Bento, Monsters

Bear Signboard Bento

2013-05-17T07:43:00.001-07:00

Bento Berries has kindly sponsored a set of bento cutter, and I am sharing the creations I've done using the cutters in this post. Please hop over to their site to check out other cute bento stuff they carry.

Here's the cutter I received.

One pack contains 8 different designs. It also comes with a box to keep the cutters.

I used the bear cutter in the set to cut out cheese and added on details with nori and ham. I made these on Tuesday, added the words 'ganbatte' to encourage IT for his exams this week. He still has one more paper next Monday, so we will be busy revising this weekend. -_-

Pasta was done aglio olio style with lots of garlic. There was also chicken patties, grapes and strawberries in the bento.

I used the same cutter for their snack boxes. This time I made a welcome signboard instead.

I've another set of creations using this cutters, will share them next Monday. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Panda Onigiri Bento

2013-05-16T07:42:00.001-07:00

A quick post today, sharing some simple panda onigiris I made for my boys' lunch on Monday. :)

Something fast to whip up on a lazy Monday morning, lol. Just shape rice into triangular onigiris using cling wrap. Cut seaweed with a pair of scissors and add on details with a nori puncher.

Served with meat patties, broccoli, apples, golden kiwis and strawberries. :)

Curry chicken for breakfast. I've a habit of keeping curry chicken from dinner the night before and cook them with noodles the following day. :P

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

UP Bento

2013-05-15T06:47:00.001-07:00

The bento I'm sharing today is based on Disney Pixar movie UP. I love this movie a lot, definitely one of my favorites. :)

I made this bento last Friday. Carl and Russell are made from short grained white rice, coloured with a bit of ketchup. :)

There's chicken patties, broccoli and strawberries in the bento.

I also made this fruit platter last Friday, for my boys to eat after dinner. This was inspired by Idafrosk's UP creation.

I used pineapples, kiwis, strawberries and grapes for the balloons. The house is made from bread and the balloon strings are pasta. I decided to do this at the last minute, so made this just by using whatever fruits I could find in my fridge. I wanted more orange/yellow colour but there was only a small slice of pineapple left.

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Pooh Bear Sushi

2013-05-14T07:01:00.002-07:00

I'm very busy this week as it's Exam week for IT, his last paper will be next Monday. I can't wait for it to be over, lol. The Pooh bear sushi I'm sharing today were made last Thursday. I still have a backlog of bentos to post. -_-

I coloured part of the rice yellow using mashed egg yolk. Details were done with nori.

For sides, my boys had meat patties, broccoli and strawberries. :)

I'm quite happy with how the sushi turned out, I think I will try Piglet sushi next. But before that, there's another character sushi I plan to do on this coming Thursday. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Penguin Bun Bento

2013-05-13T07:22:00.003-07:00

Last Wednesday, I made some really simple penguin buns for my boys' lunch. I will share the tutorial in this post. :)

Penguin buns filled with luncheon meat and lettuce. My boys won't eat any raw veggies, but recently, they will eat lettuce if I add it in their buns, bread and burgers together with other ingredients they like. :)

There's chicken yakitori and strawberries in the other box.

I'm using a hot dog bun for the penguin buns. You can use butter rolls too. First, slice your bun in half.

Cut out bread crust with a pair of scissors and slowly peel it out.

Cut out 2 circles for eyes and 3 ovals for feet and mouth. Attach onto the bun using pasta.

Here's the puncher I used for their eyes. :)

You can add in seaweed for the mouth if you prefer, but they look cute without too. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Inari Totoro Bento

2013-05-10T08:35:00.002-07:00

Totoro and Rilakkuma are two of my favourite characters and I love making them for bentos. :) For today, I'm sharing my Totoro bentos made on Tuesday. :)

Totoro inari sushi and Susuwatari meatballs for lunch. I forgot to add in whiskers for Totoro, only realized much later, after the food were already in my boys' tummies, lol. :p

There's also strawberries and broccoli in the bentos.

Totoro snack bentos for my boys. The sky was gray that day, too dark to get a decent shot under natural lighting, ended up taking these shots under indoor lighting.

Totoro and Susuwatari are made from cheese and nori.

This was for my breakfast, Totoro made from yoghurt, cereal, grapes and banana. :)

Lastly, sharing my dinner from Tuesday too. Red rice with pan fried lotus root, soy sauce chicken stew, salmon and peanuts. :)

Have a good weekend! :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Monbento Giveaway

2013-05-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Monbento has kindly sponsored a bento box for this giveaway.

This is the beautiful 2 tier box they are sponsoring. It has a large capacity of 1l, is airtight, dishwasher-safe and microwave-safe. For more details and photos, click HERE to read my review.

To enter this giveaway, please log in your email or Facebook account via the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions there. (Please email me at bentomonsters@gmail.com should you have problems using it. ) It is mandatory to leave your email and like Monbento on Facebook. Increase your chances of winning by sharing this giveaway via twitter, Facebook or on your blog. Giveaway is open internationally.

Giveaway will close on next Saturday, 11 May 2013. The winner will be picked randomly, and it will be announced on next Sunday, 12 May 2013. So, please check back this post for the winner then. The winner has 48 hours to respond to my email, after which I will proceed to pick another winner. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Match & Munch Lunch Punch

2013-05-09T06:44:00.001-07:00

The Lunch Punch sent me a set of Match & Munch cutters last year. The reason I'm blogging about them so late is not because I've yet to use them. On the contrary, I use them very often to pack my boys' bentos for School in the early mornings. However, I do not take photos or blog about those and that's why I've not shared about these awesome cutters.

There are four puzzle cutters in the box. My boys love their puzzle sandwiches cut out from these. These cutters are really easy to use, when you want to add some fun in a meal. The cutters are a great help to me in the morning, and you can easily come up with more variations just by combining with other cutters or/and stamps. I'm sharing some of these ideas. What I'm sharing below are all done by my boys. I only gave them verbal instructions on what to do.

Here's a Panda puzzle sandwich. CuteZcute is used to cut and stamp the Panda.

Play with your food before you eat. :)

You can also make a heart puzzle sandwich.

Or cut out shapes and alphabets on your puzzle sandwich.

Lastly, You can try using some stamps on your puzzle sandwiches. My boys had fun making, playng and eating these sandwiches. In case you are wondering, my boys did not do all these in one day. The sandwiches were done on different days for their afternoon snacks. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Mamegoma Bread Ball Bento

2013-05-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

I made the cute Mamegoma from San-X using bread balls. I've received a few requests for a bread ball tutorial, I finally managed to take some photos, hope they are useful.

Mamegoma bread balls are filled with tuna. :)

I also packed croquette, broccoli and strawberries.

To make bread ball, slice off bread crust and cut a slit on either 4 sides or corners of bread.

Add in your fillings in the middle. I added tuna here, you can also use jam, Nutella, peanut butter, pork floss, etc.

Bring four corners together and wrap up in cling wrap.

Mould the ball to the shape you want. This will be the basic bread ball that you can use for your charaben.

To turn your bread balls into Mamegoma, get another piece of white bread and flatten it with a rolling pin.

Cut out ovals from the bread. You can use cheese for this too.

Here's the punchers I used for the nori details.

There, it's done, I put the bread balls in a cupcake case. :)

Where to get same or similar items used in today's post:

Stitch Bento

2013-05-07T05:10:00.002-07:00

I was feeling unmotivated to do up a blog post yesterday, since I had posted a few bentos on last Saturday, lol. :P

Stitch bentos which I made last Thursday. Stitch is made from nori, rice, cheese and ham. The lunch are packed in a Monbento box, similar to the one in my giveaway. Click HERE to join if you are interested. it will close on this coming Saturday.

In the bentos are grilled wings, broccoli, golden kiwi, grapes and strawberries.

My breakfast, before I started work on Stitch bentos last Thursday. I was craving for Milo dinosaur, so made a big cup for breakfast. For those who are not familiar with this local drink, it's basically iced Milo, topped with lots of Milo powder on top. :P

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Star Wars Angry Bird Bento

2013-05-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

It's May the 4th today and it's Star Wars Day. In celebration of Star Wars Day , I'm joining a blog hop with my fellow Bento Bloggers and Friends. Be sure to click on the links at the end of my post, to check out lots more awesome Star Wars bentos my friends have made. I've made Stormtrooper and Darth Vader bentos before last year, click HERE to take a look at them.

My boys had been asking for Star Wars Angry Birds for their bentos. So, I grabbed this opportunity to make them some. They took a long time to finish this meal because they were too busy playing with the light saber picks and Angry Birds. -_-

Red bird is Luke Skywalker, Yellow bird is Han Solo and Pink bird is Princess Leia. Bento is packed with onigiri coloured with deco furi, ginger pork, broccoli and strawberries. The Angry Birds details were done with beanskin, nori, bread, ham and cheese.

Stormtrooper pigs for their snacks.

