Today we will try our hand at Hitomi’s latest creation, the napping Rilakkuma bento!
Rilakkuma is an extremely lazy bear that was created by San-X, a Japanese company.
Ingredients:
- rice - any rice will do, but Hitomi used “ketchup rice.” Ketchup rice is what Japanese people normally eat with omelettes. HERE IS A RECIPE FOR KETCHUP RICE
- 2 thin omelettes- mix up your eyes and try to make a thin, thin sheet of egg in your fry pan. Take one ultra-thin omelette and cut it into a blanket-shape for your bear. Take the other one and try to roll it up to make a flower like above.
- 2 small menchi katsu- menchi katsu are like Japanese meat-balls that have been deep-fried. You can buy them frozen in Japan or try and make a bunch for yourself. RECIPE HERE
- potato salad- if you have it, if you don’t just try and think of some small side dish (like cole slaw) that you can use a bit on to put in bentos.
- lettuce
- sliced carrot- slice it about 1 cm thick and boil it to make it soft. (you can boil it when you boil the hot dog)
- hot dog - slice it as directed below and then boil.
- cherry tomato
- edamame
- slice cheese
- seaweed
- mayonnaise
Things you will need:
- A bento box - tupper ware also works
- A knife
- chopping board
- scissors (that you can use for food)
- food picks
- small star-shape cookie cutters
- paper cupcake wrappers
- tooth picks
- saran wrap
- a straw
Get your ingredients out!
If you went to the trouble of making menchi katsu, I hope you now have about a dozen in your freezer for future bento adventures. Fry 2 of them now if you made them.
Cut your hot dog like below. Do it for every hot-dog flower you want to have. Boil the hot-dog (and your carrot slice).
Take your rice and put it in a piece of saran wrap to form it into an oval that will fit under your omelette blanket to be the body of the bear.
Take a some lettuce and put it on the bottom of your box. Put the rice-oval inside the lettuce bed and place the blanket omelette over it so that it looks good.
Take one menchi katsu and use it for the head of the bear. Take your second one and cut it to make ears.
Take your slice cheese and use your star cookie cutter (or any other shape) and cut out cheese shapes to decorate.
Skewering edamame with food picks also creates a cute effect.
Take your little cupcake wrappers and put in any salad/side dish that fits.
Take a toothpick and cut out a cheese-muzzle. Cut eyes and nose/mouth with scissors out of your seaweed. Take your carrot slice and stick a straw into it to cut out carrot chunks for the cheeks.
And there you go! Another cute bento!
Take some ketchup and draw a little design on the blanket part if you want.
