Bento Update: Pancake Sandwich

I don't always have the energy to make cutesy, flavoursome and nutritious bentos early in the morning. Here's one simple pancake sandwich that I made for Aiden one tired morning recently.

Pancakes sandwiched with cream cheese filling. Quick and easy. Not the most nutritious meal but Aiden loved it, and I got a break from rushing. But packaging is still important to me so I decorated it with mini pancakes "ears" and cut nori sheet as eyes, nose and mouth. Can't quite make out what this animal is though....

What's for dinner?

Salad with raw "scallops" and cauliflower soup.

The "scallops" are actually sliced oyster mushroom and they really resemble scallops. My husband and I eat a couple of raw dinners every week in our journey to better health. We don't consider ourselves raw foodists (who usually eat at least 70% raw food in the daily diet) but having a good amount of raw meals everyweek helps to cleanse and recharge our bodies. By raw, it means that food should not be heated above 50 deg C as cooking and overheating destroy the enzymes of all food and kill the nutrients.

The other night I made a huge mixed green salad with a simple honey and red wine vinegar dressing. I love raw mushrooms so I threw in some marinated oyster mushrooms (recipe below). Sometimes we have our dinner just like that but I wanted to add on a soup to bulk up. Raw soups are not exactly my favourite so I made some cauliflower soup to go with the salad. Yums!

Raw "Scallops" (marinated oyster mushrooms)

Marinate thickly sliced king oyster mushrooms in olive oil, apple cider vinegar and tamari for at least 2 hours.

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower (chopped)

1 medium brown onion (chopped)

2 garlic cloves (bruised)

3 to 4 cups vegetable stock

2 small bay leaves (or 1 large bay leaf)

Method:

- Sauteed onion and garlic until fragrant.

- Add cauliflower and sauteed for another minute.

- Add stock and bay leaves.

- Bring to a boil and let simmer until cauliflower is tender.

- Let the soup cool.

- Remove bay leaf from the soup and blend.

- Reheat the soup just before dinner.

I served my soup with a peppery heart. Told you I'm a sucker for aesthetics!

Montessori Focus: Baking

 As part of our montessori activities at home, I do baking/cooking with Aiden fairly often. Cooking (or baking) falls under the "practical life activities" category of the montessori principle. It is believed that children benefit tremendously from being involved in the mundane household chores such as cleaning the tables, sweeping the floor, preparing food etc. Not only do such activities help to further develop their fine motor skills and coordination, they also instil a sense of responsibility in children at a very young age, so that they get used to contributing their part to the family.

I like to cook and bake so getting Aiden involved in the kitchen makes perfect sense to me. Afterall, which kid doesn't enjoy making a mess? My kitchen often ends up like a warzone after Aiden join me in food preparation. I don't enjoy that but that's part of life when you have a toddler. Mess can be cleaned up. The most important thing is Aiden really have a lot of fun whenever he is being allowed to join in the kitchen.

So we made some cookies the other day. Check out how focused he was when given a "job".

We brought some cookies to his school the next day and he happily shared them with his teachers and best mates.

Not everyday is a Sunday

I have been very tired these couple of days. Japan's summer is freaking hot this year. Just think Australia's summer sun + Singapore's humidity. I'm dying in this 37/38 deg humidity everyday. And perhaps the heat has also done something to Aiden's behaviour for he has been increasingly challenging. He is literally driving me crazy and I so wish some samaritan will appear to take me to another planet where I can have some peace. Somewhere cool.

I'm going back to Singapore next Friday but a big part of me is not too excited about it. The thought of 1.5 hr on a bus with Aiden to Narita Airport and another 7 hours of flight is already stressing me up. It is not the first time I do this of course but going to Singapore has always been fairly stressful. Even after I overcome the journey there, there is always the stress of leaving Aiden with my parents when I meet my friends for catch up. My parents can never seem to manage him. Some friends have requested that I bring him along to the outings but seriously, what is the point of catching up with friends when I cannot even eat or talk with him by my side? I am more likely to be distracted or running after him as he can't sit still at the table.

I really don't like the idea of negative content or complaining about life on this blog. I just need to release some steam when things get rough. The last few days have not been smooth but I will be back tomorrow with some positive stuff.