These did not quite turned out the way I expected. Initially, I was rather upset and even forgot to add in my Star Wars picks. :( However, my boys saw their snacks and said it's very nice. That made me feel a whole lot better, since it's good enough for me that they are happy with it.

I also made Chewbacca and Obi-wan Kenobi Angry Birds sandwiches for my boys.

They were both made from multi-grained bread. I added on a layer of cheese and nori for Obi-wan Kenobi and his cape is sweet beanskin.

Now, are you ready to follow the Way of the Jedi? All you have to do is click on the image above, hop over to Lunchbox Dad and check out his amazing Chewbacca bento. :)

After you complete the hop on the Way of the Jedi and make your way back to my blog, why not click on the image above and hop over to the Dark Side and check out lots more awesome Star Wars bentos. :) Have fun and May the Fourth be with you! :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Bread Car Bento

2013-05-03T05:03:00.002-07:00

I've always wanted to make cars from bread buns, but somehow never got to it till now. I did a step by step photos on how to do these bread cars in today's post. :)

I made a boy and girl driving bear cars. :P The bun is filled with tuna. :)

My boys also had croquettes, broccoli and strawberries for lunch. :)

I packed a slightly different version for School, bears driving bear cars instead. :)

They fit in well in these sandwich boxes. :)

I've been lazy to pack myself a lunch box these days, preferring to just spend whatever extra time I have to catch up on my dramas. -_- Here's a dinner I managed to snap a photo of, dinner that day was taiwanese minced pork stew, chicken cutlet and fish soup. :)

Sharing the steps to make the bread cars below.

Slice off a portion of the bread as shown above. Fill your bun with whatever fillings you prefer.

Boil sausage and slice out 8 small sections, 4 for the wheels and 2 for the bear's ears. If you find the sausages too big for the bear's ears, you can cut it with a smaller round cutter.

Attach on the car's wheels and bear's ears with pasta. I'm using a thicker pasta here so it will hold better. Cut out ovals for bear's eyes and circle for bear's nose from cheese.

Punch out blusher for bear's cheeks from ham. You can also use a straw if you do not have a small round cutter. I used the mutli-shoe puncher for the bear's features.

For the steering wheel, cut out cheese with a circle. Then, cut the circle in half and use a toothpick to cut out the shape of the wheel. Lay the cheese on nori and cut nori following the cheese outline.

I used the above cutters and puncher to make the bear.

Assemble the steering wheel and bear on the car and you are done. :) I should have done these earlier, they are cute and easy to make! I will probably be doing lots of variations of these, like Hello Kitty driving a Hello Kitty car, Rilakkuma driving a Rilakkuma car, etc.

One more thing before I end my post. It's Star Wars Day tomorrow, and I will be joining a Star Wars bento hop. I will be posting my Star Wars bentos after midnight, please check back to see what I did and to visit other blogs to check out what my bento friends have done. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Sleeping Bunny Bento

2013-05-02T06:44:00.002-07:00

I was feeling really tired on Monday, so I decided to make a sleeping bunny bento for my boys, to reflect my mood for that day. :P

Bunny is made from hard boiled egg and nori. He's sleeping on a ham pillow and a bed of red rice. His blanket is made from egg sheet. I separated egg yolks from egg whites, cooked the egg yolk first, cut out holes with a round cutter, and then poured in egg whites in the holes. Unfortunately, my egg sheet broke while I was transferring it unto the bento. :(

My boys shared this bento, I packed the other box with chicken yakitori, broccoli and strawberries. :)

Made these sleeping bunnies for my boys' snack time. The bunnies are made from egg, nori and ham, and the sleeping bag is carrot bread. The salad is mine, lol. :p

These sandwiches are fast and easy to make. I took some step by step photos on how to make them, hope it's useful.

Prepare one hard boiled egg, one egg can make two bunnies. Slice egg in half.

Slice off a little egg white from bottom of the halved egg and trim out bunny's ears with a pair of scissors. I used some ham for the ears as well, you can also leave out the ham if you prefer.

Cut out your bread, using the egg as a guide.

Fold bread over bunny egg and secure with pasta.

I used this puncher for bunny's eyes and nose. Dot on blusher with decor gel or some ketchup.

Ta-dah, completo! Another fast charaben idea. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Children's Day Bento

2013-04-30T07:46:00.001-07:00

Kodomo No Hi is the name for Japan's Children's Day, used to be called boys' festival. I made some bentos last year for this festival, and today, I'm sharing what I made this year. :)

Made these pandas last Thursay. Pandas are holding carp flags, known as Koinobori. :) Panda's hat are folded from wax paper. I did a tutorial last year on how to fold these hats, click HERE to see. :) Do you like this Monbento box I'm using? Monbento is kindly sponsoring a similar box for giveaway. :) I will post the giveaway tomorrow night and it will open after midnight. :)

Panda is made from rice and nori. Carps are sausages. I packed the bento with gyoza, broccoli, strawberries and golden kiwis as well.

