Totoro Char Siu Bao Bento!

Totoro! I was thinking about him this past week because we happened to find the My Neighbor Totoro picture book in the library. It's a little jarring to read the story and descriptives since watching the film is more of a stream of flowing imagery washing over your senses. But it is fun to look closely at the detailed illustrations. In the scene where the sisters are eating cucumbers fresh from the garden, you can see the chewed-up bits of vegetable in Mei's open mouth while she's talking about bringing corn to her mother. Anyway, here is my tribute to everyone's favorite "cross between a bear and a raccoon and an owl." Have a magical adventure today!

Also in the ECOlunchbox Solo Rectangle: grapes, cucumbers, carrots, strawberry, lettuce. Details made from fishcake, nori, soba.

Totoro Calzone Bento

Aw, it's Totoro! You may have to use your imagination, though. I made pizzas for dinner, and always try to make some kind of cute calzone at the same time. You can see my past attempts if you do a search in the blog search bar. I know, I made his chevrons wrong. Shoots! He has a spinach leaf umbrella, and a tomato balloon. I hope he's happy! And I hope you are too ^__^

Totoro and Bear Calzone Bento

Totoro Calzone Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today the kids get calzones again! I used roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, lots of cheese, and baby arugula in the meatless ones, and salami and pepperoni in the meatlover ones. Love them. MisterMan got Totoro, with radish and nori eyes and nose, and soba whiskers, and TinySprite got a brown bear.

The rest of the bentos contain broccoli, peapods, carrots, corn, plum, strawberries, blackberries and grapes. Love this pizza and calzone week. Super fun and easy, and everyone's happy! P.S. I think I'm getting the hang of shaping them now. No puffy pig snouts!

Totoro and Catbus Bentos

Totoro and Soot Sprites Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

MisterMan and TinySprite get matching Studio Ghibli bentos today; and they're both almost totally non-cook. I initially wanted to do these for a roadtrip, because wouldn't it be fun for them to eat together and chat about the movie (My Neighbor Totoro)? But I couldn't wait. I really wanted to make another Totoro, and after bento numbers one and two, I think this one looks pretty neat and sharp (if I may say so myself).

It helps to have a very smooth bun to work with. I used my small paring knife to slice off just the top brown layer for his belly, and after pre-scoring his chevron stripes I actually cut around them. They are still connected to the bun, and that way I didn't have to worry about sticking them back on. His eyes are cheese and nori, and his nori nose is stuck on with a bit of honey. I cut his ears from part of the belly and stuck them into slits I cut at the top of the bun. The eyes are secured with rice sticks to the bun.

Okinawan purple potato, when steamed and refrigerated overnight, turn a very dark shade of purple the next day, which makes them quite suitable for soot sprites. Their eyes are also cheese and nori. The rest of his bento contains the usual: broccoli, carrots, strawberry, cherries, grape tomatoes and orange slices.

TinySprite's Catbus is made from a hot dog-in-a-blanket with a potato bread face. All the facial features (Okinawan purple potato, regular sweet potato, cheese and radish) were secured with rice sticks. I hand-cut thin strips of nori for the teeth and eyes, and used bits of spaghetti for whiskers. She got a piece of corn, steamed broccoli, carrots, strawberry, cherries, and rasp-, black- and blueberries. This turned out to be too much for her and she brought the corn home to finish. They loved them!