Life is still beautiful. At least I have 3 aircon units blasting away in my lounge room.

Bento Update: Froggies

I'm getting more creative with bento-making. This is the first bento that I've made with coloured rice. There are many ways you can colour the rice. The most natural way of colouring is to use strong coloured food like carrot (rice will turn orangey), beetroot (to turn rice into pink) or dried parsley leaves (for green coloured rice) which is of course much healthier for the kids. Otherwise just use food colouring which will save you a lot of time. In this bento, I used green colouring because firstly, I did not have much time, and secondly, I have not used dried parsley in rice before and have no idea if the taste is good. But you really don't need a lot of colouring to tint the rice so I guess it isn't too bad.

Anyway, I decided to make froggies for Aiden's bento the other day and he really like the cute characters. The eyes were cut from a piece of white cheese and the eyeballs, mouth and nostrils (which are not noticeable from the picture but I did give those froggies some nostrils) were cut from nori sheet. I made beef patties as the side with steamed broccoli, a cherry tomato and a small piece of japanese egg roll (which I prepared the night before). Aiden doesn't like broccoli and tomato so I told him I needed to add those in to decorate the lunchbox and he could leave them out if he really didn't want to eat them. Secretly, I was hoping that if I keep putting these in his bentos, he may just eat them one day. Wishful thinking?

Recipe for Beef Patties (in case anyone is interested)

Minced beef
Finely chopped onion
Grated garlic (I sauteed the onion and garlic to release their fragrance before adding them to the minced)
Grated carrot
Grated parmesan cheese
Sea salt
Pepper
Sesame oil

Marinate the above for a couple of hours. Shape them into patties and coat with plain flour before panfrying them.

Smelling the Roses

I have lived in 3 countries (and worked in 2 of them) in my life. I was born and raised in Singapore. Moved to Perth, Western Australia, in 2005 after my husband and I got married. In 2007, I resigned from my job in Perth and moved back to Singapore (where my husband accepted a work assignment) just before giving birth to Aiden. And in early 2009, we relocated to Japan because my husband accepted a job offer that contracted him for a year. We extended our contract here in January this year and will probably be in Japan until God knows when.

Being educated in Singapore, I am very used to the pressure cooker style of life. The pace in Singapore is very fast and life can be hectic. People are competitive. The whole nation is forever in pursuit of a so called "better life", generally translated as "life with material comforts". It's like if you live in a big house, I want to live in a bigger one. For this, people work very hard just so they can satisfy their material wants. This becomes a vicious cycle where the whole nation simply gets trapped in this hectic, stressful lifestyle where people tend to put all their energy into pursuing their careers and everything else in life becomes secondary.

It was only after I moved to Perth that I finally found the meaning of family life. To me, Perth is like a country city. It is very quiet. I could finish work at 5pm. My bosses respected my personal time and family life. And for the first time, I got acquainted with nature. I found work very shortly after I moved to Perth. Since we had no children at that time, and the city is quiet with not much to do anyway, I pretty much focused my energy on furthering my career. For that 2 years, I enjoyed my work a lot but towards the end of my time there, I got fairly stressed up with several work challenges and juggling 2 roles at the same time. It also didn't help that I was pregnant then.

At present, I have been living here in Japan for 18 months. I am not able to work here because I can't speak the language. Besides, I have a child to look after and I don't have family to rely on. As an expat, it is also hard to forge any good, solid friendships as the other expats come and go all the time. Everytime I thought I have found someone I can click with, she informs that she is leaving soon. I have no family here, and neither do I have any actual real friends. When I go to the shops, I cannot understand what the locals say to me most of the time. Neither can they understand my almost non-existent grasp of the japanese language. So why am I still always saying that I enjoy living in Japan?

Because for the first time in my life, I feel that I have finally slowed down. My situation in Japan has forced me to slow down. I go to the playgrounds with Aiden and we count the crawling ants together. When he is happy playing the slides by himself, I sit on the bench and read. When I'm not reading, I watch and observe the other mothers and kids at the park. Aiden and I take walks in the neighbourhood and we talk about the birds and changing seasons. I see some mothers cycling past me with a child in her backseat and I watch and observe in awe how they can balance so well with shopping bags infront and a toddler at the back. I channel all my time and energy in nurturing my child and taking care of my husband. I get to witness all of Aiden's milestones. And I get to enjoy his hugs and kisses thru out the day.

