My Cooking Passion

And The Winner is

2009-05-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

So ... for the Bento Give away.... I did the old fashion way. I have no idea to do it the high tech way ! :-D.I Wrote all the names in the piece of paper and then I asked my girl to pick one.

So She is the winner

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Her link is : Art Faye!

CONGRATULATION FAYE!
Hopefully this bento tools will be useful for you. The bird said you like to bake cookies now! I hope you can use the tools!! :P

Bento Tools give away(EDITED)

2009-05-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

Finally.. I will give away :
Hello Kitty 3D big size Cookies/Sandwich cutter ( worth RM 26)
Disney Chip and Dale Cookies /sandwich cutter ( worth RM 25)
Happy friends 8 pcs zip lock plastic bag ( worth RM 10 , Can't remember)

Sorry for the upside down photo! :(

Just put your comment in this post , leave me your email or blog link if you have one. I will include the postage fee to MALAYSIAN ADDRESS ONLY. ( if you don't live in Malaysia and really wish to join, please drop me a message :-D )
Start from today May 8th until next week May 15th. I will withdraw ONE name only!
And winner will be announce here ( hopefully) on the 16th May.

Have Fun!!! and Good luck.....

I think there is some misunderstanding. I will choose only ONE winner. So that person will won all of the 3 items above. :)
not 3 winners ya!! I know the chance are smaller if I choose just One winner.

Grilled polenta wth beef stew

2009-05-07T02:16:00.000-07:00

If you like your polenta to be a bit crispier you can grilled it, this is how my girls like it. Served with beef stew and add some grated cheese!
Buon appettito!!

Polenta

2009-05-07T01:10:00.000-07:00

Polenta is a cornmeal cooked and cooled. Can be grilled later or just to be eaten like that,with mushroom sauce, bolognese sauce or beef stew. I made this from instant pack one. Just add water,boil, and cool it.
I also made beef stew to compliment the polenta!

Bento #23

2009-02-26T17:18:00.001-08:00

I made homemade Indonesian fish cake ( empek2 palembang) And since Indy likes it. So she wants to bring it to school. As I said she is really into fried rice this week , so again fried rice but I made it Indonesian style today ( with a dash of sweet soya sauce)

Bento # 23

2009-02-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

In the mood for fried rice . Indy is into fried rice this week. Today with scramble kampung egg and chicken nuggets .

Bento #22

2009-02-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

Fried rice with eggs and veggie and fried shrimp dumplings

Bento #21

2009-02-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

Siu May, quail eggs and cereal

Bento # 21

2009-02-22T18:34:00.001-08:00

Spring rolls , and rainbow chocolate rice sandwiches

WOMEN'S TALK: PEPES IKAN - INDONESIAN FISH PAPILLOTE

2009-02-19T19:01:00.000-08:00

WOMEN'S TALK: PEPES IKAN - INDONESIAN FISH PAPILLOTE

WOMEN'S TALK: PEMPEK MAMI LAMPUNG

2009-02-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

WOMEN'S TALK: PEMPEK MAMI LAMPUNG

WOMEN'S TALK: SIOMAY BANDUNG - BANDUNG FISH CAKE

2009-02-19T18:58:00.000-08:00

WOMEN'S TALK: SIOMAY BANDUNG - BANDUNG FISH CAKE

Bento #20

2009-02-19T18:48:00.001-08:00

Very bad photo! LOL
Siomay bandung ( Indonesian food ) with the sweet soya inside the Winne the Pooh container
boiled egg in Winnie the pooh shape, Crackers

Bento # 19

2009-02-19T18:43:00.000-08:00

Pandad swiss roll, Fuji apples, Crackers, Crab sticks, and squid sticks.

Bento #18

2009-02-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

Custard Bao, Layer cakes, Wieners, and Broccoli :)

Bento #17

2009-02-09T17:37:00.000-08:00

Today bento is the whole a lots of eggs! And meatballs, and cheese cubes, and mayo in the small container :)

Valentine chicken wings

2009-02-09T02:49:00.000-08:00

As posted in my other blog

Theeheheheheh....... I got this in my email from a friend. So will you try it?
I think it is just 2 chicken wings, a few fish balls ( or meat balls) and a few drops of ketchup and lettuce for the hair .

hahaha so creative

Happy early Valentine's Day!

Bento #16

2009-02-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

Monday bento...

