Hello Kitty Veggie Cutter

Eating boring salad for lunch? Not me!
Thanks to Hello Kitty Veggie Cutter from BENTO&CO, my salad bento is very cute and fun to eat.
Add water and a couple of sliced carrots in a microwave-safe bowl. Cook for about 30 minutes, rinse them in cold water and cut them out with the veggie cutter.  What I like about this is that it includes facial features. One step and done!

Shop the veggie cutter here-> https://bit.ly/2Gj8rm5

Use a code: FUNBENTOBOX5 to get  a 5% discount!*

This cute bento box is also from BENTO&CO. https://bit.ly/2JNN8de

For the rice balls, I cut a piece of nori  seaweed with a decorative paper cutter from DAISO.

It creates a nice lace effect.  It's not made for food, so wash or sanitize it before use.

*Can be used once per customer
Ends 20 October 2019 5pm JST 
This code cannot be combined with other discounts

Hello Kitty Onigiri Mold

Taco Rice Bento

BENTO&CO sells a lot of cute and quality Japanese products online.
I received White & Red Retro Moda Lunch Box and Hello Kitty Onigiri Mold Set from them and love both!

The bento box is BPA free and made in Japan. Great size for kids, but also for working women like me.  It provides a right amount of energy and I love the simple and stylish design.

It’s available in red and blue, so get matching bento boxes with different colors with your child ;) 

You can make Hello Kitty shape easily with the mold.

I used about 25g cooked rice to make 1 face.

Eyes and whiskers: nori seaweed

Nose: corn kernel

Flowers: Carrot

I think the set of the bento box and the onigiri mold would be a great gift too:)

Use a coupon code FUNBENTOBOX5 to get a 5% discount! (use by 10/19/19)

Hello Kitty Onigiri Mold

Dollar Store Bento Items

Nectarine BBQ Sauce Chicken Bento 

Watched the Disney movie "Ratatouille " and got inspired to make a mouse bento.

These are skillet shaped measuring spoons.
Received this as a souvenir from Japan!
I had seen some moms put it in bento boxes, so I was excited when I got this.

Got Dutch Oven shaped salad containers and sauce containers at a dollar store called Seria when I visited my family in Japan early this year. How cute these are!!!!!
Daiso is well known Japanese dollar store here in California, but Seria is as mush popular as Daiso in Japan. Must go to store when you visit Japan! They have tons of cute and quality items.
Oh, the white bento box in the top picture is from Seria too! And mini grilled pans and a mini measuring bowl..

I colored quail eggs with plant based food coloring from Whole Foods Market.
Just put a couple of drops of blue and red in a glass and add water to make a nice purple color.
Soaked cooked and shelled quail eggs for about 30 minutes to color the eggs.
I used to use vegetables like beets to color eggs, but not anymore.
These are made with vegetables. I can use this food coloring without guilt.

We got tons of nectarines in our backyard.
Made jams, pies and BBQ sauce. I marinated chicken with the BBQ sauce and grilled it for dinner.
It was yummy! Used the leftover for the bento.
Recipe-> Peach BBQ Sauce (Replace peach with nectarines)

Cute Colorful Plastic Wrap

Super Hero Rice Balls

Found these colorful plastic wrap in Japan!
Available in blue, pink and yellow. You can make more colors by layering different colors.
Blue + Pink = Purple
Blue + Yellow = Green

You can make cute lunch to go really quick with these.
Shape cooked Japanese rice in a piece of plastic wrap to create round shape.
Cut chalkboard stickers to make masks.

Beets Pink Curry and Lama Shaped Rice

Lama or Llama...? Not sure which one is correct, but this is rice lama and beets pink curry!
Made white curry and added beets puree to make cute pink color.

Pink Curry Lama

about 150g Cooked Japanese Rice

Pink Curry (See recipe below)

2 Quail Eggs, boiled

A piece of nori seaweed 

1. Make Pink Curry

½ Onion, Sliced

1 clove Garlic, chopped

1tsp Grated Ginger

Vegetable and Protein of your choice

2tsp Curry Powder

2tbs  Flour

300cc  Milk or Soy Milk

1tbs~  Mashed Beets

Salt  to taste

Heat oil in a skillet over low heat. Saute onion, garlic , ginger and vegetable, protein of your choice until soft. Stir in curry powder, flour and cook for another minute or so.  Add milk and cook over medium-high heat until it thickens. Add about 1tbs of mashed beets and mix well. Add more beets until it reaches your desired color. Continue stirring for another minutes or so, Adjust taste with salt.

