DIY bento accessories - Circle shapes - plastic bottles

It's the time of the week again. My stash of soft drink bottles are getting full and I'm going back to the stores to get some cash refunds for being a nice environmentally friendly person :D Speaking of plastic bottles, they make great circle shapes without us even doing anything!

Bottle caps make pretty good cutters for boiled carrots, or cheese / ham cutters, so I do have some of them lying around the house. If you are into charaben, they do make great basic small round "head" shapes too. Scroll down to see how I make non-circular shapes out of my DIY bento accessory :)

Here's how I use round bottle caps as vegetable cutters to produce other shapes.

DIY bento accessories - bottle cap

DIY Bento Accessories - uses

DIY bento accessories - flat round rice burger mold

Today I had a strange find. I was just about to go to the plastic recycling station with my bag of household food plastics and something dropped out of that bad. It was the lid from a yoghurt dessert I had some time back. Something struck me and I decided to keep this into my bento accessories drawer.

This can be used as a rice mold for something you want to be round and disc- like. This is the perfect bento accessory or tool especially for those who wants to make a rice burger for lunch. Simply pack the rice in and pop it out just the same way you would when you build a sandcastle. Heat a pan and give those rice disc a quick toast on both sides. Totally disposable and no commitments! :D

DIY bento accessories - rice and pasta mold - flower

Last week, I wrote a post on how to make your own leaf shaped and heart shaped bento accessories. This time round I will show you how I make my own flower shaped rice mold out of the remaining plastic "bottle". Simply cut the end of the bottle according to the desired height.

This can also be used for certain types of pasta. As long as you work fast and the rice is not too hot for your hands, you can just pack the rice into the mold and pop it out just like how you make sandcastles.

For a more detailed write up on tools and basic steps on how to DIY bento accessories, you can check this out. 

Bento Mushroom with Jus and Cod Roe Sprinkles

This is a bento with some quick and easy left overs from the dinner the night before. I sliced some mushroom and gave them a quick stir fry with the meat sauce from the previous night. Then I pack in the rice and sprinkle some Tarako Furikake, which is a Japanese Sprinkle made from Cod Roe. I had used a plastic strip cut from a soda bottle as a sort of stencil for the Japanese Sprinkle. My only mistake was that I pushed the strip too far into the rice and it looked a little messier than what I had in mind. If you are trying this out with the round strip from the soda bottle, try to make sure that you have about 2cm of it sticking out above the rice. Try to pour the sprinkle from as close to the surface of the rice as possible, it helps!

Bento with Mushroom and Tarako Furikake

emergency DIY bento accessories - Stencil and sandwich cutter - Circle and Grass

Due to popular requests, I have decided to do a quick post on a DIY bento accessory. This time round, its a sandwich cutter that can also be used as a stencil for powdered sprinkles and dutch chocolate rice (hagelslag).

DIY bento accessories - round sandwich cutter and stencil

Cut the plastic soda bottle as shown above and you will have a round sandwich cutter. To use it as a stencil, simply push the sandwich cutter into the rice, leaving about 2cm of the plastic sticking out. Pour in the sprinkles.

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Sandwich Cutter / Stencil for Grass or Mountains:

Follow the same steps as the round shaped sandwich cutter and cut across the plastic as shown above. Now you have a open strip of plastic.

Next I fold it like an accordian. The folds do not have to be all straight and equal. This DIY bento accessory can now be used to cut slices of cheese, ham, bread, leafy vegetables, etc to make grass or mountains. Try it out and let me know how it goes! :)

DIY Bento Accessories - sandwich cutter, ham and cheese cutter - Leaf and Heart shape

In case some of you have been reading my blog and thinking that I have a crazy huge stash of bento accesories or I spent a lot of money buying all these stuffs, nah, I don't have a walk-in closet full of bento stuffs and I didn't spend a lot on whatever I have either. Tell you a *secret* , I make my own sandwich cutters, ham and cheese cutters, rice/couscous molds!

These tiny easy stuffs are fantastic because we get to do our bit for the environment and they do not cost that much as well. AND they are great for those days when you suddenly need to cut out a certain shape from that stack of sliced cheese.

Today I will share with you how I make my own leaf / heart shape cutter. Read on!

DIY bento accessories - tools

 First of all, you will need this 3 things: Any empty soda bottle, pen knife and a pair of scissors.

DIY bento accessories - Step 1

 Cut a strip of plastic out right across the bottle just like this picture above and below. Be careful not to cut your fingers because sometimes the edges can be quite sharp.

DIY bento accessories - do not throw anything away yet

 Pinch the plastic strip as shown in the picture below.

DIY bento accessories - pinch the plastic strip

There you go, a LEAF shaped sandwich cutter. You can also use it to cut sliced cheese and ham.

DIY bento accessories - Leaf shaped sandwich cutter

From this point, you can also make a heart shaped sandwich cutter out of the same piece of plastic. Hold it just like I did in the picture below and just squeeze hard.

DIY bento accessories - Heart shape sandwich cutter - SQUEEZE!

DIY bento accessories - Heart shape sandwich cutter - COMPLETED!

Save the rest of the bottle and they can be used for something else, so do look out for more of my DIY bento accessories coming up next week!