Ok, so I’ve been toying with bento boxes for a while now without actually doing the full thing. I mean I made some pink rice balls, but that was more plum rice seasoning than anything artistic on my side. I’ve also started amassing a collection of adorable lunch boxes and regular lunches just don’t do them justice.

So here is my first attempt at actually adorable food design. This may look simple, but it actually took me a long time to complete and I’m really proud of the results, mostly.

So my absolute favorite part of this is the mashed potato ducks, obviously. They are just boiled potatoes mashed with salt and pepper and just the tiniest amount of butter. Too much dairy will make them unable to craft. I made to body and head separately and just kind of balanced them, lol. The face is seaweed eyes and cheese beaks. This had the look I was really going for, but the potatoes are on the drier side, especially after sitting in the fridge overnight and then reheated. After the first day, I brought BBQ sauce to help them out.

The less successful attempt in this bento is the hamburger on a stick bird monster. It was supposed to be a tomato, lettuce, cheese headdress atop a crazy bird faced meatball. Unfortunately, I had issues getting the eyes to stick to the meatballs, so the beaks were a no go all together. With just the eyes, it’s hard to tell what it’s supposed to be and unfortunately, I don’t think it actually worked. It’s good to fail sometimes though; I know what doesn’t work for the future.

Finally, I had a prosciutto wrapped baby bel cheese because specialty meats and cheese are just two of my favorite foods. So you can’t really go wrong there, but they aren’t mecessarily adorable either. Overall, I enjoyed having this lunch for a week, but I did start missing more vegetables. The ones on the stick just weren’t enough of a fresh bite to last the whole meal. In the future, I will look at balancing my protein, carb, and fresh fruits and veggies better.

Because yes, there will be a next time. I had a lot of fun making this and want to keep trying out different designs and work on overall improving my technique. And also my time. This took most of the afternoon Sunday. I won’t always have that much time to dedicate to making lunch. So I’m also going to look up designs and techniques for speeding up the process. I’ probably have to buy more kitchen gadgets; Sammy will LOVE that, lol (sarcasm because he thinks I have too much already).