Box Turtle Bento

This bento was in honor of the box turtle that we found next to our recycling bin a couple of weeks ago. We kept her for two days and learned a lot about box turtles, including the fact that they are actually very good climbers! Then we released her back into the wilderness near where we found her. It was an incredible experience.

In the bento: Turtle shaped onigiri, sauteed tofu, tiny carrot flowers, grapes, black olives and an apple piece with a carved heart.

The designs on the turtle's shell were made from nori and soy turkey.

Box Turtle

Well, this little guy doesn't really look like a box turtle but I tried! It was in honor of the box turtle that we found next to our recycling bin a couple of weeks ago. We kept her for 2 days while we learned all about box turtles and then put her back where we had found her. It was a marvelous experience! The most surprising thing to us was how good she was at climbing out of boxes.

In the bento: Turtle onigiri, tiny carrot flowers, sauteed tofu, black olives, grapes and a piece of apple with a heart.

The back of the turtle was decorated with nori and soy turkey. I used soy turkey and a black sesame seed for the eye.

Flowery Pancakes

Here is another very simple bento - I am really loving the pancake flowers! They are quick, they are easy and they are pretty. The longest part of this bento was waiting for the oven to heat up enough to cook the miniature frozen pancakes.

In the bento: A small bowl of grape halves and frozen blueberries, three soy sausage links, several miniature pancake flowers.

The flowers were cut from provolone cheese with my nifty daisy cutter. The pink centers were cut from candy drops with a tiny flower cutter.

Not shown in the picture was a container of strawberry flavored icing to eat with the pancakes. Even after a full year (maybe it's been even longer than that, I can't remember), I am still amazed at how much she likes the icing on the pancakes. The amount that fits into the teeny monkey container is very, very little - but it makes her happy!

Leafing out sandwich

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I posted last! Life got a bit difficult for a while there and I was having trouble keeping a balance. There was so much going on that I never had time to get online and post :( But things are slowly returning to normal and I've got a huge backlog of bentos to work through, lol.

This bento was all about the trees going all leafy for spring. I was very pleased with how the sammie turned out! A-chan has finally decided that Mac'n'cheese is actually edible (thank goodness!) so I put a huge mess of it in this bento to celebrate.

In the bento: Top - leaf sandwich with peanut butter and sugar sprinkles, blackberries, carrot flowers, and a container of pickle slices. There is another, less decorative, sammie hidden underneath the leaf. Bottom - Tons of Mac'n'cheese spirals with a lovely black olive on top.

The inside of the leaf was cut out using an exacto knife. It was easier than I was expecting and the dark green sprinkles really look nice! Notice how I cheated on red in this bento? (Hint - the only red is the baran flower...)

In the past few weeks we have survived a lot and I'm very thankful that we made it through. I've missed seeing everyone's bentos very much and am looking forward to getting back in the bento groove!