There are always so many ways to look at a situation. My life in Japan may be described as lonely if I want to look at it negatively. But in my opinion, I am finally enjoying life. And it is a really nice feeling to be able to slow down and take notice of the flowers on the street.

Life in Japan - Day trip in Chiba

We took a 1.5 hr drive to Chiba (located in the greater Tokyo region) on a Saturday recently. It was beautiful and we had a wonderful time exploring despite walking a lot and climbing probably thousands flights of steps. This is one of the many reasons why I love living in Japan. There's always something to do (apart from shopping) as a family on weekends and so much culture and history to enjoy

Montessori Focus: The Prepared Environment

Today's post is on child education. For those who are not child-friendly people, I will strongly encourage you to stop reading so as not to be bored by my child talk! *oh dear, I'm sounding like such a boring housewife mother... tsk tsk*

I'm a big fan of the montessori way of educating children. Aiden goes to a montessori preschool in Japan and at home, we have also created a montessori environment where he is free (and safe) to explore and learn. In montessori, this is called "the prepared environment". For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the montessori philosophy, here are some pointers on the definition and features of a prepared environment.

Principle
The key concepts of Montessori are communicating respect for the individual child, the importance of freedom of movement to aid the child's physical and cognitive development, and allowing children to participate in daily routines of self care and care of the environment to assist learning and the development of independence. It is believed that children learn through their senses. And they learn by watching and re-applying their new found knowledge by moving around without inhibitions.

Safety
Attention must be paid to the safety of the environment. When there are no fears of danger, children are free to explore.

A place in every room
Have a corner in every room for the child's personal belongings (which explains why my son has got toys, books etc, everywhere in our house)

Others

• Shelves should be low so that the child knows how to get his toys and books, and where to pack them away when he is done.
• The child's bed should be low so that he can climb in and out of it without any help.
• A child -size table and chair in the main play area for the child to do art and craft work. This is to prepare them for future learning at school and to develop good posture that aid concentration.
• Have several stools in the house for the child to use to turn on the lights and wash their hands at the sinks. This is to foster independence.
• Place the child's utensils in low drawers so that he knows where to get them. Again, this foster independence.
• Have a place (wall or door) where the child can put up his drawing or artwork. This help to instil a sense of pride in them for their own achievements.
  

So anyway, our nightly routine involves getting Aiden to tidy up the living room by packing his toys away and putting them in the labelled drawers of his toy shelf (Montessori philosophy – assuming responsibility) before he goes to bed. But the other night, he was taking his own sweet time and after about 101 times of telling (sometimes yelling) him to put the toys away, we gave him an ultimatum –

“PACK UP YOUR TOYS NOW OR I WILL NOT READ YOU ANY BOOKS FOR BED!”

He got his act together immediately and this was what we got.



He was already out of sight by the time we noticed this mess that was transferred from the floor to the top of his shelves.

I guess we still have a looong way to go....

What's for dinner?

My husband and I love indian cuisine so I cook indian meals from time to time. I craved for tandoori chicken the other day after coming across a recipe online. This isn't the first time I make tandoori chicken but I used to get ready made marinade from the shops so this is the first tandoori that I have made from scratch. It wasn't difficult but you do need to get the timing right as the chicken has to be marinated for at least 6 hours and not more than 8 hours. The end result was so satisfying that I don't think I will ever revert to using store bought tandoori marinade ever again.
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Recipe

Ingredients
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 Tbsp sweet (not hot) paprika
1 cup plain yogurt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 minced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt
4 whole chicken legs (drumsticks and thighs), or its equivalent, skinless, bone-in
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Method
Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat, then cook the coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, garam masala and paprika, stirring often, until fragrant (approximately 2-3 minutes). Let cool completely.

Whisk in the cooled spice-oil mixture into the yogurt, then mix in the lemon juice, garlic, salt and ginger.

Cut deep slashes (to the bone) in 3-4 places on the leg/thigh pieces. Just make 2-3 cuts if you are using separate drumsticks and thighs. Coat the chicken in the marinade, cover and chill for at least an hour (preferably 6 hours), no more than 8 hours.

