Bento #10: Farm Animals

We've been having a great Spring Break, but more about that later. Yesterday we visited the Pre-K Orson will most likely be attending next year. It's so close to us, we might even walk there occasionally! (about 15 minutes) Orson had so much fun checking out all of the rooms, toys, and posters on the walls, he did not want to leave. We can't wait!

I was surprised to learn they feed all of the kids there and you have to pay the $25 per week snack/lunch fee (unless they've got some doctor certified food issues). This does make things easier on me, and I'm not going to complain about the price too much considering this is our only cost, but I was a little sad to realize that meant no cute bento lunches for Orson! I guess I'll just have to keep making them for myself every once in a while and practice for next year.


Bento #10: Farm Animals

Here is another more elaborate bento based on one of my son's favorite video games, an iPad app called "Hay Day". I didn't bother trying to copy the exact look of the animals from the game and just created some cute farm animals instead. He was pretty excited and ate this one without a fuss.



The background is tofuniku (seasoned ground meat and tofu) over rice. I tucked some broccoli in along the bottom, filled the right side in with some asparagus stalks, and then separated the remaining areas with pretzel rod fences.



Left: I filled the background of this section with some sliced American cheese for a little color. For the sheep bodies I cut white cheese with some cloud shaped cutters (from the face set bellow), and then used ovals of ham cut in half for the heads and half circles for the ears. I punched out nori eyes with a mini hole punch and used the winking eye punch for their legs. (Everything is secured with a tiny dot of ranch dressing.)

Along the bottom I laid some 'hay' that I made by cutting narrow strips from a thin egg omelet. I also added a few of these strips in among the asparagus sprouts on the opposite side to break up the green.



Top: I sprinkled the background of this area with a little furikake (nori & sesame). The rolly-polly pigs are ham slices cut with circles, with oval noses and half circle ears. I added eyes and nostrils with tiny black sesame seeds.



Bottom: My cow was heavily influenced by this awesome farm bento, though she was working on much larger scale. (My pigs are about the same size as the center of her sunflowers). The body is a large oval of white cheese and the head is a circle with the sides trimmed off. The eyes are nori punched with a mini hole punch and the nose is ham dotted with black sesame seeds. The ears and spots were all made from random nori scraps.

This was a fun box to put together, though it did take some time, and a lot of positioning with tweezers! Now I need to force myself to make a few simple bentos to remind myself they don't have to be so complex.


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