Mothering Corner

I’m trying to kill 2 birds with one stone. Firstly, my kids have been waiting so long for a Halloween bento, and secondly I’m trying to use this long-forgotten cutter which I bought from Daiso. From the post date, the last time I used this cutter was like almost 2 years ago! Check out these cute little sandwiches cut with the same cutter. Maybe I have other bentos which were prepared with the same tools, but I can’t seem to remember where are the posts. Oh well…

The pink bread cutter from Daiso.

The main reason why I hardly use this cutter is, it’s quite big and most slice breads are too small for it, unless you don’t mind wasting a lot of bread. Nonetheless, I managed to get the right size of bread from Yamazaki. Or you can always bake your own bread!

This bread fits well with only the crust being cut off.

I decorated the mini sandwiches with cheese and nori.

Instead of cutting the nori and paste it on the bread, I cut the shapes with cheese first.

Then stacked on the nori and cut the outline with exacto knife.

For the owl, cut off the excess cheese before cutting the outline on nori.

Cut out the eyes and details from the excess cheese, a small piece of kamaboko and red artificial crab meat.

Due to limited space in the lunch boxes, I omitted the heart sandwiches.

Then, I added the details on the sandwiches, and here they are:

My boy’s Halloween bento with boo ghosts and a black cat.

My gal has a cute ghost, an owl and a witch in her box.

I didn’t pack anything for my kids yesterday and guess what, my gal wailed her lungs out in the car on the way home! Oh boy, I guess I must have really “spoiled” them for the past 3 years to have their after school bentos or snacks, whether if it’s rain or shine. *faint*

Thus, I felt a bit guilty and wanted to cheer her up by fixing one of her many bento requests…. Arlene, Garfield’s girlfriend!

It’s actually ham and cheese, and for Arlene, the cheese is at the bottom. Garfield is just the opposite way around.

Here’s what I did last night, and it took me about 30 minutes for both characters:

Stack ham and cheese together, and cut the outline of the cat with an exacto knife.

For Arlene, the ham will be on top.

Prepare a hard boiled egg and gently slice it for its eyes. I used a cutter to cut them out.

I got this idea from LoveBones, check out her awesome Garfield!

I placed the oval egg white on the drawing and cut off the excess part.

Pardon the low quality photos taken as if they were snapped by a phone on this HD7 page. I was trying to get them done fast so that I could attend to my kids. Once both character were completed, I wrapped everything up with cling wrap and kept them refrigerated in an air tight container.

This morning, I punched some nori, randomly with some punchers. I didn’t cut the nori though as I was running out of time! Next, it’s more about adding nori on the cats to make them look like Garfield and Arlene.

So, here are the bentos:

Arlene, she’s Garfield’s girlfriend. My gal was so delighted when she saw her.

And Garfield for my boy.

It’s been raining cats and dogs for the past few weeks and suddenly, we are back to summer again. It’s so hot and sunny now that I have got a tan without going to the beach! Nonetheless, we plan to bring the kids to Hua Hin this weekend, just for a short trip and spend some quality time together. I hope that the weather stays this way, and we can all enjoy the beach and pool. Forget about pool heat pumps as it’s really hot hot hot this week!

So, for today’s bentos, I tried to modify this cute little panda from Naokyaraben, and place it on the sandwiches, as if it’s chilling out on a vacation. Ok, let’s have some imagination here. LOL!

Here’s how I did the panda:

I prepare a piece of kamaboko (slice the pink from white) and a piece of artificial crab meat.

Cut the white kamaboko into smaller pieces and cut again diagonally.

Cut them with a teddy cutter.

Here’s the side view of the teddy shaped kamaboko.

Use a small bit of spaghetti strip to join them up.

Here’s the little panda.

I repeated the same step with a bunny cutter.

And added arms for the bunny.

Next, punch some nori and add them in. So, here are the little panda and rabbit chilling out on some sandwiches:

My boy’s bento.

Side view of the little panda.

Bunny says…relax….

Today’s bento theme is inspired by some Japanese blogs. I can’t remember where I saw the bentos though, but I’m pretty sure that some of us might have come across some Japanese blogs showing these kyarabens. You don’t have to create exactly the same as the actual characters, but try to add in some elements and let your kids guess what’s the bento theme.

