Tutorial Cheese Crackers Real or Fake ?

Today's tutorial is a funny one, are these cheese crackers real or fake? This is an easy tutorial which we can use as a bento space filler, or as a funny prank, or as a party snack or even something less scary for Halloween. I think the possibilities are endless and this is going to taste great with breads, sandwiches, chips, salads, etc :D

Here's what you need:
2 slices of cheddar cheese
1 slice of goat cheese (or young cheese, or any cheese that is lighter than the 2 slices of cheddar you have)
1 circular cookie cutter with scallop edge (you can also use flower shaped cookie cutters)


Here's what I did:
1. Stack the cheese slices on top of one another in this manner:
cheddar cheese - goat cheese - cheddar cheese

2. Use the cookie cutter to make the shapes. Then use a toothpick (or the end of a food pick) and poke 9 holes in the centre. Voila!!

Bento Filler: Cheese Crackers Real or Fake ?

This is also a fun and easy project to work with kids because its relatively easy and mess-free for the adults and its also easy enough for kids to grasp the instructions. So now the question is, how would you name this bento tutorial, Fake Cheese Crackers or Real Cheese Crackers? ;D

Tutorial Sweet Simmered Shiitake Bento Timesaver

Today's tutorial post is about another trick I have up my sleeve, sweet and simmered shiitake mushrooms, which is essentially a bento timesaver recipe. This is a perfect recipe if you know that you will be busy for the rest of the week and have no time to prepare every item individually in mornings. If stored well in the refridgerator, this sweet and simmered shiitake mushroom bento timesaver should last up to a week.

Sweet and Simmered Shiitake - Bento Time Saver and Space Filler

Ingredients:
10 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons mirin (dry sherry can be used as a substitute)

How to:

1. Soak the dried shiitake in cold water until soft. This takes about 1 hour. 

Tip: Usually I'll soak the mushrooms while I'm preparing dinner. By the time Mr Bear and I have finished eating dinner and finished all the cleaning up, it will all be soft enough. If you like, you can soak the mushrooms overnight as well.

How I soak dried mushrooms

Tip: This picture shows how I soak the mushrooms. Because the dried shiitake mushrooms tend to float (which I find rather annoying), I used a dipping dish as a weight so that all mushrooms will get soaked evenly. 

Do not discard the water which you used to soak the mushrooms.

Once the shiitake mushrooms are soft, remove the stems and cut them into bite size pieces.

Tip: As shown in the very first photo, I have cut them into different shapes. This is a personal preference because I figured that if this sweet and swimmered shiitake timesaver is going to appear on me and Mr Bear's bento for the next 2 days, it might be more interesting if they don't look the same everytime we open up the bento.

2. Put the shiitake in a pot with enough soaking water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and add all the other ingredients. Continue simmering until the liquid is almost absorbed completely.

Let it cool completely and portion it into little containers or small silicon cake molds. Store in the refridgerator.

This shiitake bento timesaver might taste a little sweet on it's own because it is designed as a side dish to go with rice. If you like you can serve it together with a plain salad as well.

This is how I make the Sweet and Simmered Shiitake Bento Timesaver, I hope you find the recipe and tips helpful too.

Bento Miffy Sandwich Nijntje Boterham

Today's bento features Nijntje, also known as Miffy internationally, which is one of my favourite characters when I was growing up. When I was young, I remember my mom reading the books to me. Sometimes we would go to the library and I would pick out the books by the basket, literally begging her to bring all of them home. hahaha!
Many people might not know, but this little rabbit has Dutch origins and goes by her Dutch name Nijntje. Her creator Dick Bruna created this character in 1955 after telling his grandson stories about a little rabbit they had seen in the woods in Utrecht. Nijntje (pronounced roughly as "NAI-n-je" in the English way) was the typical child's pronunciation for Konijntje which means little rabbit in Dutch.

Although Nijntje is drawn with barely a few lines, it is instantly recognisable as a rabbit. Soon the character Nijntje becomes an instant hit internationally. Dick design his Nijntje books with minimal dialogues (some even without dialogues) because he thinks that the illustrations should speak for themselves and also because the books were also meant for children as learner books. Nijntje's books soon got translated into many languages and exported into many countries in the world, including Japan. But there was a big problem because not many people can pronounce Nijntje's dutch name. Soon, Nijntje got another name that is easier to pronounce, MIFFY. This is why all translations of Nijntje referred to her as Miffy, or at least with a phonetic translation that sounds like Miffy.

Bento Miffy Sandwich Nijntje Boterham

Many think that Miffy is Japanese, because Sanrio's Hello Kitty and friends are drawn using a similar line style. In addition, the Miffy brand is popular in Japan and there is a lot of Japanese-made Miffy merchandise. To complicate things a little more, Hello Kitty found a friend called Cathy in 1976. Just like Miffy, Cathy is also a rabbit who doesn't talk much and is drawned in a similar fashion. Of course Dick Bruna wasn't very happy about it and there was a long love/hate relationship between the company that owns Miffy, namely Mercis BV and Sanrio. On November 2, 2010, a Dutch court ruled against Sanrio and ordered the company to stop marketing Cathy products in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Sanrio raised an appeal soon after.

