I never forget about my blog but simply doesn’t have time for it Our Indonesian maid who had worked for 5 years had returned to her home. So basically, I’m the one doing the housework nowadays, including watering my mum’s plants, cleaning the bird’s cage, vacuuming and mopping (double story – indoor and outdoor<huge balcony>), putting dirty laundry into the washing machine, transferring them to the dryer and ironing when they’re done, washing my doggie’s toilet, wiping the glass doors at our house (you can’t imagine how many glass doors there are in the house, I shall take a picture of it and post one day), and washing the dishes when I cook dinner. Our maid used to mop the floor at downstairs twice a day! Therefore, I also need to mop the floor everyday but only once a day. Otherwise, I don’t feel the floor is clean. No, we didn’t torture the maid but she wants to do it twice a day because she feels uneasy to sit down and rest. The only time she rested was when she had her meals, when she watched TV at night and of course during her bedtime. You can imagine our loss when this hardworking helper went back. However, I’m doing all these jobs as good as her But I have less time to sit in front of my laptop now.

Soon, we’ll be moving to our new home, half the size of the current house we’re staying. I’m sure it would be easier to take care of! After we’ve moved in, I’m thinking to find a helper (Indonesian maid or some said Cambodian is good too) after a few months time, maybe two or three months. It’s definitely not that I’m lazy to tidy the house! Reason is we think we want a baby in year 2011! So who look after the pets – Gigi and Becki when I become a first time mummy (being ‘imprisoned’ during confinement period) and who cleans the house? So I think we’ll need a helper for at least 3 years – depending on how many babies we want, LOL. Finding hourly maid is not an option because my Gigi pees throughout the day and nobody throws the paper (her toilet) away for her after she pees when the hourly maid isn’t around We also feel that it’s cruel to send our girl for boarding at pet shop for at least a month. Anyone has better idea?

I wish our hardworking maid, Dwi would come back to help us. Dwi, please come back to work for another 3 years! She’s still considering coming back and I hope she would! I will give her a call end of this month and hope that it’ll be a good news.

Okay, back to the bento! This is a bento I made for my big kid last last Friday. Yes, not last friday, it is LAST LAST Friday. It’s a colourful sushi bento. There were unagi, tuna, mashed potato and ebiko sushis. For the veggies, I included steamed broccolis, edamame, baby corns and cucumber slices. He had a simple and light lunch that day.

I guess really no more bentos until we’ve really moved in to the new house

This is one of the bentos that I prepared last week.

Here is japanese rice topped with steamed chicken drumstick with premix seasoning and dong gwai. I shredded the chicken drumstick for him.

Stir fried kacang botol (winged bean) with sambal, steamed baby corns and some cherry tomatoes.

I also packed him some mashed potato so there’s less rice in this bento since potato is also a source of carbohydrate. The potato was steamed and then mashed and mixed with some mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

Steamed ladyfingers with some soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper. Next to it is some steamed pumpkin.

He also got some fruits (plum, mini mandarin orange), some dried snack (made with red yeast rice) and jelly with heart shaped kiwi fruits in it.

This was the bento that my big kid arranged into the box for me while I was preparing his. He said he made a face in the bento. Can you see where the face is?

This is the face. Made the eyes with cherry tomatoes and the nose and lips with pumpkin

This is one of the breakfast last week, didn’t have the time to make any post. It’s a simple one, cereal with pecans and walnuts, a kiwi and a jelly with heart shaped kiwi in it.

The bento for that day was mixed rice topped with some deep fried mini ikan bilis, grilled chicken breast, stir fried kai lan with carrots and next to it is some salad (lettuce, purple cabbage and carrot) tossed with olive oil and sesame dressing, and a bowl of ginseng root and yok chok soup.

Today’s breakfast: two pieces of wholemeal breads, veggies, cheese, egg and some fruits (plum, pear and orange).

I melted some butter on the pan and placed the breads into the pan to pan fry only a side of each bread. Pan frying makes the breads a bit crisp at the edge which is of darker color and the middle too if you eat it immediately. The egg was pan fried with some soy sauce and pepper. Then, I placed some lettuce on the bread, put some chili sauce for my big kid, followed by a cheese and then the egg. Added some fruits for him too. And that’s his breakfast while I just had a glass of oats drink. He went to the fridge to pour himself a glass of black soy milk before I did it for him but both of us forgot about his supplements this morning

I’m back to steaming the veggies instead of stir frying which I did recently.

