Shimmy Shimmy Cake!

I have been seriously slacking on my Bentos lately!!  This was the only themed one I made in December.

Contents:

• PB and Nutella sandwich cut into a gingerbread man.  Icing used to create the designs on top.
• Craisins
• Carrots and Ranch dressing
• Goldfish crackers
• Chocolate gold coin.

Slacker,

Rachel

October is almost over, only two more days to do some Halloween themed bentos.  It always goes by too fast!  Here's a quick one I put together:

Contents:

• PB and Nutella sandwich.  Eyes are pre-made from Wilton and left over from our office Halloween party.  The rest of the details are piped on with Nutella.  I colored the nutella black using black cocoa powder.  It also gives it some stiffness.
• Apple alien with almond sliver teeth and a plastic ring for the eye.
• Mozzarella eye balls with cheese and more Wilton sugar eyes.  
• Caramel dipping sauce in the container.
• Rolled up piece of ham

Keepin it real, y'all!

Contents:

• Gravestone Sandwich - PB and Nutella (aka kid crack!).  Piped the RIP with Nutella (more kid crack).  Added the plastic sushi grass and a plastic ghost ring.
• Middle container has overly processed dyed tortilla chips, string cheese, and the panda container has bean dip in it.  I was thinking she could make her own nachos.  Added a plastic ring to the string cheese.
• The last container has a Boo Berry Fruit Roll-Up with a plastic ring around it.  Strawberries with picks and a package of Truvia.

"Ewwwww, gross!" was the response Bento Princess gave me this morning when she saw her lunch.  It's not that bad is it?

Okay, maybe just a little gross.  But kids like gross, don't they?

Contents:

•  "Fingers" are hot dogs (cut slits and saute for 5 minutes) with an onion fingernail (I cooked a slice of onion with the hot dog).  The "bandage" is a tortilla rolled around the end.
• "Bones"  are tortillas cut into bone shapes using a cookie cutter.
• "Vampire Mouth" is an apple with almond slivers for "teeth"
• "Scary Eyes" are pepperoni with cheese irises and eyebrows.  
• Crackers
• Cheese crumbles
• Container with caramel dipping sauce

I finally used my Wilton comfort grip Frankenstein cutter I got last year for $0.50.  Word!

Contents:

• Frankenstein Sandwich sprayed with Wilton green food mist.  Yellow and white cheese accents and pepperoni eyeballs.  Ring picks for the bolts.
• Triscuits with pepperoni slices and a couple of cheese bats.
• Broccoli spooky forest with Wilton candy eyes
• Grapes
• Soy Sauce
• Hello Kitty candy

Halloween, Halloween, Trick or Treat.  

Our bentos can't be beat!

Contents:

• Mummy Sandwich - Bread, ham, and cheese cut with circle cutter to make the sandwich.  Pulled pieces of string cheese apart to make the "bandages".  Cut pepperoni circles for the eyes.
• Frankenstein Sandwich - Bread, ham and cheese cut with a square cutter to make the sandwich.  Sprayed the top piece of bread with green Wilton Food Mist.  Free hand cut Nori for the hair.  Used a circle cutter on yellow sliced cheese for the bolts and eyeballs.  Circle cutter for the pepperoni eyes.  Leftover string cheese slices for the mouth and eyebrows.
• Black cat under a full moon  - Fruit Leather cut with a cat shaped cutter.  Full moon cheddar cheese slices cut with circle cutters.  Sitting on top of Triscuits.
• Ghost - cucumbers cut with a ghost cutter.  Black sesame seed eyes.
• Sword of grapes
• Ranch Dressing in the sauce container

I was in Houston last weekend and I got to swing by my favorite Bento store...Fit Japan.  Check out all the cool stuff I bought to add to my ever growing collection:

Whenever I go to Houston it is usually to visit friends down in Clear Lake which is an hour car ride and an $8.00 tollway away from Fit, but I still never miss an opportunity to go.  It is considered to be a 100-Yen shop, which is the equivalent to our Dollar store.  Everything in the store is $2.00 (approximately 100 yen) unless it is marked with a seperate tag.  Everything in my picture was $2.00 except the strawberry bento box which was only $3.00.  If you've shopped around at all for Bento stuff online, you know that it costs double that price plus the shipping (usually directly from Japan)!  This place is a steal!!  

