We're all big fans of Lego in this family. After a recent visit to Legoland Windsor, I was inspired to create a Lego themed bento for my daughter.
To make the Lego blocks I used a straw to poke holes into the cucumber and carrot, cut the vegetable a little slimmer then stuck the circle that had been cut out back into the veg. Which created little Lego like bumps.
I used turmeric to colour the rice yellow (probably a little too much as my daughter didn't like the taste, whoops......less is more with such a strong spice).

My daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan. We're hoping to visit Harry Potter world in the next few months, so to tide her over until our adventure I created this little bento for her. I will no doubt make some more Potter inspired designs in the near future.

I made this cute little bear by adding soya sauce into the rice whilst still hot and gently stirring it in until you have an even light brown colour.
My daughter absolutely loved this bento bear!

Hello there, its been a while! A couple of years in fact since I uploaded a new bento creation. A lot has happened in those 2 years. We've moved house (twice), got a crazy puppy and had a new addition to our family.
I'm pleased to say I now have the time and enthusiasm to bake and make bento again for my family, and will be sharing them with you here and on Instagram. Please follow me here @beanie.bento

A favourite little character of mine "Rilakkuma"!

Here's a bento I made to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Sorry for the delay in uploading. We've had a busy February filled with children's birthday parties!
I got to try out my new kitchen toy whilst making this bento. I used a spiralizer to cut the cucumber and carrots into fun curly ribbons!

I made these little panda bears by shaping the rice into panda shapes, then added nori to make the arms, and features.

Sorry for the huge delay since my last post. We moved house and its all been a bit hectic! But, I'm back in the swing of bento and baking. I have a few more bakes to upload in the next few days, but's first it's a new bento!

Yummy Totoro Onigiri. I made the Totoro rice grey by mixing in black sesame paste.The features are made from cheese slices and nori. I used pink noodles for the whiskers (I was in a hurry so didn't fry them, but frying the noodle means you can eat it, I had to remove these pink ones before eating).
Lovely served with fresh veggies and salmon!

I should have uploaded this one last week but it got forgotten! Just found it hiding in my photo folder.

We're fully in the Halloween spirit now!
I made this little witch with pink noodle hair and nori hat for the mini bean this week. She really liked the mini pumpkins, these were made from carrot and nori for the features.

The mini bean asked for a burger for her lunch today, so we went with a teddy bear design.
This was a very simple and quick bento to make. I used sliced cheese for the nose and ears and nori for the features. the main part of the ears is bun I cut to shape, and stuck on with a little bit of dried noodle (you could use spaghetti).

As Halloween is on its way, I thought I would get in the spirit with this bento box design.
A little Hello Kitty in fancy dress!
I made the cat hat out of nori and used cheese slices for the cat features. The ears are made from carrot and nori. Hello Kitty's features are made from nori and sliced cheese, and her bow is made from sausage.

Another Ghibli inspired bento box today. Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service.

To make this little kitty I shaped the rice and covered in nori, added cut sausage on the ears (I think chicken or ham would have worked better). Made the eyes from cheese slices and nori. The nose is a tiny bit of sausage, the bow tie is made from tomato.
Meow!

There's nothing cuter than a Totoro! We're big fans in this family.
Excuse the slightly orange tint, I must buy a daylight lamp for taking photo's on gloomy days.

I used crushed black sesame seeds mixed with the rice to make it grey (its best to do this whilst the rice is still warm). Cheese slices cut into little circles for the eyes and nori for the features.
The cucumber has been cut into leaves and the carrot into flowers, both with cutters.
I tried to give the bento box an autumnal theme. The leaves changing colour in the autumn are quite inspiring.

My little girl is a big Baymax fan (and so am I, whats not to like about a giant marshmallow man?).
She loved this bento, and helped make it by giving me instructions on what goes where : )

So, this time I experimented with making a ham flower, it looks a little messy unfortunately. I will have to try cutting it differently next time.
I made the stars & flowers out of carrots and broccoli (I used the stem).
The bunnies are made using moulds and I created the features with nori.

I asked the mini bean what she wanted in her bento box this week, her reply "a chick!"
I shaped the rice by hand into the shape of the head. Used nori for the eyes, ham for the cheeks, a little carrot flower for the "hair" at the top of the head and two pieces of sweetcorn for the beak.
The carrot and cucumber have been cut into flowers using a cutter.
I attempted the ham flowers again, more ham seems to be better in this case.

So, this week I made two bento's.
The first being the above.
I made the bear out of a vegetarian burger which I cooked, then cut into 3 circles (one big one for the head, and two little ones for the ears). I made the features with ham and nori.
The rice hearts I shaped with a cutter. Again using ham and nori for the features.
I tried to make little roses by rolling up the ham.....they didn't quite go to plan as the ham I was using was a little bit brittle and fell apart. I think processed ham would stay together better. Think I will try it with that next time round.