Star Wars Bento & Baguette

Star Wars are my boys' current favourites, thanks to The Force Awakens. These days all they watch are Star Wars related videos, so are the toys and video games they play. I'm not a Star Wars fan myself, but due to their obsession, I decided to make them some Star Wars themed food.


First up, I made this chibi Stormtrooper, ingredients used was just rice and nori. I also made a bb-8 out of quail eggs, nori and carrots.


Both the boys wanted their hands in the picture, lol. That's IT holding the bento, and LT holding the light saber bento picks.


I had placed the light saber picks in the bento, but my boys took them out because they said Stormtroopers do not use light sabres. -_-


Star Wars themed baguette, can you recognise the characters? I made Stormtrooper, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and Yoda. I wanted to make bb-8 and C-3PO, but was rushing that day, so I left them out eventually.


I was not even done making these, and my boys came over for a look and they could already guess the characters, shows how familiar they are with Star Wars now, lol.


It's fun to make and eat these, we usually have them for tea time, something to fill their tummies a little before dinner, as they are always asking for food to eat in the afternoon.


IT asked for a Star Wars cake for his birthday last month, and he chose this icing sheet. I did an awful job with the icing though, but the birthday boy did not seemed to notice when I showed him the cake, thank goodness, lol. I did not make a sushi cake for his birthday like I always did in previous year, because I remembered my lesson from last year, I did not want to rush again, this time, I just concentrated on making the birthday cake and cooking his favourite food.


I forgot to update about this, flowers my boys bought for my birthday last year. I'll probably take a photo of the cards they drew and update here for my own records too.


They bought the flowers in Japan, here's another picture of it with our favourite combini breakfast items, which we have for breakfast almost everyday there, my boys' onigiri, and my sandwich. My hubby's breakfast is missing, because he was actually having his breakfast on the go, while in the long queue to get the fast pass for my boys's favourite ride at Disneysea, lol. Yes, the ride is so popular that there is even a ridiculous long queue just to get a fast pass. -_-

Paper Doll Sandwich

Have you played with paper dolls before? Paper dolls, as the name implies, are made out of paper, and comes with different clothes and accessories for you to play around. It's one of my favourite thing to play with when I was young, I remember spending part of my pocket money buying them from school bookstore then. Do they still sell them now? I have not seen them around, but I've not actually search for them.


This sandwich that I am sharing today, is inspired by the paper dolls I love to play with as a child. The gal is actually a ham, cheese and cucumber sandwich, there's a slice of bread under the ham. I made her outfits and accessories out of ham, cheese, carrot, apple and bow pasta.


I shared this with LT for snack time in the morning, IT was at school then. We dressed the gal up in a few outfits, before we ate her, lol.


The first outfit we put on her.


This second one reminds me of Aladdin, lol.

I like this outfit the best.


The last outfit we put on her, I think she looks a little like a fairy in this. 

Sanrio Baguette & Somen

If you have been following me on Instagram, you might have seen my post about my bento book, which is coming out on 1 September 2015. My book is now available for pre-order. I've updated a list of links on where you can pre-order the book here. In the post, I've also included a brief about my book writing journey, as well as some sample pages from the book. If you are just looking for the links to order, you can skip what I wrote (It's brief for me but might be a little lengthy for you) and just scroll to the bottom of the post for the links.


Open-faced sandwiches I made to share with my boys for afternoon snacks during the June school holidays. I used baguette to make these, I sliced and toasted the baguette before topping them with assorted fillings like smoked salmon, lettuce, cheese, ham, eggs, etc.

Can you spot 4 Sanrio characters in there? The four Sanrio characters are Hello Kitty, Keroppi, Pom Pom Purin and My Melody. I used cream cheese, tomato, cheese and nori for Hello Kitty. For Melody, I used smoke salmon, cream cheese, cheese, ham and nori. Ingredients used for Pom Pom Purin were mango, mushroom and nori. Keroppi was made using mashed peas, cheese, nori and ham.


I allowed my boys to choose the sandwich first and they left the tomato and radish for me, lol. -_-


Another version of the four Sanrio characters, this time using coloured somen. I did not colour them, they are available for sale in different colours.


Ingredients used in the food art, other than the noodles were, cheese, capsicum, nori, ham, mushroom and bow pasta.


These noodles were served cold with a dipping sauce, quite refreshing to eat these during the hot weather.

Gudetama Sushi & Sandwich

More Gudetama food art to share in this post, he's one of my favourite characters to craft, because he is so easy to make. I don't have anymore Gudetama creations in my archive after this post, but I'm quite sure it won't be too long before make him again, lol.


First up, I've Gudetama tamago sushi and Gudetama pudding.


These sushi were made with just tamago and nori. My boys love sushi and sashimi, because they get to dip them in soy sauce, lol. -_-


Gudetama milk pudding with peach, I used melted chocolate to draw in the features for Gudetama.



Gudetama egg sandwich, which I made for my brunch just this Monday.


You can refer to my post here on how to make Gudetama. The difference is this time I used mashed potatoes mixed with egg yolk, instead of mashed pumpkin. And the egg was placed on bread, instead of rice.


I was taking pictures of my brunch, when LT came running over and said he wanted to be my hand model, which means he wants his hands to be in the photo. I usually make my food art in the afternoon when he's at school, so he's a little upset it's always IT's hands in the photos, lol.


And here's an uncropped photo I had to share because I found it cute, just look at LT's tummy, and he's still hugging onto his bolster, lol. Shhh...... don't tell him I shared this photo, or he'll tell me to remove it.

Bunny Curry Chicken Sandwich

Do you remember the Kaya Banana French Toast I shared last week? I'm going to share another yummy sandwich recipe for today, I've infused some local flavour in this recipe as well. :)


Bunnies bread balls and sandwich filled with curry chicken. This filling is very similar to the ones used in curry puffs. It's not really spicy and kids will have no problem eating this sandwich as well.