These are plastic and silicone dividers. In Bento language they are called "Baran". They are used to separate your food so that it doesn't get soggy.

These are the picks and sauce containers I found:

Here are the cutters:

You're probably wondering how I store all this crap.  It's not easy, but I've found a pretty useful product to help me with that.  It's made by Plano and can be found at JoAnns or Hobby Lobby. 

What I love about the storage box is the adjustable compartments that allow me to keep everything separated.  It also connects to a twin so that you can double your storage.  It's been great at keeping me organized!  Check it out....

Notice how there is no space left for any of my new tools?  Um ya, I have obsessive compulsive bento buying issues!!  Good thing I don't plan on going back to Houston anytime soon.

XOXO,

Rachel

It's finally October, my favorite month!  Here is our first Halloween Bento of the season:

Contents:

• Stuffed sandwich topped with cheese cut with pumpkin cutters and bologna faces
• Cheese crumbles on the sides of the sandwich
• Pepperoni
• Grapes
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Ranch Dressing

Between my husband and I, we have 3 girls.  All I know is girly stuff.  Like princesses, fashion, jewelry, make-up, glitter, rainbows and unicorns.  I know nothing about boy stuff like pirates, reptiles, and whatever else boys like (see, I can't even list anything).  When my Bento Princess wanted a Pirate themed bento, I kinda freaked out.  Um, we don't have any pirate themed stuff because our house is full of pink fluff and rainbow glitter.  We ended up compromising with a Hello Kitty Pirate themed Bento which is as far as I go on the dark side.  

(Sorry about the picture quality, I can't find my camera and had to use my cell phone. )

Contents:

•  Sandwich - used a Hello Kitty shaped cookie cutter to cut the bread.  The bow, eyes, nose, whiskers, and patch are all cut from fruit leather.  I used a dog bone shaped fondant cutter to cut the bow. Also added the bone shaped picks to the corners
• Pirate Chest - We had this in our toy box and I think it came from an old Cinderella Polly Pockets toy set.  Filled it with Goldfish.
• Skulls - used a fondant skull shaped cutter on the carrots, Nori face punch for the eyes and black sesame seed for the nostrils.
• Rings - Grape tomatos on ring shaped picks

I can no longer look at or talk about Panda Bears without calling them Kung Fu Pandas.  I really like that restaurant Kung Fu Panda... I mean Panda Express.  Which leads to the singing of Everyone was Kung Fu Fighting.  Those cats were fast as lightning.  In fact it was a little bit frightning.  But they fought with expert timing.    It's a vicious cycle.  So here is our Kung Fu Panda Bento

Contents:

• Peanut butter and honey sandwiches cut using a bear rice mold.  The eyes, ears, nose and mouth are Nori I cut out using some punches and some I cut by hand.
• Carrots with a Panda baran.
• Zucchini half circles (these are new for Bento Princess today, I am hoping she will like them dipped in Ranch).
• Sauce container of Ranch dressing
  
• Panda container with a diced strawberry
• 4 turkey slices cut into flowers and a Panda pick
  
• Salt and cracked pepper crackers with a Panda baran

Everyone was Kung fu fighting, had to be fast as lightning....

