Kimono Girl

After 5 posts about ninjas, it's time for a change of pace. A cute girl wearing traditional Japanese kimono.

Do you know that the word 'kimono' means 'something to wear'? There are many different types of kimonos, for both women and men. Check out the Wikipedia page if you want to learn more!

If you're wondering how my wife cut out the eyes and mouth, she uses a special seaweed punch similar to this one. Tip: you can use the more readily available paper craft punch - just Google for 'paper craft punch'.

Ninjas

Following on from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lunchbags, here's a couple of cool little ninjas, ready to leap out from the shadows and ... be eaten.

Little ninja, weedy ninja

Nice too meet 'cha

Little ninja, bready ninja

Time to eat 'cha!

Kids, be careful when eating your ninjas as they are full of weapons. Always take off the weapons before you put them in your mouth.

Leonardo

Leonardo is Son's favourite turtle, because he wears blue, and Son's favourite colour is blue. Or yellow, but there isn't any yellow turtles, so Leonardo it is.

Leonardo is the leader of the bunch, and is equipped with the very practical twin katana blades. He's the most mature and responsible of the bunch, although he loves pizza and partying as much as the other turtles.

In the original comic, Leonardo is a much more realised character. The comic explores how he deals with the weight of leadership and the enormity of their quest . His combat prowess far exceeds the others - in one scene, he defeated all the other turtles - and *SPOILER ALERT* he eventually defeated the Shredder in single combat.

Raphael

Just like his unusual choice of weapon (the sai), Raphael is arguably the most complex dude out of the TMNT bunch. Raph's got a bit of a temper, you see, and a rather bleak outlook of the world. He has a difficult relationship with Leonardo, his older brother and the leader of the group.

Unfortunately, although maybe necessarily, in original, kid-friendly cartoon series, this complex character was simplified and was mostly known for his one-liners:

• "He's not only from medieval Japan, but also from an alternate universe, so naturally he speaks English!"
• "If he starts singing, I advise changing to another channel."
• "Thanks, Raphael, I owe you one!" "You owe me 6, but who's countin'?"
• "MMMph hmm MPHMMHM!" "That's April, alright. I recognize her mumbles!"

Donatello

Donatello's weapon is the versatile bo staff and his thing is being the brainiest and geekiest ninja turtle. As the original theme song said, "Donatello does machines!" Boy, does he ever. Within the first season he single-handedly created the Turtle Van, Turtle Blimp, the Turtle Communicator, all from his crappy sewer laboratory. Granted, he had access to salvaged alien technology that the turtles liberated from the Shredder, but still, the man, I mean turtle, got moves.

Donatello is Daughter's favourite turtle, because, well, he's wearing purple and purple is Daughter's favourite colour. 

Michaelangelo

I was a big fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was a kid. Recently I've been re-watching the original series with Daughter and Son, and that brought back nice memories.

I became a fan when my mom got me and my brothers each a TMNT action figure. By random chance, she gave me a Michaelangelo, so the party-loving, orange-wearing, nunchuku-whirling turtle became my favourite. My earliest memory is reading the back of the packaging and finding out how " ... he's the master of the whirling nunchukus. It takes eight pounds of pressure per square inch to break bone. The nunchukus generate ninety!"

(For the adults in the audience, the original TMNT comic is worth checking out, the tone is more mature than the kid-friendlier cartoon series).

Four Eggs

Four noisy white eggs

All ready to hatch

One two three four

Now they all match

How-to Tips

• The chicks are made out omelettes, fried then then hand cut.
• Use cheese slices for the white of the eyes.

Apple Tree and Star Box

So, my wife saw this thing about a dad who drew on his kids lunchbags everyday for (many) years. Check it out here, it's pretty awesome.

My wife forced gently encouraged me to do the same for our kids. My son is starting kinder this year so she could use a bit of help with lunch.

When I was at school I loved to draw. So this lunchbag thing is turning out to be a lot of fun, and I'm going to post the better ones on this blog.

I'll start with this one which is pretty simple but was fun to draw. I'm using Bic "Mark It" permanent markers, and they are fun to mix and play around with.

Angry Birds

Fun Facts

• The original Angry Birds game was made by a team of four people and took eight months to finish because it was such a low priority for the company.
• Angry Birds was downloaded 8 MILLION times on Christmas day 2012.
• There is an official Angry Birds sticky tape. Really.

How-to Tips

• All face bits are cut by hand.
• For red/orange bits, use fruit rollups or pressed fruit - the thinner the better.
• You can use the fake seafood sticks for pink parts - just unroll them into pink sheets.

How Now Brown Cow

We use wholemeal bread just to be a that little bit healthier, and in this design the brown colour works great on the cows.

