Tomica Car Bento

I have some time today after lunch and thought I post a quick one today. This is one of last week's bento.

I probably did this bento in about ten minutes in total, excluding the time I left kitchen to tend to other things. These speed bento works for me when I don't have time to spare, as with most of my bento meals of last year.

As some of you may know, last year (and the year before last) was a hectic year for me cos I was maidless since Atin left. To top it, Ashley as a younger baby was clingy throughout the wee hours in the morning cos she has eczema and wants to be nursed for comfort all the time.

I can rightly guess that most bento moms around here, as with myself, have learned a lot of ideas from those Japanese bento moms, but no time to implement them. For me, it could meant that the bento box may not get to school in time with Kimberly.

On that note, kudos to bento moms who took so much time to plan their bento and to go through such tedious intricate details. It's admirable. But I guess at 6am in the morning, sometimes I have other priority than kyaraben bentos. Plus, if you need to go to court that morning itself (or perhaps for some moms, a meeting or a presentation?), you probably rather run through the the issues and the facts on hand in your head rather than which size nori puncher for eyes and nose goes better than which size teddy bear cutter..*grin* I know I did.

Definitely, there are certain days where speed bento works better for me. I like kyaraben but on the practical side, I prefer to look out for pretty effects in the shortest time span possible i.e cutters rather than the intricate time consuming ones.

Cutters and punchers are the fastest tools that I know of *grin*. It sure beat tracing back the picture in the wax paper onto the cheese and then cutting out the picture meticulously with a toothpick, like this tutorial by this famous Japanese bento-er here . Lots of bento moms in Japan follows her ideas diligently. You would probably see her ideas popping up at every other Japanese bento blogs *grin* .

By the way, that tutorial link is also the link that you wanted for the bat, Brenda . Hope you find it useful !

I probably won't attempt this "wax paper trace on cheese with toothpick to cut" method unless I am free, especially since time expanded in fixing bento meals usually includes retrieving the right size tools from the drawers. But for those who doesn't mind the time, this is a good site to learn from.

And no, I am not going to wake up earlier than 6am, thank you. Ha ha.!

However, I will still do kyaraben when I can afford the time for it. Since my little girl took such delights in little girls and flowers and everything pink.





So, Bento #115 is simply prawn fritters (the last of the lot in my deep freezer, carrot stuffed kamaboko and apples.

As with most of my speed bento, I had needed to multi-task (ie run in and out of the kitchen to check). Someone I met at One Utama who read my blog (sorry I didn't catch your name, dear) asked me how I make it in time with getting to work and getting the kids ready for school particularly last year in my maidless days since I also need to clean up the kitchen.

I'll run through what I did with this bento on how I cover the shortest time possible for myself instead, okay?

Hope that will help !

With this bento box, after getting myself ready with all my files and stuff readily stowed away in the car, together with Ashley's school stuff, I put those frozen prawns in the fryer. Those were ready coated before frozen by MIL. Then I dumped the kamaboko in the pot over the stove and scoot upstairs to wake Kimberly up and get her ready for school.

I still tend to the kids myself despite having a maid now. Feeding, bathing, cooking, dressing etc. Most maids nowadays aren't reliable. With mine, something is bound to go wrong or omitted or damaged or not done safely or hygenically. So it's way faster and safer to tend to those things myself.

After dressing and tying Kimberly's hair, I went back down the kitchen to dish out the prawns fritters from the fryer and the kamaboko from the stove. Took out a carrot and cut it into strips and stuffed them inside the kamaboko, raw. If you like, you could heat it up in the microwave with a bowl of water and it would soften somewhat.

Then I took out a whole apple, cut two thick slices out and press out car shapes with the Tomica cutter. Stuff everything into the bento box. Easy Peasy.

These Japanese are so smart. They can come up with such convenient tools for creating visual delights in mere seconds. And those Japanese bento moms are so creative! Some of them even post tutorials on how to cut out cute characters, complete with pictures of the specific cutters and punchers they used, or suggest alternative tools like using straws instead of cutters, toothpicks instead of knife, tweezers instead of fingers. Unfortunately I don't have time to surf the net often, although I very much like to.

Well..haha...so much for a quick post....yea yea...I know... as usual, my short post tend to go on and on. haha !

Okay, pen off now. Have a great day today, guys, and happy bentou-ing !!!!