2. Shape rice into lama on a plate. 

3. Carefully pour pink curry around rice.

4. Cut quail eggs to create ears and nose of lama.

5. Place the ears and nose on the rice. Create eyes and nose by cutting a piece of nori seaweed and apply on the face.

Featured on Japan Up! Magazine June 2019  :)

Owl Rice Balls

Owl Rice Balls

170g Cooked Japanese Rice
1tsp Soy Sauce
Filling of your choice
1slice of Yellow Cheese
1slice of White Cheese
A piece of Nori Seaweed
Almond
Corn Kernels

1. Place 150g of rice in a small bowl. Also  prepare 2 piece of plastic wrap and put 10g of rice on each. Make flat round pieces with the small rice balls.  This will become owl’s stomachs.
2. Add soy sauce in the bowl of rice and mix well to add color. Divide into 2 on plastic wrap.
3. Add the filling in the center of the rice.
4. Shape the rice in plastic wrap to make oval shapes and press with your finger to make space for the white rice stomach.
5. Place  the white stomach on the brown body and press  together, wrapping tightly with plastic wrap.
6. Cut almond in half and create ears
7. To create eyes, cut out slices of cheese, using 2 different size of round shapes. Use a small flower shape to create feet.
8. Cut a piece of nori seaweed to create eyes and put all the parts together.    

Featured on Japan Up! Magazine March 2019  :)

Patriotic Bento Lunch Box

4th of July is just around the corner!
What are you planning to do on the holiday?
If you going on a picnic, how about taking these cute bears with you?😍


I created mini burgers with mini tomatoes, basil mozzarella cheese!
Yes, these bears are vegetarian😉


For dessert, I made  Blueberry Bran Muffins and packed with strawberries and cherries that I bought at a local farmers market.

Cornbread Bear Bento

Cornbread (2 full squares and a slice)

Thick Chili Filling of your choice

A slice of cheese

A piece of nori seaweed

1. Prepare 2 squares of cornbread and slice them in half. Scoop out center area to create a small bowl. Stuff chili filling inside.
2. Place the top half back on top.
3. Cut out leftover cornbread slice to create ears and hands for bears.
4. Apply them to the cornbread to make bears.
5. Cut out from a slice of cheese and a piece of nori seaweed to create eyes.
6. Optional: Slice mini tomatoes in half and make tomato, basil and cheese sandwiches!

3 colors Animal Bento

My 3 colors Animal Bento was featured in Japan Up! Magazine June issue!



3 colors Animal Bento

30g Beef Soboro*

30g Scrambled Egg (About 1-2 eggs. Cook with a pinch of salt and sugar)

30g Blanched  Spinach (drain well and sprinkle a little soy sauce)

Decorative pieces (radish, carrot, cucumber, a slice of cheese, a piece of seaweed)

*Beef Soboro

150g Ground Beef

1tbsp Soy Sauce

1tbsp Sugar

1tbsp Mirin

1tbsp Sake

1/2tsp Grated Ginger
-Heat a non-stick pan and cook beef, breaking up into small pieces.
-Add all the seasonings and cook until most of the liquid is gone.

How to assemble bento

1. Prepare soboro, scrambled egg and blanched spinach.
2. Place 50g of rice in each cup
3. Put about 30g of the toppings in each cup
4. Prepare face parts by cutting and slicing vegetables and cheese.

Picnic Bento

I visited my family in Japan a couple month ago. I was looking for a cute lunch box for picnic use and found this at Afternoon Tea shop in my hometown.!!

Afternoon Tea Online Shop

I like the color, size and quality of this. They change the design seasonally, so would love to purchase different one next time I go to Japan!

Packed cute teddy bear rice balls and panda chocolate sandwiches, egg sandwiches, fresh vegetables and fruits! 

Edible Flower Crown Bento

Purchased edible flower mix at Seedgeeks a while back.
http://www.seedgeeks.com/store/flowers/edible-flowers/edible-flower-mix/

Planted in spring and it has been blooming non stop lately!
It's really beautiful and inspired me to make this bento. (Curry and Rice)

I wrap with them with wet paper towel, place in a ziplock container and store them in fridge.
It lasted about a week!

More bento idea with edible flowers to come:)

Fun Animal Sandwich Bento

I use rice for 90% of my bento, but today's bento is bread!!
Just cut out slices of bread with cookie cutters and place them on beautiful color veges.
(Cookie cutters are from Daiso)
I used a bear shape one to make a frog.

What you need:

4 slices of bread

Tuna Salad (or filling of your choice)

Lettus

Zucchini (for bunny backdrop)

Tomato (for heart backdrop)

Cheddar Cheese (for star backdrop)

Basil (for frog backdrop)

A piece of nori seaweed

1. Slice off edges of 4 slices of bread . For 2 top slices cut out with cookie cutters as shown. (I used a bear shape cookie cutter to create a frog. Available at Daiso )
2. Place 2 bottom slices in a bento box and add filling. (I used tuna salad)
3.  Place vegetables and cheese in locations shown for character backdrop coloring.
4. Add cut-out top slices.
5. Use a thin strip of zucchini and cookie cutter to create hands for bunny.
6. Create remaining fun face and body parts using yellow cheddar cheese, white cheese, seaweed, radish, etc. 

Unicorn Vegetarian Bento

Got beautiful rainbow chard at farmers market and inspired to make unicorn bento.
I've seen cute unicorn cakes on Pinterest and had been thinking about making unicorn theme something.

Just cut off stems and pickle with similar color ones for about one hour.
Then just thinly slice and use it for unicorn mane.

