Fancy Tea Sandwiches Bento Box Lunch

This weekend I took our niece out for tea, and it reminded me how fun and savory those little tea sandwiches can be! So I went all out and made herb butter with dill and chives to go on egg salad sandwiches with turmeric, celery seed and mayo/mustard, and prawn and dill sandwiches (also using the herb butter). They came out really cute and I'm totally making these for a picnic we're taking to a concert later this week!

The rest of the lunch is fresh strawberry tomatoes (from the Farmer's Market, of course) and organic carrots with goma shabu dipping sauce (Japanese sesame sauce) in the little pig container, some organic green grapes (so sweet!) and string cheese. Simple and easy.

Lebanese and Armenian Mezze Bento Box Lunch

This weekend we were fortunate enough to be invited to our friend Sheila's for a Lebanese/Armenian feast! I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to learn to make some of these traditional dishes, so I went over early and got a hands-on course on making hummus and baba ganouj, two of Mike's and my favorite dips.

Let me tell you, it's a lot of work! Lots of prepping and chopping, but absolutely and totally worth the effort. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the preparation, but I was too busy measuring and mixing. When I try to recreate this at home, I'll do a step-by-step for the blog. There was SO much food that we got leftovers as party favors, and this is what I put together for today's lunch:

On the left, we have homemade hummus (garbanzo beans, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, cumin and salt), and baba ganouj (eggplant, tahini, garlic, salt, lemon juice), with some Armenian pastries below that. The two on the right are made from phyllo dough and are sort of baklava-ish, with rose scented honey and pistachios. They are DELICIOUS.

On the right, we have taboulleh in the yellow cup (parsley, mint, bulgar wheat, little heirloom tomatoes and lemon juice, cumin, salt, etc), Mediterranean olives, and lavash bread. 

All I can say is, these are the prettiest leftovers I've seen in awhile!

How To Use Up Bento Leftovers

Lots of people have been asking, "what do you do with all the leftover bread from those cute sandwiches?" Which is a very good question. We hate waste! But when you're cutting out cute shapes, waste is inevitable. Luckily, there's lots of things you can do with leftover crusts. 

I will admit, I've saved tons of crusts with the intentions of making bread pudding (YUM!), but then the bread molded before I remembered my intentions! While bread pudding is delish, and uses tons of crusts, you do actually need to make it, which does take some time and effort. If you can't be bothered, you can always toast the crusts and then dump them in a food processor to make bread crumbs, which can be stored for quite awhile and used in all sorts of recipes from meatloaf to meatballs to chicken parm to casseroles, etc. However, my usual default for bread crusts is croutons. Mike and I love soups and salads, and croutons are the perfect accompaniment.

Here is my simple tutorial for croutons:

See all the leftovers from my dino sandwich? Don't worry!

Chop them up into uniform square-ish shapes. They can be as big or small as you like, but smaller is a little easier and faster for cooking.

Melt some butter in a pan on medium heat. I like to use at least 1 tablespoon per slice of leftover crust. It needs to be enough to lightly coat all your pieces. Dump your croutons into the pan and toss them to coat. 

Once they are all coated, sprinkle on whatever seasonings you like! I used a chicken seasoning which has garlic, salt, pepper, onion powder, tumeric, fennel, and parsley. More is better, so your croutons will pack a flavor punch!

You can try all sorts of herbs, or even things like lemon or orange zest. 

Let them sizzle a bit and toss everything every couple of minutes, so they get brown on all sides. Tah-dah! You've got homemade, delicious croutons. They're so crunchy and yummy that I sometimes eat them as a snack.

Desert Camel and Palm Bento Lunch!

I attempted a Japanese-style bento today with rice, scrambled egg with mirin, miso-seasoned ground pork, spinach and steamed carrots. Not shown is a tiny bottle of soy for extra seasoning. It could be eaten at room temperature, but it's probably better warm. Since I am paranoid about using plastic in the microwave, I used a flat rectangular glass Pyrex dish we had as the bento box.

Also, as long as you use wheat-free soy, this is a gluten free meal!

I think it came out pretty cute! I made the rice this morning and put a layer of it on the bottom. It's pretty thin, so there should be enough toppings to mix in. The camel was made by using a camel cookie cutter. I put it down on the rice and filled it with the cooked miso ground pork, and just tapped it down with a fork. When I pulled up the cookie cutter, it surprisingly stayed in perfect shape. The palm tree is made from a slice of steamed carrot, which I sliced up so Mike can mix it in later. The leaves are boiled spinach leaves, and the sand is scrambled eggs with a little mirin added for seasoning. Mirin is a seasoned Japanese cooking wine that is just a bit sweet. It's delicious!

I hope he likes it!

CuteOBento Website Review

A lot of my bento inspiration comes from the internet. Whatever did we do in the days before internet? Today, you don't even have to have an "ah-ha!" moment, because someone out there has already had that moment and is kind enough to share it with you!

