Spinach Prawns Spaghetti Bento

I tried another recipes again. This time is spinach prawns spaghetti, chicken popcorn and mashed potatoes!

Spinach Prawns Spaghetti

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti, 300 grams
• Prawn oil, 50ml
• Spinach, 100 grams
• Garlic, 5 gloves
• Prawns, 12 pcs
• Garlic seasoning powder, 1 tablespoon
• White wine, 1 tablespoon
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Prepare the spaghetti according to the instructions given at the packet. Rinse with cold water after cook it, dried and add in prawn oil and mix well.. Store it in the fridge.
2. Unfrozen the prawns, prepare for the next day. Wash and cut the spinach ready for the next day.

Actual Day

1. Take out the prawns, pat dry and sprinkler salt and pepper.
2. Heat up the frying pan over medium-high heat. Add in the prawn oil, and pan-fry the garlic slices till fragrance. Put in the prawns, pan-fried till cook. Add in the white wine at the side of the pan, add in the spaghetti and stir-fry. Add in the seasoning powder, and the spinach and mix well.

 

Garlic Chicken Popcorn

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast, 180 grams
• Salt, little
• Pepper, little
• Multipurpose flour, 1 tablespoon
• Minced garlic, 2 tablespoon
• A – Sugar, 1 tablespoon
• A – Soy sauce, ½ tablespoon
• A – Rice wine, 1 tablespoon

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Cut the chicken breast into bite sizes, season with salt and pepper. Store in the fridge for next day.

Actual Day

1. Take out the chicken breast, dip with thin layers of multipurpose flour.
2. Heat up the frying pan, add in more oil as usual, put in the chicken breast, fried till golden colour, take out.
3. Use the same pan, add in the minced garlic stir-fry till fragrance, add in [A}, cook till the sauce thick then add in the fried chicken breast and mix well.

 

Kyuri Ham Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

• Kyuri or Japanese Cucumber, 1 pc
• Salt, little
• Sugar, 1 tablespoon
• Apple cider, 1 tablespoon
• Potatoes, 2 pcs
• Ham, 2 pcs (cut to cube size)
• A – Butter, 40 grams
• A – Salt, 1 teaspoon
• A – Pepper, 1 teaspoon
• A – Mustard, 1 teaspoon

Preparation: 

Night Before

1. Wash and cut the Kyuri into thin slices. Mix with salt and let for 10 minutes. Rinse the salt away with clean water. Squeeze the water out. Add in the sugar and apple cider. Mix well and store in the fridge for next day.
2. Peel off the potatoes skins, cut into cubes, steam the potatoes cubes.
3. Take out the steamed potatoes, add in [A], and mash the potatoes and mix well. Store it in the fridge.

Actual Day

1. Take put from fridge, add in the Kyuri cucumber slices, and ham cubes, and gently press it into ball shape.

For the spaghetti I did add in extra canned mushroom. I had my portion as well today!

So satisfying when I know that my children love to eat the bento that I prepare for them!

Sautéed Brussels Sprouts Lemon Chicken Bento

Another two new recipes for children's bento today — sautéed brussels sprouts lemon chicken and beef roll sushi.

Sautéed Brussels Sprouts Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

• Brussel sprouts, 150 grams
• Chicken stocks, 50ml
• Chicken chop debone, 2 pcs (about 360 grams)
• Lemon, 1 pc
• A – Soy sauce, 1 tablespoon
• A – Sugar, 1 tablespoon
• A – Rice wine, 1 tablespoon
• Salt, little
• Pepper, little
• Corn flour, little

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash and clean the Brussels sprouts, cut into half per piece.
2. Heat up the oil, put in all the brussels sprouts and pan-fry till it crisp, add in the salt and pepper, continue to stir-fry. Add in the chicken stocks, and shimmer for about 3 minutes. Open up the pan cover continue to stir fry and its done. Let it cool and store in the fridge for next day.

