This week I wanted to do animal shaped food in my bento. I see it on the internet all the time so figured I would go all out in making them myself. Plus, I got these new sausage cutters that I wanted to try.

I started off by upgrading my inari. I’ve made bears in the past, several times. So I thought I should try to make some other animals too. I went for monkeys and raccons. I even squeezed a bear in there for fun. The faces were made with cheese and nori. The ears are sausage slices and cheese.

Next, I wanted to do something even more different than I had done with the inari. So I made a giraffe out of egg omelet. One slices makes the neck, the second makes the face. I used cheese and inari to make the accents. I was actually really happy with how most of these came out. Some of the slices were a bit too thinly cut though.

And of course, I made sausage. I mean a lot of the inspiration was from sausage cutters I got. I could make octopuses and crabs. Honestly this was a lot more work to actually make the octopus than if I’d just used the knife and the face didn’t even come out that well from the punch. Also, the crabs came out really wonky and were hard to make. Needless to say, I was disappointed in the cutters. I think I’ll stick to just using the knife from now on.

Along the same lines, I thought I would try something else fun with sausage. I cut bear shapes out of thick slices and then cooked an egg in the middle. This came out ok, but it’s really hard to see the bear shape in the middle. Tastes delicious though. I may skip this in the future though.

Finally, for my veggies I made steamed peas and bought seaweed salad. This will lighten up the heavy sausage and give some reprieve from the spiciness. Also, for dessert I have fruit: peaches and grapes. I just forgot to include them in the photos. Hope you enjoyed these bentos!