I packed japanese rice for hubby today, topped with salmon flakes cooked with salt and pepper.

Here are three baked mushrooms stuffed with mushroom sausage (cut into small cubes) and I added some cheese to hold the tomato slice on top. There are also steamed baby corns and a heart shaped carrot.

He gets steamed broccolis for veggies. The broccolis were over steamed though Two cherry tomatoes to add colour to the bento and of course for its natural antioxidants too. Cooked tomatoes are found to prevent certain types of cancer too. So, I will cut some tomatoes to add in when I stir fry veggies or steam fish.

For protein, he gets teriyaki chicken. I bought a whole chicken and used part of the leg to make teriyaki chicken because the meat is more tender thus more suitable for it. I will grill the chicken breast for his coming bentos. One more heart shaped carrot in this container

I didn’t have time but wanted him to bring a fruit bento. So here it is, a bit ugly, packed with some plum and orange slices.

This is a bento for myself, exactly the same food but smaller portion

I didn’t have time to update my blog yesterday The breakfast for yesterday was two pieces of whole meal breads with avocado spread and ‘pre balance powder’. This pre balance powder was bought at some organic shop. It has organic carrot, white sesame, wheat germ, brewer yeast, soy lecithin, wild green seaweed and black sesame in it. Gave him a few pieces of oranges and dragon fruits too.

Yesterday’s bento was packed with mixed rice again. I packed some purple cabbage pickled in vinegar for him, cooked him miso soup with mushrooms, spicy and sour pork ribs (bak kut sui), and stir fried kai lan with carrots, purple cabbage, and sole fish.

Dragon fruits and oranges for tea time but hubby didn’t have time to eat them. Instead, he ate them after dinner.

This morning, I made him two pieces of bread with some lettuce, tomato slices and honey glazed ham. I melted some butter and pan fried one side of the bread for each. That makes the bread a bit crisp and the big kid likes it.

My big kid said today’s bento made him cried. Why? It’s the bean sprouts! I stir fried the bean sprouts with some capsicums and red chili padi and I didn’t expect the red chili padi to be so so spicy Next to the bean sprouts are some potatoes cooked with pork meats where the pork meats were packed with the mixed rice with its gravy. He had more veggies in another container, stir fried bok choy with carrots and mushrooms. I also cut some purple cabbage for him.

Some mini mandarin oranges and a portuguese tart for his afternoon tea

I’m so excited today because I’m invited to a friend’s Hawaiian themed engagement party tonight. I’m so happy for them. Congratulations, friends! Can’t wait to celebrate it with them tonight

Oats, mueslis, dried fruits, walnuts and pecans

It’s cereal again! If you’re following my blog, you probably can guess why I made cereal breakfast ^_^ Yup, couldn’t get up early again. Today, I took a picture of it before adding cocoa drink. No more milk in the fridge, so I made cocoa drink for it.

My big kid told me yesterday that a colleague of his went into his office while he was opening up his lunch box and there was a strong smell. It smelled like the food had spoilt! I packed him korean kimchi yesterday. There’s where the strong smell came from and the food weren’t spoilt. He said his colleague smelled and said must be some fish smell. He corrected her “It’s kimchi”. She then said, “Wow, get to enjoy korean food”. He told her it’s not korean food, just the korean kimchi And then he went on boasting about the wife’s japanese food is yummy. That said, I decided to pack him a more japanese-like bento for today. My big kid told me not to pack korean kimchi in his bento anymore, haha! However, he enjoyed the kimchi.

I’m running out of ingredients so things in the freezer like edamame, corns and chicken nuggets all come in useful at this time. Capsicums and cherry tomatoes too, are the veggies that I always top up in the fridge.

In the bento, he has japanese rice sprinkled with black sesame seeds. As for veggies, the portion of grilled asparagus is too little so I added edamame, corns, capsicums and cherry tomatoes for him. I made teriyaki salmon and pan fried two pieces of chicken nuggets to complete today’s lunch bento. The colour of the cherry tomatoes always brightens up the colour of the bento. Since there won’t be any cute bentos until we’ve moved in to our new house, I will make him colourful bentos so that it helps to rest his mind a bit during lunch time when he opens up his bentos.