Natural Health Blog

Haven't been updating my bento blog lately as most of my meals have been made speedily without any decorations! These past few days of Hari Raya holiday ate a lot of unhealthy food from eating out frequently and less homecook meals. Hopefully I didn't put on some weight, must go on the treadmill and bike everyday to burn off...sigh!!
Just discovered an interesting natural health blog with lots of information on various health issues ranging from alternative therapies, exercise, men's/women's health, to nutrition updated daily. Most of the articles are very useful in our daily life usage and knowledge as well.
I should be adopting a more healthy lifestyle to boost up my immune system rather than taking vitamin C too often and substitute that with more fruits and vegetables.
Wishing a Happy Hari Raya and holiday to all muslim friends!

Health Forum

Everyone in the office seems to be falling ill nowadays with very weak and low immune system of late.To stay healthy and build up our immune system is the best way to counter any virus infections. With so many cases of A(H1N1) is better to take precaution and join a health forum to learn more about the latest health issues happenings around the world.
Eating a balance diet is a must nowadays as the food we eat causes a lot of side effects without us knowing. Most are loaded with pesticides or antibiotics and are harmful to our health when consume in large quantities. Nowever I stumble upon this forum which has a lot of nutrition information provided from vitamins to organic food. Sometimes I feel is best to pack a bento lunch to work rather than eating out as I find the food outside is too S.O.S ( salty, oily, sweet).
To prepare what to cook at home, do check out these easy recipes from the forum which has lots of ideas on preparation ranging from fruit juices to anti cancer soup!
It's better be fit rather than stocking up on tamiflu or be wearing what N95 mask which doesn't really filter the virus as most N95 respirators are design to filter 95% particulates of 0.3micron while the size of the virus is about 0.1micron!
Some simple preventive tips will be frequent hand washing, resist temptation to touch any part of face, gargling with warm salt water to prevent proliferation, eat more vitamin C and drink warm liquid.
Happy breathing + bento-ing!!

Cute Expression CARLA CRAFT Punchers for Sale!

Selling RM12.90/USD4.50 each excluding postage. Postage will be base on post office rates. Anyone interested please email me at aloke28@yahoo.com

Lucky Dog, Pig, Paw and Sad out of stock at the moment.

More Bento Tools.....

Rounded rice mould in different sizes, alphabet A-Z cutters, number 1-9 cutters, Hello Kitty ice/jelly tray, small animal/Stitch/Hello Kitty picks, Stitch baran, Melody+Piano and Sugar Bunnies steel bento box. Special Thanks to Shoppingmum for sending the Melody+Piano steel box all the way from Thailand for me!

Carla Craft "Expression" Punchers completed + new Bento Tools!

Finally with the purchased of the last 2 shown below, my collection of "expression" Carla Craft punchers are completed..hooray!! Took me sometime to accumulate all the punchers checking out the stores on and off. Hopefully I didn't miss out any ......Lol! For anyone doing kyaraben bento these are a must for nori as they are real sharp and durable, my all time favourites.

Sanrio Cinnamonroll egg mould, Sugar Bunnies multi cutter from NST and the last 2 Carla Craft punchers added to my bento tools collection recently. Have yet to test out the bento tools..sigh!

Birthday Butter Marble Cupcakes

Did some marble cupcakes with butter cream and finally used the cute bear+flower Wilton silicon cups bought sometime ago. Have never use silicon to bake before and was afraid it might melt in the oven..LOL! but all came out well and intact!! *phew* There are many Wilton silicon baking cups design available but I love the bear cups the most so adorable...

Close up of the alphabet and musical picks which I use for mother's day bento in my previous post. Those picks are real handy when comes to wordings without using more fattening pure butter cream and not to mention more food colouring too.

Lovely animal picks, one of my all time favourite on the yellow flower cup.

Ribbon picks are so cute. The icing was not nicely spread out cos only used sparingly as it is loaded with tons of calories!!...pure butter+icing sugar la just imagine.

Cute family duck picks just right for small surface deco on cupcakes. Only use one pink colouring in the above, still quite sceptical eventhough is written edible but it does make the cupcakes very beautiful in bright pink though.

Happy Birthday to my sister...hope she doesn't find the cupcakes too fanciful and childish..LOL!!

Furkid on Treadmill!!+Dessert Bento no 38

Dessert bento consists of yummy moist Pandan(Screwpine leaves) Butter cream swiss roll as Furkid with sweet Red Globe grapes in this double tier Pikachu Bento box. Furkid always likes to stick a bit of her tongue out so that's why a bit of grapes skin was used on the butter cream.

Oh dear loads of calories in this bento especially the cream and do you know 25 minutes on the treadmill burns 150 calories only for me guess I have to step up the level...la..yikes!

Furkid on the treadmill!!!

