sleeping bear

Today's obento for the kiddies is titled

SLEEPING BEAR

The bear is sleeping on a bed of rice. The two brown arms are made of kamabuko sticks, and he is surrounded with a seafood pasta to his left, and cucumber and carrot sticks to his right and below, respectively. The bear is wearing a skirt, which is made up of a blue mini cupcake holder and some dried fruit (trail mix)! Her eyes are made up of cheese, and she also has a spam hairbow above.. Yummy!

Japanese Fall Festival

The Japanese Fall Festival last Saturday was awesome! They did downscale a bit though, I remember how it used to be so big, and how they would have seasonal fruits like Japanese apples this timearound!

First step, get our tokens!

Waiting for our takoyaki order... the lady was making Taikayi, so we also ordered some.. It was good but the line for Taiyaki was so long we had to wait 30 minutes for our taiyaki order, and it was not cooked well enough, but we did get to taste it, which satisifed my cravings.

GAMES... $2 for 3 rings, Kiki was able to win 1 item..

Pork Ramen $3, it was a hot day, but she still wanted to eat ramen!

I prefered the beef curry..

They also had a game of "NOODLE RIVER" it was two long (cleaned) bamboo, there were noodles flowing down the bamboo (with purified water). Kids can catch as many noodles as they want for $3 and then they get somen sauce. Kiki did not want to try it, I can understand why.

Now, it was the Japanese Festival, but this stand that the Country House had reminded me of a Philippine festival. They had buko and I can't pronounce the other drinks. Actually, I was glad they had it because I needed a cold drink..

Till next year again Japanese Fall Festival!

Lunch for the day

Hi everyone! I think today is going to be a busy day!!
One of the pipes at the new house busted this morning, which means I have to go home and wait for the plumber to come! Oh geez, don't you noticed that things are bound to go wrong when you are the busiest at work?

Plus, we woke up late again today. The kids attend private school which is about a 20 minute drive from home, so my hubby usually drops them every morning. This means that they need to be out of the house by 0700 am in order to make it on time. I was unsure what to make for their obento as I woke up at 0630 am, AGAIN! I quickly looked at my pantry and saw a box of tuna helper! PERFECT, and that was their main dish for lunch!

Anyway, today's lunch for the kids is:

• Macaroni, cheese and tuna (TUnA HELPER)
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Carrot sticks
• Banana
• Cheese Quessadilla
• Hotdog
• Boiled Egg
• Grilled Cheese Sanwich

I was glad because I was able to freeze the leftover mac/tuna melt, for obento another day!

I will go grocery shopping today, I really need obento items!

What do you make for obento when you don't have enough time?

Sushi

My hubby an I went to Sushiland for lunch yesterday!

We ordered their delicious california roll, salmon roll, spicy salmon and also their famous signature dish the "Lania roll" the lania roll is actually the spicy tuna roll, and Lania in Saipan is really a bad word, which means like SHIT! but it was a hilarious move on the part of management and they hit it off, because, I guess folks enjoyed ordering a LANIA Roll!

The problem was they only had ONE Lania Roll Left!!! Lania' dai?!

Today's Lunch

We had a small family gathering at my house last night for my nephew's 11th birthday! My sister's family was the last one to leave at or around 11pm. Therefore, we all slept late, and woke up late this morning! OH MY! We woke up at 0630, which did not give me time to cook rice. So, I made sandwhiches and roll ups for the kids, today! I hope they won't complain, tonight!

The kids have:

Sweet Bread with scrambled egg
One tortilla wrap with melted colby jack cheese
One tortilla wrap with roasted turkey and mozarella cheese

Sugar snap peas

Carrots
Macaroni Salad

My son, the boy that he is, forgot his laptop lunch box at ? who knows where, so I had to squeeze all of his food in a small container.

I need to do what my sister does, cook big meals once a week and pack and freeze them till needed. I have heard about freezing rice, but have not tried it yet. This would be my biggest obstacle to making obento is that I try to make sure I have fresh rice in the bento box, because Saipan is so hot and humid, rice spoils really fast, if in a hot place. Although the kids classrooms are all airconditioned, I just freak about giving rice from the night before, or?

Anyone have any good tips on freezing/storing rice?

Okay, happy blogging all!
By the way, I joined a obento newbie contest today, I hope I win.. wish me luck!
You can enter here:
http://www.obentolunch4kidz.com/
Today is the last day to enter

Monday's Lunch

Lunch for the day on Monday was:

• Turkey Sandwich
• carrot sticks
• a small container of rice and ham
• a banana
• slices of cheese
• 100 calorie portion of sun chips

Lunch and dinner

Last night, after the mass at the cemetary we went to have dinner at my sister's house. She actually planned on taking the day off so that she can cook all the delicious local meals, but she was too busy at work and could not take time out. So, she made some quick dishes, which also turned out to be delicious.

Pan fried pacific blue marlin (fish) steaks, with Mrs. Dash lemon seasoning

Local style corned beef and onions! I prefer my corned beef sauted with green beans, or sauted with cubed potatoes, but this was equally satisfying.
Kimchee... spicy...yummy.. To the left is a island style dipping sauce made of soysauce, onions, lemon and hot peppers..