I also made sandwich versions. The pandas are cut with a cookie cutter and ingredients used are nori and cheese.

Panda's hat is made from ham and cheese, and carps are made from ham and nori.

I made these simple Koinobori sandwiches for my my boys last Friday.

Ingredients used are Ham, carrot, broccoli, nori and cheese. :)

Some of my friends from Bento Blogger & Friends took part in a bento contest organised by Bento & Co. They did not make it into the finals, but they will be sharing their wonderful bentos in a bento hop. Please hop over to Becoming a Bentoholic's blog to check out their awesome entries.

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Rilakkuma at the Beach

2013-04-29T06:52:00.001-07:00

I will be having a bento box giveaway on this Thursday, will share a little more on it in tomorrow's post. :)

Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori lazing by the beach. I made this last Thursday. Rilakkuma is made from short grained brown rice, Korilakkuma is made from egg and Kiiroitori is made from quail egg dyed yellow in turmeric water.

Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori are swimming on minced pork stew, lol. This bento definitely does not depicts my mood today, I'm feeling so sleepy and tired, I made a sleeping bunny bento this morning to represent how I felt, will post that bento another day. I'm off to bed now. Good night! :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Chopper & Hello Kitty Bento

2013-04-26T07:22:00.001-07:00

Sanrio has a line of One Piece Chopper and Hello Kitty collaborative merchandise, this crossover series has Hello Kitty and Chopper cosplay as each other. The merchandise are super kawaii.

The bentos I'm sharing features Chopper disguised as Hello Kitty and Hello Kitty wearing Chopper's trademark hat. :) My initial plan was to do both versions on the same day, but changed my mind because I was lazy. Bentos were done over two days, Hello Kitty on Tuesday and Chopper on Wednesday. :)

Hello Kitty made from rice, nori ham and cheese, pink rice was colored with Sakura denbu.

My boys are sharing this bento. It's packed with grilled salmon, broccoli, Chopper Kamaboko, grapes and strawberries.

Chopper is made from rice, ham, cheese and nori, his face portion is rice coloured with a little dark soya sauce.

The sides are cheese tonkatsu, sausage, broccoli, Chopper Kamaboko, grapes and strawberries.

I made these Hello Kitty waffles for breakfast around two weeks back.

I bought the Hello Kitty waffle pan last year but this is the first time I took a photo of the waffle I made using it. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Line Moon Bento

2013-04-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

I made another character from LINE camera, called Moon. :)

Onigiri with different expressions, details done with nori and ham.

My boys ate the rice with cheesy baked chicken, broccoli and strawberries. Cheesy baked chicken is a variation of my carbonara recipe, but without the pasta. I added in extra cheese in the cream and baked it with some panko. My boys love this a lot, they like stuff baked with cheese.

I also made them a simple bread version for School.

The sandwich is a mixture of white and multi-grained bread. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

My Melody Toast

2013-04-24T06:47:00.002-07:00

Do you like My Melody? LT and I do. Here's sharing two simple ways to create My Melody.

I can't remember when I made this My Melody art toast. I think it was around 2 weeks ago.

My Melody is made from hard boiled egg. I cut out bottom part egg with an oval cutter and dyed the top part pink using natural food coloring. Her bow is cut out from strawberry.

My Melody sandwiches made from decor gel, cheese and nori.

I made these sandwiches for my tea break yesterday. LT saw them and said he wanted them for his snack box for School. I was lazy to make him another 2, so I gave him mine. :p

They fit perfectly in his bento and the little fella is happy. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Superman Bento

2013-04-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

I made Superman themed bentos for my boys last Thursday. It's a cutie version of Superman, lol. :P

Here's what I made, Superman saving Batman. :P Superman is made from rice coloured with ketchup and butterfly pea flower, crabstick, nori and cheese. Batman is made from nori, rice and cheese. Sun is made from strawberry. The superman logo is made from cheese. My boys had the rice with cheesy baked chicken, broccoli and grapes.

Superman to the rescue. Batman was not done nicely, was running late in fetching LT, and I had no time to fix it. :(

I also made these sandwich versions of Superman for my boys' snacks. The cheese are coloured with food colourings.

