Tutorial: Coloring cheese

I love reading all the wonderful bento blogs online. Blogs such as Hawai'i's Bento Box, Bentolicious, and BentoLunch.net leave me in awe. I get so many great tips and tricks from them. I also have a growing collection of Bento books which I love to leaf through time and again for inspiration. I wish there were more out there in English (though my husband is glad there isn't!).

One helpful tip I learned recently was from Pikko on how to color cheese with food coloring. There are other ways to do it, such as using food-safe markers, but for some reason they don't work for me. I think I need to buy some new markers. It just tends to leave a blotchy, 'colored-in' look. So when I saw this method, I had to give it a try and ... it worked great!

When making Willow's lunch earlier today, I took some photos so you guys can see for yourselves.


You just need a cookie cutter, slice of cheese (I used White American), a toothpick and some food coloring (mine's neon yellow ...or is it green? I dunno, but it came out green so it's good)


Cut your cheese with whatever cookie cutter you're using. I chose a froggy.


It's a good idea to place it on some paper towels or something you don't mind getting dye on.


Add a few drops of food dye to the cheese


Then roll it in as evenly as you can with a toothpick.


I let it sit a few seconds and then wiped the excess off with the same toothpick, until it looks smooth, sorta. Then allowed it to dry fully. Drying will also smoothen it a little I found, so the lines aren't so visible.


Lastly, add your features or any other additions and place it in your lunch box! I think this will be a neat thing to do at Christmas time. Picture red stockings, green Christmas trees ... so many fun possibilities.

And that little thing above the frog is a fly :b

Tutorial: Eggs and Molds

As I mentioned in my last post, here is a quick tutorial for making the little molded eggs I sometimes include in Willow's lunches.


You will need an egg (I prefer large for the best fit) and one egg mold. You can find these egg molds on Amazon, ebay and many other sites or at your local Asian store if yer lucky. They usually come in packs of two. Shapes include: bunny, car, star, heart and even Hello Kitty :)


First step is boiling the egg. As you can see here, I have two eggs in the pan. This is because one usually breaks on me so I wisely have a cover! If neither break, I leave one in the refrigerator to eat later.

So make sure the egg is boiled and then (tricky part) peel while still hot. The easiest way I find to do this is to run the cold faucet and every now and then dip the egg under while I'm peeling to cool slightly. You want the egg to be as smooth as possible for best appearance so take care doing this.


Once it's peeled, place the hot egg into your chosen egg mold and snap the lid shut.


Soak your egg and mold in a bowl of water for about 15 minutes (or overnight, depending on when you need it). I like to then put the bowl of water in the refrigerator or throw some ice in for extra coldness. This helps set the egg into it's shape.


Open the lid and voila! Trim off any rough edges if necessary with some kitchen scissors. I never usually have to do this.


To make them even cuter you could color in the features with food-safe markers. Just be sure to do a better job than I did the last time I tried!

ooh wouldn't these make the best stocking stuffers?