The children are back to school but they are not dining in the canteen anymore during this pandemic. It is either we pre-order food from the school canteen or prepares snack boxes for them.
Should you decide to prepare a snack or bento boxes for your children, you will need a lot of inspiration and ideas to get you through the week.
If you ever browsed Pinterest for ideas, there is a good chance that you have seen some really elaborate bento lunch boxes but how confident are we to recreate those?
Most of the time, the expectation vs reality turns out really disappointing. Hence it is better to stick to simple, doable ideas.
Being parents, we are always busy to no end hence it is okay to use a handful of short-cut ingredients from the freezer. It is alright really.
Nobody is going to judge you; even if they do, just turn a blind eye or deaf ears to it. There are no written rules saying bento should be made from scratch.
I always keep some frozen pastry puff in my freezer together with a can of tuna or sardine in my kitchen pantry. I call them my ‘emergency solution’.
On days that I am really drained and lack the energy to prepare intricate bento boxes, these frozen pastry sheets really do come handy.
Puff pastry is really simple to put together. The best part is it is really versatile as you can use almost anything to go with it such as tuna, sardine or even chicken to make a chicken pie.
Simply cut puff pastry, top with fillings, cover another sheet of puff pastry, egg wash, pop them into the oven and you get freshly baked pastry in 15 minutes!
Tuna Puff Recipe
Preparation: 5 minutes
Baking time: 15 minutes
Serving size: As needed
Ingredients:
- Frozen puff pastry sheets
- Canned tuna with mayonnaise
- Egg for egg wash
- Assorted fruits
Method:
- Defrost puff pastry sheets (take it out from the freezer 10 minutes before usage).
- Cut puff pastry in halves.
- Top with tuna.
- Fold to cover.
- Press the edges with a fork to seal.
- Brush a layer of egg wash.
- Pop them into the oven for 15 minutes at 200C and bake until golden brown.
- Cut some fruits and arrange in a bento box.
These tuna puffs can be prepared the night before if your children are attending the morning school session. Just reheat them quickly before going to school in the morning.
You can add in some fruits such as oranges, blueberries, watermelon, apples, and others for added nutrition.
Such a simple snack to prepare but to most children, these pastry snacks are the envy of many. Watch this video to see how easy it is done:
