It was a very relax and fun filled session I should say thanks to the friendliness of Mei Li and the photographer. Okay, I pleaded guilty of not being able to remember the name of our nice Mr. Photographer!

We started off with a chat about kyaraben, and how I venture into this hobby. This was followed by a quick demonstration of a bento making.

I made a teddy bear onigiri bento during the demonstration and this was how it looked like.

There were another two bento-making mums being interviewed by Mei Li and together the stories made up the “Food Art” column in Saturday (4^th February) Star2 Lifestyle section. It is really fun to see other mothers’ creations too, their thoughts on kyaraben, and how they are hooked up to the same hobby.

Just some snapshots of the Star Newspaper for your viewing pleasure here.

A slightly simpler version of the article “Food Art” was also published in The Star Online in the Lifestyle section too. Check it out if you are interested to find out more and you missed last Saturday’s Star newspaper.

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Kids’ Bento Recipe     Parenthots Bento    Astro XTY Show

I am really glad that he is adapting well to the new environment, and very happy with the new school.

Everything seems so interesting to him, especially the canteen. He is really fascinated by the fact that he can now buy food from the canteen all by himself!

Therefore for the past weeks since school started, I didn’t make him any bento as I thought it is a good chance for him to learn and fit himself into the new environment. I give him some pocket money every day and keep educating him to choose some healthy food from the canteen. It was a fun process as every day when he comes home, he will tell me what he bought and that gives us a chance to discuss about whether the food is good to take or otherwise.

He failed to get himself any food from the canteen on the first 2 days, and the biscuits I packed for him as backup became his ‘life saver’ food.

Anyway, I was caught by surprised last night when he suddenly asked me why I didn’t make him any bento for so long! I was doing spring cleaning on the cupboard where I keep all the bento gadgets and I guessed that triggers him on bento again.

I have nothing much to use for the bento as I didn’t anticipate making any bento especially today is the last day of school before the 1 week break starts for Chinese New Year. Hence I can only make him a very speedy bento today by using whatever food I have at home.

It was a simple mini meat floss sandwich bento. He requested for a hard-boiled egg too, and I put in some prunes to fill up the bento box. I am glad that I have some nice dragon food picks to decorate the bento so that I can call this a Chinese New Year theme bento. I purposely used the bunny sauce container for the soy sauce since the Rabbit will hop out in few days’ time and the Dragon is gliding in!

Wish everyone a happy and prosperous Dragon Year!

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Bunny Year 2011 Bento   The Hare & Tortoise           Happy Tiger Bento

I thought I shall try to make at least one for my younger boy, but seems like I failed my mission too!

Anyway, at least I managed to make something quick for both my boys’ nursery and childcare teachers just to thank them for taking care of the boys.

I bought some muffins from a local bakery store and decorated them with all these cute Santa Clause and Reindeer cupcake decorative picks before packing them into the cupcake boxes.

Together with the muffins, I also bought some dark chocolates to be packed inside the gift bags.

I packed the decorated muffins and the chocolates into these lovely gift bags and and now all the gift bags are ready to go to their owners. Hope they will like it.

Last but not least, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Hope everyone will have a great Christmas & holiday with family and friends before a brand new year starts.

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Christmas Santa Onigiri    X’mas Rudolph Bento      Snowman Bento

During my return from the latest business trip, I was delighted to be told that the January issue of Rasa magazine is out at the market.

The January theme for Rasa Magazine is 100 daily menus for kids. Among the 100 recipes, I contributed ten recipes for kids’ bento set.

I had a great time making ten different bento-es at one go for the photography session with the editor last month. It was a very great and fun experience, especially with the very friendly editor and crews.

This is the photo of the cover page of the January issue of Rasa Magazine from the official site of Rasa Magazine.

And no, I haven’t got a copy myself as I just landed in the country last mid night. I’ll surely try to find a copy soon.

Here is a preview of the 10 bento-es I prepared for the photography session. Please pardon me for the poor quality of the photo as it was taken in a rush before the session ended.

Lets see if you can spot some of the bento-es in the cover page of the Rasa Magazine?

I hope you will find these recipes helpful if you are a reader of the magazine. I will try to share the closer view of each of the bento when I have time to sit down and work with the photos.

Stay tune!

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We attended his graduation concert few days back and everyone had a great time watching the performances by the children. Of course JY was the most excited little man on that day.

It was really amazing that the children, some as young as age 3, can remember the dance steps and enjoying themselves on the stage. Bravo to all the teachers, helpers and the children whom made this concert a success!

The theme of the concert is “The Nutcracker” with a series of performances going around this theme. I like the invitation card and tickets designs a lot.

Today, the kindergarten is having a celebration party before they are close for the long year-end holiday break. I decided to prepare some party bags for each of the children in JY’s class but I was cracking my head on the content of the party bags. I wanted something special for the kids since they will be graduating from the kindergarten.

I was so happy when I accidentally stumbled upon these super cute graduation pencils in a local bookstore, they are just what I need for the graduating kids! This was how the pencils originally look like.

I gave them a little touched up with the red threads on the hat.

Last but not least, the party bags with a pencil and a muffin each.

I hope the kids will like their presents and hope they will have a great party later.

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