Feel so lazy to wake up.... but grr.. have too.
Yes today my dd got class. Today is not a public holiday in Sabah, but for some schools here today is a public holiday for Cap Go Meh ( the 15th days after Chinese New Year)

So half a sleep this is what I made
Corn, steamed broccoli and squid rolls, prunes layer cakes. With Mayo in the Winnie the pooh container. (CUTE huh?)

Bento #15

2009-02-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

Today bento is rice with Salmon Furikake ( I think hehe) and chicken nuggets ( I bought the heart shapes one), Steamed broccoli, Green Apples, Cheese cubes and pack of raisins.

Again my camera is still with my dh. So I am using my mobile. Unbelieveable , we got 3 cameras at home but yet I am too lazy to go up and take other camera and use my mobile instead....

Bento #14

2009-02-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

Today Indy wants the custard bao again, she loves is so much. And also she wants the fish sandwiches . I add that up with broccoli and some layer cakes.

Sorry for the bad photo. My dh borrowed my camera so I took this with my mobile.

Bento #13

2009-02-03T15:49:00.000-08:00

Today bento is custard bao decorated with seaweed sparkle eyes, A pack of raisins, Crab stick and water apples. :)

Bento # 12

2009-02-02T16:29:00.000-08:00

Rose Apples /Water Apples ( jambu air) with strawberry jam in HK container
Fish sandwiches , Quail eggs and cheese cubes

New tools

2009-01-29T01:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks , Mak siput ! for the presents!

Beside this I also got sparkle eyes seaweed puncher!! * BIG GRIN*

Sherperd Pies

2009-01-27T00:47:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite dish. My eldest sister Vony in Australia share with me this recipe . You can make it and freeze it. Or you can also served in in individual oven proof bowl( pyrex). If you prefer you can use mince meat or chicken . But I like chunk of meat for it tenderness and juice...
( for non alchohol version just don't use the wine)

Ingredients
Beef cut in cubes ( Rump,Flank or round part or you can use those part that we use to cook rendang or stew)
A bit of Multi purpose Flour

Onion ( and carrot if you like) both cut into small pieces
I like to add carrot if I make stew , to add the natural sweetness. Also I add the shallot here :)

100-150 cc of Red Wine
Worcester sauce ( or lee and perin sauce )
Water / beef stock
salt and pepper to taste

whole peeled tomatoes ( I dont use puree tomatoes, I use the whole peeled tomatoes , but I dont use the water inside the tomatoes ( not inside the can) because the water inside the tomatoes can be sour)

Just to show you the peeled tomatoes that I used

Additional and Optional
green peas or Mash potatoes ( to make the pies)
Rosemary if you have.

Method:
Put the cubes beef in to a plastic bag and mix with a bit of flour. Shake it until it all covered with flour. Throw the excess flour.

Here I use plastic bowl to mix the flour and meat but make sure dont put too much flour and throw the excess flour, else it will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

Saute the beef in a bit of oil in the frying pan until it turns golden brown ( half done )
Remove from fire and put aside

In the frying pan , saute the Onion ( with carrot if you like) with a bit of oil until fragrant.

Add in the beef chunks, red wine then let it evaporate for a while.

Then put the peeled tomatoes. Worcester sauce and add water/beef stock.And salt and pepper to taste.

Cook it with low fire , until the stock reduce and the meat become soft. You can add green peas after it is almost done.

You can just serve the beef stew like it is or to make the pies, just make mash potatoes ( you can use instant one or make from boiled potatoes add in milk and butter , very easy) . If you want to make it as pies, you can put it in individual oven proof bowl or the large oven proof dish .

This is my mash potatoes, you can put the mash potatoes on the top of the beef stew and then oven baked it for a while. Add grated parmesan cheese on top if you like.

If you like a bit of spice...add the Tabasco with it....it will give it an extra kick!

Buon Appetito !

Bento # 11

2009-01-22T16:53:00.001-08:00

Friday is fried chicken day for Indy.

With apples, strawberry bread rolls and french beans, Mayonnaise in the container

Bento # 10

2009-01-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

My Lazy MODE is ON today . Since the weather is so cloudy, I wish I can sleep a bit more or at least I tried to hide under my blanket until Maya pulled it away and said AHAHA found mamma here....
grrr....and that is at 5.45 am.....:(

So today bento for Indy is rice with salmon furikake in heart and stars shapes, Boiled egg in bunny shape, with soya sauce on the small bottle. A few grapes , and one of our favorite cheese plus crackers, the cheese is BRIE , this one is MADE IN SABAH, and we love it. It is a soft cheese, and it is tasty. We don't really favor those commercialy packed cheese on the supermarket shelf.

