A Flower Garden Bento

A Flower Garden Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento is a spring garden bento, which will be submitted to Hapabento's contest. There's still time for you to enter too!

As you know, my boy is not a big rice eater, but I really wanted to use my red/brown rice as "dirt" for my garden scene. So I put a layer of roast chicken down, added furikake, and topped with just a thin layer of rice. In fact, I think you can even see the chicken below in some places. I really did put the minimum amount. I hope it is acceptable :) I also sprinkled more furikake on top, for taste. It can represent the mulch, let's say. Steamed broccoli form the border below, peapods are the stems, and the three sets of flowers are pink carrot "roses", yellow and purple carrot "daisies", and radish "tulips". I lined the box with green lettuce leaf as well, to further the growing garden theme.

The small box holds half a mandarin and a bunch of grapes. The sunset-hued (real) rose is from my garden (though the name of this one escapes me!). A lot of my roses are blooming now, and they are very lovely and fragrant. I chose every one for its scent as well as color and form. This one to me smells just like pikake; very strong and kind of citrus-y. It's putting a smile on my face right now as it sits next to me while I type :D

"Shave Ice" Bento

Ginger fish over a bed of greens, with 2 yellow pear tomatoes and some roasted asparagus make up the main protein part of this bento for my 6 year old son. I made "shave ice" rice, using tricolor rice, shaping into a ball and placing into a cupcake cup. Do you think it looks like rainbow flavor? I used beet juice for pink, curry and turmeric for yellow, and nori furikake for green -- all natural colorings look best in bento, for a subtle (not garish) look. I also made caprese skewers, using very cool Japanese black cherry tomatoes, homegrown basil and fresh mozzarella. There are a few extra tomatoes next to the skewers sprinkled with feta as well. Fruit section has kiwi, blueberries, peaches, tangerines and Bing cherries.

I thought this bento would feel "cool" on a hot summer day, but too bad it can't be a real shave ice, right? :)

Garden bounty

Yellow pear tomato, quite ready for picking, on my overgrown bush. I love the way these cute, bright fruits look in bento.

Garden bounty

Applause tomato, very red and firm! This one will be sliced up for use with another garden item...

Garden bounty

Lemon Boy tomatoes, impossibly bright and yes, lemony yellow, begging to be picked and shown off in a cool summer salad, perhaps.

Garden bounty

Can you guess what this lovely basil will become? hint: in combination with ripe tomato... and with fresh mozzarella and fresh cracked pepper with a drizzle of olive oil...

OK, not just a hint ~ it's no secret that I love caprese salad, and it ranks as one of my favorite all-time salads.