Back to School Blog Hop and Giveaway

Another back to school themed bento and I'm joining my fellow Bento Bloggers and Friends in the "Back to School blog hop and giveaway". The competition starts 31st July, 2014, and ends at 12:00 noon GMT 10th August, 2014.This giveaway is open worldwide with some fantastic prizes.

This is how it works. During the blog hop, please collect the letters that you may find in each participant blog. After you collect all the letters, please put them in numerical order to decode. This forms the answer to a mandatory question on the Rafflecopter form.

You must answer the two simple questions in the Rafflecopter form below to be in the running for the grand prize. Don't forget to 'like' all of our fabulous sponsors to unlock even more entries. The more BBFs you 'like', the more chances you are able to win.

Details of Term and Condition and the prizes can be found here.

This time for the kids' lunches, I prepared Japanese Hot dog bun (recipe by Rasa Malaysia), piggie in the beanie hat (hard boiled egg, nori, ham and carrot) with salt and pepper, broccoli, "flower" carrots in a food pick, yogurt, and watermelon cuts for my kids.

If you happened to know bento recently and wondering where to start, you may visit here to see the tips on what you need to start bento. I find that bento tools are very helpful to save time in bento making. I'm pretty sure these giveaway prizes will be very handy for you to start your bento journey. So, come on join in this giveaway, remember you have to in it, to win it :)

After you collect the letter above, please continue the hop by clicking the hop button (until you collect all the 16 letters) below  :

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mexican Chicken Wrap bento

The boys love their chicken wraps. This time for more variety, I made ala Mexican style, with guacamole in it. (recipe as below).


Mexican Chicken Wrap 

For chicken
2 Chicken tigh/breast, cut into big chunky pieces then marinade them with soy sauce and lemon for 10 minutes. Before frying, dip in corn flour until covered all part of the chicken, then deep fried the chicken pieces until turn into brown.

For guacamole
2 avocados, diced
½ small red onion, finely diced
1 lime, juice only
A large handful of coriander, roughly chopped
½ cup cherry or grape tomatoes, finely diced
Sea salt, to season

How to make it:
Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mash to combine well. Add more lime juice or salt if you think it needs it.

Tip:
Guacamole will keep in the fridge in a sealed container for about 2 days.

Inside the wrap : chicken, bbq sauce, grated carrot, guacamole, and cheese. Then wrap them with aluminium foil. It makes easier for the kids to hold.

For my eldest son, I prepared :
1. Mexican chicken wrap
2. Corn on the cob
3. Broccoli and cheese
4. Carrot sticks
5. Watermelon cuts for recess

For my youngest son, I prepared :
1.  Mexican chicken wrap
2. Corn on the cob
3. Kale leaf for baran
4. Carrot sticks
5. Fruit salad yogurt
6. Kiwi cuts for recess

Back to School bento

My kids were so excited to be back to school again! My youngest son gave me an idea to make replica of me and himself in his lunchbox, while the eldest one just asked for leftover stuffed potato casserole from last night dinner that he enjoyed so much. You may find the recipe here

For my eldest son, I prepared :
1. Stuffed potato casserole with cheese and carrot letters on top.
2. Breakfast cereal
3. Carved Granny Smith apple and strawberry

For my youngest son, I prepared :
1. Strawberry and cheese sandwich (with nori, carrot, and dumpling wrapper)
2. Hard boiled egg (with nori, carrot, and cheese)
3. Carved Granny Smith apple and strawberry


Bento tools I used for this post :

        

Bento & co International competition 2014

I'm joining Bento & co International bento competition 2014. The theme was : “ Our Ingredients, Your Bento ”

Contestants should prepare a bento with the following ingredients :
Potato, tomato, carrot, broccoli, rice, eggs, chicken (or tofu for vegetarians), and one ingredient of your choice.

In my bento version, I put onigiri with nori, carved carrots, "flower" tomatoes, eggs, potato patties, all parts of broccoli (florets, leaves and stems), and chicken galantine.


Although I did not win this time, I'm happy that I'm able to participate and I congratulated all the winners. You can cast your vote for the 10 finalist in this link. Voting ends on Monday, July 14th.

Happy voting!

Japanese Girl and Garden Bento

I prepared leftover fried rice for my eldest son. Meanwhile my little one asked for finger foods that easy to hold, so I prepared puff pastry with smoked salmon, sour cream and dill.

Here the details for my youngest son lunches :
1. Puff pastry with smoked salmon, sour cream, and dill
2. Potato patties
3. Ham "flower"
4. "Rose" carved carrot
5. Kale leaf for baran
6. Kiwi fruit for recess

And for my eldest son, I prepared :
1. Fried rice
2. "Japanese girl" Fried egg (with nori and crab stick)
3. Potato patties
4. Ham "flower"
5. Broccoli
6. Rockmelon cuts for recess

The Books

Today's bento are very easy to make. With bento, we can help our children to read as well. This time I just folded sandwich into two and stuffed it in with ham and cheese. Then I put cheese and words made out of carrot on top of the sandwich.

For my little one, I prepared :
1. "Book" ham and cheese sandwich
2. Chicken and egg rolls
3. "Octopus and crab" sausages
4. Cucumber and carrot sticks
5. Apple and banana cuts for recess

And for my eldest one, I prepared :
1. "I love math" ham and cheese sandwich
2. Chicken and egg rolls
3. "Octopus" sausage
4. Broccoli with cheese and carrot sticks
5. Apple and banana cuts for recess

I love this bento tools (as below) because it produces tiny letters that is very suitable for bento.

The Piggies Bento

Eventhough it is school holiday, I still have few pictures that I haven't got any chance to upload. So I upload them during this school holiday. Enjoy!

My kids are my inspiration. One day, my little one came home with a pink pig craft that he made at school. I made the bento based on that idea. The piggies were not pink though :)

The kids had kiwi fruit and banana for recess.

Details as below :

In the box, I prepared :
1. Ham and cheese "pig" sandwich (with nori and carrot)
2. "Hatching chick" hard boiled egg with salt and pepper
3. Corn on the cob
4. Kale leaf and carrot stick

Winter Boys Onigiri

For last day in term 2, I prepared winter boys onigiri for their lunches. Wish you all a safe and happy holiday, and see you soon...

The boys had similar bento. In each box, I prepared :
1. Winter boy onigiri (white steamed rice, nori, crab stick)
2. Broccoli and kale
3. "Flower" carrot
4. Roast chicken
5. Milk jelly with nata de coco
6. Banana and watermelon for recess

Bento tools for today post :

Frilled Neck Lizards Bento

These frilled neck lizards are made of mini croissants with ham and cheese, black sesame seeds for the eyes and nostrils, and carrots for the mouths.

Details as below :

Inside the box :
1. Frilled neck lizard croissant
2. Corn on the cob
3. Fish cakes with "flower" carrot
4. "Fish" sausages
5. Kale leaf for baran
6. Apple cuts for recess