Today I'm reviewing this adorable bento site: www.cuteobento.com. Maki Ogawa is the mother of two who creates these delicious looking bentos, and she also has a book out called "Yum-Yum Bento Box." She is very talented and her bentos are just beautiful. A lot of them are Japanese style bentos with rice, but you can totally adapt her ideas to American lunches and sandwiches, salads, etc.  A few things I just love about her bentos - one, she colors everything with natural spices (like tumeric) or uses natural foods that are vibrantly colored, like radishes, beets, and heirloom potatoes. Two, she really doesn't use any fancy cutters or anything to make her creations. She uses simple tools like straws, knives, or works with the shape of the food itself. 

Some samples of her work:

In this rice bowl bento, some little fried chicken pieces are artfully arranged with lettuce, a cherry tomato, etc. The purple toadstools are made from purple potatoes. I'm not sure what the dots are made from, but you could totally use cheese or egg whites. The Japanese have a ton of different pickled radishes that are bright yellow and red and other colors, which she may have used for the cute flowers. For American tastes, you could use cheddar cheese, bell peppers, carrots (boiled, to soften them a bit and make them easier to cut, or use stainless steel cutters), or even mustard to draw a flower.

The colors and arrangement of this bento are just gorgeous!

In this bento, she used fish cake (which is white and can be cut into flat pieces) for her elephants. For American tastes, you could easily use any white cheese (like provolone), egg whites, cooked lasagna noodles, or turkey cold cuts. Ears could be made from carrots, sliced almonds, etc. 

The beautiful purple stars are purple potatoes or yams. The orange stars are carrots  (which have been pre-cooked). Again, her colors are just stunning. 

Oh, but I forgot to mention the most clever part - the little cut outs for the elephants were made using one of those large straws that they have for boba drinks; she just squeezes it a bit to get it to be the right size to cut out in between the trunk and front leg, and in between the front and back legs. So creative! 

It just goes to show you, you just need to think outside the box and add a little detail to the most basic shape to turn it into something else. I hope my brain will catch on so I can think of these more quickly in the mornings. In the meantime, I have the CuteOBento blog for inspiration. 

Owl Sandwiches Bento Lunch

I used some of our new cookie cutters today to make this owl bento lunch. I thought I'd share the whole process so you can see how the sandwiches are made, and how you can get your fixings to fit inside the sandwich. My sandwiches today were simple, just mayo and turkey, with lettuce as the "wings" of the owl. You can totally put in cheese and other things if you want, using the same method.

First, you have to find the best way to maximize the bread! I made two sandwiches from the two slices of bread. It's much easier to cut the bread first, before making the sandwich.

I'll post some recipes soon for using up all that leftover bread! I actually have a couple days worth of scraps saved in a bowl right now.

Next, you'll want to lay out your deli meat on a paper towel. Ours is from Whole Foods and it's an actual turkey breast that they roasted, so it doesn't have all that filler stuff and seasonings/water, etc to hold it together (so it's a bit dry). 

Just cut down and then use all the extra meat that's outside the cutter and pile it inside, so it fits in an owl shape.

Once they're in there, I just put mayo on the bread shape, put it on top of the meat (mayo side down, obviously), and flip the paper towel over.

That way, it fits perfectly onto your owl bread, it's all nice and even, and this way even the little ears have meat/fillings, etc. Yum!

I used my oval cutter to cut the wings out of lettuce, and a sharp knife to cut little triangles for the beaks. Almond slivers and (don't laugh) balled up bits of brownies are the eyes. Weird, I know. On the side, we have Rainier cherries from the farmer's market this week, black seedless grapes, and some pieces of skewered string cheese. Delish!

Spanish Tapas Adult Bento Box Lunch

One of my favorite easy week night dinners is to just make an antipasto or "olive" platter with various olives, cheese, grapes, dates, prosciutto, salami, etc. Throw in a crusty loaf of bread and some aged balsamic and olive oil, and you've got a delicious dinner (especially paired with wine!). Since I'm only responsible for feeding myself (and sometimes Mike), this meal finds its way into our rotation quite a bit. It's healthy, it appeals to my snacky cravings, and it's got a great balance of savory and sweet. 

The leftovers also make the greatest bento meal, as you can see below. I've got delicious Castelvetrano olives, and if you haven't tried them, or think you hate olives, PLEASE try these, you will love them! They are not cured in vinegar, so they taste mild, with no bite, and have a really appealing firmness. You should buy them with pits, not pitted, because they'll lose some of their texture. They don't have a long shelf life, so eat them quick (not a problem, usually!), and buy them in the refrigerated or olive bar section. If you like olive oil, you'll like these olives, I promise.

I've also got little Emmentaler cheese stars, seedless organic black grapes, cubes of crusty country loaf, and fancy Medjool dates wrapped in prosciutto. YUM! It was also really easy to eat while I read a book! :)

Close up of the prosciutto wrapped dates below. My dates come pitted, but I cut them in half, remove the pit, and then fold a strip of prosciutto around half a date. You can also stuff your dates with almonds or goat cheese for an added treat!

