Bento 66: Animal pasta cups (& new nori cutters!)
Guess what came in the post today! After packing bentos for nearly 8 months, this is the first time I’m getting in the action and purchasing bento gear online. I buy bento boxes from Amazon regularly, but not nori punchers. Firstly, they are pretty expensive, with international shipping, it’s usually double the price of what the punchers actually cost. Secondly, I was trying very hard to persuade myself that I don’t have to do cute. Yeah, fat lot of good that did.
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Although I must say I showed alot of restraint – I only purchased these punches and the leaf picks that I have been lusting after for months. It probably helped that I had purchased loads of bento gear a few months earlier when I was let loose in Daiso, and friends purchasing for me in the past few months too. Otherwise I won’t have been able to stop at two items.
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Of course I started playing with themas soon as I got home – and of course my bento tomorrow will feature the cutout shapes 
. I made pasta cups with leftover spaghetti dressed with cream cheese and red pesto. They are in individual silicon cups so I can pop them into the microwave if the weather’s still chilly tomorrow. It tastes lovely cold as well. I laid this on a bed of spinach, and added two cherry tomatoes; which sports the leaf pick that I got in the post today. You would notice there is no protein in the bento – I packed a separate miso egg in a side car to ensure I get my protein portion .
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Topping the pasta cups are creatures from my mini cutter set! There is a bunny & a bear made out of polony, whilst the cat and the round-ish creature is cut from cheese. Unfortunately I got slightly sidetracked with the round-ish creature and forgot what was I making – it’s supposed to be a piglet!! But my, it just looks like a round balloon.
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So adorable! I too am lusting after those face nori punches. I will break down and buy them sooner or later, I know.
It makes life sooooo much easier! It took me 8 months, but I broke down eventually…..
Congrats on new toys! So cute!
thanks sheri – it’s always exciting getting new bento toys!
Hope you are having fun with your new toys! I must say the leaf picks were among my fav! You can see it in almost all my bentos!
I’m not sure about you but I found that these set of punchers are not so user friendly though… I could never get anything perfect out of them! Issit me or the punchers?
Hope yours will perform better than mine!
Thanks so much! Yes, I love the leaf picks, have been wanting them for months now!
The punchers seem to work fine with me; maybe just need some sharpening by punching through some foil?
Cool new tools! Bento tools are not necessary to have but sometimes they are nice to have to save our time in bento making. Pasta cup is a great idea plus cute too
bento tools are indeed time-saving! I spent too much time cutting nori freehand…the only problem is bento tools hoarding is too addictive!
This is such a cute way to arrange spaghetti! Thanks for the idea!
I have the same problem with Alice, this set of punchers never work well for me! Maybe I shall try your suggestion to punch through foil to see if I can sharpen it! Or maybe is the seaweed problem?! Just guessing…
Thanks:)
Hmm, maybe mine will stop working so well after a while – my nori yesterday was actually slightly soft as I had failed to seal it tightly like I usually do – maybe that’s why? It just works better on softer nori rather than the usual crisp sheets?