I prepared the bentos with this loaf of fancy bread from S&P.

It comes in 4 colors in the same pack.

I planned to fix Mickey and Minnie Mouse with the bread, so I did some preparation last night. Firstly, I prepared a pink (egg white mixed with pink food gel) and orange (egg york) egg sheets. I could have used kamaboko, but I had forgotten to buy one. The orange egg sheet was used for Mickey’s shoes.

Then, I proceeded to cutting the details:

I cut Minnie’s ribbon with this cutter (recently bought from Jmama)

Cut another ribbon.

Cut off the tips and stack the second ribbon on the first one.

My gal helped me to cut a small oval and top it on the 2 ribbons. This will be Minnie’s element.

Draw Mickey’s hand on a piece of baking paper, and cut it out from a piece of cheese. I did the same for Minnie too.

Cut the leftover cheese with these round and oval cutters.

The smallest circles will be used for Minnie’s ribbon, while the medium sized circles are for her dress. Cut 2 ovals as Mickey’s buttons.

Wrap all ingredients with food wrapper and store them overnight in air tight container.

The next morning, I proceeded to cutting the bread with the bento box so that the sandwich will fit nicely in the box.

Cut a strip of nori and stick it on the sandwich with jam, butter or mayonnaise.

Top cheese on sandwiches, and add in some nori strips as shown.

Add in the rest of the elements.

Next, I packed the fruits in and here are the bentos:

Guess who am I? Of course, my boy could easily tell it’s Mickey by just looking at its glove.

My gal’s “Guess Who Am I” Bento.

My gal “accidentally” watched Anpanman on TV some time ago, and she asked me to fix her an Anpanman bento. I’m not familiar with this character but since she likes it, I might as well fix one for her. Furthermore, it’s very simple!

A plain looking bento (sorry, photo was taken before I remembered to open the curtains.)

I pinned some blanched carrots on the sandwich.

Next, I punched some roasted nori with this puncher and added the facial details on the bread.

There you go! An Anpanman bento was fixed in less than 5 minutes!

A very simple Anpanman sandwich bento.

My gal has been asking me to fix Powerpuff Girls for her since last week, so there you have it girl!

I prepared some sandwich balls last night by filling the bread with meat floss and wrapping them up as balls. Wrap and tighten the sandwich with food wrap so that it can stay in shape.

Sandwich balls

I prepared some egg sheets too. I used 2 eggs for the Powerpuff Girls.

• Separate the white from yolk and fry them as white and yellow egg sheets respectively.
• Separate the white from yolk for the second egg
• Yolk used as orange egg sheet
• Egg white was divided into 2 portion for blue and green egg sheets respectively.
• You only need a tiny bit of blue egg sheet for Bubble’s eyes.

Next, I took out some round cutters in 3 different shapes.

The cutters were used for the eyes.

Cut some white circles with the biggest round cutter.

Top smaller circles of colored egg sheet.

Add nori on the eyes. Wrap the sandwich ball with food wrap so that the decorative bits can stick on well.

Top egg white again.

Then, I manually cut the leftover egg sheets as their hair and top on the sandwich balls. Repeat the process of wrapping the whole ball with food wrap for a minute or 2.

Next, punch some nori with a small smiley puncher and add it as their lips. So here are the Powerpuff Girls.

Powerpuff Girls Bento

My boy doesn’t like girlie bentos, so I didn’t decorate his after school meal.

Powerpuff Girls bento vs plain looking bento. LOL!

It’s another Christmas bento today, and it’s something very simple and speedy too. I prepared some nuggets for the kids and I placed the nuggets on their sandwiches as shown:

Plain looking bentos.

Honestly, I don’t pack kyaraben all the time, and my kids won’t mind non decorated bentos either. It’s just that if it’s kyaraben, they will feel happier.

These are the bits for decoration.

I added picks as antlers, and pinned the blanched baby carrot with a yellow food pick.

Then I added punched nori.

I cut the cheese with this flower cutter.

Cut the cheese into 2 pieces.

Use the bigger cheese as Santa’s beard and the smaller one for Rudolph’s head.

Cut some red crab meat

Top it on as Santa’s hat.

Add a small strip of white crab meat.