If you're wondering why my wife usually makes two of everything, it's because one is for Girl and the other is for Boy. Boy is not going to school yet but she makes an extra for him so he can join in the fun.

How-to Tips

• Use wholemeal bread or some other brown bread like rye. You can use white, but the cheesy snout won't stand out as much.
• The ears are made from the crust, which gives them a nice darker colour. Nice detail, Wife!
• Snout is made from sliced cheese.
• Eyes are made from sliced cheese and the black pupils from cut seaweed.

(I'm retiring the 'What-is-it-score' section because as she becomes more practiced, the score is almost always 3-out-3)

Hello Kitty (and Flower)

Hello everyone. This is a special blog post because my daughter (Girl) is going to write it together with me. Go ahead, say/type hello to the readers.

Girl: hello

Thank you. Now, what we have today is a fancy looking Hello Kitty. I've posted a Hello Kitty bento before but this one is more fancy.

Girl:because it has a flower

Thank you, Girl. That's right, this one has a flower. Ok, let's get to it.

Hello Kitty (and Flower)

How to

• Girl: this is not hard to make but it does have a few steps
• For this one you will need a mould (here's one sold in ebay). You can hand cut it but it's quite tricky,
• Girl: my mum used raspberry and mango for the bow
• My Girl is talking about these beautiful pressed fruit sheets we got from Tasmania. I'm not sure where else you can get it, but you can substitute seaweed sheets.
• My wife hand cut seaweed into the whiskers and eyes.
• Girl: my mum used corn for the nose.That way it is much more healthier for your child to eat a little bit of veggie
• That is right. Now for the flower, you can use a flower mold, put a bit of butter around the edges, and put some sprinkles on the buttered bits.

What-is-it score: 3 out of 3

• Girl: I love Hello Kitty.
• Boy: Is it Kitty?
• Dad: Hey you used the mold I bought for you. Fancy!

Ok I think my daughter wants to say some closing words.

Girl: bye bye everyone

Two Fat Sheep

These two sheep have obviously been eating high-fat grass and not doing any exercise. Or maybe because they've been eating grass made out of egg. And eating salami stick fences.

Two Fat Sheep

How-to:

• Start with cutting a couple of circle bread shapes. You can use a circle mold or cut them by hand.
• Cut a piece of circle ham - exactly the same size and shape as the bread.
• Put the ham on top of one bread piece - use butter or spread to stick them together.
• Cut out the head bit from the second piece of bread, just a small piece would do.
• Stick the second bread piece on top of the ham. Again, use butter or spread.
• Cut out bits of ham to make the ears, and for the lady sheep, cut out a ribbon from cheese.
• Use sesame seed or chocolate bits for the little eyes.
• My wife used shredded fried egg for the grass and salami stick for the little fence. Get creative and use other things:
• Lettuce for the grass
• Shredded carrot
• Cherry tomatoes

What-is-it Score: 2 out of 3

• Girl: Mmmm. Is it a sheep? Two sheep!
• Boy: Is it a ball?
• Dad: Ok. Umm. I think they're sheep. Very fat sheep.

Hearty Rice

Something a little different this time. Instead of bread, my wife used rice. She can do this only in winter because in summer the rice would go bad due to the heat.

You can probably substitute some soft diced up potato instead of rice if your kid is not into rice.

Hearty Rice

How to:

• Cook some rice - make sure it's not too soft and not too dry. You can use any rice that is not to flakey.
• While the rice is warm, spoon them into a mold. Here my wife used heart shaped molds. The steam from the warm rice will stop the rice from sticking to the mold.
• The face bits can be hand-cut from seaweed or punched out using a special craft punch. You can get it on Amazon or eBay (Australia).
• The red bits are cut up Vietnamese meat patties called nam - you can substitute cut up salami if you want.

What-is-it score:

• Girl: I like this love heart Mama!
• Boy: Is two love hearts.
• Dad: Nice. Makes me hungry.

Giraffe Family

This giraffe family of four took my wife a long time to finish. The body shapes are not to difficult (she used molds) but the spots took a long time since they had to be hand cut and hand pasted. The end result is very much worth it!

Giraffe Family

How to

• The bodies need to be cut out by giraffe-shaped molds. There are a lot of thin parts (necks and legs), so try using a dense bread so they don't break off.
• The spots and the face parts need to be hand cut and stuck on with butter/margarine/spread.
• A seaweed/nori punch cutter saves a lot of time (mostly for the face parts). You can get it on Amazon or eBay (Australia).
• Update: My wife told me that she used sesame seed for the little eyes.

What-is-it Score: 3 out of 3

• Girl: It's like our family. But they are giraffes.
• Boy: Lots of giraffes!
• Dad: Which one is supposed to be me?

Giant Strawberry

This one is easy to make, but looks good. And nice to eat, too. If you want to get fancy, you can make lots of little ones, they would look great.