We bought this cheese in Langkah Syabas, Kinarut. I think I also saw it at GIANT City Mall.
Antoher cheese that is great from there is the Camembert .

CNY is just around the corner.....

Bento # 9

2009-01-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

Burger time

Indy loves burger, she is a meat lover . So today I grilled beef burger pate and put slice of cheese, put mayonnaise, ketchup, and bread of course. I put the cucumbers and tomatoes on the side.
To make it a bit cute, I cut the bread with the bunny cutter and put eyes and nose from cheese as well.

As for the "sweet" treat , I put a few savoiardi biscuits on the side. This is the biscuit that we use to make Tiramisu. I got a few left over , and my girls love to eat it just like that. I has a sweet taste but not to sweet and a light texture.

No fruits today, as I think the burger it self will be very filling for Indy.

I will start to stock up my fridge for CNY. And I might be cooking for CNY dinner . Aiks...no idea what to cook....

Bento # 8

2009-01-19T23:44:00.001-08:00

Tuesday bento

Again simple haha... I try to avoid fried stuffs, so here are
cucumber sticks with peanut butter dip on the HK container, I also put a few cut tomatoes on the side, Cheese sandwiches cut into Mickey and Minnie mouse ( I got the cutters and never use it until today), fuji apples wedges, and shortbread cookies in stars shapes.

I like this Pikachu monster double deckers lunch box. I think it is super cute !

Anyway I dont think I will be able to do alot of cute bento like other blogs haha , not easy !
Salute those moms! really....

My bento look so "plain" hahha

Bento #7

2009-01-19T23:43:00.000-08:00

I woke up and then checked my emails on my mobile phone, the one from my fathers caught my eyes with the subject : breaking news, the largest fuel depot in Jakarta exploded last night at 9 pm. OMG, I hope all are ok, but for sure it will cause a chaos today in Jakarta as there will be a lot of speculation about the price hike. The flames of the explosion reached 100m high and can be seen as far as 10 km away. News

So after that , I need to dragged my self to prepare bento for Indy. Easy one hahaa.. Wieners, mixed veggie and Fuji apples cut in pooh shapes :) I totally forget about this Keropi lunch box I got a few months back, I dig into my cupboard and I found 3 other bento boxes that I never use !
I love this box..it is super cute!

Speaking of which, I should look and sort out my bento tools, I am sure I got plenty of other stuffs that I never use yet ...

Bento # 6

2009-01-19T23:42:00.002-08:00

So I try this new kitty set. Sorry for bad photo , I took these with my mobile phone. We are in a rush every Friday Morning. Indy must be at school before 7.30 . And she will have P.E class today, so that's why I was thinking to pack something more filling like chicken and rice since she will finish at 1 pm today.
The seaweeed puncher for the Kitty face got stucked after I punched the first time and I only got eyes and 3 of the whisks , so I get to do the whisks on the left side manually by scissor :D. I stick the carrot ribbon with mayonnaise but not sure it will make it stick until recess time. As always I put the sauce container separately inside bento bag . I put too much grapes since Indy loves it and she shares it with her friends.

So inside the bento are : chicken, corn, rice, banana cakes and grapes :)

And we have a good news. Indy can go home with her class mate now. But the classmate will go for holiday next week so I think the car pool will start after CNY break. And also My dh 's working hours will change starting next month, so that will give him more free time to pick Indy.

She is very happy to go to school and excited about the E.C.A tomorrow , it will be art and craft for this week.

Have a great day

Bento # 5

2009-01-19T23:42:00.001-08:00

I was planning to use my brand new Hello Kitty set that I just received from CP

But I don't have any left over rice, so I changed my plan and make cheese sandwiches with the cookies stamp set/cutter that I never use before :D . I got plenty of other gadget and tools and bento boxes and picks, and cups that I never use but yet I m still eye-ing for more . Sigh...

Can't really see the breads here. I put in inside a silicon cup, I also put heart shapes chicken nuggets, french beans with flower carrots ( using the same cutter for the bread) and some grapes.

And these are the cutters that I use for the breads and carrot ( flowers) , I got it from NST
I just got about 15 mins to prepare bento for Indy every morning, in between I still must entertain my lil girl, who loves to open my bento tools drawers and then took something from there. Here , she took the mini silicon cups, she said it is nice, it is soft, Maya like ...maya like!
She doesn't want to bring lunch box now and she said cie cie kasiaaan....( poor cie cie) at school no food for cie cie...Maya school have food. :D

Take Care you all.....