XOXO,

Rachel

The problem with getting new Bento supplies from Japan is that the instructions are in Japanese.  It takes a lot of trial and error before I figure out how to use that stuff.  Case in point... these cute little sandwich cutters:

Looks simple, right?  WRONG!  I guess I thought I was suppose to put the filling in between the bread and then seal it with the face stamper.  That tecnique resulted in a bear bleeding peanut butter and a bunny crying tears of Nutella.  To make these cute sandwiches, you will need to cut THREE of each shape.  The top two will make the cute face and the bottom one is for your sandwich filling.  They are so cute in the picture but waste a lot of bread and don't hold much filling and don't turn out anything like the picture.  They took forever to make and I was so unhappy with them when I was done that I didn't even feel like making anything else for the Bento.  So here it is....the last Bento I will be making with these damn sandwich cutters... 

Contents:

• PB and Nutella sandwiches
• Strawberries
• Goldfish
• Applesauce

My sandwiches are ugly and it took me 30 minutes to assemble this.  Going back to bed now....

Not feeling the love today,

Rachel 

My girl is learning all about the oceans at school and we've been watching lots of Discovery shows on the Great Barrier Reef.  Today's bento is all about the ocean.

Contents:

• Colby Jack cheese sprayed with Blue Food Mist (beneath the sandwiches)
  
• Peanut Butter Dolphin Sandwiches
• Goldfish Crackers
• Crabby hot dog with nori eyes
• Strawberry with a seal pick
• "Sand dollars" are cucumbers and carrots

Happy Thursday!

XOXO,

Rachel

Tomorrow is my daughter's 6th birthday and I am a *terrible* mother because I did not make her any cupcakes to take to school.  She kinda gets the short end of the stick when it comes to her birthday since it always falls on either the first or second week of school.  I would feel really bad about sending cupcakes to school during the first week and don't want to get on the teacher's bad side by being "that" parent.  Not to mention all the rules that go along with sending cupcakes.....so I've just never done it.  I also don't invite her classmates to her birthday parties because who wants to get a birthday party invitation the first week of school?!?  We don't even know these kids yet and we're already inviting them to parties?  Um, NO.  I always feel like it's just a bit too much to ask of these strangers at the beginning of the school year.  

To keep from being labeled as the "worst mother ever" according to my daughter,  I made her this birthday bento for her lunch tomorrow.  I hope it will put a smile on her face, even though I didn't make cupcakes. 

Contents:

• Peanut Butter and Nutella sandwich free hand cut into a cupcake shape.  
• Colby Jack cheese cut into the cupcake wrapper shape and added the lines with a food marker.
• Havarti cheese cut into the icing shape and sprayed with Wilton Food Mist (pink) and added a few sprinkles.
• The cherry is a marshmallow cut in half and colored red with a food marker.
• Carrots cut into star shapes
• Pear cut into a body shape and added the clown head on top.
• The presents are fruit leather cut into squares and I piped the bow on top using cream cheese.
• Grapes with balloon picks
• Small container of ranch dressing

My 1st Grade Bento Princess

XOXO,

Proud Momma Rachel

Second day of school bento:

Contents:

• "Apple" - Peanut Butter and Nutella sandwich sprayed with Wilton Green Food Mist.  
• "Apple Stem" - Slim Jim 
• "Chalkboard" - fruit leather folded in half.  I piped the ABC and 123 using cream cheese
• "Chalk Sticks" - string cheese cut in half
• apple chunks

Back to School means back to Bento making in our house.  I've been looking forward to the first week of school so I can create some fun lunches for my princess.  Here is her first day of school bento:

Contents:

• Peanut butter and nutella sandwich.  
• Colby Jack cheese cut in the shape of a bus placed on the sandwich.  I used some picks for the bus passengers
• ABC pretzels - found these at HEB
• Carrot Sticks, container of Ranch Dressing
• Fruit Leather "books" folded in half with a marshmallow for the pages (I could not get them to stay folded for anything, so I ended up securing them with toothpicks.)
• "Pencil" is a cheese stick with a pink marshmallow "eraser" and a bugle for the tip.  I used my food-safe markers to color a little bit of the tip to make it look like lead. 
• Small packet of Tinkerbell pop-rocks - found these at Dollar Tree, perfect size for bentos.

