Monkey girl

This week I have a theme for bentos! We went to the zoo on Saturday. It was a perfect day for a trip to the zoo - mid 60s, beautiful sunshine and a tiny little breeze. The day was just wonderful and it has inspired me to try for a week's worth of zoo themed bentos. I'm starting with the monkey because that was A-chan's favorite. She is also fond of telling me that she was born in the year of the monkey! I was excited about the Bongos. They have never been out when we've been there before. They are lovely deer/antelope type animals that look as though they were taken straight out of Star Wars. Even though everyone else in the entire metro Atlanta area had the same idea and were at the zoo with us, we didn't feel caught up in a crush of people. The day was leisurely and we took so much time just being at peace and enjoying everything that we missed out on the petting zoo. A-chan was disappointed but I was rather relieved. It's hard to keep the goats from nibbling on my hair!

I'm also excited about this bento because there are two new food items in it, can you believe it?! Two! The first is the container of Veggie Stix in the background. One of her friends went to the zoo with us and had these as a snack. Now A-chan likes them. (A case where peer pressure is a good thing?) And second are the blood orange wedges. A-chan saw me looking at Happy Little Bento and asked for some of those 'neat looking oranges' in her bento. Too cool, thank you Sheri!!

In the bento: Under the monkey girl is a layer of rice with a layer of Japanese curry on top. In the other compartment are some blood orange slices, steamed broccoli, grape halves, black olives and corn on picks and one solitary raspberry.

The Monkey is made from a layer of provolone cheese as a base, then a layer of soy turkey for the body and head and another layer of provolone for the face. The shapes were all drawn on white paper and cut out with scissors. The paper cut outs were then used as a template on the cheese and soy turkey, which I cut out using my 'food only' scissors. The facial features are nori, black sesame seeds and pickled ginger for the cheeks. She has a raspberry and corn flower over one ear and carrot flowers around her with cucumber leaves that you can't really see in the picture, but I promise they are there!

Later this afternoon I intend to post my curry recipe since a couple of people asked for it a while back :D