Making our Own Kawaii Bento Lunch

When Sofia was a baby (around 1-2 years old so this was close to 5 years ago) I had the brilliant idea that when she started studying, I would make her the cutest bento lunch boxes, so she would be the coolest kid and I would be the coolest mom.  During this phase, my sister and I went crazy buying bento tools, so we ended up with such a big bento collection, but since Sofia was still a baby then, there wasn't any hurry for us to use it. This was also during the "Atkins Diet Lunch Box Catering" fad, so I even had a vague business idea, there's an opportunity to offer catered cute, healthy bento meals for kids, which justified our spending on bento tools since it was sort of a business investment for product development. I even kept adding to our bento stash when I used to travel for work, so it just kept growing. The only catch is, we never really used it and I don't really know where Sofia's old nanny (who's no longer with us) kept everything.

Fast forward to present day, I think it's really cool that there's a group called BentoMommas, who all have a love of bento making, and who sell bento tools and conduct bento making workshops. So when they posted about a workshop organized by Mommy Mundo that they were holding at The Crib, in Tiendesitas, I showed Sofia the post and she was very excited to attend.

Sofia chose to attend this workshop over watching
How To Train your Dragon 2 with Ninang Ria.

Selfie while waiting...

Since we arrived early (and the workshop started late),
Sofia even had time to help Reese set up her Rainbow Loom Stall.

The Bento Workshop was hands on with the basic tools provided
for everyone's use together with basic ingredients.

The first part was a basic introduction.

Then there was a demonstration on how to make a
cute animal sandwich, which you can prepare if your
kids only have snack time.

You can work wonders with different colored bread,
seaweed, ham and cheese.

Voila! A Cat sandwich with some cereal and grapes.

Kits were distributed to the participants for the hands-on part.

The first activity was how to checker and apple. Really easy,
but it's best to use Fuji Apples (for both consistency and taste).

The highlight of the workshop was how to make a Bento Rice Meal.

Even without bento tools you can do this by
shaping the rice using a zip lock bag.

Sofia and Reese decorating their bentos.

You can use cheese, seaweed, and ham to put in the details.
You can also make hearts using the hot dog ends.

Love. Love. Love.

Sofia with her main bento character.

Sofia's favorite part of Bento creation is eating
the ingredients!

This is our first joint bento creation.

After decorating the rice, you can just fill in the silicone cups with the
viands and the side dishes. 

Sofia was really proud of her bento.

With Ate Janice of Mommy Mundo and Reese.

Our little girls with the Bentos Mommas and their
giveaways.

They gave us grass food dividers, food picks and silicone cups,
so you can immediately start making bentos.

Since The Crib is located in Fun Ranch, we couldn't leave without Sofia going on a ride.

I didn't really have a proper lunch, so I dragged Sofia with me across the street to snack.

So she brought out her bento box and she started
eating it.

We really enjoyed the Bento Workshop, in fact, it really inspired us to make our own bento (5 years after the bento tools hoarding!). Good thing, I just recently went to Japan and I figured, it was just so much easier to buy basic bento tools instead of looking for where all our old ones are stashed.

Sofia and our newly purchased basic bento tools.

The first thing we did was we fixed the planogram or layout of how the
bento will look like.

Then Sofia shaped the rice. 

 Rice shapers help control the amount of rice you prepare. My experience during the workshop is that we kept on adding rice to make them into a recognizable shape.

Again, Sofia's favorite part of bento making is eating
all the ingredients. 

Our end product is a bunny and winking bear rice, with grilled pork belly
in the silicone cups and a checkered Fuji apple slice for dessert.

Someone is so excited to eat her Bento.
She didn't even want to wait for lunch the next day.

The Sofia Lego lunch box and Snoopy utensils also came in handy.

To make a cute or kawaii bento, all you really need is loads of creativity. While we really enjoyed making our bento, I think I need a lot more inspiration before we get to the catering level. I guess that means, I should just look for the bento tools we already own instead of buying new ones. just saying.