Take the chicken out of the marinade and shake off the excess. You want the chicken coated, but not gloppy. Panfry the chicken to brown it.

Turn the chicken so it is brown (even a little bit charred) on all sides. Transfer into a roasting tray and bake in in oven at 180 deg C. The chicken is done when its juices run clear. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
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I served the chicken with a vegetarian pilaf (basmati rice cooked in vegetable stock and mixed vegetables) and a cucumber raita. I don't want to crowd this page with recipes so if there's anyone interested in having the rice and raita recipes, just leave me a comment :)

If you like tandoori chicken like I do, give this recipe a go. Cooking from scratch really isn't that hard and I promise you the result is oh so worth it!

I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl

Nina Simone (1933 - 2003), another American Jazz Singer that I like. This song is my favourite of hers. I love her distinct voice in this beautiful melody. And the lyrics too. Sometimes we just need a little sugar in our bowl don't we?

Have a fabulous week ahead!

Beauty lies in the eyes of my son

Last weekend, my husband decided that we should go on a day trip to Chiba located in the greater Tokyo area. The place that we were visiting was famous for its stoned Buddha (reputed to be the largest in Japan) and a 100 feet tall Goddess of Mercy. The whole area was very hilly and involved a lot of walking and climbing of steps. My husband warned me about this and told me to wear my trek shoes for the day. We were rushing to leave so I quickly put on an airy blouse (summer now in Japan and freaking hot) and a pair of jeans.

We were in the elevator when it dawned on me that my trek shoes did not match my outfit for the day. In fact, I would even say I looked like a fashion disaster (which explains why there are no photos for this post). I started grumbling to my husband about how horrible I looked when I felt my boy's hand touching mine. He was looking up at me and in a very soft and sweet voice, he said:

"Mummy, you look pretty."

Awwww.... how sweet is that?

Purposeful Play: Creating a story book

Starting from now, I will be writing on a series of activities that I do with my almost 3 year old on a regular basis. I call this “purposeful play” as play, in my opinion, should never be meaningless. It is thru play that children learn. Their little brains and minds are like sponges, absorbing every piece of information that come along their way. My husband and I are firm believers in early brain development and we have always been on the same page when it comes to how we stimulate Aiden and provide him with the right environment and opportunities to learn.

On a boring afternoon recently, I decided that it was perhaps about time I introduce the concept of making a story book with Aiden. We have been reading story books to him on a nightly basis since he was just a few months old to cultivate his love for reading. By now at the age of 35 months old, Aiden is very familiar with what a “story book” means. So the other day, I asked him if he would like to create his own book with me and his face lit up with excitement. We got out some plain flash cards (I did not want to use normal writing paper as they would be too flimsy), hole-puncher, some strings, a glue and scissors. After stringing a few cards together, we went to the computer to look for some ideas.

I explained to Aiden that he had to think of the kind of story that he would like for his book. Just as I expected, he said he wanted superman (his current obsession). Then I asked him to give me an idea for every page so that we could look for pictures of Superman that we can print out from the computer. It was so cute as he started throwing out sentences like “superman is strong”, “superman can fly”, “superman can fight naughty people” etc. Based on his ideas, we searched online for suitable pictures that related to his concept. After printing them out, we stuck them on the individual pages of the “book” before colouring them. The end product looks like this:

Of course Aiden still cannot write so I had to do it for him but all the lines were his ideas. Initially I thought he meant "Aiden's superman is strong" but I soon realised he meant "Aiden Superman"! I guess he has been so obsessed with Superman that he is now fantasizing being one himself. My favourite got to be the last page of the book where he told me to write "Superhero Super Aiden". That was his way of ending the story. How cool is that?

So here we have. Aiden in his superman costume and showing off the book he created with pride.

=

Getting your child to create a storybook is a very good learning activity. He get to witness the whole production of something from stringing together paper/cards, developing ideas, printing of pictures and colouring them. Involving him in the stringing of cards and pasting on the pictures can help improve on his fine motor skills. Getting him to come up with his own storyline stimulates his creativity and develop his critical thinking ability. Encouraging him to verbalize his ideas will help to hone his communication skiils. This activity will also give him a great sense of pride that is beneficial to his self-esteem. I know because Aiden went to school the next day with his Superman book and showed off to his friends! His teachers told me that he was so proud. And so was I.

