The Magic of Love

Hello Kitty wishes for everyone to have a Happy Valentine's Day!  She is using her magic wand to create love wherever she goes.  A-chan thought that it was a pretty bento but she couldn't tell what was going on without a little narration.  I was so excited to use my lovely gold sugar again that I sprinkled it quite liberally.

In the bento:  Peanut butter and sugar sprinkle sandwich with Hello Kitty on top, carrot flowers, tofu heart, black olive, apple with hearts cutout and a huge chocolate heart.

Off to the side is a glimpse of our Valentine's project yesterday.  A-chan cut paper, stamped stamps, punched heart shaped holes, cut ribbons, made chocolates and tied them all up together.  She was so excited about giving them to her schoolmates today.  They are not as fancy as she wanted them to be, but we managed to get them all made in one afternoon!

Hello Kitty's dress and the magic hearts were all cut from a new product that I found at Hobby Lobby, called Sugar Sheets.  It was very stiff and wouldn't work with cookie cutters but the exacto knife did a great job.  I love the color, especially since my pink egg sheets don't seem to stay pink in the pictures that I take!  The rest of Hello Kitty was cut from Provolone cheese, as were the letters.  Her face was punched from nori and her bow cut from carrot.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Two hearts

A very simple Valentine's bento for today because I'm getting prepared for a massive candy making spree this afternoon.  There are going to be tons of chocolates in our kitchen to bag and wrap and give away tomorrow.  This is the one and only time of year that I actually like chocolate!  Somehow I've got to quietly make, sneak and keep secret a huge Hello Kitty chocolate for A-chan.

In the bento:  A layer of rice with furikake, two small heart onigiri with provolone and nori decoration, a checkered apple, fried tofu, carrot hearts, half or a colossal black olive with a heart pick, sugar snap peas and a container of sesame carrots.

We are also going to make Valentine's cards for A-chan's class.  It's a little scary because we waited until the last minute this year.  I hope we can get them all made in time!  

Love Bunny

I have decided that the exacto knife is the bento maker's Sonic Screwdriver.  That thing is awesome!  This morning instead of playing it safe and cutting hearts in the apple as usual, I took the adventurous route and used the exacto knife to cut the heart shapes instead. Eureka!  Clean edges and no bruising means that the perfect apple carving tool is finally within my grasp.  *Insert sinister laugh here*

In the bento: Miniature pancakes, a container of feta, carrot hearts, Morningstar Farms sausage links, apple, sugar snap peas, a lemon wedge, and blackberries. The little monkey container has strawberry icing inside.

The bunny face was made with nori, carrot, and provolone cheese with strawberry jelly for the cheeks.  The pancakes are part of my freezer stash - Frozen miniature Eggo pancakes.  They are easy to cook on early mornings but I still wish that I could make homemade pancakes.  One day I will learn, but for now I won't try my hand at burning more.

A Heart-full bento

This bento turned out to have a theme, though I didn't know it until I was taking the picture.  Hmm.  I guess it's almost Valentine's Day!  Oh boy, we get to make chocolates!  A-chan is already gushing about the chocolate making tradition and has started counting down the days.  I was informed this morning at breakfast that there are only 19 days til Valentine's.

In the bento: A heart shaped container filled with chickpeas and feta, steamed broccoli, baby carrots, two bamboo picks with veggie hot dog slices and provolone cheese hearts, a lemon slice, two potato and cheese pierogies, pear slices, blueberries and a tiny tomato on a heart pick.

I find it difficult to make the heart shaped container fit into my bentos so it usually sits unused in my bento gear box.  However, this bento was designed around it!  It was the first thing to go in and I worked everything else around it.