Usually I raise at 4am to do my walking exercise inside the village, but now since the school classes started again I can't do my walking anymore during week days, because I have to cook a lot for our breakfast and prepare the "baon"(necessities taken by a person who goes... like lunchbox or pocket money) of my child.
Although my children are half Japanese, they didn't grow up in Japan, but still they learned few Japanese culture and traditions. Just like this "bento"- a home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine.
A traditional Japanese bentos as I have had known have a 4:3:2:1 ratio; 4 parts of rice, 3 parts of meats, 2 parts of vegetables and a part of dessert. But sometimes I can't follow this procedure, I just packed what ever my children wanted and what we have.
Unlike other high school students, my child still loves to bring lunchbox and don't want to buy anything in school canteen (she's very thrifty you know, but when it comes to dolls she buy it even if it's very expensive). She don't even care if she's the only one left in the classroom during lunch time, but now she said there were 5 students that brought lunchbox too and enjoyed eating with her. She always bring separate bag for her "bento" (for lunch), miso soup thermos (a Japanese soy bean paste soup), juice jar and sandwich (for her snack) that I always prepared (well of course - that's a mothers job with love).
Today I want to show you how I packed the lunch box of my youngest daughter, just a simple style unlike those of professional works that elaborately designed with cut out shapes of meat and veges.
June 8th, 2009 - Monday (first day of school class) no bento yet
June 9, 2009 - Tuesday
June 9, 2009 - Tuesday
Hotdogs designed like an octopus, scrambled eggs with spinach, crab nuggets,some fish balls, and rice with Furikake (a Japanese rice seasonings)
and carrots (she loves fresh carrots so much).
June 10, 2009 - Wednesday
Scrambled egg with spinach again, shrimps, ham,squid rolls, baby corns, grapes and
rice with carrots and furikake .
June 11, 2009 - Thursday
Crab balls, breaded chicken breast (I sliced it into stripes tomake it easier to eat), quail eggs, scrambled egg,
shanghai rolls (usually it 's filled with ground pork but I used tuna fish)
fried tofu, slice tomatoes, steamed Baguio beans
and rice with furikake.
June 12, 2009, Friday - no class, it's holiday ... Phil. Independence Day
June 15, 2009 - Monday
Octopus hotdogs, scrambled egg, small prawns, squid rolls,chicken nuggets, carrots, cauliflower and
tiny Onigiri ( Japanese rice wrap with nori and furikake)
June 16, 2009 - Tuesday
Ham, salted egg, crab nuggets, crab stick, andfish cake which I sliced thinly, tomatoes, broccoli, potatoes
and rice with nori (a Japanese thin dried seaweed sheets) and furikake.
June 17, 2009 - Wednesday
Shanghai rolls, scrambled egg, chicken vanilla,embotido, cubed fish cake, broccoli , spinach on the sides
and carrots and rice decorated with cut out nori.
and this one same dishes for my collage student,
she said she wants bento too this day,
but she wants her eggs filled with spinach.
Sauces should be packed separately.
June 18, 2009 - Thursday
Tuna salad, chicken nuggets, quail eggs,
tocino (sweetened cured pork, a native delicacy),
sliced carrots, rice with furikake and mini siopao for her snack
(she saw that I steamed some siopao so she said she wants it,
so I don't have to make sandwich today.)
tocino (sweetened cured pork, a native delicacy),
sliced carrots, rice with furikake and mini siopao for her snack
(she saw that I steamed some siopao so she said she wants it,
so I don't have to make sandwich today.)
June 19, 2009 - Friday
Rice with furikake again, some crab balls, bacon,
chicken pandan, ham, beans, cucumber and baby corns.
(when my child came home after school, she cried without tears to me,
asking why there's only 2 slices of cucumber in her bento, he he he)
again same dishes for "Ate" (elder sister)
June 22 ,2009 - Monday again
Fried chicken dumplings, noodles(pancit canton),
fish(daing na tilapia), slice salted egg,
whole kernel corn with butter, slice tomatoes,
lemon cuts, rice with furikake, mocca cake(no sandwich today)
and for the dessert, a chocolate with crunchy peanuts and soft nougat.
fish(daing na tilapia), slice salted egg,
whole kernel corn with butter, slice tomatoes,
lemon cuts, rice with furikake, mocca cake(no sandwich today)
and for the dessert, a chocolate with crunchy peanuts and soft nougat.
today June 23 - Tuesday
I made sushi filled with crab stick & carrots, I used a molder but my child said it's so big so the 2nd one filled with chicken vanilla, I did it my own to make it smaller but I'm not so good in doing this, then I put in another box a shrimp rolls and chicken pandan balls, with some carrot cuts, and as for the dessert, there's a canister of choco coated biscuit sticks ,it's her snacks too.
