how to make Totoro peanut butter sandwich
March 15, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: how-to (all), peanut butter sandwich, studio ghibli, totoro
11 comments
My boyfriend loves eating peanut butter sandwiches as a snack. He eats one before he goes to kung fu class on Saturday or late afternoon on Sunday. I was thinking there’s gotta be an easy way to make his plain peanut butter sandwich cuter.
Easy and cute = Totoro!
So I was looking around the house, thinking what I could use to make a sandwich cutter for Totoro… a soda bottle!
Please be careful with the sharp edge and a knife when you start cutting up a soda bottle. I’d feel horrible if anyone cut themselves doing this.
[How to make Totoro peanut butter sandwich]
- two slices of whole wheat bread
- a slice of white bread or cheese
- peanut butter
– a plastic bottle
– knife and scissors
– paper clips or tape
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how to make Doraemon onigiri
March 10, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: doraemon, how-to (all), onigiri, rice ball
4 comments
I was pleasantly surprised that I got such reactions on Doraemon onigiri. I really didn’t think anyone would know who it was. But I was wrong! It made me want to spread love for Doraemon, so I decided to do a how-to.
When I made it for my boyfriend, I didn’t really prepare anything for it, and as I was making it, I realized that a couple minutes of preparation would’ve saved me a lot of trouble. Also, cutting seaweed for the face and putting it on weren’t as easy as I thought it would be… So I came up with a foolproof method to make this Doraemon rice ball. This way, you don’t need to deal with sticky rice getting all over your hands, or worry about ripping seaweed!
[How to make Doraemon onigiri (rice ball)]
- rice
- salt
- seaweed
- kamaboko (fish cake) or cheese
- carrot
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how to make soboro
March 1, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - fundamentals Tags: how-to (all), soboro
5 comments
You may know this by now, but my boyfriend eats pretty much anything I put in his bento. But still, I usually try to put rice, veggie and meat or fish (protein) in his bento. I also try to save some time by cooking food that I can make a lot of and can be kept for a long time, and that’s why I use a lot of meatballs and hamburg. Soboro is a simple yet convenient meat recipe I often use. I didn’t really think soboro was anything special, but my boyfriend thought it was a very simple and useful food. As matter of a fact, I used soboro for “real rice cake” last night! It totally saved me.
Traditional soboro is made with ground chicken, but I usually use ground beef because I get left over ground beef when I make meatballs and hamburg. You can also make it with ground pork or even a can of tuna!
[How to make soboro]
- 1/2 lb of ground beef or pork or chicken, or *2 cans of tuna
- 2 tbs of soy sauce or *3 tbs if you’re using tuna
- 1 tbs of sugar or *2 tbs if you’re using tuna
- 1 tbs of cooking sake or white wine or *1 tbs of mayonnaise if you’re using tuna
Cooking sake, soy sauce and sugar
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How to make a Wall-E sandwich
December 21, 2008
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: how-to (all), Wall-E
31 comments
EDIT: Before you read the How to make a Wall-E sandwich…
I’ve discovered that some people posted the entire page of How to make a Wall-E sandwich on their website/blog. I’m glad that they felt the urge to spread the joy of Wall-E sandwich to others, and I’m sure they didn’t mean any harm, but I spend a long time making & writing this how-to’s with my boyfriend. I don’t have problem anyone blogging about my bento using the pictures, but when you do, please make sure you properly credit it with a link to my site. I don’t like asking people to remove posts from their blog and I do not want to stop doing this either… Thank you.- Anna
After my Wall-E bento hit the internet, things got a little crazy. Now Wall-E’s view count on my boyfriend’s flickr is more than 85400! Seems like a lot of them have never seen kyaraben before, and I was happy that they got to know about it. Every time someone leaves a comment like “I want to make this for my kids/husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend!”, it makes me glad that I made it. At the same time it makes me want to teach them how, because I think making your loved one happy is what kyaraben is about. I’ve been wanting to do “how to make Wall-E bento”, but my original Wall-E bento had a lot of Asian ingredients, and I wasn’t sure if everyone could get all those ingredients. (such as seaweed, kamaboko, and konnyaku) So I decided to make Wall-E with a sandwich!
