinating for about a week now.

Have a great weekend ahead, all.

Bento #5 and Bento #6, DH's first home cooked bento

I fried some meehoon in the morning.

But since Kimberly asked for weiners for breakfast, I abandoned the meehoon.

Boiled weiners instead, with 2 extra weiners for DH. Also put out the pickles and mustards, slice some zucchini and tomatoes for breakfast for DH to go with the hotdog buns.

The kids had this for bento for breakfast this morning.

Ashley's bento #5



It's Weiners cut with octopus weiner cutter. I didnt put eyes on them, cos the kids had already climbed up on their chairs at the kitchen table. There's zucchini and cherry tomatoes on the food picks. The little pink bunny container has ketchup in it.

She rejects all of them , cos she had weiners twice last week for school. So i had to give her sliced ham and cheese instead.

DH comments that he would get sick of weiners too, if he had it 3 times running in a week. I told him it was last Wednesday, last Friday and this Sat (today) only, but he said "potayto potahtoh". So we are going grocery shopping this evening. Ha ha.

Kimberly's bento.



The same thing, except she didnt like weiners plain. She like those weiners with cheese incorporated inside it.

Kimberly ate all of them, including the vegetables, and a hot cross bun (those from Tesco?). Anyhow. worth spending time on bentos if my Kimberly is going to finish up her veges.

My DH was never the type who bring food from home. Not many Malaysian men are, i think.

Everytime i made him sandwiches, he try to finish it on the way out from home and before he got to the office, so that he doesnt have to carry that embarassing pack of sandwich to work.

Today is a rare case. He actually agreed to take food to work. It's Wesak Day today. He is going in to get some work done. He thought if he could get some pending datelines out of the way, the family could go to a temple later in the evening.

So, for the uneaten meehoon, I put up this bento and ask hubby if he would take this to work. For the first time in 9 years of our marriage, he actually agreed to take food other than sandwiches to work.

My oh my.. and the bento is not even impressive. ha ha.

Bento #6



The bottom tier has one fried egg underneath the skewered tomato and zucchini. The carrot container has soy sauce in it. And the side dish has chili sambal with onions from last week's dinner. The blue container has chopped garlic and sliced red chili for him to go with the soy sauce.



PUt them inside this bento box.



Its a dark maroon box. But my bad photography makes the colour looks all funny.

Ashley's Friday bento pic is in my other laptop in the office. Will try to upload that next week when i have time.

Happy bento-ing, all, and have a great Wesak Day today !!!

of Bento's....

I have been on a bento shopping frenzy....

From a cloth diaper addict to a bento addict !!! Can you beat that? Sigh.....

Anyhow, this is Ashley's Bento #4, yesterday's snack in school.






Still dont have much choice of food for bento. I still havent replenish my pantry and fridge yet. Will probably do that when we get back from FIL's house on Sunday. Even if i do stock up my pantry, i dont know if i could make my bento as pretty as LZmom and other veteran bento makers. I still have a long way to go.

Speaking of school, I cant help but repeat how glad I am that Ashley is settling down in her kindergarten. It gives me the right frame of mind to complete my work faster by half the time. Heck, I could even spare a minute to blog. Okay... 20 minutes... that or about that...

Anyhow, Bento #4 is plain white bread cut with Hello Kitty cookie cutter. That's because my 2 1/2 year old doesnt fancy any jam or any form of spread in them.

I cut about 4 slices of them. They fit snugly into this "My Melody" bento box. It was hard to slide the side dish into the bottom of the bento and I had to kind of squeeze it in. Anyhow, that's the bread for the 3 part carbo in bento. For the protein, I slide in 2 blocks of cheese cubes. Thats the one part protein.

Inside the side dish are steamed carrots, cut with Hello Kitty cookie cutter as well. The white ones are Japanese pear, sliced. Also cut with the cookie cutter. That's the 2 part vege and fruit for bento.



But I thought it doesnt look pleasing to the eye for lack of colour, so I added a banana to her snack.

Put them inside this banana container.




I bought two of them containers. One yellow and one green.

Kimberly had taken a banana in the yellow one to school. Kimberly got the yellow one because being the older kid, she always get the first choice over new purchases. Ashley always get the leftover. ha ha.

Will put up today's bento when i have a chance to upload them up at photobucket. Now to pack for the weekend over at FIL's.

Have a great weekend , all.