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 :

        

Penguin Families

Yay! I found cute penguin fish cakes at my favorite shop in the city and instantly wanted to use them for my kids' bento. They look so attractive, don't they ? :)
I laid them on top of the mini stuffed potato casserole. You may find the recipe here.

So for my eldest son, I prepared :
1. Mini stuffed potato casserole with pink "penguin" fish cake on top
2. "Penguin" hard boiled egg (egg, nori, carrot, corn, and angel hair pasta)
3. Milk jelly with nata de coco
4. Corn on the cob
5. Watermelon cuts for recess

And for my youngest son, I prepared :
1. Mini stuffed potato casserole with yellow "penguin" fish cake on top
2. "Penguin" hard boiled egg (egg, nori, carrot, corn, and angel hair pasta)
3. Milk jelly with nata de coco
4. Corn on the cob
5. Broccoli and cheese on top
6 Banana for recess

Mini Stuffed Potato Casserole (Pastel Tutup) Bento

My kids love this comfort dish so much. We call it "Pastel Tutup". It's the Indonesian version of Stuffed Potato Casserole.Along with a big casserole dish, I also made the mini version of it in the cupcake mold silicones for kids' school lunches. Here is the recipe :

Pastel Tutup (Stuffed Potato Casserole)

Ingredients :

Filling ingredients:                                                     
-  250 gr chicken mince
- 2 pcs bratwurst sausages, sliced thinly
- 100 gr sliced bacon/ham
- 1 tsp nutmeg powder      
- 100 ml  milk
- 50 ml chicken broth                                  
-  ½ diced onion  
-  1 Carrot diced
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup corn kernel
- 1 tsp Sugar
-  25 gr Cloud ear fungus-sliced (soak in hot water until soft then drain)
- 1 little pack dried rice vermicelli (soak in hot water until soft then drain)
- 1 clove chopped Garlic cloves-grind
- ½ tsp dash of Sesame oil, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp fish oil, 2 tsp sugar, salt & pepper to taste.
- 3 tbsp Butter
- 1 tsp corn flour for thickening

Other ingredients:
 - 1½ kg potatoes-steamed & then mashed
  - 75 gr butter
- ½ tsp nutmeg powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper powder
 - 100 ml Milk
- 1 egg yolk
 - 100 gr grated Cheese plus extra for sprinkled

Directions :
- Preheat the oven 180°C
-  Combine butter with mashed potatoes while still hot. Pour in the milk, cheese & seasoning, mix well.
-  For Filling:
 Sauté onion & garlic with butter, add in mince, sausage and ham until fragrant. Pour in broth; simmer until the meat cooked.
 Put in carrot, peas, corn, fungus, milk & seasoning. Cook until the broth absorbed. Dissolved corn flour with a little bit of water, pour in until the mixture thickened.
-  Greased the baking dish with butter. Place the mashed potatoes into the dish & press it to cover the bottom & all side of the dish (± 1½ cm thick). Put in the filling until ¾ the hight of the dish.
- Spread the rice vermicelli on top
- Cover the top side of it with mashed potatoes. Brush the potatoes surface with egg yolks, sprinkle with grated cheese. Make lines on the surface using a fork, bake for 30-40 mins until golden brown.
- Enjoy it!

For my little one, I prepared :
1. Mini Pastel Tutup
2. Carrot sticks
3. Milk jelly with nata de coco
4. Carved apple for recess

For my eldest one, I prepared :
1. Mini Pastel Tutup
2. Tamagoyaki (egg rolls)
3. Milk jelly with nata de coco
4. Rockmelon cuts for recess

Party Animals Bento

I love cute food picks, they make ordinary lunches become more attractive. Today's lunches still use Bacon and mushroom mini quiches (recipe in here) that I made in batches and stocked in the freezer. It comes very handy on a busy day!

For my youngest son, the bento consists of :
1. Bacon and mushroom mini quiches with carrot "flower" and black sesame seed
2. Mini potatos with BBQ sauce
3. Green seedless grapes
4. Kiwi fruits for recess

For my eldest son, the bento consists of :
1. Bacon and mushroom mini quiches with carrot "flower" and black sesame seed
2. Mini potatos with tomato ketchup
3. Green seedless grapes
4. Apple "rabbits" for recess

You may find these cute food picks here :

Fried Rice Bento

This simple bento is very fast to assemble. It consists :
1. Fried rice (with pork, prawn, peas and corn)
2. Tamagoyaki (egg rolls)
3. Potato patties
4. Broccoli and carrot

notes : the fried rice and potato patties are from leftover dinner. Just reheat, cool and assemble it into the box.

Octopus Bento

This bento consists of :
1. Corn on the cob
2. Hard boiled egg
3. Potato chips and chicken nugget
4. "Octopus" sausages
5. Carrots and lettuce
6. Kiwi fruit

Similar tools I used for this post :

My Melody and Cute Owl

For today's lunch box, I prepared My Melody bento for my kindy son, and Cute Owl bento for my Year 2 son. Detail as below :

This bento consists of :
1. Potato chips and nuggets with "cute owl" on top (carrot, eggsheet, nori, and black sesame seed)
2. Corn on the cob
3. Ham rolls
4. Broccoli and cheese

And this bento consists of :
1. "My Melody" (hard boiled egg, ham, and nori)
2. Potato chips and nuggets
3. Corn on the cob
4. Carrot "flowers"
5. Kiwi fruit