Bear with a Bow Tie

Today's bento has several of my favorite Southern staple foods, though not all can make an appearance in a bento.  Gravy, in particular, is not suited for bento lunches.  A-chan's first words upon seeing the bento this morning were, "The bear and the raspberry are going to get squished."  Yes, she has definitely started catching onto my bento packing problems!  Luckily I was able to rearrange things a bit so that neither the bear or the berry got 'squished' when I put the lid on.  It was a near thing, though.

In the bento: A raspberry, a roll, two Morningstar Farms chik nuggets, grapes on a pick, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli, orange slices, a container of black eyed peas and pan-fried potato stars and bear.

Mr. Bear was cut from a slice of raw potato, as were the stars.  They were then pan fried with a tiny bit of olive oil.  Once they cooled I was able to put the nori and cheese facial details, ketchup cheeks and dapper cucumber bow tie on Mr. Bear.  In the background is a container of ketchup to go with the chik nuggets.  Not shown was another container with a little bit of spreadable butter to go on the roll.