Have a look at the video of furkid on the treadmill "walk walk" indoors. With the hazy weather, sudden rain and all sorts of viruses especially Leptospirosis, Meningitis and Swine Flu or now known as Influenza A(H1N1) is best to do my exercise indoors! with furkid...LOL. Hey my doggy needs her exercise too...or else she will be sulking and pretend to be very sad lying flat down on the floor!*grin*

Have a happy day bento-ing.....

Teddy+Flower Rice moulded bento no 37

Teddy + flower onigiri with half fish shaped egg, prawns, brussel sprouts and carrots.

Make use of the shaped silicon cups on this rice moulded bento with stir fried shelled prawns, brussel sprouts and hard boil egg. Actually this was part of dinner food but ensemble into my new Minnie Mouse bento box for this bento. Filled a little light soya sauce in a cute apple face sauce container for added taste to the half hard boil egg. Details were done with nori and crab stick on the teddy+flower onigiri. Wanted to fill the gaps with lettuce and cherry tomatoes but couldn't find any in the fridge...sigh! Time to go groceries shopping........

New bento tools arrived!

The new 45% rice mould, Rilakkuma cutters, Animal cookies cutters, Brigitte cookie text stamp from Germany, Sandwich bread cutter and Ribbon/Crown/Hat picks.

Ordered some lastest new tools import from Japan online from Bentomarket recently. With the Brigitte cookie text stamp you can bake cookies stamp with your own text, be it your name, message or anything is kind of cool because the fonts are real tiny just right for small cookies. As for the 45% angle rice mould you can make moulded rice tilted facing upwards for a better view of your creations! For inspirations do check out this cute Japanese Bento Blog.

Have fun bento-ing everyone!

Fruits shaped bento no 36

Mangoes and papayas in different shapes in Tomica bento box

Did a mango and papaya fruits bento in my new Tomica bento box which is about 220ml in capacity smaller than the usual ones of 300ml. As you can see from my previous post picture it is not much bigger than a pack of picks! It's kind of small but great as a compliment snack box. Various shapes were cut using miffy, mickey, bear and flower cutters accessorized with lovely picks to beautify the faceless miffi and mickey! LOL!

Happy bento-ing!!

More bento tools!

Accumulated quite a number of tools lately. As can be seen above there are Tomica clear cover bento box, animal picks, bear/rabbit/star cutter, another different "shoe" puncher which i didn't buy last time from CP, cute food wrappers and small oval silicon cups.

Two onigiri bento boxes with matching straps, various silicon cups in different shapes and designs, different cutters, mini cute rice mould, cartoon baran, expression picks(has 2 different expression in a pick front and back!), flower+bear rice mould and lovely ribbon picks.

Finally the quail egg cutter which comes in a pack of 2 cutters with a smiley nori puncher plus an instruction booklet too. This is one great mini cutter to own!

Mother's day bento no 35

Used the panda, alphabet and musical picks on store bought cheese cake to decorate the above speedy bento for mother's day celebration.

Pink roses for mum on mother's day!

Teddy+Friends bento no 34

Teddy made of purple sweet potato and sausage plus quail egg friends on a salmon furikake mixed rice filled inari pocket.

If you like my bentos please do not forget to vote HERE, contestant #4 Bentomeal by Arlene before Wednesday 5pm Malaysian time.

Thanks!!

It's time to VOTE

Hi there readers, it is time to vote and I am contestant No 4 Bentomeal by Arlene. If you think I deserve a vote for this entry, please please vote for me HERE.
Closing date is this Wednesday 5pm.
Domo Arigato!
Terima Kasih!
Thank you!

About me! in a bento box no 33

Me, Hub, Furkid, My Garden, Favorite food and Piano Keys.

Finally I found the time to enter Javapot's contest and this will be my entry. It's a caricature cartoon about me with big "goldfish" eyes, hub and furkid...I mean my fluffy dog la! LOL! This was actually for dinner as morning hours are too short to be creative as I need to rush to work. Anyway it took me more than an hour to cook the food and add in the details.

Me in the office busy on the phone and cooking at home.

I was created with steam orange, purple sweet potato for my hair and dress. Body parts made of potato with cheese and nori details. Do you see I have two hairstyles? It is because when I am working in the office I don't tie my hair and quite offen on the phone too. Must also look nice in my "yellow" high heels ..peer pressure ..ha ha.
Back at home is a totally different story got to tie up my hair to cook presto speed in my "carrot wok" and "nori spatula" and be a "si lai" aka wife.
Looks like I have split personality here! LOL!
Carrot, cheese and nori cut outs for hub plus furkid both waiting patiently with growling stomach but obviously hub has to lend a helping hand if not dinner will be extremely late.
Cooked braised chicken with tou foo pok (bean curb) and fried bittergourd with eggs slotted in between the white and brown rice. Can't do any fancy food on working days only speedy simple homecook nutritious food.
I love details and vivid colours as can be seen from my bentos so that is why I like to crochet as well.

My flowery, miniature cactus, edible cucumber little garden.