Following the 2011 March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Sanrio and Mercis BV settled the lawsuit out of court under the condition that Sanrio must stop worldwide production of merchandise that feature Cathy. Instead of continuing the court battle like most big companies are likely to do, the two companies will donate the legal fees to help the earthquake victims, which I thought was rather sweet of both of them.

Ok, I think this post is getting rather long. Sorry I got carried away, hahaha, because I really love Nijntje / Miffy a lot and she reminds me a lot of my childhood. I hope you like this Miffy Sandwich Bento or should I say Nijntje Boterham Bento as much as I do :)

Bento Ninja Friday Funny - Meatfree

Funny Friday Meatfree Bento Ninja. Its Friday again and today's bento post is about 2 funny ninjas. These 2 funny ninjas are actually inari sushis in disguise. They are made with tofu skin pouches (abura-age) and rice. Since Mr Bear also like to have inari sushi with corn, I placed some corn in a small silicon baking mold as a spacefiller for the bento. Chopped green apples are also included as a healthy dessert.

Friday Funny Bento Ninja

I hope you like this Friday funny Ninja Bento. Now who says meatfree food is boring? :D

Tutorial - Bento space filler - cucumber flower

Due to popular requests, I have decided to do a tutorial today on how I made the cucumber flowers which was feature in previous bento posts. It is much simpler than it actually looks and its also a fantastic space filler for bento boxes.

Bento Space Filler Cucumber Flower - shown here in a Ojue Lunchbox compartment

Here is a series of simple step-by-step instructions:

Slice the cucumber as thinly and evenly as possible

Cucumber slices - I cut about 15 slices in total

For illustration purposes I have sliced the cucumber into little discs which are slightly less than 2mm. If you like you can try slicing them into paper thin slices for a more delicate look.

Sprinkle salt on the cucumber slices

Place the cucumber slices in a bowl. Sprinkle some salt onto the cucumber slices and mix thoroughly. Squeeze out the excess liquid and rinse away the salt crystals under running water.

Cucumber slices in a ice water bath

Prepare some ice water and place the cucumber slices into the icy water.

Line the cucumber slices up like this

Lightly pat dry the cucumber slices with a paper towel. Line the cucumber slices up as shown in the picture above, making sure that the slices overlap each other.

Here comes the magical part - roll the cucumber slices towards yourself

Starting from the furthest end, roll the cucumber slices towards yourself. It might be a little slippery, so using both hands might be helpful. (I had to struggle here a little because my right hand was holding the camera...^^,")

Soon you will end up with something like this

Soon you will end up with something like this. If there is a lot of liquid, gently squeeze out the excess liquid as shown below:

Squeeze! *gently please*

If you are planning to use the cucumber flowers immediately as a single space filler for the bento box, you may omit the steps below.

Push uncooked spagetti into the cucumber flower

Take a piece of uncooked spagetti and push it throught the cucumber flower until you can feel that it's pushing through to the other end. Break off excess spagetti. Repeat the step, taking note of the order of the arrows.

Voila! Cucumber flower bento space filler

This is how it looks like. This cucumber flower bento can also be prepared in advance and placed in the fridge. Usually I will make 3-4 cucumber flowers at the same time and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Usually they can last for a couple of days and they are fantastic especially when I need to pack a bento fast. Hope you like this cucumber flower tutorial! :)

Bento Cheese Salami Sandwich Rollup cucumber flowers

Today I woke up feeling a bit "dry" for bento ideas. Yes, sometimes stuff like this happens. I think isn't necessarily a bad thing because it shows that I'm still human after all :D So the very first thing I usually do in this situation is to open the fridge door and stare hard at everything sitting on the shelves. I saw half a cucumber, 1/4 slice (Not even half a slice -_-") of young cheese, half slice of salami. So this is what came out of these leftovers.

Bento Cheese Salami Sandwich Rollup and cucumber flowers

The bento box is an airtight food storage box which I got from the Hema store and it comes in a set of 2. I like it very much because it has an easy size and shape to work with. As for the star shape, I used a set of star-shaped cookie cutters from Daiso.

I hope you like this Bento Cheese Salami Sandwich Rollup with cucumber flowers (oh yes, and those two little white/blue packages are chewy candies)

Bento Apple Cucumber Lettuce meat-free

Its Monday again and for many people it's either another back-to-work or back-to-school day. After a weekend of eating a lot (of junk), I thought maybe making a healthy meat-free bento is a good idea, just to kind of detox a bit. This is what I have for lunch today: Bento Apple, Cucumber and Lettuce

Hope you like this Meat Free Monday bento!