The homemade baby set is effortless to make with this recipe!

When it comes to the art of Japanese bento, my talents and practices simply aren’t there.

The popularity of bento boxes, especially kid-friendly ones carried to school or daycare, has increased.

Ellena Guan from Cuisine Paradise was requested to contribute a bento box recipe, and she created this gorgeous and adorable Mickey Bento for us!

One of Singapore’s top blogs, Cuisine Paradise, features a wide variety of home-cooked dishes, bento boxes, and baking tutorials.

Now is the time to visit Cuisine Paradise.

Bee contacted me via email a few weeks ago with an invitation to write a guest post for Rasa Malaysia about Bento.

For years, I’ve been a silent reader of her blog, drooling over the beautiful photographs and recipes she posts for our family to enjoy.

Thank you very much for having me as an invited guest today and sharing my bento post with all of you!

In 2008, when my son was about 4 years old, I began preparing bento boxes to prepare quick and easy food for him to bring to school.

After a while, though, I had to give up making bento because of my hectic job schedule, which only allowed me to do so on weekends or special occasions.

Because of my son’s desire to see his favorite iPhone game “Angry Birds” in a bento set, I’ve only recently returned to cooking meals.

Instead of Angry Birds, I will show you two Mickey Bento that Bee and I have talked about.

For lunch or dinner, the first bento set has soup, rice, vegetables, and prawns, as well as fresh fruits.

While the second pair is more suited for a tea-time snack or a field excursion.

Before packing the bento dinner, I usually have a general concept of what I want to include, such as the Japanese mummy’s 3:1:2 guideline, which dictates that three parts grains, one part protein, and two parts vegetables/fruits are included.

But in the end, it’s all about personal preference when it comes to packing a bento.

It’s crucial to consider a few things when preparing food for young people.

• The first step is incorporating antibacterial goods like food separators and bento sheets into your bento box. The second step is to keep everything clean by not mixing cooked and uncooked foods into the bento box.

Thanks. We sincerely hope you like these two Mickey Bento boxes.

What is the average number of calories in one serving?

• Each serving of this recipe contains only 382 calories.

INGREDIENTS

SOUP:

• 1 sweetcorn, cut it into 4 sections and halves
• 300 g (10 oz.) spare ribs
• 200 g (7 oz.) Chinese yam, cut into thick chunks
• 1.2 L (40 oz.) water
• 1 medium carrot, cut into wide chunks
• 200 g pumpkin, cut into 3 portions

ONIGIRI AND VEGGIES:

• 1 slice sandwich cheese
• ¼ bunch baby choy sum
• 3 tablespoons cooked rice
• 1 teaspoon wolfberries
• 1 sliced carrot
• nori sheet
• ¼ teaspoon minced garlic, optional

TOMATO SHRIMP:

• ¾ tbsp. ketchup
• ¼ tsp. minced garlic, optional
• ¼ brown onion, optional
• ¼ red, yellow, and green capsicum
• 5 sliced carrot
• 5 medium shrimp, shells removed

FRUIT PLATTER:

• 4 lychee/ cherry, seeds removed
• 3 slices dragon fruits/ melons

BREAKFAST/SNACK SET (FRUIT PLATTER:):

• 1 slice sandwich cheese
• 1 slice bamboo charcoal/ chocolate bread
• 3 slices Japanese cucumber
• 1 chocolate/ fruit bar
• 1 sliced carrot
• 3 ready-to-eat Siew Mai/ steamed dumplings

INSTRUCTIONS

FULL MEAL SET INGREDIENTS FOR SOUP:

1. Rinse and drain 1-minute-blanched spare ribs. Set aside.
2. Cut out Mickey-shaped Chinese yam, carrot, and pumpkin faces with a small variety of Mickey food cutters before chopping the root vegetables into chunks. each item yields approximately five pieces
3. All ingredients save the reserved “Mickey” shaped cutouts should be added to 1.2 liters of boiling water, except for the reserved “Mickey” shapes.
4. After around 20 minutes of boiling at a low temperature, add the mickey cutouts to a metal soup spoon and fry them for 15 seconds. Discard and place in a serving bowl to serve.
5. Make sure that the soup is at room temperature before serving.

INGREDIENTS FOR ONIGIRI AND VEGGIES:

1. In the palm of your hand, scoop roughly 2 teaspoons’ worth of rice onto a sheet of clingwrap. Make a ball out of the rice.
2. Remove the cling wrap and set it on the liner of a paper cup while you work on the two ears on either side.
3. Scoop 1 spoonful of cooked rice into a semi-circle on the same cling wrap. A 4cm diameter circular nori sheet is used to make the ear on the rice ball after the cling wrap is removed.
4. It’s time to go back to step 3. Assemble the first spherical rice ball by putting it on a cling wrap and attaching ears with 2cm long thin spaghetti.
5. Your hands and the cling wrap helped you mold these three components of Mickey’s face into the shape you desired.
6. Using the Mickey shape cutter, cheese, and carrots shown above, create the facial expressions. The wrapper should be removed from the paper cup liner and placed in the correct box.
7. Punch out little ovals from a nori sheet with a craft puncher and adhere them to the cheese cutouts for the eyes and nose.
8. Before adding the vegetables, heat a small pot and add 1 teaspoon of cooking oil before sautéing the garlic until fragrant. Toss in the wolfberries and cook for an additional 5 seconds, then remove from the heat and whisk in the cinnamon. Remove the Mickey onigiri and place it in a separate paper cup liner.

INGREDIENTS FOR TOMATO SHRIMP:

1. Cut Mickey-shaped shapes from various capsicum and carrot with little diverse Mickey food cutters. (approximately three cuttings from each item, and the rest cut into long strips of the leftover material).
2. Sauté garlic in oil until fragrant, then add the various capsicum and onion and simmer for 30 seconds before adding the shrimp.
3. Stir the ingredients briefly, then add the ketchup and heat until the shrimp change color.
4. Turn off the stove and serve the food in a bento box.

INGREDIENTS FOR FRUIT PLATTER:

1. Cut out a Mickey head shape from the dragon fruit using a large Mickey food cutter and leave it aside.
2. Put some fresh seedless lychee or any other fruit of your choosing in the serving bento with the Mickey Head Dragon Fruits.

BREAKFAST/SNACK SET (INGREDIENTS FOR FRUIT PLATTER):

1. Set up a tiny square bento box by lining it with lettuce and placing the cooked Siew Mai in a paper cup liner in the corner of the box.
2. Cut a mickey face out of the cucumber and set it on top of the siew mai with a small mickey cutter.
3. Place a piece of fruit or chocolate in a different corner of the bento, leaving the bread area clear.
4. Cut out a Mickey face from bread using a Mickey design multi-cutter, and then use cheese, bread, and carrots to adorn the feature expression. Refer to the photo illustrations shown in the preceding paragraphs to follow along.
5. Cut out a little Mickey head from bread and cheese and repeat the process for a final Mickey.
6. Set up the box and serve with milk or juice as soon as you’re done.

NOTES

• Separate meals are not required.
• Incorporate “cute/special” cutouts into a small kid’s serving portion to make a cute bento for your kid(s) while doing your regular everyday cooking.