Pork Edamame Rice and Bunnywich Bento

Pork and Edamame Rice Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Did only limited cooking for this MisterMan bento. I used the last of the shoyu mirin pork frozen from last time, tossed hot mixed grain rice with edamame, and wrapped those in lettuce leaves. I fried some kabocha slices in the leftover shoyu mirin sauce in the pan after heating up the pork and placed two carved carrot flowers in the last remaining space in the lower tier of this super cute panda box. In the upper tier I put sliced blood oranges and some cherries. This tier comes with a tight-fitting lid that goes on before you put the panda face lid on, but I left it off so that I'd have a bit of extra room on top. So happy I got a pretty good variety of colors in this one. This week's bento have all been healthy and balanced, but without any cute details. The whole bentomaking process goes faster for me if I don't have to think about a cute element! But if you make sure you've got a mix of different food groups, I find that the food often can't help but look beautiful and appetizing. It must be nature's way of helping us to eat well.

For TinySprite's bento I used a Hello Kitty cutter set that I got from my cousin for Christmas. She's so sweet. Thank you Darlene! I used the two cutters to make two mini sandwiches (kitty and bunny). They are cut from sweet potato bread, which doesn't taste like sweet potato at all; more like sweet buttery butter bread [read: delicious!]. I smeared the bread with cream cheese and added a few slices of nitrite-free turkey meat. I decorated the bunny face with nori eyes and a carrot nose (stuck on with cream cheese), and some pretty picks. I didn't bother to decorate the kitty since it is in back anyway, heh. The raised cover allowed me to leave the sandwiches like this, with just a little smushing down. On the side she gets some tangerines, a cup of edamame, some cherries and some chunks of kabocha. Last two bento of the week. Woohoo!