Lately, we've been watching Fruits Basket, an anime series that we all love. There is reference to the main character being an onigiri, a rice ball. It had been a while since we had made any, so we decided we'd all give it a try. In the past, Norby had really been the only one to have much success. Well, this time, Annie made one she deemed perfect. And being Annie, she wanted to save it. Unfortunately, she saved it a bit too long and it turned rancid. If you know Annie, you know she was in tears at losing her favorite onigiri ever and even though it was rancid and stinky, she did not want to part with it. Instead of keeping it, I took a picture so she could always remember it. She makes me smile.

So here's Annie's bento that I made as I made Nissa's. Almost the same description except for the addition of tiny tomato and cheese skewers. It was hard not to gobble them up myself!

Nissa asked if I'd make her a bento as I was making Annie's. Her last one she actually did save for lunch so I thought maybe she wanted this one for lunch too, nope! She's my night owl! Chicken and olives in one side with strawberries and blackberries in the other. To finish it off are a couple of cheddar owls with sesame eyes. She's downstairs watching Howl's Moving Castle right now and I'm guessing this bento is long gone by now!

Leftover chicken and brown rice with a handful of goat cheddar flowers. A few more flowers on grapes flanked by kiwi halves. All done in the midst of an oncoming headache possibly of the migraine quality. Off to bed with me!

Even Belle and Cinderella love puppies, especially when they are made from aged goat cheddar cheese with nori features. One puppy rests on a bed of olives, tomatoes and more cheese while the other rests on the bean and rice dish I cooked up for dinner using the first of the backyard herbs! Yay for herbs and yay for it almost being gardening time. We just have to make it through this weekend of ballet and our lives should (barring all the unforeseens that seem to always pop up) slow down and I can find time to garden! Only a few more weeks of school lunches and I'll be "off" bentos for a while. Then comes Nissa's! Am I ready for that yet? We'll see.

The sun has returned to the Midwest which forced me to make a super sunny colored bento, well... that and the fact that the food I had available just happened to be super sunny colored. The top tier is a container of sour cream and onion bunnies with leftover, "E's kumquat, ramp and sun dried tomato burger casserole" (can you say, cleaning-out-the-cupboards meal?) which was surprisingly yummy!! On top of that is a cheddar cheese person enjoying the sun. The bottom tier has sunny slices of grapefruit and grassy green kiwi with little flavor burst bites of kumquats. I've never used them before and didn't know if Annie would like them but she does! They're kind of like the strongest sour head you've ever tasted, right up her alley. And finally, a couple of sunny bear picks to round out the whole sunfilled thing. Okay, so I'm tired and a bit over the top in my description, even for me! :) Ah, well, what can I say?

Here is another example of one of my currently simple bento lunches. It's easy to guess our current food inventory from these last two bentos but just in case you can't tell, strawberries and pears; roast chicken and kalamata olives; and tomato, mozzarella balls and more olives. Whole foods was selling the amazing placemat in this photo, the style is right up our alley! I only wish they had more variations.

I still make bentos everyday for Annie's lunch but with our insanely over-scheduled lives (can you say "tennis"?), I run out of time and energy to make any very fun ones. Just to give an idea of what a simplified bento looks like, here you go!