I have a new favorite tool to make Bentos with:  Wilton Color Mist food spray.  It's food safe and you can color so many things with it, not just cakes and cookies: bread, cheese, crackers, chips, pastas, potatos, etc.  I originally bought some for a cake I was making a long time ago and I completely forgot about it until I recently cleaned out my cake supply cabinent.  I decided to give it a try on some potato chips and the color held really well without sogging out the chips.  Here are some tests I did on a piece of white bread I cut into 1" hearts:

 I put a piece of uncolored bread in the picture too so you could see the intensity of the color.  Color Mist is a food coloring just like you would use for dying Easter eggs or icing, so be careful to cover surfaces you don't want getting dyed in the process (including your hands).

Wilton Color Mist comes in just about every color you can think of.  So the next time you are trying to come up with ideas to add some color to your Bentos, give this product a try!

XOXO,

Rachel 

Here is another Bento we made for camp.  It is our Pinkalicious themed Bento:

Contents:

• Butterfly Sandwich - Filled with PB and Nutella, sprayed with pink Wilton Food Mist food color, topped with a few flower sprinkles and sugar pearls.
• Chocolate Heart - milk chocolate hand made from Edi's Chocolate Shop
• Edamame - I left them in the husks this time and just packed a container with kosher salt for dipping.
• Broccoli - steamed and added a cute little tree trunk pick (I am in LOVE with that pick) and soy sauce in the froggy sauce container.   

My 5 year old has been at a different camp every week this summer.  The last 2 weeks she has been at the Daugherty Arts Center camp.  She has been bringing home the neatest projects and it't really opened up her creativity.  We've been making Bento lunches during camp and I wanted to share a few of them with you over the next couple of days (ok weeks by the time I get around to posting them):  

Here is the Olympic themed Bento:

Contents:

• Star Sandwiches - cut these using small star cutters, filled with PB and Nutella, sprayed with Blue Wilton Color Mist, added a bologna USA cutout letters.
• Carrots cut into stars with a fondant cutter
• Ranch dressing in the yellow sauce container
• Edamame, shelled
• Salt in the bunny sauce container
• Wheat Ritz Crakers topped with colby jack cheese (for the gold medal), havarti cheese (for the silver medal), and bologna (for the bronze medal) all cut into circles.
• String cheese pulled into 3 threads and sprayed with Wilton Green Color Mist food spray for the medal necklaces.

Gingerbreadman Bento

Contents:

• Gingerbreadman Sandwich - peanut butter and honey cut with a gingerbread man cookie cutter. I used Nutella in a piping bag for the buttons, eyes, and mouth.
• Cutie Orange, peeled
• Colby Jack cheese - I used my fondant star cutters
• Asparagus
• Shallot Vinagrette in the sauce container
• Hello Kitty hard candy we found at the Japanese Import store

Snowman Lunch Bento

Contents:

• Snowman Sandwich - Tortilla, turkey, and hummus cut with a snowman cookie cutter.  I used Nori for the buttons, eyes, mouth, and bow tie.
• Blackberries
• Grapes
• Cutie Orange - we LOVE these
• Carrots
• Ranch in the sauce container

Rudolph Lunch

Tis the season for colds and flu....my little one has been missing a lot of school lately so I havent been able to make very many bentos this month.  I made her this when she was sick one day.

I used my bear shaped rice mold and hand molded the nose.  I used a red pick for the nose and bone picks for the antlers.  Note to anyone making bentos...Basamati Rice SUCKS to make bentos.  Just trust me, don't use it.   I really hope my little one gets to feeling better soon.  Only 3 more days of school left before Christmas break!

I am hoping Santa brings me a new camera for Christmas.  Do you hear me SANTA?!??? 

Happy Holidays!

XOXO,

Rachel