Foodie Friday - Scrambled Tamagoyaki!

Proud to say that I have survived making Bento Breakfast for Dumpling for more than 3 months! Here's a "deconstructed" recipe to share. :)

Dumpling loves eggs - anything from Chawanmushi to Omelettes to softboil eggs. I have always liked the taste of Japanese Omelette - Tamagoyaki but being a working mum, I need to finish her entire meal in 10 mins. So, I decided to create a deconstructed version - Scrambled Tamagoyaki. Tastes the same, bite size and dare I say, it is more moist too since I do not need it to be perfectly taut to create the layered effect in the original version.

:: Recipe
1) 2 small eggs / 1 Large egg
2) 2 - 3 tablespoons of Chicken Stock
3) 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar
4) 1 tablespoon of mirin
* Optional: diluted light soya sauce (1:1 mix and I recommend only a teaspoon at most. I do not use this as the eggs end up looking darker and the stock which I use has salt in it)

Mix the above well and then fry over low heat and scramble!

For the Bento box below, I added a slice of ham (folded length wise where I cut at the fold with about 1cm of allowance to spare. I then twist it to create the 'ham flower' below)

(All silicone folders and the baran are from Daiso)

Foodie Friday - Han Yu Pin Yin Sandwich?

Alright. I have to admit that I am having F.U.N creating all these open face sandwich for Dumpling's morning bento. To me the slices are not unlike a blank canvas where I can create where my inspiration takes me each morning.

There are days that I use jam to include some colours but I do love using seaweed, cheese and ham to create "scenes"! To make it fun for both Dumpling and I, I have recently gone into adding Han Yu Pin Yin to her open face sandwich! I have purposely left out the "accent" mark/stroke on the "vowels" as this is a game Dumpling and I are doing to increase her sensitivity to the different intonation and she has to tell me what tonation it is for each word. :) How's that for edible learning? :p

Foodie Fridays! 一片面包闯天下！

I happily proclaim that as part of my 10min breakfast challenge, I have successfully made the transition to wholemeal bread with Dumpling!

How did we do it? 3 ways!

1) Milo Kor-song (hot chocolate drink)
We started off with giving her some time to get used to the texture by treating it first as 'soft' food - dipping it in diluted Milo Kor-song! (Without added sugar)

2) Mix of white and brown
When I first added added it to her bento box, we used a mix of white and brown in the first week: that is when I made mini sandwiches, white bread goes on top while the brown bread will be the bottom slice

3) Butter / margarine
The last trick was that I added a bit of butter / margarine so that the texture is smoother and the bread, less dry :) (If your kiddos like veggies in their sandwiches, you can add that too as that gives the bread moisture)

And of course, having fun designs like these help (her mystery bento boxes are apparently a topic amongst her friends in her daily Chinese class)

真是不错吧！这就是我的密方： 一片面包闯天下！

Foodie Fridays - Sandwich fun!

On some days, I do run out of ideas for Dumpling's brekkie. Thankfully for me, she likes cheese and she likes sandwiches. As I am typing this, we are slowly making a change to wholemeal bread so hopefully, this goes down well with her too. :) 

So what can you do if all you have in the fridge are cheese and perhaps a slice of ham? Well, you can still have some fun creating something cute...

Dumpling had a laugh in the morning when she saw my choo choo train creation (I made a car on a different day too but that would be for another post)

What about a cartoon character? Just add on some slivers of seaweed and voila! (I did this freehand!)

(Pardon the slightly distorted Pikachu as I had to squeeze him real hard into the compartment! :p)

If your child likes crabsticks, you can also mix that with prawn bits into a seafood sandwich. (I used a sandwich mould for this). I also added a small message using a set of alphabet cutters where I added cheese letters :)

The Bentos are not pretty and picture perfect all the time but with some creativity and a sense of humor, anything can be dressed up :)

Linking up:

Foodie Fridays - 10mins breakfast: Pancakes & Eggs!

Having survived the first two weeks of breakfast prep challenge, I am pleased to say that I am slowly getting the hang of preparing breakfast in the morning. My body seems to have been accustomed to getting up at the said time. :p

The focus is still very much on creating easy, quick and yummy breakfast snack boxes and I usually alternate between Asian / Western and between savoury and sweet items.

Here's 2 quick ideas to share!

1) Scrambled eggs with ham sandwiches

The mini sandwiches are moulded into flower shapes with flower moulds and stamped thereafter with the stamps below. I bought them from this Facebook shop. 

2) Star shaped pancakes!

The star mould for the pancakes are from Daiso :)

What have you been packing for your children this week? I hope that you have as much fun as I did! 

Foodie Fridays! 10 mins Breakfast Challenge - Wrap and Roll!

As shared in an earlier post, my personal challenge for this year (and I am gonna take it one step at a time on a month-on-month basis 'cos long term commitment scares me!) is to prepare breakfast for Dumpling daily. Not just that but because time is usually tight for me in the morning, my intention is to prepare bentos / breakfast pack which takes 10 - 15mins max!

Ever since we visited the Zoo to see the Pandas recently, Dumpling has been talking about Kai Kai & Jia Jia. :) Since I am such a noob at this whole Bento business, I decided to just add some small touches of the Giant Pandas instead of doing a Panda bento featuring panda moulded rice which is not suitable for brekkie too.

What's in the bento:
1) Cherry Tomatoes with Laughing Cow cheese cubes (Fibre and Calcium)
2) Tuna flakes in sunflower oil (with a dash of pepper and light mozzarella cheese) Wrap (Protein, Calcium, Carbs)
3) Panda butter cookie

This was done within 10 mins as all that I needed to do was to spread the wrap with mozzarella cheese and tuna flakes. Do drain away excess oil from the Tuna so that it does not make the wrap soggy.