No.24 Bento for Asfora "Piggies at the fence"

A fellow bento-er, Asfora, has passed my previous frog and dolphin bentos to her frog and dolphin loving friends. Another of her friends is a piggy lover, so I couldn't let that friend go without a bento of their own! Today's bento is dedicated to Asfora and her piggy loving friend.

I put a drop of pink food colouring into the rice cooking water for the pigs and got a much milder pink colour than I've had before when using a drop of red colour for pink rice. I'm quite pleased with the lighter colour because it's far more naturally 'piggy'. I shaped the pig faces in cling film while the rice was still very slightly warm, then placed them for a couple of minutes in the freezer to take all the heat out of them. I get a nice firm result that way, without making them too soft to decorate or too well squashed and hard to be nice to eat later. The shape is the same one I made for the frog last week, with a round ball, flattened a little and then a thumb impress made at the top to create ears or eye areas. I cut the snouts out of a thin slice of tofu wiener with two dots of soy sauce for nostrils. The eyes are sultanas. The bottom section is leftover macaroni and broccoli cheese and the fence is made from pieces of tofu wiener.

In the fruit section are a few tiny vegan pancakes and a handful of grapes. I don't eat eggs myself so I will often find egg alternatives for my cooking. I also give up milk for long periods when my dairy intolerance flares up too badly. It was in one of those times that I tried making these pancakes, with banana instead of egg and soya or rice milk instead of cow's milk. I don't own a blender, so I mash the banana with a potato masher.

Vegan Banana Pancakes


1 mashed banana

two tablespoons of lemon juice
1 1/2 cup of plain flour
1 cup of soya/rice milk
1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice
1/2 cup sultanas