Lettuce and shredded cabbage can be added in the sandwich to make it a more balanced meal.



I'm using Gardenia Oats and Honey Loaf for this recipe. This loaf is freshly baked with premium Rolled Oats, Chia Seeds, Honey and Sunflower Seeds to provide a hearty source of essential vitamins and minerals. It contains omega 3, is lower in saturated fat and has naturally no cholesterol. The bread is a lovely shade of brown and it's really soft, almost like white bread.


Gardenia is now having  a "Wholemeal, Wholesome, Whole lot of fun!" promotion. To participate, simply buy ANY 2 participating Gardenia Wholemeal products and stand a chance to WIN 5-Star Family Vacations to Resorts World Sentosa plus Cash and Prizes worth over $50,000!

To participate, submit your name, NRIC, address & contact no. together with any 2 Gardenia Wholemeal packaging by 15 June 2015 to:

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Clementi Central Post Office Locked Bag Service No.3,
(S) 911286

This promotion ends on 8 June 2015. For full contest details, visit http://bit.ly/1Dn0qqI


I've included the step-by-step photos to create the bunny bread balls, as well as the curry chicken sandwich recipe.


To make bunny bread ball, slice off crust of a slice of Gardenia Oats and Honey Loaf. Set aside bread crust.


Flatten bread using a rolling pin.


Using a knife, make 4 small cuts on the middles of the 4 edges as shown.


Place curry chicken in the middle of the bread, I added in some shredded cheese as well.


Bring the four corners of the bread together.


Wrap and secure the bread using cling wrap. Twist the ends tight and shape into a ball. Leave aside for a while.


Remove cling wrap and place bread balls in baking cups.


Using the cut out bread crust set aside in the first step, cut out two tear drop shape for bunny ears, using a pair of scissors.


Using a knife, cut a long slit on the bread ball so you can slot in the ears.


Slot in the ears at the slit.


Slice 3 oval shape from olives for the eyes and ears. Cut out a straight line from nori for the mouth. Attach on the olives using pasta sticks. Use some mayonnaise to "stick" on the nori.


Use a round cutter to cut out a circle from a darker coloured cheese. Use a heart shaped cutter to cut out circle from a lighter coloured cheese.


Using a pair of scissors, cut out a curved thin line for the bee's eyes, cut out two thicker straight lines for the body.


Place the bee above the bunny's nose. The steps to create the bunny sandwich is similar, you just have to skip the step in making the bread ball.

CURRY CHICKEN SANDWICH
Ingredients:
4 slices Gardenia Oats & Honey Loaf
100g chicken meat, diced
1 large potato, diced and boiled
1 medium sized onion, minced
3 tsp chicken curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 pieces of lettuce
Handful of shredded cabbage, optional
Handful of shredded cheese, optional

Method:

1. Heat oil and fry onion till soft. 
2. Add in curry powder, chilli powder and fry gently.
3. Add in chicken, potatoes, sugar, pepper, salt and cook for 5 minutes. Mix well and set aside to cool.
4. Assemble lettuce, shredded cabbage, shredded cheese and curry chicken between two slices of Gardenia Oats & Honey Loaf.

Cornell Hello Kitty Sandwich Toaster

Do you remember I shared about the Hello Kitty sandwich toaster from Cornell last year? The toaster just got a makeover and I love this new revamp version.

Wagashi and Mashed Potato Duck

Thank you very much to all those of you who emailed to ask about my upcoming book. Sorry for not talking about the book earlier, I started working on it in June, as I'm working on it slowly, I was hoping to wait until I submit the manuscript before talking about it online. However, due to the interviews, the news came out earlier. Just to share a bit about it for now. The book is a bento cookbook, with lots of bentos and food recipes, and all bentos come with step-by-step photos. It is estimated to be out in US in fall next year, I'll update more in due course. :)

I started making Halloween bentos this week, but I'll only be updating them next week. Meanwhile, if you need ideas for Halloween bentos, you can click HERE to check out those I made previously, I've plenty of old Halloween bentos.


The duck sitting on top of the mini pancakes stack is a type of wagashi ( traditional Japanese sweets), I made it using white bean paste and shiratama flour.


I won't be sharing the recipe for this, as you can't get white bean paste here. I've not seen it being sold here, if you know where to get it in Singapore, please let me know.


However, you can easily create these ducks using mashed potatoes, and I'll be sharing how to make them in this post.


The mashed potatoes ducks are sitting on ham and egg mayo sandwiches, and there's also prawn salad packed in the bento.

Please continue on for the detailed tutorial on how to make these.


Finally, the mashed potato tutorial I promised. Sorry for taking so long to get it done. First, peel potato, chop into small pieces and steam for around 10 to 15 minutes or till soft.


Mash them up with a fork or potato masher. I usually add a pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of butter so that it taste better. Please do not add too much butter, and please do not add milk.


You can colour the mixture using gel colours. To make the duck, I divided the mashed potato and coloured them yellow and orange.


To make the duck, roll yellow mashed potato into 2 balls, one slightly bigger than the other, using the palms of your hands.


Take the bigger ball, flatten the front a little and mould out the duck's tail at the back.


Place the small ball on top.


Take a bit of orange mashed potato, mould out the duck's bill and mould it onto the duck.


Punch out a circle from nori, using a hole puncher. You can stop at this step.


Or you can get some yellow mashed potato and mould on the duck's wings.


I chose this duck to demonstrate the step-by-step as it's very easy to make, but you can use this same method to mould into other things you fancy. You can also use sweet potatoes and purple potatoes. You can even fill it in a pipping bag with a pipping tip and use it to pipe on designs for sushi cake. :)