Cannelloni Bento

We had cannelloni with Ricotta and Spinach leftover, and it was perfect for kid's school lunch. This was the first time I made this recipe, and my kids loved it! They even didn't notice there was spinach in it :)

Here the recipe : Cannelloni Emiliani with Ricotta and Spinach from Barilla

Ingredients :
20 pcs Cannelloni Emiliani Barilla
for filling :
500 g ricotta
40 g frozen spinach
70 g grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 pcs onion - chopped
2 tbs olive oil
1 knob of butter
salt and paper to taste
For the bechamel sauce :
1.2 lt hot milk
60 g butter
60 g flour
salt and nutmeg to taste

Method :
1.  For the bechamel, melt the butter in a pan.
2.  Add the flour, and all the (hot) milk.
3.  Beat the heat with a whisk until it boils.
4.  Add salt and nutmeg to taste.
5.  Blanch the spinach with salted boiling water and chop roughly.
6.  Brown the onion in a pan.
7.  Add the spinach and ricotta, and cook for a further minute.
8.  Remove from the heat.
9.  Add salt, pepper, and Parmigiano-Reggiano
10. Fill the Cannelloni Emiliani with the filling using a spoon or piping bag
11. Spread a layer of bechamel in a buttered dish and lay the Cannelloni Emiliani on top.
12. Cover with the remaining bechamel and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano
13. Bake at 190C for 30 minutes.
14. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before serving.


Details of the lunch boxes as below :

For my little one, I prepared :
1. Cannelloni Emiliani with Ricotta and Spinach slices with carrot "flower" on top
2. Corn on the cob
3. Sausages
4. Kale leaf
5. Green seedless grapes
6. Kiwi fruit for recess

For my eldest son, I prepared :
1. Cannelloni Emiliani with Ricotta and Spinach slices with carrot "flower" on top
2. Corn on the cob
3. Sausages
4. Kale leaf
5. Green seedless grapes
6. Watermelon cuts for recess

Pasta and Mummy sandwich

I attended Nutrition Australia Women's Program‏ yesterday. It's a 4 week government funded program to teach women about nutrition, healthy eating, tips in food budgeting, and eventually money saving.
Even though it was just my first week, it inspires me already. It is so important to keep a lot of variety in our meal, especially vegetables, legumes, and fruits. We cooked Mediterranean Chicken and Vegetable Couscous dish and surprisingly there are 12 ingredients in there (couscous, chicken, carrot, tomato, sultanas, dried apricot, spring onion, chickpeas, parsley, with garlic, olive oil and lemon for dressing), and it tastes so GOOD!

So, after getting home, I checked my pantry and fridge, and decided to make similar kind of food using pasta. There are pasta, prawn, chicken, carrot, peas, corn, sultanas, avocado, parsley, spring onion, olive oil, garlic, lemon and I was quite happy on how it turns out. And the best thing is that my kids love it too :)

I saved some leftover for his bento next day.

For my eldest son, I prepared :
1. Pasta with chicken, prawn, and vegetable
2. Hard boiled egg
3. "Shell" shaped jelly
4. Lettuce
5. Grapes and rockmelon cuts

And my little one prefers food that is easy to grab by his little fingers. So I prepared :
1. Mummy sandwich (ham & cheese sandwich with sultanas)
2. Haw flakes (Chinese sweet)
3. "Heart"shaped jelly
4. Grapes
5. Lettuce

Lasagna Bento

We had lasagna leftover from the dinner, so today's bento is just a quick one!. It consists of :
1. Lasagna
2. "penguin & crab" sausages (cheese, corn, black sesame seed)
3. sultanas in sticks
4. Cucumber

In the round box, I prepared pear cuts for recess.

Tangled Sausage Bento

  I just got this idea from the internet, and am so eager to try. It turns out to be so cute. This is how to make it :

 Insert some dried angel hair pasta (or spaghetti) inside sausage cuts. And then boil them until al dente.

Here is the result. I cooked them with garlic, a squirt of lemon juice, and chop parsley. You can put in sour cream as well if you like. 

The kids love it because it looks tangled and unique. So I saved some for their bento.

For my little one, I prepared :
1. Tangled sausage pasta
2. Corn on the cob
3. Hard boiled egg
4. "Butterfly" cheese sliced
5. Carrot sticks
6. Kiwi fruit

And for my eldest one, I prepared :
1. Tangled sausage pasta
2. Corn on the cob
3. Hard boiled egg
4. Carrot sticks
5. Broccoli

Curly Fettuccine Salad Bento

This Curly Fettuccine Salad bento is made of Australia's freshest produce. It consists of :

1. Curly fettuccine, smoked salmon, fennel slices and sprigs, red onion slices with dill, lemon, salt & black peppercorn and sour cream dressing. It is fresh, crunchy and very yummy.

2. "Rose" that is made of carved roma tomatoes and lettuce.

3. Halves hard boiled egg decorated with black sesame seeds

4. Broccoli, lettuce and fennel sprigs

5. Fresh strawberries

Tiger Lasagna

I put aside a portion of lasagna when I made dinner last night for this bento. It consists of :

1. Lasagna with "tiger" on top (cheese, carrot, black sesame seed, and nori)

2. Corn on the cob

3. Melon jelly with coconut jelly filling

4. Lettuce

Bumble Bee in the Garden

This box consists of :
1. Teddy bear shaped pasta cooked with bacon, garlic, parsley & squeeze of lemon
2. Bumble bee  (made of cheese, eggsheet and nori)
3. Carrot, peas and corn
4. Kale leaf
5. Sundried apricot
6. Asparagus rolled with ham
7. Sunflower made of sausage and egg.