Actual Day

1. Cut the chicken chop into bite sizes, add in salt and pepper and marinate about 10 minutes.

2. Cut the lemon into half. The first half mix together with [A]; second half cut into thin lemon slices and quarter cut again for garnishing purpose.

3. The chicken chop dip into the corn flour. Heat up the frying pan, put in little bit oil, place the chicken with skin face down onto the frying pan. Pan fry till golden brown, then only turn to the other side and continue to fry till the same.

4. Add in the lemon mixture sauce, then add in the brussels sprouts, continue to stir-fry till the sauce thicken and it is done.

Beed Sushi Roll

Ingredients:

• Shabu-shabu beef slices, 180 grams
• A – Soy sauce, 1 tablespoon
• A – Sesame oil, 1 tablespoon
• A – Sugar, 1 tablespoon
• A – Rice wine, 2 tablespoon
• A – Chili sauce, to taste
• Corn flour, 1 teaspoon
• Eggs, 4 pcs
• B – Chicken stocks, 25ml
• B – Sugar, little
• B – Salt, little
• Seaweed, 1 pc
• Kyuri Japanese Cucumber, 2 pcs

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Mixture [A] together with the Shabu-shabu beef slices, marinate overnight and store in the fridge.

2. Beaten the eggs, add in the mixture [B] mix well, and make the tamago. Cut the tamago to slices after cooling, and store in the fridge for next day.

Actual Day

1. Take out the marinated beef slices, add in the cornflour.

2. Heat up the oil, put in the beef slices and stir-fry till cook. Let cool.

3. Cut the kyuri into thin slices.

4. Roll out the sushi roll mat, put the seaweed sheet on top. put a layer of white rice, add in the tamago, beef slices and cucumber slices. Roll up the sushi from bottom till top. Let it cool down for 3 minutes and cut the sushi.

On top of that, I add in the stir-fry shimeji with Worcester sauce as well, which I did last week. I am getting more and more love to prepare the lunch for children to bring to school now, even though I know that there are a lot of rooms for improvement ^^

A New Normal

From his talk, we can know that President Nelson has so much optimism for the future and it gives so much hope!

A New Normal

by President Russell M. Nelson

He begin by expressing his concern for all of us:

“I have asked the Lord to help me understand what you are feeling, worrying about, or trying to resolve. I have wondered what I might say to conclude this conference that would send you forth with the optimism about the future that I know the Lord wants you to feel.”

“We live in a glorious age, foreseen by prophets for centuries. This is the dispensation when no spiritual blessing will be withheld from the righteous. Despite the world’s commotion, the Lord would have us look forward to the future “with joyful anticipation.”

“Let us not spin our wheels in the memories of yesterday. The gathering of Israel moves forward. The Lord Jesus Christ directs the affairs of His Church, and it will achieve its divine objectives.”

President Nelson knows our challenges is to make certain that each of us will achieve our divine potential.

“If you really want to embrace a new normal, I invite you to turn your heart, mind, and soul increasingly to our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Let that be your new normal.”

He outlines some actions steps for us to embrace our new normal:

1. Repenting daily.
2. Seek to be increasingly pure in thought, word, and deed.
3. Minister to others.
4. Keep an eternal perspective.
5. Magnify your callings.
6. And whatever your challenges, my dear brothers and sisters, live each day so that you are more prepared to meet your Maker.
7. Build and maintain yourself so you can be worthy to enter the holy temple.

I know that as I follow the Prophet and do all these things, I can gain the power to embrace the new normal that has been put upon us in these times.

He leaves a beautiful blessing upon us,

“I bless you to be filled with the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. His peace is beyond all mortal understanding. I bless you with an increased desire and ability to obey the laws of God. I promise that as you do, you will be showered with blessings, including greater courage, increased personal revelation, sweeter harmony in your homes, and joy even amid uncertainty.”

“May we go forward together to fulfill our divine mandate—that of preparing ourselves and the world for the Second Coming of the Lord.”

Fish Fillet with Orange Sauce Bento

Fish fillet with orange sauce and the sautéed French beans are the additional two new recipe that I tried out today.

Fish Fillet with Orange Sauce

Ingredients:

• Fish Fillets, 300 grams
• Salt, little to taste
• Pepper, little to taste
• Corn flour, little
• Orange peels, little
• A – Orange juice, ½ pc
• A – Sugar, 1 tablespoon
• A – Soy sauce, ½ teaspoon

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Ready for Mixture [A]. Defrost the fish fillets to get ready for the next day.

Actual Day

1. Cut the fish fillets into bite sizes, season with salt and peppers for 10 minutes.

2. Dip the seasoned fish fillets into the corn flours.

3. Heat up the frying pan, put the coated corn flour fish fillets into the hot oil, frying till both sides turns golden brown.

4. Turn the fire to low heat, add in the mixture [A], till the gravy thicken and take out, garnish with some orange peels if you like.

Sautéed French Beans

Ingredients:

• French beans, 150 grams
• Salt, to taste
• Olive oil, little

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash and cut the French beans into 5cm lengths, store in the fridge.

Actual Day

1. Boil a pot of hot water, add in some salt, add in the French beans for 1 minutes.
2. Take out rinse. Add in some salt and olive oil and mix well.
3. I did some changes as I use the olive oil to stir-fry the garlic slices till fragrance and I used the oil to mix the French beans.

On top of that, I cooked tamagoyaki. I cooked the tamagoyaki same as few days back the Okra Tamagoyaki, just without tamagoyaki only. There were still some bean sprouts salads, salt pepper fried tofu, and pan-fried pumpkin slices in the fridge, thus I just took it out and add into the bento.

Korean BBQ Beef Bibimbap Bento

Today I tried something new again for children's bento — Korean BBQ Beef. I think it is normal that Korean dish would definitely comes with a few side dishes, and I think this new recipe that I learned is more like the Korean famous Bibimbap.

Korean BBQ Beef Bibimbap

Ingredients:

• Shabu-shabu beef slices, 180 grams
• A – Soy sauce, 1 tablespoon
• A – Sesame oil, 1 tablespoon
• A – Sugar, 1 tablespoon
• A – Rice wine, 2 tablespoon
• A – Chili sauce, to taste
• Corn flour, 1 teaspoon
• Onion, 1/4 pc

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Mixture [A] marinate the shabu-shabu beef slices, and store in the fridge for next day.

Actual Day

1. Take out the marinated beef slices, pour in the corn flour and mix together.

2. Heat up the oil in a frying pan over high heat. Stir-fry the cut onion until it turns translucent, then add in the marinated beef slices. Stir=fry till cook and transfer to plate for cooling.

Bean Sprout Salad

Ingredients:

• Bean Sprouts, 180grams
• A - Salt, ½ tablespoon
• A -Pepper, 1 teaspoon
• A - Minced garlic, 1 teaspoon
• A - Sesame oil, 1 tablespoon

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash and clean the bean sprout, boiled about 500ml water. Once the water starts to boil, plunge the bean sprouts into the pot and leave them according to the size of bean sprouts. Dain the water and run cold water on the sprouts, and remove the excess water out. Put into the fridge prepare for next day.

   Actual Day

1. Take out the bean sprouts, and add in the dressing [A], mix them well.

 

Seasoned Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

• Spinach, 100grams
• A – Japanese less salty soy sauce, 1 tablespoon
• A - Sugar, 1 teaspoon
• A - Minced garlic, 1 teaspoon
• A - Sesame oil, 1 tablespoon
• White sesame seeds, little
• Bonito flakes, little

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash and clean the spinach and cut into half, boiled the water. Once the water starts to boil, plunge the bean sprouts into the pot and leave them about 30 seconds. Drain the water and run cold water on the spinach, and remove the excess water out. The spinach cut into 3 - 4 cm length, and store them into the fridge prepare for next day.

   Actual Day

1. Take out the spinach, and add in the dressing [A], top with bonito flakes and white sesame seeds.

 

Salt and Pepper Fried Tofu

Ingredients:

• Fried Tofu, 6 pcs
• Garlic, 3 slices
• Black pepper, ½ tablespoon
• Salt, 1 tablespoon
• Chili, 1 pc

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Cut the fried tofu into stick shape, cut the chili into smaller pieces.

   Actual Day

1. Heat up the frying pan, stir-fry garlic till fragrance. Add in the tofu and fried till golden colour.
2. Add in salt and black pepper stir-fry, before take out add in the chilies and stir-fry till fragrance.

 

Sunny Side up Eggs

Ingredients:

• Eggs, 2 pcs

Preparation:

Actual Day

1. Heat up the frying pan. Heat the oil until slightly shimmering, then crack an egg into the pan. Lower down the heat, let the egg cook for about 3 –5 minutes and it is done.

It is consider quite a lot of works to be done, but if prepare it the night before would definitely reduce a lot of cooking on the actual day. I did add in some pan-fried pumpkin slices. Both kids came back and told me that the portion was big and they can hardly finish their lunch!

Deep-fry Shrimp Paste Chicken Bento

I saw there is a bottle of shrimp paste in the fridge, so I look for recipes on how to use that shrimp paste.Finally I came across a recipe like this online that I can try.

Deep-fry Shrimp Paste Chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken wings, 6 pairs
• A – Shrimp paste, 1 tablespoon
• A – Sesame oil, 1 teaspoon
• A – Sugar, 1 teaspoon
• A – Pepper, 1 teaspoon
• A - Water, 200ml
• Eggs, 2 pcs
• Corn flour, 500 grams

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Use a scissor and cut the fresh between the wings and drumettes slowly, prepare for marinate.
2. Take out a Ziploc bag, put the chicken wings and the mixture [A] in and make sure all parts of the chicken wings are marinate well. Store in the fridge prepare for next day.

Actual Day

1. Take out the marinated chicken wings, coat with corn flours.

2. Heat up the oil in a frying pan over high heat. deep-fry the chicken wings till golden brown and crispy.

Butter Lotus Roots

Ingredients:

• Tiny wings, 6 pcs
• Lotus roots, 100 grams
• A – Butter, 5 grams
• A – Salt, 1 teaspoon
• A - Sugar, 1 teaspoon

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash and clean the small wings, put into 600ml of water, low heat to boil the water for 30 minutes, make it into chicken stocks.

2. Peel of the lotus roots skin, wash clean, and cut into about 0.7cm thick slices. And cut into quarter for every slice.

3. Take about 300ml chicken stocks, add in the cut lotus roots and cook for another 10 minutes. Turn off the fire, let cool and keep in the fridge. Keep the rest of the 300ml chicken stocks.

Actual Day

1. Take out the lotus roots, and put into the bento box.

 

Tamagoyaki Lady Fingers / Okra

Ingredients:

• Lady Fingers, 8 pcs
• Eggs, 4 pcs
• A – Salt, little
• A - Sugar, 1 teaspoon
• A – Stocks, 20ml

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash and clean the lady fingers using salt to remove the outer hair, and remove the stem of okra.

Actual Day

1. Beat the eggs, add in the mixture [A].
2. Heat up the Tamagoyaki frying pan, add in a bit oil, add in the beaten eggs, and place 4 pcs of okra onto the egg sheet. Use the spatula to roll up the okras together with the cook egg, and wrap the whole okras up.
3. Push down the eggs, and add more beaten eggs into the pan, keep on the rolling and wrapping method.
4. Take out and let cool, and cut the tamagoyaki okra into half.

 

Broccoli with Corn

Ingredients:

• Broccoli, 1 pc
• Sweet corn in kennel, ½ can
• Garlic, few slices
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash clean and cut broccoli into florets, store in the fridge for next day.

Actual Day

1. Boil a pot of water, add in some salt, and put the cut broccoli florets into the boiled water for 45 seconds, take out and rinse with cold water and let dry.
2. Heat up the frying pan, stir-fry the garlic slices till fragrance, add in the sweet corn kennels, and add in the broccoli, finally add in the salt and pepper to taste. It’s done and let cool.

There are some of the new dish that I learned today too: okra or lady fingers tamagoyaki, butter sautéed lotus roots and stir-fry broccoli with corn.

So satisfy with a table full of my cooking ^^

Corn Burger Steak Bento

Today I had tried a few new recipes that I try. I had failed in making the cheesy potato balls. It tasted alright, just the potatoes balls indeed looked horrible! I was kind of like indeed really feel silly and funny that I had came out of this dish XD XD!

Corn Burger Steak

Ingredients:

• Ground pork, 300 grams
• Salt, 1 tablespoon
• White pepper, little
• A – Corn Kennel, 100 grams
• A – Minced Garlic, 1 tablespoon
• A – Minced Onions, 1 tablespoon
• Rice Wine, little

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Use a big bowl, put in the ground pork, add in the salt, white pepper and use hand to knead the minced pork and throwing the meat. This is to make the texture denser and therefore yields a chewier texture in the burger meat. Repeat this thrusting motion for about 20 times.
2. Finally add in [A], mix it well using hand, and store in the fridge to the next day.

Actual Day

1. Take out the marinated grounded pork. Take a handful portion and throw it between your both hands, to reduce the air in the meat, finally press it to form a burger shape.

2. Heat up the oil in a frying pan over high heat. Turn to low heat,pan-fry the corn burger steak for about 4 –5 minutes for each side. Add in a little of rice wine along the pan, cover with the pan lid for the steak easier fully cook for about 4 –5 minutes again. It would be done.

Cheese Potato Balls

Ingredients:

• Sweet potatoes, 1 pc
• A - Butter, 30 grams
• A – Salt, 1 teaspoon
• A - Sugar, 15 grams
• B – Black sesame, ½ tablespoon
• B – corn flour, ½ tablespoon
• B – flour, ½ tablespoon
• Cheese, 3 pieces

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash and clean the sweet potato, peel off the skin, cut into cube size and put in the steamer and steam.

2. Cut 3 slices of cheese into 9 equal size each.

3. After the sweet potato is ready, take it out and while still hot, add in the mixture [A] mix well, and then add in the mixture [B].

4. Take out small part of [3], gently give pressure and do a small bite size potato ball with putting the cheese in the middle. Make it a small ball shape. Store in the fridge and ready for the next day.

Actual Day

1. Take out the cheesy sweet potato balls, heat up the oven unto 180 degree Celsius. Let the oven bake for around 10 minutes. Take it and let cool.

 

Easy Asparagus Bacon Wrap

Ingredients:

• Bunapi mushrooms, 12 pcs
• Bacon, 6 pcs
• A – Soy sauce, 1 tablespoon
• A – Rice wine, 1 tablespoon
• A – Sugar, ½ tablespoon
• Umami seasoning, little to taste

Preparation:

Night Before

1. Wash and clean the Bunapi mushroom.

2. Lay the bacon flat, put a bunapi mushroom on top of the bacon. Wrap the bunapi mushroom diagonally till it fully wrap. Continue for the rest. Store in the fridge for the next day.

Actual Day

1. Heat up the frying pan. Add a little oil, take out and put into the pan the Bunapi mushroom bacon wrap. Slowly pan-fry about 1 –2 minutes.
2. Slowly pan-fry till the bacon turn to golden brown. Add in [A], let the bacon and the gravy thicken, take it out onto a plate and sprinkler some umami seasoning.   

I have added a quick stir-fry Choy Sum to add in the bento. I feel so guilty of asking both Issac and Annabelle eat the cheesy potatoes balls that I made… but Annabelle said the taste is nice just the look only very funny LOL!