Bento Update: Happy Friends

Just realised I haven't posted any bento updates recently so here's one I made recently for Aiden's lunch at school.



I'm trying to be a little more creative with Aiden's bentos but it has been hard. This boy is rather lazy with feeding himself so whatever I put in the bento have to be bite-sized. And bentos for kids are usually decorated with vegetables like carrots cut into shapes of flowers, or broccoli acting as "bushes" or little "trees" to fill up empty spaces in the lunchbox. But Aiden doesn't like carrots and broccoli. And if I put these into his lunchbox, I fear he may be pissed off and will thus refuse to eat the rest of the stuff (it happened before).

The other day, I was feeling quite sick of doing bentos the usual way and decided to just do it and added star shaped zucchini and flower carrot (stuck with a decorative stalk that is inedible) to beautify the bento. I painstakingly cut out strips of nori to make designs of shirts for the rice "people". Don't they just look like 2 little good friends?

Thankfully the bento came back from school that day empty. Well, except for the zucchini (which he will only eat them in grated form) and the carrot. And he specifically told me not to put the carrot in his lunchbox again. I guess that was his final warning to me.

My new baby

Everyone, meet my new baby.

She doesn’t throw tantrums, nor does she throw up on me. She doesn’t cry and she doesn’t wake up in the middle of night wanting to be fed.

She is an angel. And I love the fact that she is made in France.

Her name is Longchamp.

My very first Longchamp bag!!!

What's for dinner?

Chef's salad (me the chef. I just use whatever vegetables I have in the fridge) with red wine vinegar dressing, pork cutlets and carrot rice.

Breakfast at Tiffany´s

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – another favourite old movie of mine. Audrey Hepburn played the role of Holly Golightly, the kooky character who earned a living as a call girl in the big city of New York while looking out for a rich man that she could marry. Beneath the glamorous party girl image was a lonely soul who was so afraid of commitment that she did not even want to give her cat (that she picked up somewhere) a name, simply calling it “Cat”.

A friend introduced me to the movie when I was 20 and I was very much captivated by the exquisite beauty of Audrey Hepburn. I love the literature element in the movie and the intriguing character of Holly Golightly. Oh, and the fashion too. All the dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn in the movie were specially designed by Givenchy. In fact, it was this movie that started the trend of women wearing the little black dress as a classic wardrobe staple. In the opening scene, Holly Golightly wore a long black gown by Givenchy and walked along the Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in the early hours of the morning (after a night of partying apparently). She stopped infront of the Tiffany store and ogled at the jewellery while eating a pastry. That gown reportedly fetched a price of USD1 million in an auction in 2006.

The theme song “Moon River” was specially written for Audrey Hepburn to sing in the movie. Since then, many versions of the song have been sung by various artistes over the years. Until today, the song, along with the movie, continue to be a classic enjoyed by many people. I have chosen this particular youtube clip of the scene in the movie where Audrey Hepburn sat by the window and sang the song while playing her guitar. Love her casual ensemble of an old sweater with skinny jeans. Very very chic.

Egg Tarts

My husband and I love egg tarts. But it is quite hard to find decent egg tarts here in Yokohama so I decided to make my own.

I have made egg tarts before but this is the first time I really put in more effort into making them. In my previous attempts, I used some random pastry recipe which turned out more like puff pastry after baking. And the egg custard did not set very well for some reason so they ended up looking more like portugese egg tarts rather than the classic chinese style ones. I was really craving for the kind of egg tarts that you usually get from chinese dim sum restaurants so when I chanced upon a recipe with pictures of egg tarts that I love to eat, I decided to attempt baking them. After 40 minutes in the kitchen, I ended up with these.

Yay! It was a success!

Well, the pastry is a little too thick (in my opinion but I wasn’t game enough to make them too think for fear that they would break) and they did not brown evenly because of the uneven heat in the oven. But I would still call this a success because firstly, it looks good, and secondly, they tasted heavenly!

My husband and I had them with wine. Normally chinese tea goes better with egg tarts but it was a Saturday night and wine worked better.

Here’s the recipe for those who are interested.