This one is super simple and easy. I’m sure you can add tons of details to it and make it more Wall-E like. But as long as he has the box body, treads and the sad eyes, he’ll be Wall-E enough! (Hopefully…)
[How to make a Wall-E sandwich]
- Four slices of whole wheat bread
- Turkey & mayonnaise (or ham, or peanut butter, whatever you want!)
- American cheese singles
- Blueberry
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How to dye eggs naturally
December 21, 2008
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - fundamentals Tags: dye, egg, how-to (all)
11 comments
I wrote in the Professor Layton bento post that the color blue is kind of a taboo color in the kyaraben world. In Japan, kyaraben are mostly for kids, and many moms try their best not to use food coloring in bento.
Any processed food contains food coloring, and I don’t freak out about it. I wanted to use minimal food coloring in my bento, so I looked for ways to dye food naturally.
[How to dye an egg naturally]
[Yellow]
- curry powder or turmeric
[Pink]
- purple cabbage
- vinegar
[Light blue]
- purple cabbage
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How to dye rice naturally
December 21, 2008
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - decorations Tags: dye rice, how-to (all)
6 comments
Well it’s not really “dyeing” rice, more like how to change the color of rice for your bento.
I use these methods a lot to make Totoro, or backgrounds with rice. It’s not much, but since rice is white, changing the color of rice can make a quite difference in your bento.
[How to dye rice gray-ish] (used in “Sleeping Totoro”, etc…)
- rice
- black sesame seed (with a sesame seed grinder or mortar and pestle)
- salt
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How to make a snowflake
December 14, 2008
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: how-to (all), snowflake
5 comments
It’s been quite warm in NYC this winter (we only got some flurries a week ago or so) but despite the warm winter and bad economy, you still can feel festivity in the air! So, I’m going to do something wintery today.
There are so many food artists out there who can carve intricate amazing looking sculptures out of vegetable or fruit, but it takes a lot of practice to do what they do. So I want to share something that’s pretty easy and anyone can do. No special sharp knife is required to make this one either!
[Snowflake]
- radish (or apple or cheese. You can use carrot if you want red snowflakes.)
– straw
– round object (bottle cap, cookie cutter, etc…)
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How to make a Japanese snowman
December 14, 2008
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: how-to (all), snowman, yukidaruma
1 comment so far
Maybe this isn’t really a “how-to”, but since it’s winter and all, I thought I’d do this anyway.
I made a snowman very similar to this for Katamari bento. (I used fake sausage instead of carrot for its hat)
[Japanese snowman, a.k.a. Yuki Daruma]
- two quail eggs
- seaweed
- baby carrot (you can also use normal carrot or sausage)
- uncooked pasta
– hole punch, scissors
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How to make Yoshi
December 7, 2008
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: how-to (all), super mario, Yoshi
16 comments
Today’s how-to might seem advanced, but it’s really not!
When I made my Super Smash Bros Brawl bento (which I haven’t done a blog about yet… but it’s coming up next!), I got so much exposure on the internet. Many game related websites posted the picture of my bento. I was really surprised, but I noticed that many people who really liked my bento were moms! Their kids, just like my boyfriend, love Yoshi, and they wished they could make Yoshi for their kids. So I decided to do how to make Yoshi, because making someone smile is what bento making is about. 
[How to make Yoshi]
- potato salad or mashed potato
- lettuce
- cheese
- carrot (preferably baby carrot)
- blueberry
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How to make mario mushrooms
December 7, 2008
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: 1-up, how-to (all), mushroom, super mario
6 comments
This is also something I made for Super Smash Brothers Brawl bento.
It’s very easy to make, and looks adorable. If you don’t put eyes on it, you can just use it as normal mushroom for your bento.
[Super mushroom]
- quail egg or hot dog sausage
- cheese
- seaweed
- cherry tomato
