Bento #139

Today's bento is egg mayo with apple cubes sandwich, ham, Japanese chicken nuggets and marshmallow for the girls, and the marshmallow is replaced with fruits for Clement's.

I bought the "pan pita" bento tool from Taiwan which seals the filling in the bread so nicely. And the size is so perfect that it fits onto your normal Sunshine or Gardenia bread, cutting away only the edges.

This is for my colleague, Jennifer, and Harriet has an identical one. Jennifer is a beginning teacher and she would be having her lesson observed by the VP today, so I made her a bento to cheer her on. Harriet is a close friend and we are promised to hold hands to help each other survive this last semester of the year.

Teaching is a very exhausting vocation, both physically and emotionally. It is important that we have comrades to cheer one another on, cheer one another up, and lend a helping hand when someone is drowning. And I am very blessed to have such good colleagues and friends.

Friendship is a wonderful gift.

Bento #137, Bento #138

I was uploading the pics from my camera when I found out that I didn't blog about this unagi bento. I remembered myself thinking that it was a "no-pride-bento" so I was hesistant to blog about it.

Then, yesterday, I made a even more no-pride-bento... and this unagi bento looked somewhat not bad in comparison. Hahahaha~~

Bento #137

It's the time of the year when all my teacher friends feel burnt out and exhausted, including myself. Every year around this time, I will ask Clement if it is alright for him if I quit my job. Thankfully, being the most supportive hubby he is, he always has no objections to me becoming a stay-at-home-mom. I feel so much better after hearing that and that gave me motivation to continue to ... WORK!!!! Wait a minute... maybe he has noticed the pattern in me....hmmmmmmmmmm.....

Anyway, I made this bento to cheer my friends up. Quite hesitant to call them "colleagues" because they are definitely more than just my counterparts at work. Keep smiling, my friends! The vacation is just round the corner and we'll be able to get a well deserved rest to recharge ourselves! Hang in there!!!

Bento #138 -- Smiley face potato, rice, terrikayi chicken cubes (from CP), greens, carrots, tomatoes, fuchew fishball and otah. Gives you all the energy you need for the day!!!!!!!

Bento #136 (and the photoshoot session with Young Parents)

The Young Parents magazine interviewed me some time back and finally it's the photo shooting session! The interview will be published in the October issue.

This would be Jaimie's dinner!

They even have a professional makeup artist for the shoot!

Left: Judy, the art director of Young Parents.

Right: The photographer. I couldn't remember her name but her name is really cool. This photo was taken by Jaimie. She kept them entertained in her usual i-have-guests-at-home high mood. Judy and photographer instantly became Jaimie's good friends.

The pink top is not mine. They even brought clothes for me!

The photo taking was quite fast. We did it in about 15mins or less at the garden area. Jaimie was quite sad that the 2 jie-jies had to leave but she was happy to dig into her dinner.

Jaimie enjoyed her bento very much. She kept saying "hmmm~~". It makes my day!

Look out for the October issue of Young Parents if you are keen to find out more about the interview! :)

Bento #135 (and Jaimie's Bento #1)

Bento is all about making food with L.O.V.E, isn't it? So, let's splash a lot of love and hearts in this one. I could have sliced the sausage and piece them together forming a heart shape but again, I was running out of time in the morning!

Jaimie's first bento (touched up by mommy). I haven't seen her since morning and I wonder how is she enjoying the bento she made, er, partitially.

Bento #134

I need sleep. I seriously do.

I look terribly tired and hagged. Waking up at 5am is really no joke although I enjoy making bentos in the morning very much. If I have to wake up at 5am, that means I need to sleep earlier. That means I have less time to surf net, kpo on FB, write blog, read books... :(

Hence, the solution is, you make really simple bento. The rice was my mom's famous long bean rice which she gave me yesterday. The curry chicken was from a Malay stall. I just needed to blanch the shanghai green. With that, I get an extra 50mins of sleep.

Bliss.

Bento #133

I was mass producing bento-s this morning again. 6 in total. 4 for my students, 1 for Clement and 1 for myself. I was pressing for time in the morning and hence Clement took these pictures for me.

I copied the idea from a bento making book by making these little onigiris little hoods using inari skin. To save time, I fried the luncheon meat and hard boiled the eggs the night before. I bought some Japanese pickles too. Guess what? It goes extremely well with the honey cherry tomatoes! I put the pickles in my mouth and it was too salty. I popped in a tomato at the same time and the taste was marvellous!

Clement said his photos didn't do my bento-s justice as he felt that they were the nicest one I have made so far. Hmmm... but I felt that I could do better if I had another half an hour. WAIT! That means waking up at 4.30am~~!!! NOOOooooooo~!

Bento #132

Clement had one of his wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. Being a loving and caring wife *ahem ahem*, I planned a soft diet bento for him -- japanese egg roll, steamed tofu with minced pork and shiitake mushrooms, and broccoli. To his pleasant surprise, he suffered no pain nor severe bleeding! Great! So I added in extra shiitake mushrooms for him to chew!!

This is my lunch. Big lunch! I had the same bento as Clement, plus a big serving of fruits. My school is very nice to teachers. Towards the end of each term, the principal and vice principals will give us a small treat to show their appreciation to us. Today we were treated to a bowl of soya bean curd each. It's not the food but the thought that counts. And my lovely colleague bought me a cup of nice cold barley so that I could quench my thirst after my consecutive lessons.

Little things like this make the workplace a happy one.

I planned to eat my lunch during my half an hour lunch break. By the time I came down from the classroom, 5 mins had passed. Ring ring, a call from a concerned parent. 10mins gone. 10mins to eat my fruits and tofu and 2 spoonfuls of rice. 5mins to get ready for the next lesson. By the time my lesson ended and I went back to my seat to complete my meal, it was 2.30pm.
This is quite "normal" for a teacher!