For the purple flowers that I put on the unicorn's head, I boiled purple cabbage with water and place sliced radishes in it to color it into purple.  The cabbage water is blue, but if you marinade about over one hour, the pink color of radish starts blending in blue water and create nice purple color.

Menu: black bean and tofu patty, boiled egg, carrot and sweet potato kinpira, sauteed sugar peas, blanched broccoli, zucchini and radish (flowers on head) -> I seasoned with salt to make it wilt and easy to shape them:)

I'm not sure if you can see it, but I put the video ↓　:)

The full step-by-step recipe will be on JapanUp! August issue;)
Will post here when I get the artwork from them!

Bento Side Dishes

Got a lot of beautiful, colorful and yummy vegetables at farmers market last Sunday.
Since not party plan for the memorial day, I made a lot of side dishes for my bento for this week.

1. Roasted beets with honey and lomon
2. Salmon patties
3. Japanese-style sesame rainbow chard
4.Marinated baby heirloom tomatoes
5. Peperoncino cabbage
6. Hoeny-Lemon braised sweet potato and carrot
7. Sauteed yellow mushroom and zucchini
8. Pickled radishes
9. Kinpira carrot and sweet potato
10. Cream braised radishes

Also I made vegetable soup with excess vegetables.
Oh, and chocolate cream with cauliflower;) It's my favorite healthy farm-fresh dessert!
(recipe here)

Fun Train Ride Bento

Easy and fun bento using a bear shape cookie cutter from Daiso!
I love Daiso so much.... I think I go there every week:)

I made Japanese omelet to create a train, but you can use whatever...
Just cut them into rectangle shapes.  ex, vegetables, cheese, tofu, etc..


***Fun Train Ride Bento***

What you need:

Cooked Rice

Carrot

Japanese Omelet

Nori Seaweed 

Olives

1. Fill a bento box half with rice, half with protein and vegetables.

2. Cut a piece of nori seaweed into a thin trip and place on the rice as shown

3. Add short cuts of  nori seaweed as shown to create rails.

4. Create a Japanese omelet and slice to get 2 rectangle shapes. 

5. Cut out a sliced carrot with a bear shape cookie cutter.

6.Place the egg and carrot on the rice. Also placed sliced olives to create wheels.

7. Cut a piece of nori seaweed with a scissors or a seaweed puncher and create the pace parts. Also make small squares for windows.

Android Bento

Celebrating the soon to launch Tanoshi kids computer! 
'Tanoshii' means Fun in Japanese.
They offer Fun + Safe + Educational computer for school-age kids!
tanoshiinc.com
Follow them on twitter @TanoshiKids

Vegetarian "Fish" sushi bento

Tomorrow is Chilidren's day! I made koinobori bento for Japan Up! May issue.
Vegetarian 'Fish' sushi bneto :P

Koinobori is Japanese colorful carp windsocks.

Carp is a symbol of strength and success in Japan.

Japanese hang these windsocks outside for Children's Day (May 5th) to bring good luck to their kids health and success.

One set of the windsocks usually comes with 3 sizes. The big one symbolize father,

the medium one mother and the small one child.

1. Make a Japanese omelet. Or you can use a store-bought one.

2. Make 3 different sizes of oblong shapes by slicing a cucumber, omelet and red pepper. Also cut right side end as shown to create tails for fishes.

3. Make 3 small rice balls in sizes that match up well with fish pieces.  

4. Make a long thin strips with a sheet of nori seaweed as shown.

5. Place fish piece on rice and wrap with seaweed strip.

6. Create round eyes by poking a slice of cheese with a straw and other parts by cutting from a piece of nori seaweed with a seaweed puncher or scissors.

Cherry Blossom Bento

Weather is getting warm and beautiful flowers are blooming everywhere!
I'm growing organic micro-greens on a windowsill in my kitchen.
They look so happy with bright sunshine.
I have purchased edible flower seeds mix at Etsy. I think it's time to sow it now:)

I colored rice with naturally colored tart plum sesame seeds and shaped into flower shape with a mold that I purchased in Japan.

When I use smaller bento boxes, I like to press rice with this mold into a compact rice cake.
It also makes a bento very pretty:)

Omelet Rice Bento

Sneak peak at the April issue of JapanUp! magazine.
Created bunny omelet rice bento just in time for Easter :)

3 Colored Rice Balls Bento

It's hanami season!
Hanami is a Japanese way of celebrating cherry blossom season.
It is common to have a picnic under cherry blossom trees with your family or friends.

3 colored dango is a popular spring food and often eaten at hanami.
Dango is a Japanese dumplings related to mochi.
It's usually pink, white and green and it is said that each color represents sakura (cherry blossom), sweet sake and leaves.

I made rice balls looked like 3 colored dango to celebrate the beginning of March!
I colored rice with naturally colored sesame seeds. (Pink: tart plum flavor.  Grenn: green tea flavor.)
As I mix the sesame seeds with warm rice, the seeds release the beautiful color and dyed the rice.
I like the colors and the fact that it's all natural!

Hungry Dog Rice Ball Bento

Made a dog-shaped rice ball with a tofu bone for Japan Up! magazine March issue.
You could put other food in his mouth too! (karaage, vegetables)