No.97 Caterpillar Bento

Here are Monday's bento and Tuesday's bento together. The caterpillar is made from mini doughnuts, a large strawberry and some fondant icing. In the savoury layer is some leftover spicy vegetable goulash and little squares of seeded bread stacked together. The caterpillar is inspired by a little creature of the same type that we encountered on our walk home from school today.

Below is the 'rose garden' bento I made for Monday. It has squares of banana bread with soya spread, decorated with fondant icing in the form of red and white rose vines. When I was decorating them I explained to little t that its the Red Queen's rose garden. There are also some par-boiled carrot wedges and celery sticks, some banana chips and custard cream biscuits.

No.96 'Little Pink Rabbit' bento

Ooo, this is a good lunch. I'd be delighted to have this one myself. For today, little t had garlic and herb crackers smothered in vegan olive pate, dried figs and cherries, carrot sticks and humous. On top of the crackers I put a little rabbit cut from the food I am now raving about: Fry's vegan polony! Haha! It's going to be in a lot of food I make at the moment. Yum.

So there we are, the first week back at school is over now and my tired children are ready for a longer sleep tonight. Me too!

One of the highlights of the week has been the morning we found large frogs hopping in the road and we rescued them to be put safely into the damp grass of a garden. We have also found and carefully moved to safe places, many escargot, some of which had very interesting colours and patterns. The conkers are falling again! Each morning after Big T has gone on her way to senior school, little t and I have been collecting the best of them in our pockets on the walk to junior school.

No.95 Happy Face Salad bento

Tomorrow's salad bento for little t has baby spinach, grated carrot, lettuce, tomato and celery. The happy little round face is made from a slice of fried Fry's vegan polony! Yes, that sentence was exciting enough to deserve an exclamation mark. Or at least it was to me. The eyes are pumpkin seeds, the smile tomato skin and the hair is celery.

Fry's vegetarian polony is such an exciting discovery for me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's one of a very few 'meat substitutes' that I find appetising. It tastes like a mild, sausage/bacon alternative but far more delicious than other things I have tried in the past (keeping in mind that I never liked the taste of meat in my childhood meat eating days, either). The second exciting thing about it is that I realised it has the texture and colour of tinned Spam! (Another well deserved exclamation). Spam has been my main barrier to creating a few forties wartime recipes I discovered. Now I have a genuinely tasty Spam alternative I can vegan-ize those recipes and give them a go. Happy times!

No.94 Leftover pizza bento

This is one of those meals that proves a bento can be made in under two minutes! No decoration today, since the children had this one small slice of pizza leftover that I just cut into slivers for tomorrow's lunch for little t. I use leftovers for bento as often as possible. It saves any waste and also a lot of money. In the second layer little t has a beautifully ripe sliced plum and carob coated raisins. I'll send a pot of fruit layered yoghurt also.

Well, tomorrow will be Big T's first day of big school. New horizons. I think I'm possibly more apprehensive and excited than she is. So much so that my intensity of new school excitement is making her nervous! I really hope that her first day goes as swimmingly as possible so that it eases her into a new routine and social life.

No.93 'Tomato hearts' bento

I had a really nice day today. Little t had a wonderful first day at school, coming home with happy tales of the new teacher and new class organisation. Meanwhile, Big T and I had our Mummy and daughter day! We now have lovely new hairstyles and a few bits and bobs from around the shops. It was a great opportunity for the two of us to have a long talk and relax in one another's company. One of the highlights of the day: we wrote a poem together while we sat with our fruit smoothies. 

The bento for little t's lunch tomorrow is a variation on the one he ate today. The celery and carrot sticks with Mayola are included again (he enjoyed those), along with the carob coated raisins and banana chips. In the main layer for tomorrow he has some thinly sliced baby new potatoes with green peso stirred in. I've decorated the meal with 'tomato hearts' which all in all are a bit of a failure...

No.92 Vegan 'Back to School' Bento

This is my little son's back to school bento for tomorrow. It was really lovely getting my bento cutters and boxes out this evening to make him a special meal. I feel refreshed after the holiday and ready to get greater enjoyment out of bento again. Not that I've ever found making bento a chore, far from it, it's a pleasure, just that I had lost inspiration for 'art' bento by the end of last school year. My bento had become more functional than artistic. 

In tomorrow's bento, little t has lemon and coriander cous cous decorated with daisies made from flat bread, spring onion and carrot. In his second layer he has celery and carrot sticks and a small pot of Mayola (vegan mayonnaise). In his snack box, to the left, he has carob coated raisins and banana chips. He'll have those for his break. I'll be including a pot of fruit puree for his dessert, also. It only took me ten minutes to put this together and the only tool I used was a small flower cutter. I like the simplicity of it. Simple, clean food designs can be the prettiest in most cases I think.

My daughter, Big T, is now moving on to secondary school, so she has decided to give up bento and start having hot school meals. I'm comfortable with that because we've discussed her responsibility for keeping her meals and portion sizes healthy. We'll see how it goes. I'm so excited for both of my children starting new school year chapters. Because little t is going back to school earlier than Big T this year, Big T and I are going to have a Mummy and daughter day tomorrow! Happy times! We're going to go for fancy fruit smoothies at a cafe in the morning, then we're getting our hair cut and styled, followed by a trip to buy our favourite magazines and meeting Daddy for lunch. Could there be a better plan? I don't think so!

No.91 'Dijon Potato Salad' bento

Hello all! The children and I are on Summer break at the moment, so hot lunches at home are what we're having most days. Packing bento won't be something we do regularly until it's time to return to school. However, I did recently make bento boxes for the children and their friend to have for lunch during our visit to the zoo. They had a base of my dijon potato salad (vegan), which is made from tiny new potatoes, a dollop of dijon mustard, and a handful of dried, crispy fried onions. Along with the potato salad they had an assortment of carrot animals and a dessert layer of watermelon cubes on butterfly skewers. In short, they were quite attractive lunches! And I made the terrible mistake of not photographing them before I packed them for the zoo. It's a real shame. Instead, here is a picture of a lunch I made for the last week of school, featuring the dijon potato salad and some garlic bread wedges. 

Below is a custom made cake I created for a friend's child's birthday party in June. The little boy is a huge football fan. The cake centre is vegan chocolate with a fudge frosting. Six layers of it to be precise. This thing weighed a tonne!