Mount Takao Bento

It's the last day of school for IT already, it's prize giving day today. He has done very well in Mathematics and Science once again. He has shown improvements in Chinese, but his English results was not good this round. English was my worst subject at school too. -_- However, he did well overall, and managed to top his class. :) I can finally relax now and look forward to our vacation in December. :)


A couple of weeks back, I was sorting out photos from our last vacation to be made into a photobook, I came across photos of our trip to Mount Takao. That inspired me to make a bento related to the trip.

We had a great time hiking at Aowanda in Taiwan, during our trip in 2011. So while planning for our Tokyo trip last year, Hubby asked me to slot in a day at a nature reserve. We decided on Mount Takao, for its convenience, it's not too far from our hotel and right smack in front of the train station. Convenience has always been an important consideration, since we started traveling with kids. Those who have experienced it will know how tiring it is. The last thing we wanted to do is to walk a long distance, after taking a few hours on the train, just to reach the destination. This year, however, since my boys are older, we are going to try going on Shinkasen, with our luggage in tow for a short ski trip. It's their first Shinkansen and skiing trip and they are very excited. Keeping my fingers crossed it turns out well.


I made a mashed potato bear with dango for this Mount Takao bento. The tram was made from egg sheet and nori. The words were a rather sloppy job, as I thought the words seemed rather simple, and just proceeded to cut out nori in parts freehand.


I've some photos of Mount Takao to share, could not find photos of the beautiful autumn foliage to share as all the photos of that had us in them. My photos don't do justice to the place. If you are interested, I'm sure you can easily google for lots of better photos of Mount Takao .


There were lots of temples, a monkey park and quite a few eateries along the way. My boys had a lot of fun en route to the submit, as there was lots of sights to see. I do not know the name of the snack on the top left picture, but the texture was similar to dango, except it tasted salty instead.


We had a bowl of ramen each with chicken karaage that day. They had an outdoor seating area as well, directly overlooking the beautiful flora and fauna.


Upon reaching the top, we saw lots of people ordering soba, and it looked so delicious. We were already very full, but we could not resist ordering a bowl to share. Yums, it was really good, I feel so hungry typing out this post, lol. :)

Where to get same or similar items used in today's post:

Animal Palz Rice Panda

Have you joined my Animal Palz giveaway? Click HERE to join if you have not, the giveaway will be closing on this Saturday. And good luck to those of you who already joined. :)


Do you know you can use your Animal Palz as a rice mould too? I used my Animal Palz to mould these rice pandas.


These were for my boys' dinner. I cooked chicken karaage and dumpling soup that day. There were some fried mushrooms in the bentos as well, which were actually leftovers from lunch. I brought my parents for lunch in the afternoon and I ordered a little too much, so I brought back the fried mushrooms which we could not finished.


Can you see the little baby panda? I made it out of cheese and nori. :)


A breakfast I made just after IT's exams two weeks ago.


I used Animal Palz to stamp on the bread, the baby panda stamper is too cute!

Where to get same or similar items used in today's post:

Bunny Fruity Cream Sandwich

This is the last recipe I created using my Bosch ErgoMixx Hand Blender. I often see Japanese pack fruit cream sandwiches for their picnics. I've never tasted any before, but it definitely looks like something my boys would love. I modified my strawberry shortcake recipe, which my boys love and never fail to order for their birthdays, to create these sandwiches. :)


I basically replaced the sponge cake with bread, the whipped cream and fruits fillings are similar to my original strawberry shortcake recipe.


The whipped cream was easily whipped up in around 2 minutes using the balloon whisk attachment of my Bosch hand blender.


If you have a little time to spare, you can turn these sandwiches into kawaii bunnies.


Bunnies' ears are cut out from bread. The rest of bunnies' features are done with blueberries, cheese and strawberries.

Try out the fruity whipped cream sandwich recipe below, makes a refreshing tea time or after meal treat. :)

Fruity Whipped Cream Sandwich
(serves 2)

Ingredients:
4 slices bread
200ml heavy cream
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp butter
4 strawberries
1 kiwi
1 peach

Method:

1. Leave butter to soften at room temperature. 
2. Cut up strawberries, peach and kiwi. Place the cut out fruits on a plate line with kitchen towel, cover with another kitchen towel. Set aside in the fridge.
3. Whip heavy cream with sugar and vanilla essence still soft peaks are formed.
4. Spread butter on one slice of bread, top with whipped cream. Take fruits out from fridge and place them on the whipped cream. 
5. Top with more whipped cream till the fruits are covered. Spread butter on another slice of bread and put on top.
6. Press the sandwich gently, wrap in cling wrap and place in fridge for half an hour. Repeat for the next 2 slices of bread.
7. Take out sandwich from fridge and cut into desired size before serving.

Cat Curry Pumpkin Soup

This is the second recipe I created using my Bosch Ergomixx Hand Blender. This warming pumpkin soup, with a hint of curry is perfect for the recent rainy days here.


With the help my Bosch hand blender, I can easily blend my soup straight in the pan. I love how convenient it is, plus it does the job really well too.


