Choco-Banana Rilakkuma Toast

This week I purchased a western food called “Nutella” for the first time in my life. I’m aware that Nutella is a wildly common food throughout the US and Europe, but not in Japan. I lived in the states for seven years, yet I promised myself never to lose my Bushido (the way of a samurai) and cooked Japanese food almost every day. I never even touched any American ingredients when I went shopping at the grocery stores. Looking back, it was almost madness; it was as if I was afraid of becoming American, and my body was rejecting everything that resembled America. I call that phase of my life “Sakoku“, the social isolation from anything outside of Japan.

But now I’m back in Asia, my “sakoku” has officially ended, and my “bushido” made its own update. I’m like a curious Winnie the Pooh now, with a Nutella jar in my right hand. And my very first Nutella experience, needless to say, was spectacular.

Nutella was amazing. Whoever invented it, I’m a huge fan. But I did something so stupid; I unfortunately googled it and read a horror story about my new favorite food. –Nutella contains GMOs and artificial flavors. I was so disappointed to find out this deadly sadness, but I knew that I needed to move on by making my original homemade Nutella recipe.

Today’s Rilakkuma toast recipe in sinpired by my homemade Nutella, because I absolutely loved my own Nutella; it tasted like the original Nutella, but healthier. Now that when I’m in the kitchen, I’m often just dipping my whole hand into my own Nutella jar exactly like Winnie the Pooh. (I truly need to stop this! This is not very lady-like!) I haven’t tried my Nutella on many things yet, but so far I love it on a slice of toasted bread. And that’s how I ended up creating today’s recipe.

You only need 4 ingredients which; toast, Nutella, bananas, and cashew nuts.

1: Cut the cashew nuts and a banana.
Thinly sliced cashew nuts are going to be Rilakkuma’s mouth. Make sure you slice them perfectly round.

2: Make 6 banana bears.
I used a cookie cutter I purchased from a 100-yen store. Worked pretty well.

3: Get the Nutella ready.
Toast a piece of whole wheat bread and cover it with Nutella. Then poor some Nutella in a squeezer for drawing Rilakkuma’s face.

4: Gently place your 6 bears on toast.

5: Time to get your artistic side on.
Place the thinly cut cashew nuts for Rilakkuma’s mouth, then start drawing his nose and eyes using the squeezer you made earlier.

6: Done. 

Here is what this final bear AKA “last Samurai” looks like at the very end of your meal. His left ear being eaten, but he still managed to look super cute. Sayonara, Rilakkma Toast. It was an honor to have eaten you.

I hope you try this recipe. And good luck!

xx
-Yuki