Cut an oval from red crab meat.

Top the oval on the hat, and add a small cheese circle.

Add nori for Santa.

So, here are the bentos:

My gal’s Santa and Rudolph Christmas Bento

This is for my boy.

Today’s bentos are slightly time consuming. I spent some time fixing some French toasts for breakfast, and packed some for the kids. I cut the French toasts with the dividers in the bento boxes, and then cut them into smaller bites before spreading some honey on the toasts. My kids love to have French toasts with honey or maple syrup.

Then, I proceeded to preparing the little fairies with quail eggs, picks, some cheese and kamaboko. Here’s how I did the fairies:

I gently shaped the quail eggs when they were hot.

Then, I joined the quail eggs with spaghetti strips.

I added picks as wings and some deco on their heads.

Punch nori with these Carl’s punchers and add them as eyes and lips.

Cut the flower nori into halves and add them as fringes.

Cut some cheese and add as arms.

Add kamaboko as rosy cheese.

So, there you have it! Here are the little fairies in today’s bentos:

My gal’s little fairy and French toasts bento

I left some gap in the bento so that I could just lie back the fairy within the fruits. I would hate myself if I smash such a cute detail.

Here’s my boy’s fairy.

Actually, it won’t take much of my time, if I don’t fix French toasts. So, give it a try.

Most schools in Bangkok are still closed this week, but my kids are back to school again for the new school year. Their new school is located in outskirt of Bangkok city, so it’s not affected. Frankly, I’m so glad that we stay in the outskirt, away from the war zone and our lives here are not much affected. We are still going out as usual, and it’s way much safer than staying in the city.

Since it’s the first day at school, the school session will finish as early as 2.30pm, so I don’t think my kids will be very hungry by then. Lunch and snack are provided at school, so I only pack a few boxes of UHT milk in their school bags. Today’s after school bento is pretty light, and there are only sandwiches topped with cheese, some rambutans, oranges and a piece of mini wiener.

Here’s how I decorated their tea bentos:

I cut the bread with Rilakkuma cutters. I spread some jam between the bread and placed them in silicon cups.

Cut some cheese with a smaller teddy cutter.

Repeat the same for smoked cheese

Turn the cutter over and cut off the ears of smoked cheese.

Stack the cheese as shown in the pic.

Next, place the cheese on the sandwiches.

Punch the eyes and nose with this shoe puncher.

Add eyes and nose to the teddies with a pair of tweezers or a toothpick.

Punch some tiny straight lines with this puncher, and add them on smoked cheese.

Today’s teddy bears looked pretty blur…just like my kids when we woke them up earlier than usual for school.

So, there are the blur teddy bears bentos:

My gal’s teddies…She’s very blur on the “back to school routine”.

This is my boy’s bento.

I will probably need a few more days to figure out my kids’ appetite after school. For the time being, I will just pack them something light.

Things really got nasty here. Upon reading that the Red protesters were getting closer to my office area, and there was a clash between the protesters and the army troop, I immediately grabbed my kids and rushed home as quick as we could. I didn’t want to be caught in a bad traffic, and thank god that the traffic back home was a smooth one. But poor hubby was caught in a bad traffic as most routes back home from where he was were blocked or closed. The only express way was very congested, but he arrived home safely as well. Gosh, I should really reconsider life insurance quotes if I’m going to have more heart attack moments like this!

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Ok, back to bento-ing. I’m quite lazy to do the tracing and cutting thingy with exacto knife, so I thought of  a way to simplify Pikkachu which was requested by my boy.

The preparation was done last night, so sorry about the ugly lighting in the photos.

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I cut the ham with an oval and diamond-shaped cutter.

My boy took over and cut the same shapes with a piece of smoked cheese.

Stack the diamond-shaped cheese on the ham.

Cut a small triangle on the cheese before stacking it on the ham.

Cut 2 small circles from kamaboko as Pikkachu’s cheeks.

I kept all pieces away in air tight container, and arranged them on the rice as Pikkachu. So, here are their lunch bentos:

My boy’s simplified Pikkachu in his lunch bento.

There are rice, grilled honey chicken, half a braised egg, some baby carrots and a piece of corn in the bentos too.

This is my gal’s bento.