Gluten-free Bento Lunches, Part 3: Stuffed Bread Characters!

So as I head towards bento amazingness, I am learning a number of different techniques for making the average sandwich a little more interesting. A few days ago I decided that I would give a go at stuffed sandwich characters. I set off with wonderful instruction from Bentolicious. I am not even going to try to replicate instructions because her's are perfect and so easy to follow, they are truly AH-mazing. You can find her tutorial here. 

I will totally admit my first effort was pretty ugly. My bread had an airhole in it and the filling first oozed out then ultimately exploded. It was such an incredible mess and made for a less than savory lunch. My homemade gluten-free bread was a little more airy than usual so it made the first effort trying. I set off this morning, new loaf of bread, with the determination to make a stuffed character sandwich. This time out I think I did ok. I could definitely still use more practice but kiddo launched off the bus yesterday afternoon yelling "I looooved my sandwiches mom!" So I think I managed to do ok.

My suggestion for stuffed sandwiches is to start off with some bread that you don't mind possibly wasting. Inevitably the first or second go around will be not so great. I did three before I managed to get these little bear sandwiches. Also be very careful how much filling you place in the middle, too much and it will either not seal or will ooze. As mentioned in Bentolicious's tutorial, warming the bread a wee bit can help, something like 10 second or less.

I am going to keep on working on my characters, I want to make some recognizable characters for my kiddos one of these days!

For today's lunch I served up homemade goldfish crackers (gluten-free), 1/2 a sliced apple in wedges and the other half with a not-so-perfect checkerboard design. The character sandwiches are rather small so I made one medium and one smaller, one filled with meat and cheese and the smaller one filled with Nutella for a dessert-y touch. For a little protein and veggies we have ham rolls with baby carrots.