TODAY's OBENTO

My daughter's bento is grilled hotdogs, crabroll, steamed rice, steamed crabmeat and some slices of Kiwi fruit.

My son gets the same lunch, but he also gets two steaks of marlin (from last night's dinner). My son loves to eat fish, so he requested to take some marlin last night, with the intention that it be included in his lunch.

Today's Obento

I am in the middle of moving, well maybe the correct version of that would be I am in the "begining" of moving! I had leave this week, but had to work anyway because we are so busy. It is so exhausting and I am so looking forward to the weekend. My mind has been preoccupied with work lately, and with all the issues at work. It has been difficult to concentrate on the kids obento because I have not had any time to go to the store yet. However, I plan on doing my obento supply shopping this weekend. WOOHOO.. I love it when I get to collect rent from my tennants...

Anyway, last night we had Kung Pao Chicken. DELICIOUS. Not quite as spicy as I wanted to make it, but it was yummy.

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I need to buy more obento items! I panfried some ribs, then I sauted the same ribs with green beans and that was the lunch I gave the kids today. I hope it was not too meaty for them at school. My daughter also had a side of hard boiled egg shaped into a pretty bunny.

Fast Break...

Well, we are in the middle of moving, so half my stuff are not at home right now, plus I have not gone shopping for essential obento items... Today, the kids have pork bulgogi, crabmeat, shrimp, steamed rice and okra.

Obento

Lunch for the kids last Friday was:

stirfried noodles with brocolli in mushroom sauce, grilled chicken, mushrooms, steamed brocolli, white rice and for desert fruit cocktail.

I was feeling really sick on Monday, so all I made for the kids was grilled ham, steamed okra and white rice. I was feeling really sick so I did not take a photo of their food.

Today's (10.01.08)

Steamed rice, stirfried tuna and nappa, tamagoyaki, mini corn dogs, steamed rice, fruit cocktail and banana

obento

Today is Friday, September 26, 2008

Bento for the kids is fried rice, breaded shrimp, tamagoyaki, ribs, vegetable gyoza, crabclaw, and for desert there is strawberry and also there is chocolate bread roll!

Hey, it's Friday, and I thought I would treat the kids... LOL

It is raining here on the island of Saipan! My camera is acting up! I need to figure out how to take better pictures of bread and or boiled egg. My egg molds and or my bread mold's are not captured as they should be when I photograph it.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Obento

Menu for the day

• Steamed White Rice
• Steamed Corn on the cob
• Steamed kosher beef hotdogs skewered on a mini sword (for my son), or skewered on mini animal picks (for my daughter)
• Ground Turkey stirfried with mixed vegetables
• Korean style chop che'
• Sponge Cake

The small container contains tomato ketchup for the hotdog, there is also another container containing furikake for the top of their rice!

lunch

Have you noticed that breakfast prices are overly priced at Shirley's? OMG, it now can cost almost $9 for a decent breakfast plate. Anyway, Skyway cafe in San Vicente is very reasonable. $6 for what they call the skyway special, which is an omelette with eggs, bacon, red and green bell peppers, mushroom, sprouts, etc. It tastes delicious, and comes with coffee! For $6 that is a good deal on Saipan.

The only bad part about Skyway Cafe is the lack of ventilation. Serioulsy, I think I'd rather pay a bit more and go to a restaurant that has proper ventilation system, where when I walk out my shirt does not smell like a restaurant. The service at Skyway is inconsistent. Sometimes the waitress are friendly and sometimes they are not. Sometimes the food is served in reasonable time, and sometimes the food takes for ever. It does not matter if there are other people waiting for food or if you are the only customer, the service changes.

Skyway special = $6, includs iced tea or coffee

Ham and cheese omelette, $5.50 includes iced tea or coffeeThis was the dinner last night. I did not take photos of the other orders. This is tofu seafood ramen from Mitsue Restaurant in Oleai (Morgen Building, across Oleai Beach Bar and Grill). The service there is great if Nell is around, otherwise, I prefer not going. This restauant also has ventilation issues. Otherwise the food is tasty, and reasonable.

Tofu Seafood Ramen = $4.00

Lunch..
Moomin for lunch is delicious. Service is always good, and their is really good ventilation.
This is Korean style bibimbab (vegetables over rice). DELICIOUS!
$6.00 with iced tea.

lunch

Today's (09/24/08) obento

Yesterday was such an exhausting day! I am so drained out, I need a vacation!!

I woke up late this morning, therefore I did not have enough time to make my original menu.

The kids had steamed white rice, japanese style stirfry spaghetti noodle with hotdog (not yakisoba), Chasu pork (roast pork), hard boiled egg (shaped into a car for my son, and star for my daughter), my daughter had grilled cheese shaped into a flower, bear, and bunny. Both had a slice of hotdog ontop of their rice, which I did not photograph, and also had a furikake bottle, so they can sprinkle furikake over their rice when they are ready to eat. Because it is raining, I also sent them with a container of soup.

I did not have any time to make their obento look pretty, so I hope they are okay when they open their lunch boxes..