Halloween!

Twin Pigs

Chick

Panda

Boiled Egg Lady Bug

Snail

Little Girl Onigiri with Flowers

Some people asked me how to make those little flowers made by eggs and hams so here are how I make them↓

1.  Cook a thin layer of egg (I add about 1/2TB milk per egg)

2.  Fold the egg sheet in half

3. Cut the egg about half way

4.  Start rolling :)

5.  Finished! You can do the same thing with a slice of ham :)



Now here is how to make a rose by a slice of ham↓

 1.  Use flower shaped cookie cutter to create a flower shape of ham

2.  Cut the flower in half

3. Roll the ham

4.  Layer the rest of ham. You can layer more if you like.

5.  I used cucumber skin to create the shape of leaves (optional)

6.  Finished!

Babybel Girl

I am feeling so lazy on Mondays.  I don't know if that's because I am worn out from the weekend or just being lazy knowing I have tons of clean up to do from the weekend.

Babybel is definitely so useful on one of those days(lazy days) because if you just make one cute babybel, I think your bento will look cute enough for a day :)

Sponge Bob Square Pants

I layers two slices of sharp cheddar cheese to make this :)  I thought I had a piece of ham but I didn't...... so I just used swiss cheese for his teeth.  I used food coloring(blue) to dye the swiss cheese for his blue eyes.

Penguin Rice Balls

Makkuro Kurosuke from My Neighbor Totoro

My daughter's one of the favorite movies is "My Neighbor Totoro" . Makkuro Kurosuke is one of the characters from this movie :)  I didn't have time to make a main charater - Totoro.... so I made the easiest thing I could make .... which is just made by rice balls with seaweed paper. lol

German Dark Wheat Bread

I found this Dark bread at publix yesterday so I decided to use it for today's lunch :) 

I used a bear-shaped cookie cutter on both white and dark bread and just put it together like a puzzle. 

You can create several mini-ones and put in the lunch box.  That will also look very cute - I think ;) 

Gotta love cookie cutters.....

I am getting very frustrated with my broken finger.  I can't even do the simplest thing! 

So I have been making easy lunches for my daughter.... like sandwiches.  Thank goodness for those cute cookie cutters out there because without them, I don't know what I would do... . 

Hello Kitty

I didn't have time to make anything cute lunch today and it sure has been difficult to cook with my broken finger...  . So I only used my hello kitty cookie cutter to make a ham sandwich.

I am sorry. This probably doesn't inspire anyone but this was the best I could do this morning!

Bunny Onigiri

It's harder than I thought to cook a lunch box with this splint on my finger :(

Lollipop Sandwiches

Sorry...   a picture only today :(  I can hardly type with my splint!

Babybel Angry Bird

Sorry everybody... I have a broken finger so I am going to be only posting pictures for few weeks.
This Angry bird was made by babybel cheese.  I used swiss cheese for the eyes and regular cheddar cheese for its beak.

Duffy????

Ok, so I clearly didn't succeed making Duffy.... but I tried!

First I cut aluminum foil in the shape of mickey mouse(sort of)  ↓

Then I placed it on a piece of bread(I used a cup as a cookie cutter to create the round shape).
Toast it until it turns nice and brown.     ↓

Make two small round shaped pieces of bread toasted too for the ears.

You can always decorate the bread with Icing Pen! I didn't have any on this day so I just used the seaweed...lol .

Mushroom day :)

Ok, so when I don't have time in the morning, my cookie cutters are my heroes.  They sure can do some miracles for the regular-nothing special bento box for me.  For this bento above, I just cut a piece of ham and swiss cheese by cookie cutters in the shape of above and used a puncher with seaweed paper for the face.  Little Ketchup to put on little cheek :)

I used another small heart shaped cookie cutter on surface of a slice of apple.  Apple skin is quite hard so you may have hard time pushing in... . I used a small knife to shape it a little at the end.

Oh my... . I just realized it's almost midnight and my daughter is taking lunch tomorrow.  And I HAVE NO CLUE what to make!  Well, I better go look what I have in my refrigerator.  Thank you for stopping by to read my blog!

