Caterpillar Meatball Lunchbots Bento

Caterpillar Meatball Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Mini burgers! Or meatballs. Whichever. TinySprite asked for this shape specifically, for the second bento in a row, so I obliged. I used the dot picks for antenna, and cut a tulip shape from cucumber for the face, and decorated with nori. The bug lies on a bed of lettuce in this Lunchbot Trio. Her veggie sides: corn off the cob, carrots and Okinawan sweet potato. Fruit sides: grapes, strawberries and blueberries. All done!

Sushi and Caterpillar Bento

Sushi and Caterpillar Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This Bay Area heatwave we've had for a couple days is just what summer is supposed to be like, finally! But soaring temperatures means I don't feel like cooking. Luckily there are ways to pack a bento without cooking. This one contains sushi made with mixed rice and sardine furikake, topped with decorative carrot flower shapes. On the side I filled a lined cup with ocean salad and krab. I added pickled ginger to the little side section. On the other side of this double sushi box I placed steamed broccoli, some Okinawan sweet potato slices (with a radish slice face), grapes and nectarines. There's a slot in the center to hold a pair of chopsticks. I hope MisterMan finds this lunch a cool one that's fun to eat. Hope you're all keeping cool this week too!

Bug on Fruit Bento

Bug on Fruit Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento was easy: leftover chicken with steamed broccoli, carrots, steamed purple Okinawan sweet potato circles made to look like a caterpillar with nori and cheese details, plus rice stick antennae. There are some red grapes and a sliced orange in the fruit section. I added rice balls made to look like fruit, with their leaf picks and nori faces. You might be wondering whether my boy has finally taken a liking to rice (or you might not).

Well, I mixed this rice with purple potato vinegar, which I found at Marukai. It also contains honey and quince juice, and is rather sweet. According to the label, you can even use it to make a beverage of some sort using sparkling water and milk. Isn't that cool? It tastes great! And on top of that, it's a lovely pink color! I was hoping it would tint the rice, and it kind of did, but a bit too faintly to be obvious in the picture. Well, I hope it means that I will be able to use rice in bento more often... we'll see!

In other news, the winners of the Spring 2010 Bento Contest have been announced on Just Bento, and my Spring Momiji Bento placed 7th. I'm very happy about that, and would like to say a big "thank you!" to all of you who voted for me :) Congrats to megan of Bento Zen and Lia of My Bentolicious, who took 1st and 2nd place, respectively! It was an honor to be included in such talented bentomaking company, and hopefully some of you can enter next year's contest. ^_^