It's been awhile

I've been so busy ever since I came back from Japan back in late July.

My daughter became very mobile, I'm constantly running after her since we haven't made our place child proof yet.

I remember child proofing everywhere in our house with my first son. But now that I'm more laid back (aka lazy mom) I haven't bought any materials for child proofing!
She banged her head at the coffee table and legs of dining chairs several times, she finally became pro at swerving her head around them. Quite a skill, I must say. Ha ha
Did you know it's called the French Parenting? Hahaha

Anyways, because I don't have much time to take photos of dinner and bento, until I'm more available, I'm gonna post from my phone. Poor quality photos.. Oh well.

Here some pics of bentos!

















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First experience

My daughter went to an ER here in Japan. It wasn't anything urgent, but because it was on Saturday all the clinics were closed. My daughter had been touching her ear for awhile and smelt little bit bad, I took her in just to be safe.

Turned out she had a mild ear infection. My older child never had one before, I felt very bad for not noticing much earlier :(


Here's the medicines my daughter got from hospital.









It's powder!
They'll never give anything powder to a 5mon old baby in the States! It's a choking hazard, isn't it???


And another thing, they don't include a paper that describes what kind of medicine it is. How am I suppose to trust this to give it to my baby girl???

I guess I'm gonna wait until Monday to take her to another doctor for a second opinion :p



Sorry this blog has nothing to do with my food diary...;D

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3rd day

My son went out with my parents today since I was under the weather...
He loves train so much, my folks decided to ride a train with him.

There are many different bentos they sell at train stations in Japan. My son found a fun looking one today!





The model of this bento is one of very popular Japanese steam trains, D51 aka De Ko Ichi.





He was more excited about the container! :p





The bento itself was pretty good but the color of its rice was black!!! How unappetizing...lol

I cooked some stuff for my family for tonight's dinner again. Just some little stuff. I made 3 dish, my dad made 2 (forgot to take photos).






I've been using cherry tomatoes for garnish. These are actually grown in my parents condo's balcony!






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my iPhone

2nd time

Cooked dinner for my family tonight.
Just three dish.








So I calculated the price of groceries. Came out to be ¥4175. About $40. Will see how many more dish I can make out of them :)




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Groceries in Japan

I finally went to grocery shopping yesterday. My dad took me to a place where you can get everything.





I've gotta calculate how much everythig was. It was super cheap though!
Those cucumbers were ¥10 each. Which is like less than 10 cents. Those tofu were ¥33 each. So cheap I wish I lived here! :p

Here's what I made for my family last night.





All those cost me about ¥1000! more than enough food for 4 adults and a child. Hmmm... Let's see what else I can cook :)




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Wednesday - Hayashi Rice

Tonight's dinner we had...

Hayashi Rice
Salad
Veggies and hummus


Quick and easy tonight.
No recipe to share tonight, sorry!
I have 4 more days to clean and pack...
Well, I'm really behind on 'cleaning' part.

Our place is never really 'dirty' but you know, like dusty corners of furniture and floors, but mostly bathrooms.

I kept thinking that I need to clean, but I kept putting it off!
I really should do it.
My mind is spinning every day now.

There are things I need to do;

Like getting some Thank You cards and gifts to my son's preschool teachers (the end of school year is on Friday).
Making sure I've got enough souvenirs to my friends and family in Japan.
Meanwhile, I'm booking myself for appointment with a lactation consultant and several play dates this week.

It's good that I keep myself busy so I don't just sit and start to panic...because, I would do that. Being busy keeps my mind off from imagining how things going to be on the 11-hr flight.

Ahhhh...
This blog is becoming my murmur-log, and not so much of food-log. haha.
Bear with me ;p


Here's the picture of Bento for tomorrow:

Tuessday - Chicken stir fry

Tonight's dinner was...

Chicken stir fry
Orange roughy in ginger soy sauce
Green beans with balsamic sauce
veggies


My son didn't have school today, but I didn't take him anywhere since I had many loads of laundry to do. Thankfully though, he was being very good boy he entertained himself all day. Pretty much. He does this thing where he throws a football above him, then catches as he runs.
Our place is not very big, but not too small either, so just about enough (?) space for him to run and catch ball alone :)

Then he took a nap for a couple of hours without any problem! What a great son he was today!!! I was able to get a lot done. I finished all the washing (bedding always takes time) and packing! Now I feel a little less of a stress about the trip...just a little bit.


Here's the recipe of the day:

Chicken stir fry

Chicken thigh (or breast)---2 thighs
Cabbage---1/4 roughly chopped
red bell pepper---1/2 about same size as cabbage
mushrooms---1/2 pkg thick slice

*sauce 1
soy sauce---2tbs
grated ginger---1tsp
minced garlic---1tsp
potato starch---2tbs

*sauce 2
Oyster sauce---2tbs
water---1tbs
soy sauce---2tsp
agave---1/2tbs

1) marinate meat with *sauce 1 mixture (without starch). Then coat with starch.
2) In a large pan, cook meat both size until halfway cooked.
3) Put them onto a plate, put aside.
4) In a same pan, drizzle oil then cook cabbage, mushroom, and peppers. Season with 2tsp of Chinese soup stock powder, then add 2tbs of water.
5) When the veggies are halfway cooked, put the *sauce 2 mixture, then add back the chicken.
6) Mix well on a high heat.


We ate dinner without daddy tonight. SO the Orange roughy was for my son's dinner and his lunch (bento) for tomorrow. I was going to make a salad, but then realized that I will be the only person to be eating it. My son's favorite veggies are only carrots and cucumbers.
Less cooking, more time to relax for me :)

I think my son knows we are going to be away from his daddy for a long time soon, he's so lovey dovey to his daddy!

My husband is coming home really late tonight, but my son's trying his hardest to stay awake until he sees his daddy because he wants to give him a big hug.
It makes me feel bad that my husband won't be able to see our kids for a month... I'm so appreciative about his generosity about letting me go to Japan every year.


That's why I try my best to cook bento every day! ;p

Here are the bentos for my boys for tomorrow...