An Octopus with eyebrows?!

Even more bentos from about 6 weeks ago. A-chan is home sick from school today. She has a little bit of asthma and anytime she has a cold it turns into Bronchitis, bam! This morning she was coughing so much that it caused her to throw up - the second time in her whole life that she's vomited. Doctor visit time! We now have cough syrup, an antibiotic and saltines. A-chan will be just fine he says :) I love our Pediatrician, he's the best!

So after a night filled with coughing and no sleep for any of us, it's time for a restful relaxing day of bento posts. And some book reading and some Little Big Planet for the sick one. I hope to catch up on some of my older bentos so that I can start posting current ones!

The bento above has a layer of jasmine rice covered with sesame carrots, scrambled tofu and green peas. A container of frozen blueberries, two soy hotdog octopi, a flower pick with tiny black olives, cucumber slices and a babybel cheese round.

I'm still not getting anywhere with the soy hotdog octopus thing...and at this point I'm not sure if it's the veggie hot dog or if it's me! These little guys have mozzarella and nori features, the best part of course being the eyebrows. A-chan loves to draw eyebrows on things so I added some just for her :)

I just love the little mouse in this bento! He was made from two nuggets of fried tofu, veggie hot dog slices and nori with just a little mozzarella for the tail. My second favorite thing is the purple mashed potatoes. Hapa bento always has these amazingly delightful and colorful bentos and I'd seen purple potatoes in them lots of times. I always wondered where one could find purple potatoes because I'd never seen any except in her bentos - I'd certainly never expected to find any in my little town. But then I went to the store and there they were, a small bag of maybe 8 of them. I swear a light from above shown down and made them sparkle!!

Unfortunately A-chan views them with a deep and abiding suspicion and refuses to eat them. Now, keep in mind that she will eat regular mashed potatoes made funky colors with food coloring. But naturally strange colored foods are apparently evil. I will endeavor to change her mind gradually because I think they are awesome. She did have some trouble with the huge flower onigiri in this bento as it is really really big. She would have like to have a fork to eat it with, she said.

On the left: Huge flower onigiri with veggie hot dog center, frozen grapes on a pick, a small tin of feta.

On the right: Fried tofu mouse, purple mashed potatoes, lemon slice.