My kids are not that enthused about eating sandwiches in their lunch box and I can’t say I blame them, so one day I decided to make them rice balls (onigiri, as it’s officially known as) for a change after visiting this site. What started out innocently has turned into an obsession, I have since read that this is normal for anyone who goes down this route.

How it all started

Here, in Byron Bay (Australia), we don’t have access to rice molds that press out Hello Kitty faces, bear or flower shapes, so I started off pressing cooked rice into a deep cookie cutter and decorating it with nori sheets (seaweed).

Before long I was purchasing paper cutters to punch out butterflies, love hearts, dog paw shapes and using them on the nori sheets. I’ve even raided the kid’s craft box for their wavy edged scissors and I have to admit that I now have tweezers for picking up the tiny dots of nori for eyes!

Which rice?

Sushi rice is expensive but I’ve found Calrose rice to work just as well. Whatever you decide to use, make sure it is a short or medium grain rice otherwise you will have trouble getting the rice to stick together.

A friend, whose kids are gluten intolerant, has started to make these rice balls for her children. Like me she has started to hunt for different cookie cutters and trust me, she will be purchasing tweezers soon too!

What to serve on the side?

These rice balls can be stuffed or you can choose to put the fillings on the side as I do because my kids like it that way. Amongst other things, I have put in cooked chicken, ham, smoked salmon, fish cakes, cabana, cherry tomato, cucumber lettuce and fruit. You can use pretty well anything you have left over from dinner as long as it’s not covered in sauce.

Since making these for my kids, I’ve noticed they don’t come home ravenous and needing to eat to the point where their appetite for dinner is ruined. They also enjoy having a panda for lunch one day and a pig the next.