Bento # 4

2009-01-19T23:41:00.001-08:00

Don't be surprise If I post about bento early in the morning :) , I got time early in the morning everyday after the girls went to school. So I use this time to check my emails, and do a bit of blog hopping . After this then I will see if there is something I must do for my e-store ( the courier is still close anyway ) or if I got some errands to do. So for now it is just "me" time .

I managed to go to Daiso yesterday ahaha... can't get it out of my mind. I need more silicon cups. And I also text her to asked for more tips and we ended up chat on the FB ( thanks so much). And I ended up want to buy more tools to complete my collection! :-p

Indy told me that her friends (young kids and bigger kids) at school always gather around her when she open her lunch box. She said everyone wants to see my lunch box! I don't know if it will do her good or the opposite :) but she seems to enjoy the attention. :) Even the teacher called other teachers to look at her box. "Alamak" I thought.... *malu*..... but I told her, you bring bento not because you want the attention or praise or whatever...just because you need to eat and you prefer Mamma to packed it for you. Good or bad...nice or not...cute or ugly.. just EAT IT! Dont waste the food! haha..

Anyway here is today bento.

Chocolate bread rolls, boiled Chikuya ( pre-roasted sotong roll) with beans, grapes, and mayonnaise . Since it is quiet full, I didn't put he mayo container inside box , but I just put in in the bento bag.

I also use 4 silicon cups that I just bought from Daiso. I love it, before this I only have the medium size, so I bought the smaller size ( the one that I use for the bread rolls here) and the bigger one ( the one that I use for the grapes). Also the food picks, got it from Daiso yesterday, it is fruits and veggie foodpicks, 50 pcs per pack only at RM 5...how can I resist?

Bento # 3

2009-01-19T23:39:00.002-08:00

So I made bento again today. I woke up late but luckily still can managed to made one.
Simple as usual. Today I packed extra fruits for Indy, She loves Jambu. So here it's today bento

Jambu air, Mini Mandarin as CNY is near we can find it everywhere now. And then boiled egg, long time she never eat boiled egg, I packed the soya sauce in the soya container and then peanut butter sandwiches.

I got the bento box and soya container from Daiso ( I think) Also the silicon cups. The baran/food divider I got it from NST, and the toothpick I got it from my sis.

BENTO # 2

2009-01-19T23:39:00.001-08:00

Just to share the other simple bento for today. I got this Barbie box from Christine .
The contents for today are :
Cut granny smith apples, corn kernels, crab sticks, and rice with salmon furikake in bear shape ( can't really see in the photo) I didn't put any eyes or nose on it, :) . And I put mayonnaise on the Hello Kitty sauce container.

Indy only got 20 minutes during recess. I don't know if she can finish all of this in 20 minutes :).
She told me she prefers I pack the bento, so she doesn't have to queue to buy food in the canteen.

Anyway.. it was raining the hard here yesterday. Many areas in KK are flooded. Luckily this morning it was dry in our neighborhood. How is it in your place?

Have a safe and nice week ahead!

Indy first bento for her primary school day

2009-01-19T23:37:00.000-08:00

Friday is the busy day for Indy, she got P.E at 7.30 then got a small break, she must change clothes and shoes and have a quick breakfast.
The school will end at 1 pm instead of 12.15 like any other days.
She will have recess for 20 mins at 10 a.m while the bigger kids will have recess on 10.20. Which I think is good thing to do. Otherwise it will be too crowded and the big kids can "squeeze" out the young kids. :)

So I thought today she should eat more proper during her recess , since the school will end at 1.

So here what I made for her. Super simple bento hahah...She wants fried egg, cheese sausage and I put a couple of grapes.

I did this is a few mins only as you can tell from the way the sausage been cut hehee..
need to cut more nice next time

This is her in the school canteen, which is very clean and tidy and the ladies behind the counter are very kind and helpful to the new and young students. And there are a few teachers and supervisors there as well to make sure that the new students get the food , and pay the right amount :)

Indy on the second day of school , did manage to bought her own food but instead of sausage and fried egg, she only got sausage as the lady didn't hear her that she also wanted the egg :).
On the second day, she forgot to bring down her wallet, so the teacher ended up paying for her food :)

So today, to save her time on queuing and paying, to bring her own bento is a good idea.
I should pack her bento everyday. Anyway I got plenty of the tools and boxes already ! :-D

now I m going to spy on other bento's mom blogs to search for some idea , what should I pack and prepare.

