This bento ended up with lots of red in it, which wasn't planned, but which nicely represents the feeling of spring awakening with lots of color!
Along with more chicken and furikake rice, I added a piece of steamed broccoli and a giant cherry tomato. The salad is composed of watercress tossed with diced Cara Cara oranges (with their nice dark orangey-red hue) and crushed walnuts. The third section has cottage cheese studded with ripe strawberry slices and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and wheat germ.
And because I am currently obsessed with beet-painting satsumaimo sakura blossoms, there are a bunch of those too! Instead of fingerpainting them, you can also simply steam a slice of satsumaimo with a slice of beet on top (you can layer them alternately too) and the beet color will stain the imo it's touching. The color comes out uneven, lending a kind of "tie-dye" effect which is really cool! It might have been prettier to make a lighter pink color, but I guess I got kinda carried away. Well, plenty of chances to try again! ^_^
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
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Pretty sakura blossoms bento! I love how you used the beets to dye the satsumaimo! Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteWonderful! What a clever method of tie-dye! :D
ReplyDeleteGreat tips for those red sakura! Love how the color and texture turned up. Red color is really give a great feeling. Sheri, very lovely bento :)
ReplyDeletetks for sharing the natural dye tip. like your butterfly picks.
ReplyDeleteI like your tie-dye tip as I prefer using the natural coloring methods. It's a very vibrant red too!
ReplyDeleteYou're so creative, love that you take time to do this for your kids. Lovely colors and textures is what kids love, keep it up.
ReplyDeleteOk, the steaming trick to make the satsumaimo pieces red? That is GENIUS!
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan, Jenn, Lia, javapot, Debra, Eleanor and Rachael!
ReplyDeleteI agree, natural dye is best.It usually looks less jarring, and so much more fun to experiment with :)
very cool tie-dye effect, thanks for the steaming tip. love the way these flowers came out, and how you've balanced the colors with the red berry slices and the earthier tones.
ReplyDeleteThis is so beautiful... I love the flowers and the strawberrys, they look so delicious and absolutely adorable!!! <3
ReplyDeleteIt's really red^^ But I like it ;) Red is a great spring color if you ask me ;) And the blossoms are the same color like the strawberries. Can it be better anymore?^^
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! This one absolutely brings the spring air! :D
ReplyDeleteSo pretty! They remind me of cute buttons on a fancy cardigan!
ReplyDeleteThis is so gorgeous and I had never thougth of dyeing with beets--what a fantastic idea. This one makes me so happy!
ReplyDeleteI see your handy work displayed beautifully! Another colorful spring bento!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot megan, Token, Lil'chan, tatabonita, Bento Box, Mandy and Lyndsey! Appreciate your sweet comments!
ReplyDeleteThey do look like buttons; now I'll always remember that :)
at first I thought it was watermelon flowers. but then I read about the beet staining...so ingenious! awesome Sheri!
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