The curry is not overwhelming in this recipe, the soup is not spicy either, so it's suitable for kids too.


Soups are quite a good canvas for food art too. I've done a few soup art previously, click HERE to check them out if you need more ideas. :) This time, I cut out the cat and fish using bread and toasted them in the oven.


This curry pumpkin soup is easy to cook and makes a great addition to your meal. :)

CURRY PUMPKIN SOUP
(serves 2)

Ingredients:
500g pumpkin, cut into cubes
1.5 cup chicken stock
1 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp butter
50g onions
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp salt

Method:

1. Melt butter in pan, add in onions and cook till soften.
2. Add in pumpkin and stir fry for a minute.
3. Pour in chicken stock and curry powder, bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Let mixture cool down a little before blending.
5. Return blended mixture to stove, add in heavy cream and milk, bring to boil. 
6. Season with salt.

Bosch MSM67160 ErgoMixx Hand Blender

I received the Bosch MSM67160 ErgoMixx Hand Blender last week. I will be doing up a review in this post, as well as sharing three easy and yummy recipes using this product. One of them is mild guacamole cheese toast, which will be shared in this review post. The other two are curry pumpkin soup and fruity cream sandwich.


I have always wanted to get an immersion blender, as it will be so much easier to use one to blend my soups. I'm really happy with this set, as it also comes with additional attachments as well.


This blender comes with stainless steel QuattroBlade blender foot, XL chopper, stainless steel whisk, mixing beaker with lid and measuring beaker with lid. The hand blender is powerful with a 750 watts power and comes with 12 speed settings. The appliance is now retailing at a promotional price of S$109 (usual price S$159) until 5th Jan 2014, at leading electrical and departmental outlets island-wide.


The blender is ergonomically shaped and features a soft touch handle, so it fits well in our hands and is comfortable to hold. As seen in the picture above, the blender comes with large buttons for easy operation. There is also a turbo button for maximum power too.


This stainless steel blender foot is not only convenient to use, it does an impressive job in blending soup, smoothies, sauces, puree, etc.


I tried out the mixing wand to blend soup and smoothies, it does the job really well and fast. I used the universal cutter to minced chicken and it does the job effortlessly too. The universal cutter is also good for blending nuts, hard cheese, garlic, onions, herbs, etc in small quantities. I like the non slip container it comes with, so the container won't shift during the mixing process.

Lastly, I tried out the balloon whisk to whisk whipped cream and I must say it does the job as well as my standing mixer. I no longer need to bring out my bulky standing mixer just to whip up some cream. :)

Overall, the Bosch MSM67160 ErgoMixx Hand Blender is a breeze to use, it was easy changing the attachments and washing up was fast. I am impressed with the blender, it is a handy kitchen gadget to own and works really well. I will definitely recommend one if you are thinking of getting a hand blender.

If you want to learn more about Bosch MSM87160 ErgoMixx Hand Blender, you can visit this page, http://www.bosch-home.com.sg/products/food-preparation/hand-blenders.html


With the help of my Bosch blender, I prepared some guacamole and served it on top of toasted cheese bread.


This is a mild guacamole recipe which is suitable for toddlers too.


If you want to make the toast more appealing to children, how about turning them into cute froggies?

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All you need are bananas and blueberries for the eyes and strawberries for the cheeks. You can cut out nori for the mouth, or draw the mouth with nutella or chocolate sauce. :)

MILD GUACAMOLE CHEESE TOAST
(serves 2)

Ingredients:
1 avocado
4 cherry tomatoes
lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon
pinch of salt
2 slices of bread
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Method:

1. Toast bread for 2 minutes on each side in the toaster.
2. Sprinkle shredded cheese on the bread and toast till it melts.
3. Cut avocado in half lengthwise, remove pit. Remove skin and scoop out flesh.  
4. Using a blender, blend avocado with tomatoes and lemon juice.
5. Season with a pinch of salt. 
6. Spread mixture on top of cheese toast.

*All opinions expressed in this post are my own and there is no monetary compensation received.

Pumpkin, Ghost & Skull Sushi

I'm sharing Halloween deco sushi for today, ideas are all from a deco sushi book.

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Pumpkin and ghost sushi, which my boys had for lunch. They love sushi because they like dipping their rice in soya sauce. -_- They are huge fans of salmon sashimi as well, for the same reason, lol.


I coloured my pumpkin sushi with steamed mashed pumpkin. The other ingredients used for the pumpkin sushi were japanese cucumber and kamaboko.


There were no instructions in the book on how to roll these ghost sushi, but since only the ghost hands needed to be rolled with the sushi, I did managed to figure it out.


These skull sushi were done on another day. The pink rice was coloured with sakura denbu and the grey rice was coloured with grinded black sesame seeds.


I made some Halloween sushi last year too, click HERE to check them out.

Lastly, check out and enter my Animal Palz Giveaway if you have yet to do so. And good luck to those of you who already joined. :)

Where to get same or similar items used in today's post: