Happy Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun. And made from yummy soy turkey, hehe. I love doing space themed bentos and this one was a very easy bento to make! Total cooking time - 5 minutes. Total decorating time - 5 minutes!

In the bento: Garlic pita toast cut into triangles, steamed broccoli, sesame carrots in a lovely pink container, garlic and basil couscous, soy turkey saturn with provolone ring and provolone cheese stars. The strawberry was carried on the side.

Saturn's face was cut from nori using nori punches and 'glued' onto the soy turkey with a tiny bit of mayo. The stars were cut with a tiny cutter but Saturn's ring was cut using my food-only scissors.

Cool guys and contest winners!

And....I'm back! No one could possibly be as surprised as I that during my packing for my multi-state trip I managed to leave my laptop's power cord at home. It was a difficult two weeks without the internet. Now I'm jumping back in with both feet - cause it's time to announce the contest winners, yay!

Akane is the winner of the Bento Donburi. AikoVenus is the winner of the Bento Zoony. Thank you guys so much! I can't wait to see what fantastic creations you make with the new bento boxes :D

I had a great time in Memphis and enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people at Anime Blues Con. I wasn't sure what the weather would hold in Memphis, but it was just as hot there as it is here. There have been way too many 1oo degree days lately! The bento above is all about these sweltering hot summer days: Sunglasses and fruit!

In the bento: Two plain onigiri with nori sunglasses, steamed broccoli, orange wedges, a sakura shaped sugar cookie, a huge strawberry, and some tofu hidden underneath the strawberry.

Experimental Onigiri

Here are three experimental onigiri. I've never done much with filled onigiri. Mainly because that seemed akin to a booby-trap for a small child that would end in disaster and a bunch of mess. Yes, I am sad to say that I let fear dictate my onigiri choices. But no more! For here are onigiri with three different fillings that A-chan loved and were eaten without catastrophe befalling us.

In the bento: Two apple bunnies, slices of lemon, purple grapes on star and heart picks, one teriyaki tofu and green pea filled onigiri, one scrambled tofu filled onigiri, one onigiri with tofu soboro mixed with the rice, carrot flowers with sugar dot centers and green bean leaves, a few waffle fries.

There is still time to enter the give-away! You have until June 30th to comment on a post or to follow this blog to be entered. Two really cute bentos from Bento & Co. are the prizes - two winners will receive a bento and hopefully be persuaded to do a guest post in early August.

Out of This World

I absolutely love this bento! It's a pancake bento where the pancakes aren't the star focal point which is always a challenge. But even better I managed to use these strange little picks for the first time. I've always assumed that they were from Anpanman, but I'm not absolutely sure. Can anyone tell me what they are? A-chan enjoyed the little 'alien' guys stealing her green peas, though.

In the bento: A moon apple, fried potato rocket and UFO, orange wedges, steamed cauliflower, soy sausage links, miniature pancakes, and tiny provolone stars.

To make the moon apple I used a metal moon cookie cutter from Wilton's. (I've tried doing apple cuts with plastic cutters and it never works for me.) Then I carved the peel from the inside of the moon using a small knife.

The rocket and UFO were cut from raw slices of potato and then shallow fried in a mixture of olive oil and butter until browned. The black sesame seeds seemed to be a perfect decoration for them and were just held on by the grease.

Nori cat onigiri

Another simple bento from the bento backlog. A-chan loved the nori cats on the onigiri and I loved the easy 10 minute morning bento! These two onigiri were from the freezer and I should have taken some time to smooth them down a bit, but I didn't notice until I was taking the picture.

In the bento: Two plain onigiri, soy sausage links, a container of carrot ribbons, a cherry tomato, a few random green beans and a tiny clementine.

Slightly Melted Panda

This bento is a lesson in what not to do. I was too impatient and put the cheese panda on top of food that was still too hot. Poor panda, he started sweating and his black fur curled up! So, always remember to let food cool before putting something that melts on top. (Unless you want it to melt, of course!) As you see here, decorating the cheese ravioli with cut outs is now high on my list of ultra cool things for bento.

In the bento: Black bean, rice and soy sausage bake with a provolone and nori panda on top and bamboo made from broccoli stems, two cheese ravioli, steamed broccoli, a cherry tomato, purple grapes on a pick and a few carrot flowers.

To the left in the background is the nori punch that I used to make the panda face. It's not ultimately necessary, I could have cut it out by hand. But it makes things so much faster!

Pasta Simplicity

Because I've never done a Give-away online before I am a bit muddled about it. I keep thinking that I should extend until the end of June since I haven't been posting a lot of put up very much information so far. So here is the official announcement of that, lol. I am doing a give away with two bentos from Bento & Co. at the end of June. It will be totally random. To get entered into the randomness you must either be a follower of my blog or have posted a comment between May 27th and June 30th. Now here's the kicker - in late July and early August I will be on a massive camping trip. What I would really, really, really love to have are the winners of the two bentos do guest posts for me to put up while I'm gone camping. That's voluntary and not a condition of winning!

In the bento: Tomato parmesan pasta with a tomato flower and cucumber leaves, two baby tomatoes on cute animal picks with cheese stars, a container of sweet corn, veggie hot dogs and a bunch of purple grapes on the side.