Mandrake Bento (Harry Potter)

This bento I decided to be more or-less artistic with since my shaping of a human face wasn't working out that well. Because of the color of the rice and the fact that the head was pretty close anyway, I decided to make a mandrake bento. Broccoli sprouts make up the hair, meatless ground made up the dirt and a put a few, pearl-like, beans around. You may have heard of a mandrake if you've ever watched Harry Potter (poor Neville) or mayhaps even if you've seen plants with oddly humanoid bodies and hair.

Mandrake Bento Ingredients:
Brown and White Rice
White Beans
Tomatoes
Kale
Broccoli Sprouts
Cucumbers

Enjoy!

Fat-Free Kale Chips (No-Salt, Fat-Free, Sugar-Free)

This is super-simple and incredibly fast, especially if you use the roasting method. They're a great fat-free alternative to potato chips and I really prefer these over them. You can make these sweet or savory, dusting in some stevia and coating these in chocolate or maybe even adding a touch of salt and crushing them into some granola - whatever suits your fancy.

(Ingredients)

• 1/2 bunch of Roughly Chopped Kale
• Garlic Powder
• Salt-Free Chipotle Seasoning

(Directions)

• After removing the stem and chopping the kale, wash it and place onto some parchment paper.
• Season with your preferred spices and bake at 400 degrees for about 7-10 minutes or dehydrate at 150 degrees for a few hours.
• Enjoy!

Jumpy Ghostface Bento (Hero 108)

This bento is based on "Jumpy Ghostface" aka the Rabbit King from Hero 108, a show that I catch multiple times in the morning. I've been wanting to use rice for my bentos and it isn't until recently since I've really started to enjoy them, there's nothing like un-seasoned rice fresh from the steamer basket. To go along with Jumpy I added rice cheese face, nori appendages and eyes, kale, split green beans and of course tonkatsu. Normally Jumpy has a carrot in his mouth (as he is the boss) and a jumprope in hand but this Jumpy is too depressed as he's been made into a bento.

Jumpy Ghostface Bento Ingredients:
Dill Pickles
Watermelon
Seitan Tonkatsu
Raw Kale
Split Green Beans
Brown & White Rice
Rice Cheese
Nori

The Cat Bento (Coraline)

Its been a while since I've made a bento - but here's another character installment from my favorite movie, "Coraline"! The "darkness" of this bento doesn't come from the colors, but the rich flavors of my banana flower curry and kale. A bit of seasoned nori that I accidentally picked up gave the Cat a bit more character and made him look even more shaggy and greasy. To offset his color I used a nice yellow saffron rice and to keep everything from looking like a neon stripe I added a nice subtle "garden".

Cat Bento Ingredients:

Banana Flower Curry

Cilantro

Radish

Kale

Diced Zucchini

Olives

Nori

Soft Tortilla

Saffron Rice

I hope that this inspires you to make your own! All I need to do now is make about ten more characters and I'll be done! I'm thinking of doing Wybie next. ^^ What installment do YOU think I should do next?

Breakfast Bento

My first (and simplest) non-kyaraben bento, normally I don't photograph these types - but this was too adorable!

Breakfast Bento Ingredients:
1 Lightlife Sausage
Scrambled Tofu
Oatmeal Yogurt
Steamed Kale
Blackberry and Dark Chocolate Pancakes (Whole-Wheat)

It was a great and filling breakfast that only took thirty minutes to prepare - I hope that you enjoyed my first non-character bento!