Egg Tarts Recipe

Pastry
100g caster sugar
1 egg
175g unsalted butter
350g plain flour

Custard
6 eggs
4 egg yolks
200ml golden syrup
200ml fresh milk
200ml water
2tsp honey

Method
To make pastry:
Place sugar, egg and butter in the mixer and beat until sugar is just dissolved.
Add sifted plain flour and mix until dough holds together.
Divide dough into small portions and press evenly onto the moulds (I used my quiche cases)
Bake at 180deg C for about 8 minutes. Remove and cool.

To make the custard:
Lightly beat (by hand will do) eggs and egg yolks together.
Combine egg mixture with golden syrup, water, milk and honey. Mix well and strain.
Pour into the pastry shells and bake at 170 deg C until custard is set (to avoid burning custard, release some heat by very briefly opening the oven door during baking).

A day in my life

5 July 2010 (Monday)

7.45am
Woke up. Prepared Aiden’s lunchbox for school.

8.45am
Dropped Aiden off at school.

9.00am
Grocery shopping.

10.00am – 11.00am
Back home. General cleaning of the house, laundry, and preparations for the dinner (I was planning an Indian meal with tandoori chicken for the night. The chicken had to be marinated for at least 6 hours and not longer than 8 hours so my timing had to be right). Cleaned up the kitchen.

11.00am – 11.30am
Shower, make-up and got dressed to go shopping (I needed to shop for some presents and to make a trip to Longchamp as they were having a sale).

12.00am – 1.30pm
Shopping (since I had only 1.5hr to shop, I decided to skip lunch as shopping was definitely more important).

2pm
Pick Aiden up from school.

2.15pm
Back home. Aiden had his afterschool snacks and watched the TV. I sat infront of the computer to surf the web (check emails, update my blog, read international news, read up on some of my favourite blogs etc). Chatted with a friend from Singapore over skype.

3.15pm – 5pm
Sat down with Aiden to do some activities. Made a scrapbook together. Printed out some superman characters from the computer to do some colouring. Did some cutting and pasting together.

5pm – 6.30pm
Prepare for dinner. Running between the living room (helping Aiden with his activities) and kitchen (cooking). Dealt with some occasional tantrums from Aiden.

7pm
Husband is home. Sat down for dinner.

7.30pm – 8pm
Cleaning up (washed dishes and mopped the floor).

8pm – 9pm
Surf the web while my husband spent time with Aiden.

9pm – 10pm
Prepare for my husband’s lunch box and fruit bowls for the next day. Washed dishes AGAIN.

10pm
The 2 boys went to bed. I could finally relax.

10pm – 12am
Surf the web AGAIN (yes, i do spend alot of time online) with the TV in the background.

12am
I started seeing stars. Crash!

Accessories Galore

This is what I enjoy doing when my son is at school. That is, when I'm not doing housework, baking, yoga, ikebana or shopping.

Sorting out my accessories!

.

'

These are only the ones I use on a regular basis. I have a whole lot of more that I don't wear anymore stashed somewhere in the house. If I am still living in Australia I will pass them on to Salvos, but here in Japan, I have no idea what to do with them.

'

Anyway, sorting out my accessories is a very enjoyable activity. Sometimes, I engage in a little bit of self-indulgence by playing dressup too!

My wake-up call

This is how I woke up this morning.

Scene: My bedroom

Me : zzzzzzz..........

Aiden : "I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!"

I startled and jumped out of bed.

Me : "WHAT??!!"

Aiden : "I cannot believe it! Daddy's work clothes are on the floor!!"

The fresh laundry were on the floor as I haven't had the time to fold and put them away.

Aiden : "Daddy needs to wear this to work! His boss will be angry! Because the shirt is dirty! Daddy will be put on TIME-OUT!"

I dropped my head and went back to bed.

Me: "It's not a big deal Aiden. There is more in life to worry about."

Aiden: "NOOOOO!!"

Then he went on and on about how we had to pick the shirt up and wash it again. How his Daddy will be in trouble. And how angry his boss will be. Until......

I finally dragged myself out of bed to pick the shirt up. And convinced him that his Daddy will NOT be put on time-out.

By then, I was fully awake.

This is my beautiful life.

Bento: For the Adults

Another bento for the adults. I made this for our recent picnic at the park.



Stirfry beef in ginger and scallions (chinese style), steamed bok choy and sweet corn.



Bon appetit!