how to make Totoro peanut butter sandwich

My boyfriend loves eating peanut butter sandwiches as a snack. He eats one before he goes to kung fu class on Saturday or late afternoon on Sunday. I was thinking there’s gotta be an easy way to make his plain peanut butter sandwich cuter.
Easy and cute = Totoro!
So I was looking around the house, thinking what I could use to make a sandwich cutter for Totoro… a soda bottle!

Please be careful with the sharp edge and a knife when you start cutting up a soda bottle. I’d feel horrible if anyone cut themselves doing this.

[How to make Totoro peanut butter sandwich]
– two slices of whole wheat bread
– a slice of white bread or cheese
– peanut butter
— a plastic bottle
— knife and scissors
— paper clips or tape

1. I washed an empty 2 liter soda bottle, and cut a strip about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch wide. Trim the one side and make sure that it’s straight. (I wouldn’t make it any wider, though. It’ll be harder to push it down on bread) I left the label on when I cut it. It’ll act like a guide to cut a straight line.

2. Take the crust off the bread. You’ll use the crust later, so don’t eat it yet.

3. Put the plastic cutter on the bread, and decide how big you want your Totoro to be.

4. Put paper clips on the both ends of the cutter. (If you don’t mind making another one later, you can use a tape to put this one together.)

5. Try holding it like an egg or oval shape (or circle if you find cutting an egg or oval shape is hard) over a single slice of bread. I tried doing two slices of bread at once, and it didn’t work. My laziness has proven that it’d be a lot easier to do one by one.

6. Place your palm over the cutter and press it down, and hold it for a little bit. Be careful not to cut your hand.

7. Take the paper clips off from the plastic cutter, and make the round shape smaller for Totoro’s stomach and put together with paper clips.

8. Put the cutter over white bread (or cheese), and place your palm over the cutter and press it down, and hold it for a little bit. Be careful not to cut your hand!

9. Cut the crust into diamond shapes for Totoro’s ears, triangles for Totoro’s stomach, thin strips for Totoro’s whiskers, and a small square
shape for Totoro’s mouth.

10. For eyes, you can use a round plastic cap to cut out white bread (I used a cap for insulin syringe. My cat is diabetic, so I have bunch of them.), or you can squeeze bread to make a ball and squeeze it flat. If you have a really big straw, like the one they use for Chinese bubble tea (boba tea), that would probably be the best. Or you can use cheese.

The top ones are squeezed bread balls, the bottom ones are cut out with a plastic cap.

11. Use a straw to cut out crust for Totoro’s eyes.

12. Put peanut butter on wheat bread, and white bread and put them together, and stick the ears between wheat bread. Then place all the face parts and you have a Totoro peanut butter sandwich! (You can use peanut butter to glue the face parts on bread)

My boyfriend wasn’t too interested in putting cheese on his peanut butter sandwich, but if you like cheese, you use cheese instead of white bread. It’ll probably be a lot easier to handle. (especially for the eyes)

I tried to make this sandwich with the least variety of food, so making the face parts with crust may be tricky if you aren’t too crafty.
And of course, it doesn’t have to be peanut butter sandwich either. I used it because I always have it in my house, and it’s easier to use it as glue than jelly.
I think you can easily replace the face parts with different kind of vegetables, or chocolate in a tube. Hmmmm chocolate… I think I’m gonna have to try it next. 😛

How to make Totoro peanut butter sandwich on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!