I made sushi filled with crab stick & carrots, I used a molder but my child said it's so big so the 2nd one filled with chicken vanilla, I did it my own to make it smaller but I'm not so good in doing this, then I put in another box a shrimp rolls and chicken pandan balls, with some carrot cuts, and as for the dessert, there's a canister of choco coated biscuit sticks ,it's her snacks too.
So mothers out there start making bentos for your child now, it's not necessary for a bento to be very decorative but children find it enjoyable and love to eat more when it's arranged. And aside from that , you are sure that your child is eating the right and healthy foods. They can save money too.
So mothers, or even anybody who have a husband or a father or any body in the family who's working somewhere, make a bento for them and enjoy making it, use your imagination and have fun.
@^__^@
6 comments:
It all looks very professional and you must be a very good chef and mother to your children.
I on the other hand have never been a good cook; lack of interest I guess. It has always been a mystery to me how to get the food taste good. I would not mind having my own chef in the kitchen :-)
Ida
Hi Ida,
You're mistaken, I'm not a pro, in truth I'm no good in cooking.
I just started cooking when my mother died last 2 yrs. ago. I really find it so hard to cook. All I know was fry, fry, and fry; boil, boil and boil, that's it. Just a simple dishes.
It's not that I'm lazy before, It's just that I stand as the bread winner of the family(my father died early.) I'm the one find a living and my mother just stay at home to do the house works.
Now I'm just starting to learn. Every time I cook I have a recipe book with me, but in fairness it's delicious after and my children like it, he he he.
Thank you Ida ^_^
Love, Leny
Dear Leny,
I am totally a fan of your unlimited talents. You are truly a Martha Stewart of the Philippines or should I say Martha Stewart is a Leny in America :) Like Ida, I am so ashamed of my lack of culinary skills, and my son is constantly rejecting my dishes :(
Hehe, your lunch bento looks more Japanese than Filipino, except the siopao. Do your children speak Japanese?
Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures. So inspirational, although I know it's impossible for me to duplicate them.
love ... jaime
Ha ha ha ha, It's too much Jaime dear. Why compare me to Martha Stewart? I'm just no body compare to her.
I'm just a simple single mother, whose trying to do the best as much as I can do, as much as my powers can do I want to be perfect too(but it's limited). Because I want everything around me to be beautiful, may be that's the behavior of being a Libra.He he he.
My children can't speak Japanese, well just a very very few words. But they can read Hiragana and Katakana, after reading the words they get the dictionary and find the meaning what they read. Before when their father still come here, they don't talk but they can understand what their father's saying.Sometimes I'm amazed.
You know their family name is KIN (a gold), some Japanese said that it's a Korean name but their father told me before that it's a Japanese name,it's the higher level of KINO clan. I'm so confused because I saw his father before and some of his bothers, they looked like Koreans (but he and my children looks like his mother,w/ square face).And her only sister lived and married a Korean.
BTW are you married to a Japanese too? Good luck on Sept. Looking forward for photos that your going to share us.
Love, leny *^.^*
Hi Leny,
Yes, 'Kin' sure sounds like 'Kim' in Korean or 'King' in Hong Kong, all have the same kanji written as gold! Have you lived in Japan for long? It's wonderful that you picked up the Japanese language.
Hehe, believe it or not, my husband is actually a Filipino/Spanish/Chinese mix. Like me, he is raised in Canada, so very much westernised and doesn't know much about his home country. Their family still speak Tagalog at home, but the lanuguage-challenged me haven't picked up a single phrase so far. But I sure have eaten all kinds of Filipino food cooked by my mom-in-law and they are so yummy :) Please take care!
love ... jaime
Hi Jaime,
No I didn't stay long in Japan. In fact I haven't experience the show yet. Been in Japan 4x, 2x - 6 months, 4 months and the longest was 1994 - 8 months.
My Japanese partner don't want me to work and I'm just all alone in the house the whole day, He don't want me to go out. I felt so bored so I better stay here in the Phils,
and he wants it too, because his always jealous. He said he don't trust Japanese men.
So it's better for me to stay here, I can do anything and go anywhere I want. But later on he's the one who betray me and never fulfill his promises to me. I felt so martyr and fool that I've waited for him for a 23 yrs. I've wasted so much time for him.
BTW, have you eaten "sinigang" the Filipino sour soup, oh that' s my favorite and my kids too, I cook that once every week.
It's nice to know that your hubby have Filipino blood. I'm Filipino/ Spanish too, but no abla spanyol, he he he he.
God Bless,
Love, leny
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