Lol, should call all these superboys instead. :P

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Earth Day Bento

2013-04-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

It's Earth Day today. My Earth Day bento was done last Friday though. I used back the same ideas from last year, but presented them in a different way. The reason for recycling my bento idea is in support of Earth Day's message to reduce, reuse and recycle. :P Nay, I lied, the real reason is I really love the bentos I made last year, and could not think of anything better. Click HERE to check out what I did last year. :)

I made 3 kids surrounding the Earth in this bento. The Earth is made from rice, which I coloured using butterfly pea flowers and blanched lettuce. The kids are made from sausage, fish sausage, rice coloured with egg yolk, cheese and nori.

I also packed meat patties, broccoli and strawberries in this bento. This is a big box of 1.2l, so my boys are sharing the food.

I made a fruit version of girl painting a rainbow. The fruits used for the rainbow are strawberries, oranges, pineapples, Kiwi berries and grapes. The girl, paint brush and pail are made using pineapple, grape, strawberry and banana.

My boys and I shared this plate of fruits after our dinner. I gave them a bowl of yoghurt each and they had fun choosing whatever fruits they like to go with.

Where to get same or similar items used in today's post:

Elmo & Cookie Monster Burger Bento

2013-04-19T06:48:00.001-07:00

It's been sometime since I made burgers for lunch. I decided to make some on Wednesday and serve them in wooden crates for my boys.

I decorated one burger as Elmo and the other one as Cookie Monster. However, when my boys saw the burger, they said I've made Ernie instead, lol.

These are chicken burger, with hash browns and strawberries. To make the patties, I mixed minced chicken with fish paste, coat them with panko and shallow fried them in oil.

I packed and decorated a set for myself too. It does looks like Ernie here, I should have added on his hair, lol.

Where to get same or similar item used in today's post:

One Piece Chopper Bento

2013-04-18T07:00:00.001-07:00

My boys are very into One Piece since we came back from Japan. They are only allowed one cartoon per day and all they want to watch is One Piece. Daddy is equally into the cartoon, so on weekends, they get to watch an extra one or two episodes with him. It's definitely no surprise that I recieved a request for a One Piece bento from them. I decided to make Chopper, since he's my favourite in the show. The bento was done on Tuesday.

Chopper is rice coloured with dark soya sauce and sakura denbu. I know Chopper looks a little too dark! I accidentally added in a little too much dark soya sauce. -_- I guess I will have to try making another version of Chopper next week. -_- I still owe them a Chopper bento for School as well and I hope to get that done next week as well. The other details are done with nori, cheese and ham.

The bento is packed with nori pork rolls, broccoli and grapes. My boys are sharing the bento, this is a large box, with a capacity of 900ml.

I also made Chopper and Luffy cakes on Tuesday using pancake mix. I had the moulds so it was easy.

I had two for my tea break.

And I also packed them for their bentos for School for the following day. I added in some maple syrup in the sauce for them to drizzle on the cakes. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Brown Line Bear Bento

2013-04-16T23:36:00.001-07:00

The character for the bentos I'm sharing today is the brown bear from LINE, whose name is Brown.

Brown is made from short grained brown rice, with cheese and nori details.

The other food in the bento are meatballs, grapes and broccoli.

I made a bread version using multi grained bread and packed it together with seaweed pork rolls.

Brown is very fast and simple to make, give it a try if you are looking for something easy. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Cut the Rope Bento

2013-04-15T19:25:00.002-07:00

I was too busy yesterday, finally had some time at night, but I ended up catching my dramas online. It was too late when I'm done, so I went to bed instead of doing up this blog post. -_-

Cut the Rope bentos that I'm sharing today were all done last week. In case you do not know, it's a popular game that you can download on your phone. My boys are familiar with the game but I've never played it before, lol.

Om Nom made out of egg, which I coloured with some natural green colouring. I moulded the egg while it's still warm to get the shape I want. :)

The sides in the bento are coriander wings, broccoli and strawberries.

I also made a sandwich version of Om Nom, using pandan bread. This version was inspired by Creative Food! She had an awesome one done out of spinach tortilla.

Om Nom is sitting on top of a ham and cheese sandwich. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post:

Duck in Curry Bento

2013-04-12T09:33:00.001-07:00

The inspiration for this lunch I'm sharing is Witzy, a character from Suzy's Zoo.

Witzy ended up looking a little overweight, lol.

Witzy is made from rice coloured with egg yolk, with carrots used for his bill. And he's taking a bath in a bowl of minced pork curry.

I've done two bentos for myself this week, which I've yet to share. The first one is this Sakura bento.

Another one is this buta kimchi bento. :)

Where to get same or similar items seen in today's post: