No.1 Picnic bentos

Last Summer my children and I were eating our lunch out on the balcony in the sunshine. We sat out on a blanket for a few hours each day, taking our books for entertainment. Lovely days! It was at that time when I discovered bento as a hobby and a way of lunch. The two trays of food shown here are picnic bento. Top left is my attempt at a landscape. It has (from rear to front) vegetarian sausage sandwich 'mountains', finely shopped salad 'flower fields', queen olive 'hills', apple 'rabbits', celery in humous 'swampy trees', corn snack 'corn fields' and a danish pastry 'farmhouse'.

The second bento, below, is our sleepy bundle baby picnic. From rear to front it has a sweet thai chili dip 'moon', potato star 'constellations' against a finely chopped salad 'sky', egg 'bundled babies' with peppercorn features in their soft chocolate chip brioche 'cribs'.These bentos were very easy to make, and turned a simple plate of eggs and salad into something to spark the childrens imaginations. Once I started with charaben creations I was hooked, so soon after the summer break I ordered bento boxes and accessories so that we could carry on enjoying the fun lunches even once we were at school and work. The bento accessories themselves can be quite addictive!