TA DA for now....

Ok so here we go....the bento craze hits in!(edited)

2009-01-18T23:46:00.000-08:00

This is the result of blog hopping and being so busy budy ! But I love it anyway! :-)
I saw more and more bloggers mom do a pretty cute bentos for their kids.
Actually I don't need to do this to feed my girls. They are practically eat everything I served them. Ok that is not true, they don't eat spicy as I do. But I will train them for that! I am Indonesian so we Indonesian love spicy food.

So the first thing come to my mind when I saw this blog .And saw all of her beautiful bento is : how can she manage to find the time to do that? and lucky my girls do not need to eat cute food!

hmm....Looks who's talking now!
Ok that particular blog , giving me the idea of trying it out. Ok what is the harm to give my girls a cute boiled egg? and a cute cut sandwiches? Ok, so I tried to browsed around and I was thinking just to try a few to start.

And again I was wrong...so very wrong. So I went to order a couple of stuffs from NST .
and with in days I made my second orders.

Want to see how serious is my new addictions?

These are what I have now ( got it from NST ) and Japan home center KK and I met this bento fan over there , and I know my collection will be more soon if I go to Daiso I Borneo , as my bento spy told me about what she bought over there via MMS.

Egg moulds

Hello Kitty lunch box
Hello Kitty bread cutter
Doraemon full body cookies cutters

Another food seperator, to make my plain bento looks better :)

Pooh veggetable cutters
Pooh cutter and icing sugar sieve

Rice mould
Got it from local store in KK ( photo courtesy of ebay store : hongkong outlet)
And these are the one on the way to me ( ordered from Ebay) so better order more , to cut down the shipping cost
Winnie the pooh egg mould , I think egg is the easiest thing to do . ( or maybe I was wrong?) beside my girls love eggs.

Winnie The pooh rice mould. This I can use for dinner at home as well. My girls doesn't need to bring rice to school,as the school provide food and my girls just eat everything they served.

My Melody die cut lunch box. This is just too cute!

A drink holder, Maya always bring Dwink box holder to school , And I think this is a cool and cute drink holder , and it is adjustable.

Small side dish container. Perfect for Maya

Hello Kitty veggie cutters and I think I will use it to cut sandwiches.

Hello Kitty food divider. It is just cute and I don't know If I need this, but anyway, I love it.

Quail eggs moulder! yay! Good for Maya's also

Hello Kitty sauce containers , to put cheese spread, mayonnaise , jam etc
Another sauce containers

Hello Kitty 's spoons
The stainless steel spoon

Hello Kitty food cups and food pick.. Just too cute!

Winnie the Pooh lunch box

Cookies cutters
Hello Kitty snack container, great for Maya.

So...since I just got a few of my tools last week. I only can make a hello kitty toast , i found the cutter is too big for one piece of bread. And I didn't take the photo for that.
So I just made this bento for the girls , it is very plain and unattractive kekeke...All are white and plain blah! Hopefully after my full equipments are here I can make it better!

Indy's bento, hehehe so plain, but she was so excited to see the Hello Kitty egg and showed it off to the whole class. The sandwiches are just plain bread with strawberry jam cut with my old metal cookies cutters that I bought from Consfood Damai Point long time ago. It has a good selection of bakery stuffs , they also got the chocolates moulds. The lunch box is the hello kitty one.

This is Maya one, A cinnamon roll egg with the same strawberry jam sandwiches. I use a small snack container from the first year ( I got if from Kids Avenue , Karamunsing complex)

I showed my sister that I am into bento now and she bought me these following stuffs from a Japanese store in San Francisco near where she works, the price are quite affordable about RM 10-12 each, and I will asked her to combine shipping for me as most of these are light:
Various foodcutters!
Sauce containers. I don't think I will need this much. But anyway.....
Rice Moulds
Sauce containers and ice cubes tray

Disposable chopstick , just because it is cute. Indy still can not use chopstick so I think I will keep this one first.

Sauce containers, Food dividers

Heart shaped egg cookes, non stick rice scooper and pot holder

Food cups/side dish cupsFood picks

Seaweed punchers
Lunch box straps, food and spoon, and chopstick.

Food wraps, sauce containers, and antibacterial wraps

So do you think I have enough to start? Is it too much to start? LOL
I am not sure yet if I will make bento every day. But I know one thing for sure I must stay away from ebay for a while!