allthingspurple: Hello Kitty Bento

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Saturday, October 04, 2008

Hello Kitty Bento

I should call this one time-on-my-hand bento instead of Hello Kitty bento cos the only thing Hello Kitty over there is the moulded rice. Ha Ha!

I have been meaning to utilise the Hello Kitty rice mould sets but in want of time, I usually skip the tool, cos those placing of nori eyes, whiskers and nose takes time. And as you may know, 15 minutes is about all I can spare for the kids bento meals on a normal weekday before getting them ready sending them off to school and getting myself ready for work.

So, without needing to get Kimberly ready for school on Monday and without having to go to work on Monday, I fixed a kawaii bento for Ashley. Ashley still goes to kindergarten during the Raya week although Kimberly has the whole week off school.

Bento #81

Ashley's Hello Kitty moulded rice has a red pepper ribbon on top of her head. It's more ornamental than anything else. I hardly think she is going to touch that.

On the top are some ginger marinated fried chicken strips. I love these ginger marinated ones. It's a favourite with the kids and hubby too.

I cut the chicken into thin strips, marinated in loads and loads of ginger mince and ginger juice and some soy sauce. Leaves overnight but I usually leave them frozen with cornflour coating. Whenever I need any, I took a few strips out and deep fry them in a wok.

As usual, the bento meal sits on a bed of lettuce leaves if there's some in the fridge. It's because we do a lot of lettuces at home and there's always some in the fridge. My kids like to wrap their fried rice around lettuce leaves so MIL tend to buy these a lot.

I thought these coral leaves are so pretty and got these for a change. While Kimberly munches on hers, Ashley pulled a funny face and abandon hers. So will probably just get these for hubby's bento only in the future.

On top of the moulded rice is a ham flower. Been meaning to do this for months, ever since I spotted them on some cool Japanese mom's blogs. But not having bought ham for sometime, have been delaying them till now.

On the side of the Hello Kitty moulded rice are loads and loads of grapes, and 2 yellow cherry tomatoes and 2 red cherry tomatoes.

So, this is Ashley's Monday's bento meal.

Happy Bento-ing, folks, and drive safely travelling back to KL after the Raya holidays!!

Labels: Bento

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30 Comments:

wow!! beautiful bento!!! I have a lot of problem using the kitty seaweed punch..do you?

i really love your way of packing the bento in such tight manner..can never managed that..

By Rachel, At 6:45 PM
isn't it amazing...by just putting up few drops of nori as eyes & nose on a supposingly simple shaped rice, it became so beautiful! and yes, i too doubted any kid would ever bite d red pepper & lettuce...thou it's really eye catchy!!
another good bento!!
oh ya...never thot that ginger could make such nice nugget leh, must try it out to know....thks for sharing & increasing my recipe listing !!

By Jacss, At 9:28 PM
This bento is soooooo nice!!!! Look like those pro-bento-ers!

By Angeleyes, At 12:24 AM
Hi Allthingspurple, you sure one talented lady re bentos and your original ideas. Bet your kids look forward to opening their bento boxes everyday....like a mystery, huh?
Have a nice day, and keep well, Lee.

By Lee, At 8:34 AM
wow. Great job
I still haven't pack bento everyday for my girls. Maybe start next year as Indy will go to primary.
And i need more ideas on what and how to pack.
Will visit your blog for sure to copy and get ideas hahaha. Thanks for sharing.
For now I just make a cute dinner or breakfast when I am free. or just pack a simple bento ( very simple) for swimming class.
Normally just a bread or cake or whatever I have , then put in a cute lunch box or arrange in plate with food cups hahaha...
I will depends alot of baran and food pick to make it cute I guess.

By Unknown, At 10:19 AM
One of the loveliest and colorful bento I have seen this week!

By Emily, At 11:10 AM
What a fab bento! Your kids are amazing, eating ginger marinated chicken. My kids wouldn't touch ginger, complained too spicy.

I hardly use the Hello Kitty set too. Find cutting nori, placing them etc very fiddly. But better use them more often to justify the price tag... *_*

By 3lilangels, At 11:19 PM
Wow!! This is so so cute bento!
Hmmmm..i still wondering how to do that "nori eyes, whiskers and nose"? using seaweed puncher? that make the rice so much different and so much interesting.

p/s: oh ya, a side note, just want to double check with you, do u still want that mermaid lunch box? If yes, how to sent to you and how to contact you? thanks

By Annie Q, At 11:50 PM
Is that tomato that you used on Hello Kitty? That's very pretty :)

By Anonymous, At 3:00 AM
That is so cute!

By Anonymous, At 10:40 AM
Thanks Blessed Mum, and yes, I do have some difficulty with the puncher too. I lay the puncher on the table top but it still flew all over. And its mighty hard getting that little piece on the right spot.haha. I guess we don't use them so often unlike Japanese moms and therefore not deft enough. I see some of them using a pincher for that. I think that helps?

As for packing tightly, my trick is to always leave some space at the bottom if I can. That way, I can just gently push everything down when I am done and itwill be compact then. I also tend to fill the gaps with vege and handy little grapes and cherry tomatoes so the bento box doesnt jiggle in the schoolbag during transport.

By allthingspurple, At 10:52 AM
Yes, Jacss, its so much more striking, isnt it?

Actually both my kids would eat lettuce, (prob because they see us doing that a lot wrapped with our fried rice) but they also got mood wan lar.

red pepper - nope, none of them would touch it. The red ribbon is ornamental only. haha.

Ginger, yes, delicous, but not so much that its spicy cos you are going to feed the kids with it.

By allthingspurple, At 10:55 AM
Angeleyes, you are not half bad your self, but thanks for the compliment !!! Still a long way to go before I can master those anime ones leh.

