cutie bento: first attempt

For the last few nights, I've struggled to get to sleep. I've felt restless, lying in bed thinking about tiny scraps of nori or bits of cheese, even itty bitty quail eggs and all the fun things I could make with them. Of course, I blame my dear sweet little mother. Yes, it all goes back to her! She is the one who sent me one of the cutest little bento making books I've ever seen, one that makes adorable-bento-creation an attainable goal. Never before have I felt that it was possible to do anything more than envy the talents of those who make clever little bento boxes. Now that I know better, I can't stop thinking about how very, very much I want to make my own cute lunches.



This afternoon, I finally had a chance to try my hand at this rather laborious task. I will come right out and say it, my bentos look nothing like I wish they did. They in no way look professional, and for right now, in my learning stage, I'm just copying the work of the darling ladies who wrote the book. Who knows, perhaps I'll never get to the point of coming up with my own ideas and ways to make them happen, but until then I'll enjoy the crudely copied creatures that I make and eat. It's times like these when I really wish I'd been given just a little bit of my dear mother's creativity and talents.


This was my bento. I didn't give my tiny chick feet, but she was still cute.


This was Matthew's bento. His little chick has feet which I think makes him cuter. I dyed the tiny quail eggs with turmeric and I must not have left them in the dye for long enough because they came out a little bit blotchy. The eyes are made of a bit of cheese and a mustard seed.


The stir fry left over from yesterday with a side of fresh veggies and a close up of that lopsided little chickie. The blue star squeezie bottle has soy sauce in it to freshen up the stir fry.

After I ate my bento and delivered Matthew's to him at work, I decided to make a little test Eggie. This little Eggie is copied directly from the book. Of course, mine isn't perfect but I still liked it. I will say, even after the little Eggie took a mighty tumble from atop his bowl, he still looked okay and I took the pictures anyway so there are some funny little bits stuck to him, but I'll probably eat him later and just ignore the funny bits =)


Here you can see the sad little lint on the side of his head.


Eggie's eyes aren't perfect but I hope to buy a tiny hole punch to make eyes instead of cutting them out of nori with toenail scissors.



Obviously, my bento creations need some work, but, like the title says, this was a first attempt and I had so much fun making them.