#BentoGiveaway Winner!

Congratulations to... (drumroll, please)

DIANNE RARELA OCAMPO

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You just won a Big Bento Start-Up kit. Please expect an email from me in a few. Again, congratulations!

Thank you, everyone, for joining this giveaway!

Yay!

The Pre-Giveaway Bento Giveaway!

And so it has been pretty busy over at BentoMommas. So much so that we've had to buy shelving for stocks. Yes! We now have a pretty small, but organized "warehouse". Imagine that.

Busy is an understatement. And the Facebook page almost has a thousand likes. That's a mighty feat! Considering we started out as a group of bento moms with this crazy idea.

So anyway, because we're about to reach that "1,000 likes" milestone, we thought it would be cool to stage a BIG BENTO GIVEAWAY. And well, we're not quite at 1,000. Haha! So this BentoMomma thought she'd go through her own bento loot to see if she can organize her own little giveaway - a pre-giveaway to the giveaway sort of giveaway. LOL!

Et voila!

WIN THIS BIG BENTO START-UP KIT!
Kit includes: 2 star silicon cups, 2 mini oval silicon cups, a butterfly silicon cup, star picks, skittle picks, G-clef skewers,
2 sauce bottles, 3 plastic fruit barans, a set of Wilton FoodWriters and an original Mickey Mouse bread press!

So easy to join! Here's how:

1. Follow the steps as detailed on Rafflecopter below. The more steps you accomplish, the more raffle entries you get. If you don't see the Rafflecopter giveaway template, click here.
2. Deadline for entries is 12AM, Monday, 3 February 2014 (that's a minute into Monday).
3. The winner will be announced next week.
4. This giveaway is open to Philippine residents only. You must provide your complete Philippine address. The prize will be shipped to the winner. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That's it! Good luck!

FIVE!

My little boy turned five last month. I can't believe it. He will soon be out of his toddler years, and that makes me sad. To me, he is still my baby, but I know he can't stay small forever.

We weren't really planning a party for his 5th, but the kids at his school make it a point to celebrate their birthdays there, so RL was kinda expecting the same. That, plus the BentoMommas were sorta pushing for a bento party so I can practice my bento catering skills. LOL! So, this BentoMomma gathered all her energy to prep for a 30-minute bento party (yes, 30 minutes, maybe even less, because that's all the time you get for recess at the little boy's school).

We were going for Spidey, but thought it would be best to reserve Spidey for another occasion. Besides, Lightning McQueen would be easier for this Momma. So after researching and some serious net surfing, Momma came up with this:

Disney Cars Bento Party!

I made Lightning McQueen out of Spiced Ham (the taste suited the spaghetti, plus I liked its reddish hue), bread, cheese and nori. It sits on a bed of my special tri-noodle spaghetti. I served this with a cheese cake imprinted with Disney Cars characters, 3 pieces of chicken nuggets, a piece of gala apple sliced to resemble a checkered flag, and some gummy race cars. Yep, this Momma made 25 of these! 25! Can't say it was easy, but the results were very rewarding.

A closer look at Lightning McQueen...

I found some red reusable containers at the supermarket, and used that to hold the bento meals. Printed out a party tag and voila, this BentoMomma is now ready to do a little bit of bento catering (I hope I don't regret saying that, LOL). The thing with RL's preschool is - everything had to be reusable, so I was really careful with how I packaged everything.

I decorated the wooden utensils with red star washi tapes from Paper Chic Studio.

I ordered a Lightning McQueen cake from the neighborhood bakery (our favorite Orange Chiffon with their signature marshmallow icing!). It was a hit with the kids, although they didn't quite get to taste it, because after RL blew out the candles, it was time to head back to class.

They were thoughtful enough to incorporate the number 5 on McQueen's body. 

For giveaways, I used our leftover cups from the Family Day Bazaar and filled them with goodies - gelatin cups, M&Ms, Pocky, Chupa Chups, rainbow mentos, Chocolait drink, etc.

I found this cool Lightning McQueen candle, and RL actually had a total of 6 candles (5 small ones plus this one)
which I thought was a wrong move on my part, because he kept asking me "why 6". LOL!

It was a simple party, if you discount the prep time for the bento meals. I loved how the kids reacted to their meals (although it wasn't much of a surprise because these kids were used to seeing my little boy's bento lunch). I love how they appreciated what I prepared, so this was a very fulfilling experience.

This little girl was really digging into my tri-noodle spaghetti, and she kept saying it was "so good".
I can make you spaghetti forever, S!

The not-so-little boy posing with his birthday cake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RL! 

To see more of my imBento work, follow me on Instagram at @momma_makes_imbento.
Looking for Bento tools? Check out the BentoMommas Facebook page here. 

Bento 101: Charaben

From Wikipedia: 
Kyaraben or charaben, a shortened form of character bento is a style of elaborately arranged bento (Japanese boxed lunch) which features food decorated to look like people, characters from popular media, animals, and plants. Japanese homemakers often spend time devising their families' meals, including their boxed lunches. 