Hey U. Lee, thanks for your compliment. However, while Kimberly looks forward to her bento, Ashley is still too young to appreciate it. But I am happy so long as she eats them. And you keep well too.

Hey, Sandra !! Thanks for your compliment. Primary one, sigh..the year of homework and exams. Bet you have a lot of terrific ideas up your sleeve. If all fail, you can always fall back on your chef cum partner in life at home for ideas. Bet he has loads and loads. haha. Me, too, I depends on barans a lot!!

By allthingspurple, At 11:01 AM
Hi Emily, thanks for your kind words.

Hi there, 3lilangels, thanks ! In all honesty, the ginger after being fried are not very spicy. You got to take some care not to marinate the kids ones with too much ginger though. We freeze different ones for the kids and different ones for the adults. And braised or stir fried dishes with ginger is always a lot more spicier than sizzling hot wok fried ones.

yea, those nori puncher needs a deft hand, doesnt it?

By allthingspurple, At 11:06 AM
thanks Annie Q.

You think I so keng, meh? those nori eyes and mouth were done with a puncher leh.

yea yea, I want the mermaid ones. Kimberly were doing her homework besides me, saw thatand said, "I want that, momma !" I am going to leave my email and hp number at your site okay?

By allthingspurple, At 11:08 AM
Hi HN, that is a red pepper ribbon on Hello Kitty's head. Not tomatoes. I use carrot sometimes. Carrots easier to cut after you have steamed it.

Thanks shoppingmum. am looking forward to your bento posts too.

By allthingspurple, At 11:10 AM
Hello..long time no "see" haha.. This is about one of the prettiest bentos I have seen. Lovely. So patient and so neat.. I think that is one of the reasons why your bentos are the ones I like best :D

By Unknown, At 12:08 PM
The hello kitty rice mould is so cute. I wonder u really wake up that early to prepare all this bento? Hahaha

By Anonymous, At 9:56 PM
Hey Nancy !!! Thanks for your kind words ! And Indeed ! Long time no see !! We got to have that lunch soon !!!

By allthingspurple, At 10:21 PM
Hi Cooking Momster, the Hello Kitty rice mould is so expensive too. So gotta make use of it every once in a while.

And yes !! I need to wake up EVERYDAY at 6am if I need to get both Kimberly and Ashley ready for school and myself ready for work besides packing bento for either or both kids and for myself. Time yourself and see if you need to get up that early or not. If the kids afternoon session different story lar. Mine are not leh.

This Hello Kitty bento, hee hee, thank god Monday Kimberly was off school from Hari Raya and myself off work. Otherwise, where got so much time to fix a kawaii bento like this!! Hee hee !

By allthingspurple, At 10:29 PM
15 minutes to prepare a bento? That's super fast! I love the ham flower you created and the ginger chicken sounds good.

By JK, At 11:14 PM
Jo-N, 15 minutes only for arranging food and maybe some cutting of fruits and vege, is actually not that fast, leh, considering no cooking involved. If I need to fry stuff, it takes longer. Speaking of which, after one week of the kids having holiday and not bentoi-ing, today, I got a bit slow with my hands. haha.

The ham flower is a trick I read in some Japanese mom's blog. Wish I could give credit to her but there are so many Japanese moms' sites I normally just hop along and didn't save their site under favourites.

I put up some of their pictures on how the make the ham flower at this link.

http://allthingspurple.blogspot.com/2008/09/speed-bento-v-kyaraben-and-oekakiben_26.html

How are you getting along, otherwise? And how's Singapore?

By allthingspurple, At 8:06 AM
I was just about to say the same thing as Jo-N!! I love the ham flower too.. suddenly, hams looks so much more delicious! :-)

By sting, At 6:47 PM
Aiyo... the bento so nice! Soooo cute the halo kitty rice, I'll definitely reluctant to eat it... if prepared for me :P

By 2xMum, At 4:31 PM
Just curious..how do you close the bento box, with all the vege spreading out? Assuming you force them in, and close up, I guess the vege won't look so fresh when the kid open up in school?

By Elizabeth Wong, At 1:55 AM
Hey Sting !! Long time no see. I learn the ham trick from a Japanese mom's blog. Those Japanese mom are such creative moms, aren't they?

Hey there, Wonderful Life, thanks for your compliment. I can't really do that everyday though. Some days its just fruits cut into strips

By allthingspurple, At 2:21 AM
Elizabeth, if you read my comments above, you would have read that I usually leave some space at the bottom. But anyhow, just to repeat, I would gently pushed them down to compact it.

The only vegetable spread out is the lettuce, which, when press down, would sink together with the rest of the food into the bento box.

I don't know how the Japanese moms do them when their lettuces spread out likewise, but I assume it's probably the same? I would love to know if anyone have the answers, though.

I guess how fresh the vegetables are depends on how long it is before your kid open his/her lunchbox or whether you have a cold pack in there, yea?

By allthingspurple, At 2:26 AM
Very cute bento box! Your kids are quite lucky... I seem to never have time to pack impressive looking bento boxes like that one. I'm happy that my bentos are well rounded nutritionally and generally waste-free--maybe I need to get some of the molds to make me more motivated and artistic :)

By Anonymous, At 12:50 AM
Hi Lunchbox Obsessed. thanks for your kind words. I don't usually have time for kawaii bento myself really. It's my first kawaii bento. Finally manage to do one because I need not have to get my first born ready for school nor go to work myself since its Raya week.

Love your articles, especially those on lunchboxes !

By allthingspurple, At 1:21 AM
I love all your bento lunch boxes. You have put in such great amount of effort into making such pretty lunch boxes for your kids and hubby. I wish I can find the time to re-start my bento-ing fun too.

By Health Freak Mommy, At 10:57 AM