twin mice bento

my bento for tomorrow’s lunch actually came together pretty quickly and easily… the stars of this round box are obviously the twin mice, made from vegetarian hot dogs (hot dog slices for ears, cheese and toothpick nose, sesame seed eyes), peeking out from behind two takuwan-and-edamame flowers.  one-and-a-half veggie croquettes are sliced and placed to the left, with some edamame skewers and some (non-roasted, tonight) grape tomatoes.  the mice are sitting on a bed of sprouts and lettuce.

in the fruit section of the box we have slices of cucumber (not really a fruit, but so mild in flavor that i think it goes well enough), segments of one of those itty bitty (satsuma?) oranges, some blueberries, and a nice strawberry.

i should note that, other than the fruit and veg i already had in my fridge, everything in this bento (croquette, soy dogs, and edamame) came from my freezer “stash” — that’s why it came together with so much less effort.  with stash items, you likely have techniques or characters you’ve been meaning to use, and you aren’t constrained by the food’s original purpose (which i often find to be the case with leftovers from dinner, for example, tonight i had fish tacos and i ate them all because i’m a piggy, but if i had one left, it would have taken up half the box and determined everything else that could go in).

another note — while putting the bento itself together took me only 20min or so, i’ve been having serious flickr/picnik problems lately… it’s taking FOREVER for pictures to load up to the editing platform, or for the “save” to process once i’ve made my edits.  so frustrating!  anyone else having problems?

in happier news, has everyone checked out pikko’s new site bento central?  i think this will prove an excellent resource for sharing tips and ideas… many thanks to pikko for generously hosting!