Bento Anarchy

Ni Hao! This Kai Lan bento was a crazy thing for me to make. It was for a family picnic at my daughter's school Earth Day festival. I thought about making something more earthy. But I had been wanting to do a Kai Lan bento for a long time and decided to go for it as a surprise for A-chan! the steps to making the face go like this:

Step 1: Trace the bento box on a piece of paper. This makes sure that your design isn't larger than the space you have available to put it in.

Step 2: Draw the character/picture inside the tracing of the bento box.

Step 3: Cut out along the entire outer edge of the drawing.

Step 4: Put the paper on the food that you are going to use, in this case a slice of mozzarella cheese. Holding the paper and the cheese in one hand, cut around the design with scissors.

Step 5: Take the drawing and cut out the next large feature - in this case it was the hair. Trim around the outside edge to make it a little smaller than the original cut.

Step 6: Holding the paper hair design and a large sheet of nori together, cut out a square block of nori around the entire design. Then proceed to trim and cut around the paper.

Step 7: Put them together and see if they fit, trim as needed.

Special tips:

Do not use lined paper!! The blue lines will transfer onto cheese or meat slices.

Cut the nori absolutely last thing if you live in a humid area. Humidity in the air will make the nori curl up and you'll have to cut another section out. (Trust me, I've had to do that and it was frustrating!)
Top tier: Morning star farms chik nuggets sliced diagonally to provide an interesting corner piece. Large cherry tomato, steamed broccoli,1 waffle fry, an orange slice, black olives on animal picks, Ni Hao in carrots, flower bread. (Flower bread: steamed buns that are rolled up like cinnamon buns. They are very yummy!)

Bottom tier: Japanese curry (potatoes, carrots, onion, peas, tofu, sultanas) in a bed of jasmine rice. Carrot and snap pea hearts. Kai Lan is made from mozzarella cheese, nori, and soy ham.