Archive for the 'Bread' Category

Simple Sandwich Bento

It’s hard to pick up the momentum in bento-ing especially after resting for so long. Instead of trying out something harder, I prefer to stick to simple kyaraben which can be done in 5 minutes for each bento. :P

Today’s bento is inspired by a Japanese blog, which I  can’t remember which. *so sorry again :P * I don’t have much time in blogging hopping these days, so I just browse through my Google reader feed, and if the pics show up, I can view the bentos. Otherwise, I won’t be bother much and just mark all as read. Oh boy…I’m getting very lazy!

Anyway, I remembered that it was something about decorating sandwiches as dogs and I tried the same idea by fixing rabbits and pigs as shown below:

simple sandwich bento (rabbits)
Rabbit sandwiches for my gal. I packed her fruits separately.

simple sandwich bento (piggies) copy
Piggies for my boy…somehow, I still think they look like dogs. LOL!

Another Dragon Bento

It’s my second attempt in creating a dragon bento, especially after my boy said that the previous dragon looked like a cow. :P

Due to time and space constraints, I decided to make a speedy bento with sandwich balls and quail eggs, instead of fulfilling my boy’s wish of having this dragon.

I would be out of my mind if I want to fix that dragon!

So, instead of picking a kyaraben challenge, the mom decided to do a simpler one. :P

Dragons Bento
Another dragon bento, with sandwich balls, quail eggs and fruits.

Happy Dragon Year Bento copy
And a girlie dragon for my gal.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Halloween (Mini Sandwiches) Bento

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. :P Oh well…

pink cutter copy
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!

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

I decorated the mini sandwiches with cheese and nori.

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

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

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

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

plain sandwich bentos copy
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:

 

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

Halloween Bento with witch, owl and ghost copy
My gal has a cute ghost, an owl and a witch in her box.

Kids in Rilakkuma Costumes Bento

I’ve obviously slowed down a lot in kyaraben!!! LOL! As you know, my life has been pretty busy lately, and I’ve started going back to yoga this month. This means I would have to prepare dinner (yeap I do in the morning), breakfast (occasionally), pack bentos (mostly plain looking ones) and get myself ready for yoga class in the morning before heading to the office. If hubby is away, I would have to send the kids to school too. So, how’s that to kick start my hectic morning? :P

But this morning, I managed to fix something simple for the kids, just to let them know that I still want to do kyaraben if I may.

mini hotdog bun bento copy
My gal’s hotdog bun bento

Oh no, I didn’t bake the bread, I bought the buns. :P I just cut out part of the crust and decorated it as a little girl dressed up in Rilakkuma costume.

boy in Rilakkuma costume bento copy
Of course, I did one for my boy too.

 

Anyway, my kids will have a term break soon so there will be less kyaraben for the coming month. Besides that, work is piling up, and condo renovation is still on going, and the office routers are giving me a problem uploading photos!!! I shall just do my best for the next 2 weeks ya!

Little Bumblebee Fruity Bento

When I mentioned that I will fix bumblebee this morning, my boy thought that I was fixing the Bumblebee from Transformers. O.o Oh no, I didn’t have time for complicated kyaraben lately, and this is the bumblebee I had in mind:

Little Bumblebee Fruity Bento copy
Little Bumblebee (decorated with sandwich balls) in fruity bento

It’s simple and quick! LOL!

Guess Who Am I Bento

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.

fancy bread copy
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. :P The orange egg sheet was used for Mickey’s shoes.

Then, I proceeded to cutting the details:

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

cut another ribbon copy
Cut another ribbon.

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

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

cut cheese copy
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 cheese_1 copy
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 and add nori strips copy
Cut a strip of nori and stick it on the sandwich with jam, butter or mayonnaise.

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

add ribbons, cheese dots and shoes copy
Add in the rest of the elements.

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

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

Gusse Who I Am Bento copy
My gal’s “Guess Who Am I” Bento.

Anpanman 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!

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

add carrot copy
I pinned some blanched carrots on the sandwich.

punch nori copy
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!

Anpanman Bento copy
A very simple Anpanman sandwich bento.

Po from Kung Fu Panda Bento

It’s another long waited bento theme. :P I should be fixing Transformers by now but since the robots are so hard and complicated, my kids will have to settle for Kung Fu Panda bentos today.

Here’s how I decorated Po. First, I fixed a sandwich ball.

bread and meat floss copy
Place a piece of bread in the middle of a cling food wrap, and place some fillings in the middle. I used meat floss.

hold 4 corners copy
Fold and hold the 4 corners. Don’t squash the bread though. Alternatively, you can cut the bread into circle first before wrapping it up.

pull up food wrap copy
Wrap the bread with food wrap.

twist the end of the food wrap copy
Twist the end of the wrapper and make it tight. Try to form a ball in this process too.

shape it copy
You can press lightly and reshape the sandwich ball into your desired shape. I prefer oval.

sandwich balls copy
Remove the food wrap and place the sandwich ball in silicon cup so that it’s easier for you to proceed to the next time of decoration.

2 quail eggs copy
Prepare 2 hard boiled quail eggs or 1 big chicken egg. Only egg white is needed.

nose copy
Slice a thin layer of egg white and cut the nose with an oval cutter.

pin the nose copy
Pin the nose to the bread with bit of spaghetti strips. You may deep fry the spaghetti strip first if you are worrying if it’s edible.

add nori copy
Add nori. I cut the nori with a pair of small scissors but you can use punchers too.

add egg white and nori copy
Add egg white for Po’s eyes and top with nori again.

add tiny ears copy
Cut bits of egg white again and pin them as his ears.

change nose
Top nori for his ears and I changed his nose. Notice the difference? :P

Next, place Po in the bento box.Hence, here are today’s Kung Fu Panda bentos:

Kung Fu Panda Bento copy
My gal’s Po, the Kung Fu Panda.

Po from Kung Fu Panda Bento copy
I did one for my boy too. He wouldn’t resist it! LOL!

Powerpuff Girls 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.

wrap sandwich ballssandwich ball
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.

round cutters
The cutters were used for the eyes.


white egg sheet
Cut some white circles with the biggest round cutter.


add nori and wrap up
Top smaller circles of colored egg sheet.


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


egg white again
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
Powerpuff Girls Bento


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

kyaraben vs plain looking bento
Powerpuff Girls bento vs plain looking bento. LOL!

Mad Hatter Chip and Dale

I bought these cute hats from Bentocraft some time ago, and I decided to use them today.

Cowboy Chip and Dale Bento
Cowboy Chip and Dale for my boy

Chip and Dale Bento
And Chip and Dale with snow hats

The hats really sparked up the plain looking Chip and Dale!

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