Close up view of my "little garden" of blooming flowers and mini organic cucumber depicting my interest in plants especially in growing miniature cactus.
Anyone interest in my cactus and cucumber plant do let me know I will try to germinate in a pot for you. Don't worry it's free but off course on success basis ....haha!
As you can see there is an octave of keys on the mini cucumbers and some musical picks on cherry tomatoes which shows my hobby in piano playing as well but sad to say I have not been practising as much like before in my younger days. Really need to cut my nails short.."sigh" and start the keys rolling again!

Pssst.. can you see the sinful dessert on the silicon cup? Yup it's my favorite sweet tooth addiction ie chocolates!! It's chocolate coated almonds with M+Ms on top...yummy. Once in a blue moon ..oklah!

That summarised a short story of my everyday life in a bento box! Here you go Javapot.....

New Bento Boxes and Tools

Got the above from Bentomarket.com aka Cp!
Marie the Cat, Minnie Mouse, Stitch and Elmo bento box plus Mickey 3D cookie cutter, Mickey vegy cutter, Pooh and Mickey rice moulds.
Various picks, barans, rice moulds, silicon hearts, mini cutters and cute sauce containers.

Girl and Boy bento competition no 32

Made this for Susan Yuen's competition earlier and I won 4th place for the entry.

Moulded with brown rice shaped in round balls to form a girl and boy sitting on a bed of coral lettuce, corn and flower carrots. Inside the rice balls are some fried mince chicken which can't be seen. The details on the boy which look like a sailor hat are made of cooked button mushrooms. As for the girl's hair and hat are cooked green capsicum and the face details made of nori,crab stick plus cheese. The tiny details on the hats are from lunch sheet. They are surronded infront by cut oranges, rabbit mangoes and flower watermelon at the back in silicon cups.

Thanks again Susan for the prize.

Little Bunny + Tiny Bear bento no 31

Chicken ham bunny+bear on a slice of bread with sloted flower mangos and mini cucumbers. Details with crab stick and nori plus cheesy flowers, coral lettuce at the bottom.

Bento no 30

Flower chicken nugget on a bed of brown rice with smiley cheesy cherry tomatoes, mini cucumber, bear and flower cut mangos. Top up with a bit of mayonnaise inside the doggy food cup.

Pooh Face bento no 29

Pooh face egg sheet on cheese spread wholemeal flower shaped bread with surrounding cherry tomatoes at the sides.

New Nori Punchers

Added some new nori punchers to my collection. On left side are 2 border Carla Craft punchers bought earlier. Right side are 6 punchers from Daiso thanks to Amy.

Garfield and Odie bento 28

CP reminded me that the lunch sheet was approaching expiry date so I decided to do a Garfield bento since the lunch sheet has just the right "orange" colour. Did a sketch of Garfield and Odie then trace out on another piece of paper to make a cut out figure. After that use the paper figure placed on top of the lunch sheet to cut out the shape of Garfield and Odie.


So here's cheeky Garfield gasping poor Odie, that's why Odie is green in colour(lack of O2) rather than brown...LOL! Actually I don't have a brown lunch sheet!

Wishing everyone a HAPPY and OX-PICIOUS CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

Hello Kitty book,cutters and egg moulds

Finally found the Hello Kitty book as it was out of stock for sometime in Japan.

Big size Pooh, Hello kitty cutters, Melody and Pooh egg moulds.

More bento boxes and bento tools

Onigiri two tier bento box on the left with a matching bag. Cherry blossoms flower square and round bento box in red and black just in time for Chinese New Year use.

Furikake shakers, quail egg moulds, Clickety barans, picks and various cutters big and small sizes.

Tomica vegy cutter, Winnie the Pooh mash potato or rice mini mould and Winnie the Pooh multi purpose cutter.

Eggy friends bento meal no 27

Made some kyaraben or charaben ie cute quail eggs bento on my new Mickey and Minnie mouse bento box from 100Yen shop. As you can see from the bento meal the eggs are coloured yellow using tumeric/kunyit powder, brown from dark soya sauce and pink with purple dragon fruit all natural ingredients coloring so it's safe for consumption. Surrounded by blanched carrot, mini corn, cherry tomatoes and mini chinese "pak choy" plus coral lettuce. Expression on the egg face, flowers and stars from punched out nori/seaweed to beautify the bento meal. Oh ya blushing rosy cheeks with a drop of chilli sauce too. Lastly to complete the bento meal with some picks..two semi quavers, mini hearts plus tiny mickey head. Ta..da...finito!

Pooh+Kitty pineapple tarts bento 26

After moulding and before baking Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty pineapple tarts.

Tried out the Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty vegy cutter to make a mould for pineapple tarts. Kind of sticky the dough so a bit difficult to get a perfect shaped face or maybe I should have added more flour but it might make the pastry too dry. Anyway the conventional method of doin the tarts is much faster. Lol!

End results after baking the pineapple tarts.