Giant Strawberry

How to

• My wife used a mold for the strawberry shape, but you can easily hand cut the shape with kitchen scissors.
• The red par is a light coat of strawberry jam with chocolate sprinkles for the pips.
• For the leaf, spread a bit of butter/margarine and cover with green sprinkles.

What-is-it score: 3 out 3

• Girl: Woooow big strawberry!
• Boy: Mmm. Can I eat it?
• Dad: Woah! That's a huge strawberry!

Circus Elephants

Here we have three elephants juggling balls on their trunks. Add a lion tamer and some clowns and you get a circus. Hmm, that's not a bad idea. Maybe I'll ask Wife is she wants to a do a circus special ...

Circus Elephants

How-to

• You'll need an elephant shaped mold for this. Otherwise you can hand cut the bread, although it's pretty intricate.
• Each elephant has a slightly different set of eyes. Notice how even that small detail changes the each elephant's expression!

What-is-it score: 3 out of 3

• Girl: Look, the elephant is playing with the ball!
• Boy: Ell-e-phunt!
• Dad: Nice. Hey one of the elephants is juggling two balls. Show off.

Numbers

This is a simple design but it does take a fair bit of time to do. I think this works well because it looks impressive with all those numbers stacked together. This lunchbox is also really easy to eat since each number is a mini, bite-sized sandwich.

Numbers

How to

• First make a normal jam sandwich - make sure you cover all of the bread with jam, all the way to the edge.
• When you're done with the sandwich, all you have to do is cut out the numbers one by one. You need to use number molds, otherwise it will just take far too long.
• The only way to keep the numbers in place is to stick them to bottom of the lunchbox with butter or jam. Otherwise you'll just have to take a photo before they get jumbled up ...

What-is-it score: 16 out 16

Cross-eyed Owl

Here we have a rather cross-eyed bird that kind of looks like an owl, so we'll go ahead and call him Mr Cross-Eyed owl. A lot of detail in this lunchbox - notice the tree branch that the owl is perched on, and the star in the night sky. Not quite sure what the butterfly is doing there - do they come out at night? Maybe this one is a bit of a, wait for it, night owl.

Cross-eyed Owl

How to

• If you have been following this blog, you'll know the basics: butter/margarine/spread to get the bits to stick together, and the black stuff is hand-cut seaweed.
• The owl body is cut using a heart-shaped mold. If you don't have one, a circle mold would work too.
• Use the crust for the wings and the little horn ears.
• For the beak, cut the tip of a carrot. Good way to get your kid to eat a little bit of veggie.
• Don't throw away the carrot yet - you need them for the little feet.

What-is-it score: 3 out of 3

• Girl: Hoot hoot!
• Boy: It's an owl. (He said this with a very confident look on his face.)
• Dad: It's ... an owl, right? Or some kind of bird? What's wrong with his eyes?

Smiley Star Flowers

Aren't these cute? I'm not so sure if these are supposed to be stars or flowers, so I'm calling them 'star flowers'. Check out the cute little butterflies too!

Smiley Star Flowers

How to

• Ok, this one is not too hard but it involves a few steps. You'll need a star or flower mold. If you don't have one, you can still do this, but you'll have to hand cut the bread pieces.
• First, cut out 2 bread pieces using the mold.
• Use the same mold to cut out a cheese slice.
• Stick the cut cheese slice to one of the bread pieces. Use butter/margarine/spread.
• Take the remaining bread piece and use a smaller mold to cut out the inner face. If you don't have a smaller mold, you can use a circle mold.
• Stick this bread on top of the cheese. Again, use butter/margarine/spread.
• Hand cut the eyes and smiles out of seaweed. Stick the eyes and smiles to the cheese.
• For the red-faced star flower on the right, do the same thing except you don't need to cut the cheese slice. Just use jam instead.

What-is-it score: 3 out of 3 (kind of)

• Girl: Smiling stars!
• Boy: Oh little stars.
• Dad: Mmm. Flowers maybe? Or stars?

Ladybug

Ok, so the photo doesn't have the best lighting, but I think this cheesey ladybug is pretty cool. If you have some extra time you can jazz it up with some red bits. Maybe slice some strawberries and garnish the bottom of the lunchbox?

Ladybug

How to

• The ladybug shell is made from cheese slices. Hand cut the slices and use straw to poke out the holes.
• Use two of the circles you poked out from the shell as the eyes. In this one my wife cut a circle seaweed shape and put them under the cheese circles to give a nice out line effect.

What-is-it score: 3 out of 3

• Girl: It's a cute ladybug!
• Boy: Ladybug, ladybug ...
• Dad: It's some kind of beetle ... oh wait it's a ladybug right? Why is it yellow? Shouldn't it be red?