MomoCon 2011 Bento

Hi there. Yep, I know, haven't posted in a while. I have a good excuse though! I was on vacation. A-chan had Spring Break last week and my mother took us to the beach. It was A-chan's first time on a beach and she loved every second of it. I felt very conflicted and guilty for having fun last week. But while I was gone several brilliant bentoists got together and came up with a way to help make me feel better! It's called Bento4Japan. Wonderful people are selling bento items on ebay and the proceeds are going to help Japan. I'm doing my best to support their efforts and I have to say, if you're considering making bentos you should check out the auctions going on! Go here to find out more. Or you can search on ebay for bento4japan.

Now the bento above was actually A-chan's bento for the Saturday before our beach trip. We did a crazy schedule mix up and went to MomoCon all day on Saturday then left for the beach early Sunday morning. A-chan has recently been reading the Tokyo Mew Mew manga and asked me to make the main character's cute heart 'weapon' for her bento that day. Mine is not nearly as cute as the one in the books, but I had fun making the egg sheets and it even survived all the lines and the jostling crowds! I carried our lunch bag with me all morning and growled at anyone who dared touch it, lol. (A-chan said I was a lot less grumpy after lunch) We sat with our friend L and watched the costumes go by as we ate our bentos.

In the bento: Rice with pink egg sheet, yellow egg sheet and pink sprinkles. Steamed broccoli, nectarine slices, tofu circles, Heaven and Earth pancake, and a 'strawberry' onigiri with cucumber 'leaf'.

I was a little worried that the pink sprinkles in the rice would make a strange flavor, but A-chan said that she couldn't taste them at all. The strawberry onigiri was inspired by one of Akino Ichigo's books. The pink colored egg sheet was the product of a fun afternoon of experimentation as my local expert on food coloring came over with some of her supplies for me to try out. Thanks so much, Jen!!