 [i-Love Mama Healthy Meal] Panda Bento Set Apr 25th 2013, 05:03 In conjunction with the i-Love Mama Healthy Meal Contest which is organised by Mama Lemon and i-Weekly, I was invited to do bento demo at the recruitment roadshows to promote their upcoming healthy meal contest. To register for this contest, grandmothers/mothers with child aged 12 years and below can team up to create a healthy meal and stand a chance to win attractive cash and prizes worth S$4,000. (more details here)
Doing the Panda Onigiri together with Pornsak (Mama Lemon ambassador)
The host and Pornsak were sharing the nutrition values of the ingredients used while Shiting and I were busying assembling the Bento.
Shiting and I busying at the i-Low Mama Healthy Meal bento demo roadshow
Samples of the Kid's Panda Bento Set during the i-Love Mama Healthy Meal roadshow demo
Adult Bento Set with same ingredients used but without cute "make-over".
PANDA BENTO SET
(i-Love Mama Healthy Meal)
This is my Kid's version of healthy meal whereby a normal homecook meal is being transform into a Panda Onigri with accompany dishes such as asparagus bacon roll, baked honey chicken, panda quail, steamed corn kernels and some grapes. I am sure this fulfills the 2 servings of veggies plus plus to balance out the nutrition intakes for kid.
Beside you don't have to spend extra time preparing additional dishes for the bento. You could just use your creative mind and re-assemble your daily homecook dishes into something more attractive for the kids. Blow is a quick bento recipe which shows how I turn simple homecook dishes into a cute Panda Bento Set.
(Serves: 1 | Preparation: 15 minutes | Cooking: 10 minutes)
Ingredients:
6 - 8 Thai Baby Asparagus (泰国小芦笋), trim and cut into half
2 Strips of Bacon
3 Tablespoons Of Cooked Rice
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
Nori (seaweed) Sheet
Baked Honey Chicken Mid-joint
1 Quail Egg
Some Cherry Tomato
Steamed Sweetcorn Kernels
4 Blueberry / Dried Raisin
Fresh Fruits
Some Fresh Lettuce, optional
Tools Needed:
Bento Box
Side Dishes Food Casing
Heat Resistant Cling Wrap
Food Cutters
Seaweed Puncher (for facial expression)
Food Tweezer
2 Toothpicks
Bento Food Pick (optional)
Small Scissor
1 - 2 Dry Spaghetti Noodle
To Make the Asparagus Bacon Roll:-
1. Blanch the asparagus in boiling water for 20 seconds, remove, pat dry and cut them into half of equal length.
2. Arrange half of the asparagus near one end of the bacon strip, roll the bacon strip forward to wrap the asparagus then secure the end with a toothpick shown on the photo above.
3. Preheat a frying pan with 1 teaspoon of oil, cook the asparagus wrap over low heat till slightly golden brown in colour (about 5 minutes). Remove and set aside.
To Assemble the Panda Onigiri:-
1. Spoon about 2 - 2.5 tablespoons of cooked rice on a piece of heat resistant cling wrap. Using hand, shape it tight into oblong shape to form the panda body.
2. Open up the cling wrap, wrap a 1cm wide nori (seaweed) sheet near the bottom the rice ball to form a belt (refer to the photo above). Next place the rice ball with nori sheet back onto the cling wrap and shape it tightly so that the nori sheet will stick to the rice ball.
3.With another piece of cling wrap shape 1/2 teaspoon of rice into a triangle shape to form the nose of the panda.
4. Using Scissor, cut out 2 oval shapes from the nori sheet to form the black eye circles of the panda.
5.With either a food cutter or drinking straw cut out smaller oval shapes from the sandwich cheese to form the white part of the panda eyes.
6. Next using a facial seaweed puncher to punch out facial express from the nori sheet and assemble it on the panda (refer to the photo above).
7. To decorate the "belt" below, you can use any small shape cutter like star, heart, flower or etc, cut out shapes from the sandwich cheese and place it on the nori belt.
8. To fix the panda ears, use either blueberry or dried raisin and connect it to the rice ball with the help of the dry spaghetti noodle in between.
9. Above shows the close up look of the Panda Onigri plus the asparagus bacon wrap.
10. When done, assemble the bento box together with the rest of the side dishes and fruit shown above.
 For this coming Saturday i-Love Mama Healthy Meal roadshow, I would be doing a similar bento which I hope it resemble the Lion Mascot of Mama Lemon shown above. Also I would like to delicate this MAMA bento to all mothers on coming Mother's Day and wish everyone a fruitful and healthy Mother's Day! Between if I will to conduct Mother and Child Bento Workshop(s) (like what i did previously here) during this coming June school holiday, I wonder will there be anyone interested to join?
Lastly I would like to thank ShiTing from Lobsterpaints.com who takes her time to come and support plus assist me during the bento demo roadshow. Thanks sis!
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