Originally, a decorated bento was intended to interest children in their food and to encourage a wider range of eating habits. It has now evolved to the point where national contests are held.


With all these bento photos that I've been uploading both here on the blog and on Instagram, I've received many requests to do tutorials on how charabens or decobens are made. These are very popular in Japan, and I suppose it is the same way here, with bento-making on the uptrend.

Recently, I've had the chance to teach Michelle (Momma N' Manila) and Mia (my soaperstarmama friend and stalker) how to make owl charaben, and I think I've pretty much mastered (well, sort of) the art of molding onigiri without the mold. In fact, the girls were thinking it would be easier to mold with just their hands, but I guess this bento momma proved them otherwise (didn't I?), hehe.

So anyway, here's what we made that day.

From left to right: Mia's, Mine and Michelle's. Hoot! Hoot!

I shall save the retelling on what went on during our mini-workshop for another post. Today's all about making charabens, and I will teach you how to make a bear-y simple one. Haha, get it? Bear-y easy bear charaben. This will be a photo blog, as there are a lot of photos to help you with the step-by-step procedure on how to put this one together.

BEAR-Y EASY BEAR CHARABEN

Ingredients:
Rice
Main Dish
Vegetable Dish
Side Dish of Fruit or Vegetable
Cheese
Nori/ Dried Seaweed
Bread
A stick of Uncooked Spaghetti

We had pork adobo leftovers, and that basically influenced my choice of which charaben to make. I was thinking I could use the sauce to make brown-colored rice, and it would make a nice bear. Charabens need not be complicated. You can use leftovers! I always do.

Here's how I made my bear-y easy bear...

I took some sauce and mixed it with my rice.

You don't need adobo to make this. Use brown rice or seasoning mixed with white rice.

Scoop enough rice in a food-grade bag to mold the bear's head.
Make sure rice is packed such that it doesn't break when taken out of the bag.

Place directly in your box or in a large, round silicone cup.

For ears, scoop about a teaspoon of rice into the bag and mold.

You will need two. Break off about an inch of uncooked spaghetti noodles.
Dip ends in mayonnaise or sauce to make it stick to your rice balls.

Push your noodle halfway through the small balls to make ears.

Attach ears to head like so.

Using a bear cookie cutter, punch out some cheese.

Once you get the bear punched out, reverse the cutter and punch again.

You will then have an oval for the bear's face, and ears for the bear's... uh... ears. Hehe.

Attach to rice like so.

Take a piece of bread and flatten it with a rolling pin or glass jar.
You don't need the whole slice, just a tiny piece. But my kids love eating bread scraps. Hehe.

Using a small circle cookie cutter, punch out two circles for eyes.

Attach to the bear's head like so.

Punch out two nori circles using a single hole puncher.
Attach to the bread circles using mayo and tweezers.

Using the HapuMogu face nori puncher #9 (available at Saizen), punch out a couple of half moons.

If you don't have this puncher, just use scissors to cut out those shapes.
The nori puncher just helps with precise shapes.

Attach those half moons to the ears like so.

Using a smaller single hole puncher and a HapiMogu face nori puncher #8, punch out more nori circles.
Apply to face to add details to the bear's cheeks.

Using the nori I used to punch out the half moons, I took a pair of scissors and cut out the bear's mouth.
I followed the shape of the half moon to help me get the right curve.

I wanted to serve vegetables and a side of cherry tomatoes with the pork adobo,
so I used three mini oval silicone cups.

Voila! My bear-y easy bear charaben! Nothing to it, right?
Served my bear-y serious bear with pork adobo, fried zucchini slices and some cherry tomatoes.

I used the following bento tools to make this charaben.

These tools are available at Saizen!
Rolling Pin, Hapi Mogu Nori Punchers, Single Hole Punchers, Silicone Cups, Cookie Cutters, Picks and Tweezers.

Because I hardly get to make my not-so-little girl bentos anymore, she got this bear-y cute bento for lunch today.

Pleased with her bento, although I doubt it filled her tummy. This is RL's small bento box after all!

For more bento fun, follow me on instagram!

