This week is final exam week for 1st semester. School will dismiss at 11.30AM during the final exam week so no bento for lunch as the kids will eat at home after school. This small portion bento was however prepared for Little A because he will finish the exam at 11.00AM, so there is half an hour wait for his sister. I got this 2-tiers round box from Sanrio. They are pretty small and just perfect for my kid's small portion bento. I'm still on Christmas theme bento. Hope I can do some more before the school break comes. I have been thinking to make an angel since last night so I can use the wing picks again. I haven't use my wing shapes food picks for a long time. I might just have a little time to get online this week, pretty occupied with the final exam things. Pray that the kids will do well in their final exam and looking forward for the school break & Christmas holiday very soon :) Inside the boxes : rice sprinkled with furikake (decorated with Christmas angel from egg sheet, nori, wing shapes food picks), braised thin sliced pork belly & egg, and stir fry bean sprouts.

I was trying to picture what are the characters that always show up during Christmas time. Of course, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer is one of the famous Christmas icons. So today's bento is once again inspired by my Christmas spirit. Many malls, shops, and cafes are decorated with Christmas theme already. Unfortunately, I never see big window showcase for Christmas at the big malls here. Something that I always love when I traveled to overseas during Christmas time. Inside the box : rice, cherry tomatoes, stir fry veggies (carrots, bean sprouts, leak) with wood ear mushroom, fried boneless chicken thigh with homemade yellow Indonesian spices.

Kids are excited for Christmas holiday but first they will have to do their 1st semester final exam first next week. 2 weeks after the final exam then they will have school break until January. We don't have so many school breaks here. Only on December/January and June/July. So kids are looking forward for the break soon. Just to remind you, if you love bento making please don't forget to join Bento Contest held by Cooking Gallery. You can read the details here. I know some of you probably busy cooking and preparing for Thanksgiving. I would like to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate it!

Simple and quick cooking for today's bento. I used my cutters to make the rabbit and X-Acto knife to shape the bottom part of the rabbit. The pink whiskers were made from pink dry somen and eyes from nori. I mixed the top part of the rice with egg furikake so I could get yellow rice quickly and to make contrast with the white rabbit. Otherwise, we can't see the rabbit with white background. I put some strawberries inside the food cup, green bean stir-fry with fried garlic, and steamed prawns with lemon and ginger. I actually wanted to cook sambal prawns but I don't think my little boy can handle the level of the spiciness. Probably next time, I will try to cook mild sambal prawns and let see whether he can finish them or not. We are having rainy day almost everyday now. it will be more intense usually during Dec-Feb. We only have 2 seasons here, so my favorite season is rainy season. Weird? I love rainy season because the weather is not too hot and sleeping at night with the sounds of rain is very soothing. Plus I don't need to turn on the air conditioner all night long until morning :)

Hi all! It has been awhile since I 'disappeared' from my blog. I couldn't manage to blog with so many things to do lately. But this week, I determine to get back to bento blogging. Probably because the Christmas is coming soon? Christmas spirit? I don't know ... But I missed blogging for sure. One thing that I can share now is that my husband and I finally decided to send our kids to an IB (International Baccalaureate) Program School next year. And the kids will take the test for 4 hours this Thursday. Our hope is to give our kids the best education, hope we don't make a mistake for choosing this school. Big A is slowing down with her school projects these 2 weeks but reviews and exercises for government examination are still going on almost every Monday-Friday at school and at home too. Meanwhile, Little A is focusing on some subjects that I thought that actually he could do better. I was stressed out last month, that was true! Am I pushing myself too hard and worrying too much for my kids? Probably ... but isn't that what all parents do? 
Two nice ladies, Dian and Karmenita interviewed me last week for their web soft lunch called Moms Guide Indonesia. We talked about bento and also about their vision for Moms Guide Indonesia. I believe that Moms Guide Indonesia will soon gain a lot of readers. Many moms in Indonesia can get a lot of informations there. Please take a peek and you can read our interview here (the web uses mostly Indonesian language).
And then, some of you probably already knew Sinta from Cooking Gallery. She is one of talented bento makers. If you haven't read her blog then you should check her creative blog because she holds the bento contest to celebrate her 100th bento. I felt honored when she asked me to assist her to be one of the judges for her bento contest. I hope all of you can join the event. You can check the details here.