Bento Box Recipe For Toddlers | Panda + Octopus

Having received this incredibly cute Japanese shinkansen train bento box for my train-obessed toddler, I knew that creating my first bento box lunch was imminent. Fussy eaters or not, bento box recipes for toddlers are exciting, fun and can easily incorporate all the healthy food groups in one box.

The bullet train design is just so utterly adorable, it brings a smile to my face every time I pack the box for Isaac. The bento box is from the children's boutique Mini Moon Doll* who do incredibly cute things from children's dineware to stationery to unique toys, and there's a 10% off discount for all readers of Lucy Loves To Eat. Just use "ISAAC10" at checkout.

I also got a lovely assortment of other surprises which was so thoughtful. Thank you Mini Moon Doll! 

Isaac's look of pure delight when I presented him with his lunch was just so cute. He will be going to pre-school this September, and it means making packed lunches for him daily. He's not a big fan of sandwiches at all, so I'm going to be have to be creative and making this bento is giving me some ideas on how to make packed lunches interesting for him.

Whilst there is a definitely extra effort involved in making a kawaii (cute) bento like this, it's actually quite easy if you make the rice for dinner and keep a small portion aside for the following day. It needs to be left overnight on the counter though rather than in the fridge to avoided it going hard, and I'd probably warm it up in the morning to soften it up.

Well this was pretty easy and didn't require much effort. Slice some cucumbers and make cheese stars. Layer stars on top of cucumber.

To make the tako 'octopus' sausage, cut the frankfurter in half and make scores to the bottom of the frankfurter so they become the tentacles. Once in the frying pan, the scored parts will fray outwards, creating tentacles.

My friend got me this adorable panda rice mould from Hong Kong, but you can easily purchase on eBay or Amazon. I've mixed in plum flavoured furikake (dried Japanese rice seasoning) into the rice to give it flavour and it's just scoop and press with the mould.

Insert a sheet of seaweed into the panda face cutter and that's your eyes/mouth and ears for the panda rice ball. I admit this was very tricky as the cutter wasn't sharp enough and I probably spent the most time on this than on the whole bento together!

Place the rice ball down into the centre of the bento box and arrange the cucumber, cheese stars and frankfurter around it. As we were at home whilst Isaac had this, I could drizzled some sweet soya sauce on the rice and cucumber to make it more appetising.

Simple enough bento recipe right?

2 tablespoon of precooked rice (with or without furikake seasoning)
1 sheet of nori seaweed
Cucumber slices
Dairylea cheese slice (or any sliced cheese)
1 frankfurter
1 tsp oil
Sweet soya sauce or ketchup to serve (optional)

1. Cut the frankfurter in half and make scores to the bottom of the frankfurter so they become the tentacles. Heat oil in frying pan and fry the frankfurter on low heat until piping hot inside. Add 3 tbsp of water to the frying pan to help steam cook the frankfurter faster. Once cooked and tentacles have curled, turn off heat and seat aside
2. Slice the cucumber and use a star shape cutter to make cheese stars. Put stars on top of the cucumber slices
3. Put warm rice into the rice mould and press to form the panda face
4. Insert the sheet of seaweed into the panda face cutter to make the eyes, mouth and ears and arrange accordingly on the rice ball
5. Place the rice ball down into the centre of the bento box and arrange the cheese star cucumber slices and frankfurter around it
6. You can serve this with sweet soya sauce or ketchup

I hope you enjoyed my first bento box recipe for toddlers!

*Item gifted. All opnions are my own and unbiased


  1. This is too cute! Making bento boxes can get addictive but only if you have the time.

    1. Thank you! Let's see if I can be bothered once he goes to nursery haha!

    2. Hello, may I know if we can buy online for the Japanese shinkansen train bento box ? Is it still available ?

    3. Apologies for the late reply, It's from mini moon doll, the link is in the blog post. Thanks!


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