CuteZcute Rilakkuma Bento

Happy New Year! School will start on Wednesday for IT, and Friday for LT. My boys will be in morning session, it will be a big adjustment for us. My boys have always been in the afternoon session. We will all have to get use to the new schedule. I doubt I will make them charabens for School, will just pack a simple bento decorated with picks, so I will no longer share those. However, I will try to make them a charaben either for lunch, snack or dinner instead. :)

I made Rilakkuma for my boys' snacks last Friday, cut using CuteZcute. I'm sharing the tutorial in this post. Please also check back on Wednesday to enter my CuteZcute giveaway. :)


Ham sandwich, with grapes and strawberries.


A closer look at Rilakkuma. :)


To make Rilakkuma, cut out bread with cutter.


Press slightly using the blunt surface of the pig cutter on cheese to make a slight imprint of the oval shape. Use a toothpick and cut out, using the imprint as your guide. Don't worry if you get the small circles imprinted in the middle as well, just flip over the cheese and use the other side instead.


The eyes, nose and mouth were cut out using the cat and pig cutter on bread crust.


 For the ears, cut out a portion first using the above cutter.


Flip the cheese and cut again using the same cutter.


Assemble all the cut outs and you get your Rilakkuma sandwich! :)

Items used in today's bentos:

Doraemon Bento & Fujiko Museum

We dropped by Fujiko Museum on our recent trip to Tokyo. A must visit if you are a Doraemon fan. You need to purchase the tickets in advance at Lawsons. We all love Doraemon cartoons, and the boys have been digging out all their Doraemon cartoons after returning home. :) Their favourite now is the the movie Nobita's Dinosaur.


Something I've always wanted to do, Doraemon with his sister, Dorami and friends, Nobita and Shizuka-chan. I'm more familiar with their Chinese names though. :)


The main box contains rice, broccoli and tomatoes. The box behind contains fried chicken. Dorami is coloured with deco furi, Doraemon is coloured with butterfly pea flower and Nobita and Shizuka-Chan are made from short grained brown rice.


Bento is shared between my boys and me. IT ate Doraemon, LT ate Nobita and they had half of Dorami each. Shizuka-Chan went to me.

Sharing some shots taken at Fujiko Museum below.


A Doraemon bus to take us to the museum. :)


Doraemon spotted, lol.


 The bell!


This was what greeted us when we got down from the bus, lol. The museum concept is pretty much like Ghibli Museum. There are lots of very cool and interesting exhibits at the exhibition rooms, as well as movie screening, but no photo taking is allowed. We are only allowed to take photos at the kids interaction area, outdoors and in the restaurant.  So, I only have some food photos to share with you, lol.


Pardon all my badly taken food photos, it was a long wait to get into the restaurant. Everyone was famished by then, so I just took a quick snap of all the food. Daddy ordered this, it's Katsudon.


IT wanted ramen.


LT ordered the kids meal! :)


I had this, I forgot what it was, I think it was gratin, lol. I confess I ordered this because of the Doraemon picture on it, lol. :P


We shared this, the chicken was very good!


The plate and napkin!


Ending the trip with some sweets. We did take photos outdoor and at the kids interaction area, but won't be sharing those as the pictures have us in them. No longer sharing pictures of us, though I've not deleted the past pictures that I've shared yet. :P I'll probably just leave those old photos of us on the blog, unless I change my mind in future. :P

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

Mango Sago

My Christmas giveaway winner is out. No worries if you did not win, CuteZcute giveaway will be up next Wednesday. Great tool for back to School!

This is not a bento related post. :P Just before I left for Japan, I received a request to share my mango sago recipe. I happened to see mangoes at the supermarket yesterday, so I bought some to make this desert. It's one of my favourite Chinese dessert.


I made some Rilakkuma chocolate using my mould to decorate. :)


It's really easy to make at home, recipe below. :)

MANGO SAGO RECIPE

Ingredients:
400ml Marigold PeelFresh Mango Juice
150ml evaporated milk
3 ripe mangoes
80g sago pearls

Method:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add sago and let it simmer for around 10 minutes. Stir to prevent sticking at the bottom of the pot. Turn off the stove after 10 minutes, cover and let sago continue to cook for around 10 minutes. They should turn translucent. Drain sago and rinse under tap water to remove starch.
2. Slice up 2 mangoes and add to blender, together with evaporated milk.
3. Mix mixture 2 to mango juice. Add in sago pearls.
4. Cut up the last mango into cubes. Top with mango cubes when serving.

Notes:

• The original recipe calls for sugar syrup, which I omitted. You can add in at step 3 if you find your mango sago is not sweet enough.
• You can also use other brands of mango juice, or make your own mango juice.
• You can also add in pomelo as toppings. 
• You can increase amount of sago if you like more of it.

Santa and Snowman Bread Roll

This shall be my last Christmas bento for this year. I still have a few more ideas but I've no time to make any more bentos before Christmas. Still lots of things I've yet to clear before School reopens. :( I am sorry I've not had time to visit blogs or reply to comments much either, but I hope I will get my act together soon. :)


I made a simple snack bento for the boys today. Jam filled bread roll, decorated as Santa and snowman. I added some grapes and strawberries in the box.


The toppers hats came in really handy. :)

My Christmas giveaway will be closing tomorrow, last day to enter if you have not. :) And here's wishing everyone a blessed Christmas! :)

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

2012 Christmas Giveaway

I wanted to post about bento shopping in Tokyo today, but I am still sorting out the photos. -_- So, I decided to post a giveaway first instead. I still have a CuteZcute and 400th post Giveaway coming up after this. :)


Here's what I'm giving away, a set of Christmas Disney picks from Disneyland that I love! :)

To enter this giveaway, please log in your email or Facebook account via the Rafflecopter widget below. (I'm trying out the Rafflecopter for the first time, please email me at bentomonsters@gmail.com should you have problems using it.) Increase your chances of winning by sharing this giveaway via twitter, Facebook or on your blog. Each share gains you two extra entries. Giveaway is open internationally.

The winner will be picked randomly, and it will be announced on next Wednesday, 26 December 2012. 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 a new winner. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mickey and Minnie Snowman Bento

It's another five days to Christmas. I'm joining in a Holiday Ho Ho Hop with my fellow bento bloggers and friends. Join us for some last minute Christmas bento ideas. All you have to do is to click on the graphic at the end of my post and it will take you to the next blog.

I made a pair of Mickey and Minnie snowmen for my boys' lunch today. Mickey's scarf and hat are made from crabstick and green coloured egg sheet. Minnie's cape are made from crabstick and rice colured with pink deco furi.


They shared the broccoli and had one snowman each. There's also a bowl of soup for them. It's Chinese style chicken soup with lotus roots, carrots and scallops.


I made myself a Christmas bento too. Made a simple wreath from edamame beans and crabstick. The other food I packed are Korean spicy squid, lotus roots, carrots, japanese cucumbers and tomatoes.


And here's where the inspiration of my bento came from. Mickey and Minnie snowmen from Tokyo Disneyland. :) They are so cute! We bought the popcorn container home, to add to our collection. We always buy at least one on every trip. :)

Now, click on the graphic above and hop over to Diana Rambles to check out her awesome Christmas creation. Keep clicking the graphic at every blog till you come back to mine again. Have fun! :)

Where to find lunchbots seen in today's bento: