KookyCulinary

Who knew that my marshmallow fondant flowers would come in handy for a bento! I happened to have some leftover fondant flowers from my cupcakes and since Lil’ C loves eating those flowers, I just added it to her lunch that day.
Today’s bento consists of “Arthur” macaroni & cheese, grapes, corn and chocolate cupcake for dessert.

I’ve always wanted to make some sort of lemon bar but it could never find its way to the top of my to-bake list till last week. I was cleaning out my pantry when I noticed that the jar of lemon curd I bought from Trader Joe’s was about to expire. So I guess that’s a good excuse to push it to the top of my to-bake list, right?

I decided to add a coconut and almond topping to the lemon bar just to add a little crunch. It turned out great. Even the spouse who’s not a dessert person loved it. The only change I would make is to add more lemon curd. One bottle was not enough to make a thick enough layer. Next time I’ll use 2.

Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
4 oz butter - cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup toasted coconuts
1/2 cup toasted & chopped almond
2 bottle of lemon curd sauce (I got mine from Trader Joe’s)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift flour, sugar & salt into a bowl
3. Add butter. Using a pastry blender or fingertips, mix in the butter till the mixture is pebbly in texture. Alternatively just pulse the mixture in a food processor till mixture is pebbly.
4. Press 2/3 of the mixture into a pan and bake for 18-20 mins or till golden brown.
5. Remove and cool.
6. When the crust has cooled, spread the lemon curd over the crust. 
7. Mix the  remaining 1/3 crust mixture to the almond and coconut. Sprinkle over the top of the lemon curd.
8. Bake for another 15 mins or till golden brown.

Front Tier: “Ants on a log” (celery sticks topped with peanut butter & cranberries), cheese sticks, rolled-up fried eggs
Back Tier: Cheese Sandwich Gingerbread Boy and Applesauce topped with granola bits

Bento #50!!! Woohoo!! It has taken me a long time to get here. I can’t believe that I am still making bentos more than a year later. This was my first bento on Sep 17, 2007.

I started making bentos for my little girl who was a picky eater, in a attempt to get her to eat more. Surprisingly she loved the idea of “cute” food and it really did increase her appetite. So as an indulging mom for my only baby, I continue or at least try to make her food as cute as possible. Besides the cuteness, bento also helps me to try to make a well-balanced lunch since I usually try to pack at least some fruits and vegetables along with the main dish.

I have to admit I am probably breaking all the bento rules with my bento boxes. The traditional bentos follow the 4-3-2-1 rule: 4 parts rice, 3 parts protein, 2 parts vegetable, & 1 part “treat” (Usually pickled vegetables or something sweet.) Somehow my bentos always end up with more treats!! Oh well, as long as my girl loves her lunch, I guess I’ll continue doing it my way. If you have never tried making bento before, do give it a try. For the kids, it will be a fun lunch and for the grown-ups, bento is a great tool for portion control.

This will be my last bento post for the year. I am looking forward to another year of bento lunches next year. Next year I will be including some really overdue bento how-to’s and hopefully some new ideas. : P

When I was pregnant with Lil’ C, I had really bad morning sickness all 9 months of it. Almost all food including rice turned my stomach. For some unexplained reason, the only food that I could take were the soups from Panera Bread. I guess that is why nowadays Lil’ C loves going to Panera Bread, even more than McDonalds. Her favorite soup is the Broccoli Cheddar Soup.
Since we were snowed in and freezing cold last week, I decided to make her favorite soup.

The soup turned out great and Lil’ C loved it. You can actually blend the soup to be smoother but I decided to just leave the bits of broccoli and carrots to give a little bite. I topped it with a little French-fried onion for some crunchiness. Add a piece of French bread for dunking into the soup.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

1/2 medium chopped onion
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half cream
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 lb fresh broccoli
1 cup carrot, julienned
6 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

• 1. Sauté onion in butter. Set aside.
• 2. Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and add the half & half.
• 3. Add the chicken stock. Simmer for 20 minutes.
• 4. Add the broccoli, carrots and onions. Cook over low heat 20-25 minutes.
• 5. Add salt and pepper. Add cheese and stir till cheese has melted.
• 6. Remove from heat & serve.

There’s a saying that goes “Be careful what you wish for or it might just come true”. Well, we wished for a white Christmas and we got what we wished for & much much more. We got pounded by snow!! There’s probably a foot of snow outside my house. We love the snow but I think we got more snow than we wanted. For a city that rarely gets snow, it is having a hard time getting the roads cleared. So we are snowed in for a while. Luckily both hubby & I are able to work from home. So we are hibernating for the rest of the year.

Anyway, this is a bento I made before school got cancelled. See, I was really hoping for snow, thus the snowman.

Snowman PB&J sandwich, Chocolate Mud Cake, Orange Slices, Blueberries & Cheese Sticks.
The snowman scarf & hat are made from fruit leather while round sprinkles make up the eyes, nose & buttons. The pretzel sticks are his ski poles.

It has been a wierd week this week. We are in the middle of a snowstorm. The last week of school & activities were mostly cancelled. Actually we did not get a lot of snow but the temperature was so low that we ended up with lots of icy road. The situation is also made worse by the fact that a lot of us live on hilly places although we did take advantage of the instant sledding slopes around us. We’ve been having fun sledding in the community these past couple of days. Lil’ C is just loving it. : )

Anyway, in lieu of the snow and another storm on the way (According to the news, it is going to be a nasty night tonight), I decided to cancel all my plans for Christmas baking this year because there is no way for me to go out & deliver my Christmas cookies. In the end, I just baked some cupcakes for my neighbors.
 

A couple of my favorites:

Originally I wanted to make a hot dog wreath complete with decorations. Unfortunately I ran out of time! Blame it on the cold weather & dark skies that made it so hard to get out of bed in the morning! So the poor hot dog ended up as a flower. I stuck a yellow Twizzler in the middle and added 2 fruit leather ribbons on the 2 sides. Under the hot dog is the Arthur-shaped macaroni & cheese. “Little Cutie” orange slices and celery with peanut butter make up the rest of the bento.

It is an understatement to say that I have been busy the last few months. Between my new part-time job and Lil’ C’s school & activities, it has been hard to keep up with everything. Cooking, baking and even blogging had been pushed to the back burner for a while. But now with the year winding down and a new year in sight, I am determined to try to get a little more organized for the next year. So now I am making a list of things to be done to make my life a little easier.

Guess what is the first item on my list? It is to get my groceries delivered!! Going grocery shopping can be fun but it can also be really tiring with a 4 year old in tow. Also I end up with a lot of unnecessary grocery that were not on my shopping list. So to save time & money, I am going to do my shopping online with AmazonFresh. I am sure that most of you have shopped at Amazon for books, right but did you know that they have started selling groceries too? Actually they have just started this service and is currently only in the Seattle area. Last week I signed up with them and tried it out.

I ordered it late at night and by the next day, I had these boxes sitting at my front door. Actually I can either order by midnight and they will arrive at my door before 6 am (works great if you run out of milk for breakfast) or I can order 4 hours ahead during the day and have them delivered 4 hours later.

The yellow box contained all the non-chill items while the frozen & chilled items were kept in a thick insulated bag complete with ice pack.

The groceries….

I was really happy with the quality of the groceries. Even the bananas were at the right ripeness. I even managed to include a hairgel together with the groceries. I am definitely going to order from them again. Looks like I can check off the first item off my list. Yay!  

P/s: this is not a paid post.

I am so glad that Lil’ C is beginning to enjoy sushi rolls. At least it’s another healthy option for her lunch. I am still experimenting with different fillings to see which ones she would eat. For this, I just filled it with an omelette which got a thumbs up. Also in the bento are candy corn, peas & carrots, apples with caramel sauce (leftover from the apple dipper from McDonalds)