Pig Onigiri

 Onigiri .... it's a rice ball as you may already know.  I made a pig rice ball today for my daughter's lunch.
Although I did this with rice, you can probably use the ears and nose for a sandwich as well.

Here is how to make the ears and a nose.

First, you take a piece of ham or bologna and cut the edge like this ↓

Cut two of those like this ↓

Then hold it half ↓

Fold it one more time like this↓

Use deep fried pasta or just simple pasta and use it as a stick to hold ↓

Make another one for both of the ears. then use cookie cutters or simply just cut the ham in small round for the nose. Use a straw to scoop out two holes↓

Then just place them on a bun or a rice ball.  Use seaweed paper for the eyes and mouth. I used ketchup to color the cheek :)

RILAKKUMA sandwich

So today is Wednesday and I made Rilakkuma sandwich for my daughter today. It's just a dinner roll with hot dog ears.  I placed a Swiss cheese as a nose and seaweed for eyes and nose.
I like to use Swiss or provolone cheese instead of Cheddar because Cheddar tends to melt quicker than others.  FYI :)

Hot Dog Octopus

There are SO MANY ways to make octopus by a hot dog.  Here is one way to make one.

First, you cut the hot dog in angle like this.... ↑

Slice 7 times the hot dog for its legs↑(I think I cut 8times on this picture above so it may have 9 legs.... oops)
Then cook it in broiled water for few minutes. Or pan fry it if you like.

Poke three holes for the eyes and mouth by toothpick then place sesame seeds and carrot :)



Easy! right? Who doesn't love hot dogs!

Use Cookie Cutters on Ham, Cheese and Thin Layer of Fried Eggs!

I know sometimes you have left over Pasta and Stir fried noodles in your refrigerator.
Or simply you want to give your child some spaghetti noodles in a lunch box. You can still make the pasta lunch cute with a slice of  ham, cheese or thin layer of fried egg by using any cookie cutters. Just like I did the picture above!

First I beat an egg in a small bowl and add small amount of milk(any milk is fine. if you don't have any, you can even add water or sake, anything.lol). Fry the beaten egg on small pan. Make sure it's a very thin layer like .... a piece of sliced ham or something. You take it out, and cool it off. Once it's cooled off, you can cut it by cookie cutter. Simply place it on top of pasta, any noodles or even for bed of fried rice/white rice.

I buy lots of Bento goods at Japanese dollar stores in Japan. I recently found they sell some here too so if you are interested, go to http://www.daisojapan.com/. If you are in California, you can also visit to ICHIBANKAN.  I love both of the stores!

P.S.
When the noodles are cold, they seem to become little flavorless. So make sure you add extra sauce or soysauce to make it a little more flavorful or little salty when you put pasta or noodles in the lunch box(unless you are using the thermos lunch box).

Panda Bear and Things you can do with straws!

You will need ......

1. Frozen (or fresh) Edamame thawed(if frozen)
2. Small rice balls 
3. seaweed paper

I make small rice balls with sticky rice as you may have already know. When I make them, I use clear/Saran wrap and put small amount of rice on there and make them in a shape. That way, your hands won't get sticky and it's easier to shape rice that way anyways. 

After making small rice balls, break the edamame into half (you don't have to cut them. It will easily break apart.). Place tiny amount of mayonnaise or ketchup on the rice ball where you want eyes to be. Place the half of edamame on top of mayonnaise (mayo will make edamame more stable on the rice) for the eyes. 

You can put the rest of edamames push them into the rice balls to look like ears. 

You can cut the seaweed paper for the mouth or nose and simply place it on the rice. I use Japanese hole punch that will create shapes for the face.... something like this. These come very handy! 

So, I know some people have asked me how I create a mushroom with radish. It's super easy. A STRAW! 

You can do lots of things with straws. Only thing you have to do is just to scoop out the surface of radish with a straw. Same thing goes to the flower on the quail egg above. I used thin straw on that one and cut it slightly in angle. That will make the straw in shape of tear drop (somewhat). Then I pushed the straw into the egg 5 times to make the petals. Easy - right? :) 

If you need me to post a pic of how to cut a radish into a mushroom, let me know. I will post them for you.