http://instagram.com/momma_makes_imbento

~~~ * ~~~

Have you submitted your photo entries for Saizen's Create Your Own Bento Photo Contest? You have three more days to make them and beat their September 30 deadline! Hurry! Make those bentos and send in your photo today. You can win upto P3,000 worth of Saizen Gift Certificates!

To those asking, the photo entry should contain three elements: 
1) Your finished bento, 
2) The Saizen tools you used to make your bento, and 
3) A photo of you making your bento.

Edit these photos together to make one photo like so...

Pretend A made this bento and that photo is of her making it.

For detailed mechanics, check out Saizen on social media:

| facebook.com/saizenph
| twitter.com/SaizenbyDaiso
| instagram.com/saizenph

Bento Shopping at Saizen!

The girls and I make it a point to check out Saizen regularly for bento tools. When I say "regularly", I mean once or twice a week. Yes, that often. We're bento addicts and we don't mind the extra hours spent doing something we so enjoy. So we were at Robinsons Galleria lately, and we checked out the Saizen store for more bento finds.

Saizen is our happy place. I could shop here for hours. I love how they get new stocks every week.

I don't want to bore you with my endless chit-chat, so I shall let the photos do the talking. I added inputs as captions. I wanted to buy everything! So kawaii lah!

Saizen is celebrating Bento Month! Their bento tools are on highlighted displays 'til the end of September.

These kiddie cutlery sets are just too cute! I got RL the frog set and A the bunny set.

Just when I was thinking I have enough cutters, I went and bought more. LOL!

More cookie/sandwich cutters. These are also good for ham, spam, bread, cheese, etc.

I love barans, they make the bento box prettier! I already have all three kinds!

Saizen has a wide selection of Bento Boxes!
They have loads, and I think I end up buying one or two each time I visit!

More bento boxes...

A closer look at those kawaii bento boxes! The strawberry ones are adorable. 

If you're making bento boxes for yourself, and prefer traditional boxes, they have those, too! 

Saizen also has a wide array of chopsticks. Plastic ones, wooden ones, kiddie ones, even trainer chopsticks!

Looking for Onigiri molders? Look no further, Saizen has the complete line!

More cute cutlery sets.

A Sanrio fan? Saizen also has a Sanrio section, all that Hello Kitty for that great, low price of P88!

Look at all their Stainless Steel cutters!!! Use these for just about anything - cutting veggies, molding rice/eggs, and more!

Mini Cookie Cutters!

These shapes are a must-have!

Japanese blossoms cookie cutters! 

If you are new to bento-making, make sure you get yourself a new cutting board! Use it exclusively for all things bento. 

This looks like a nifty cutting board - anti-odor, flexible and comes with a built-in ruler.

All things silicone! 

Mold chocolates for dessert or jello for the little one!
Yes, you can even do gummi candy at home!

Silicone "rings" in different shapes for pancakes and eggs.

FINALLY! Stocks of smaller silicone cups! Take out the lid and use the cups for your bento box! 

More silicone and easy Microwave baking tools - make your own waffles, mini cakes churros, etc. 

Cook your pancakes in these cute pans!

Adorable piggy! Imagine cooking your pancake on this,
then having your kids decorate them! Yes, great activity! 

A nice tea strainer is essential for bubble-free and smooth egg sheets.

Are your kids particular about their dessert getting mixed in with their lunch?
Store the dessert in these tiny and cute Hello Kitty zipped bags! 

In Japan, a bento meal isn't complete without a wet washcloth to wipe your hands with after eating.
These original and licensed Hello Kitty ones are small enough for your kids' lunchbags.

Store your wet washcloths in these equally-cute, multi-purpose containers.

Saizen doesn't only carry bento tools of all kinds, they also have food! My friends and I were talking about how, when we enter the supermarket, all we see are bento possibilities. The snacks they sell at Saizen are all bento winners! Check these out!

A full aisle and a half of food, food and more food! This is their snack aisle!

Mixed Dried Fruit! Makes a good yogurt topper.
That way, the yogurt doesn't easily spill out.

Shaped crackers and cookies are always a hit!

Mini Cream-filled Wafer Rolls!

#omnomnom So many bento possibilities!

Star-shaped chocolate cereal puffs!

Pocky, Pretz, Yan Yan and Hello Panda heaven! Mix and Match for only P88!

Look at all these sweet treats! In Japan, they would occasionally pack a preserved plum as dessert. Wouldn't you prefer a candy? LOL!

Caramel Corn! That, folks, is the Japanese popular cartoon, Anpanman!

Don't forget to grab a pack of nori! The Japanese ones work best with onigiri!

Alas, all good shopping days must come to an end. Do I have to tell you we helped Saizen close shop? We were there until closing, imagine that! I must have spent 2 hours browsing and shopping. I really, really enjoy their store!

'Til the next bento shopping day!

~~~

SAIZEN BY DAISO
Your One-Stop Shop for all things Japanese, all for P88!

Find Saizen at the following malls:
Robinsons Galleria * Robinsons Magnolia * Robinsons Metro East * Robinsons Place Manila * Market! Market! BGC * Trinoma * Robinsons Abreeza Mall - Davao * Robinsons Bacolod * Robinsons Cagayan de Oro * Robinsons Calasiao * Robinsons Centrio * Robinsons Meycauayan * Robinsons Place Iloilo * Robinsons Place Palawan * Robinsons Place Tacloban * Ayala District Mall Imus * Pavillion Mall - Sta.Rosa 

| facebook.com/saizenph 
| twitter.com/SaizenByDaiso 
| instagram.com/SAIZENPH