I loved Monsters University! My kids loved Monsters University! We all loved Monsters University!
And to celebrate this love (and the movie’s upcoming Blu-ray Combo Pack release on October 29th) I decided to make a Monsters U bento box. Fun and not too fussy, this box is something you can put together even if you haven’t made a ton of bentos before. Follow the step-by-step directions below to make this lunch:
To start, gather your ingredients and tools. Here’s what you’ll need:
Ingredients:
- grated mozzarella cheese
- a slice of whole wheat sandwich bread
- cream cheese
- sliced havarti or other white cheese
- kiwi
- radishes
- Monsters University Cheez-its
Tools:
- blue gel food coloring
- kitchen shears
- paring knife
- brown, blue and black food-coloring markers
- baseball cap decorative pick
- U-shaped carving knife
- divided bento box (mine is a Planetbox Rover lunch box)
And here’s how you make it:
The first thing we’re going to do is make Sully and he’s going to be decorated with some blue cheese. Normally, I don’t use a lot of food coloring in my bentos. I do use a food-safe marker as an accent now and then, but typically I prefer to use the natural colors of foods to decorate my kids lunches. But when you’re making a Monsters University bento, you’re going to have to make Sully blue somehow and there is no natural way to match his pale blue color without getting out the dyes.
OK, so back to making the cheese blue. Pour a small amount of water into a bowl — about a tablespoon or so — then mix in several drops of blue food coloring. I used gel food coloring so the color would be pretty strong.
Place about 1/3 cup of grated mozzerella in a bowl. Mix a few drops of the dyed water into the cheese and stir like crazy until the cheese is a fairly uniform blue. Start off with just a little bit of the water and only add more a drop or two at a time. You’re just going for a light coating of color — not a bowl of wet cheese.
Find a picture Sully and use it for reference while you’re putting the rest of the Sully sandwich together. I used the picture on the cover of our Monsters University DVD.
Use kitchen shears to cut the slice of bread into the shape of Sully’s head. He has a broad chin that tapers a little at the top.
Spread cream cheese in an even layer over the bread.
Next, use a paring knife to cut horns from the piece of havarti cheese. I free-handed mine and just did my best. If you like, draw stripes on the horns with a brown food-safe marker.
Press the horns into the cream cheese, then add an even layer of the blue cheese to the bread. Press it down into the cream cheese to make it stick to the bread.
Use a knife to cut a crescent shape for the mouth and place it on top of the blue cheese. A dab of cream cheese on the back will help keep it in place. Cut semi-circles from the cheese for eyes and draw irises and pupils on them with food-safe markers.
I didn’t have a cookie cutter that was the right size to make Sully’s eyes, so I looked around the house until I found something that would work. Do you see what I used? A magic marker lid! (I washed it really well before and after using it, of course.) It worked perfectly!
Add the eyes to the top of the sandwich and then add Sully to the largest compartment in the lunch box.
Next we’re going to make Mike Wazowski! After going to the trouble to make a fancy Sully, we’re keeping Mike simple and making him out of a kiwi. Really, what else would you use?
Cut the kiwi in half and stick the two pieces in another section of the bento box. I had a decorative pick that looked like a baseball cap so I jabbed that in the side to make it look more like Mike did in the movie.
When kiwis are cut in half like this, you can just scoop the flesh out of the shell to eat it. Easy-peasy, but don’t forget to pack a spoon in the lunch box!
Next up: stinging pink urchins from the first challenge in the scare games! If you’re in a rush at this point, just clean the radishes, cut them in half and toss them in the third section of the box.
If you have a few extra minutes (and a U-shaped cutter), you can kick them up a notch! Use that U-shaped cutter (available at online bento shops) to cut “spikes” into the sides of the radishes. Then toss the radishes in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes.
The spikes will “bloom” in the water and start to stick out a bit from the body of the radish. Dry the radishes well before adding them to the box.
Finally, add a handful of Monsters University Cheez-its to the last section of the bento box. I’m seeing these all over the place right now so they shouldn’t be hard to find. They’re a super easy way to add a fun touch to a Monsters U bento.
Ta da! All done!
Monsters University will be available on Blu-ray Combo Pack October 29th. Pre-order it online now.
Stay up-to-date with all the Monsters University fun by following the Monsters U Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages.
And finally, check out these Monsters University food and crafts from other bloggers:
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Monsters University. We loved the movie and I was excited to create a fun lunch for my boys when this opportunity arose!