These type of bentos are easy and really satisfying for your taste buds. If this sort of meal leaves you still hungry, up the protein factor by adding hard boiled quail eggs, or nuts such as walnuts, pecans, or almonds.

We're Back! Faces Bento and New Bento Schedule

Our vacation was rejuvenating! We had time to reflect, meditate and refresh our creative juices. These last two bento months were a blast, but as we continue, I think it's more important to present to our readers some bentos that can be easily duplicated. 

Each week we'll feature:

• one cute bento
• one adult bento
• our review on a bento product, technique, or website that we find inspiring, awesome, or helpful 

As always, please feel free to comment or provide suggestions on what you'd like to see or what you'd like to know. Thanks!

Today's bento features our fresh Southern California produce - we're hitting the beginning of stone fruit season and that means lots of peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, etc. at the farmer's market! It's difficult to cut up stone fruit, especially cherries, without totally damaging them, so I settled for making some cute faces, using my nori face punches, on the apricot and Rainier cherries (my favorite!). I also cut some "hair" out of a fruit roll up for the apricot. On the side, we have some sugar snap peas and some homemade jalapeno-spiced pickles to go with the ham, cheese and mustard sandwich. 

Close up of the apricot face:

I forgot to put lettuce in the sandwich, so to add some color I used my silicone grass. It ended up looking cute!

Vacation and ReVamp!

Hello bento lovers! We are on vacation for the next two weeks and also revamping our photo editing software, as we had problems with the old program. Please feel free to browse our posts from the last two months, using the links over on the right. We'll be back mid-May with all new, creative bentos!

Thanks for reading!

Broccoli Biscuit Muffins - Easy Make Ahead Bento Box Lunch

If you have tried bento-ing at all, you know by now that prepping is the key to making things fast and easy. But how can you make the prep part fast and easy, too? One awesome way that I've discovered is the biscuit muffin. Just grab a can of those refrigerated biscuits, prep what you'd like to eat with them (broccoli, ham, cheese, asparagus, cauliflower, whatever), and put it all into a muffin tin. Bake according to the directions on the package, and voila!

The first time I made it, I used the whole biscuit in each muffin tin, and they came out kind of doughy. Not raw dough, but too much dough, not enough filling. This time, I tore each biscuit in half horizontally (along one of the flakes) and used only half the biscuit per muffin tin. They came out much better:

These were broccoli and fresh mozzarella balls (in retrospect, I think I should have used shredded swiss because fresh mozzarella doesn't melt as well as I would have liked). Right out of the oven, they're amazing. Cold, they're decent, but they would be better warmed at least a touch, if you use cheese.

Regardless, they are quick and easy to make, and they work well for bento lunches:

For this lunch, we are broccoli heavy - leftover broccoli and bell peppers, with ranch and hummus (in the chick and piggy), and blackberries. If you want to add more protein, a boiled egg or some nuts would be great, or some peanut butter and celery. Easy, quick and simple bento!

Friday Review and Butterfly Bento Box Lunch

I bought a set of Progressive Cookie Cutters that also include an additional stencil/cut out piece - perfect for bento! Today was my first day trying one out, so I thought I'd combine my initial review of this product with the bento post. 

Below, our bento box lunch: butterfly prosciutto and cheese sandwich, veggies and ranch, and mango flowers. The butterfly wings and body are cut from cheese, using the stencil portion of the cutter (featured later in this post). Except the body...that was hard to cut out so I just did an easy rectangle. The flowers were cut using my favorite flower stainless steel cutter, which I have totally gotten my money's worth from!

The veggies are Persian cucumbers, orange bell pepper, and broccoli. 

To make this bento, I used my new butterfly cookie/sandwich cutter. It is fairly large, about 4 inches across.

It comes apart into two pieces. There are 12 cookie cutters included with the Progressive set and they all have two pieces - the cutter and the stencil. They are relatively sturdy plastic and easily cleaned, although if you use them on cheese, the stencil part has some small sections where things can get stuck. You can usually poke them out with something narrow like a chopstick or skewer.

The stencil does not really work well with the cutter for impressions (like a sandwich press), like I was hoping. The stencil part comes really close to the edge of the cutter, so they're ideal for decorating cookies with sprinkles or frosting, but not not so great for stamping. That's ok. They're good for cutting cheese and using that to decorate. Or, you could simply use a square sandwich (which would waste less bread) and impress the stencil on it. 

The cutter is deep, as displayed here against a normal piece of sliced bread. Sorry about the pic being a little off focus, I took it with my phone:

You could totally make a sandwich and then cut it, but I find it easier to cut the bread and the individual things that go inside, and then stack them. 

The set comes with a bear, bunny, circle, heart, pumpkin, duck, clover, Christmas tree, gingerbread man, star, butterfly and flower. It's most definitely worth the $12.95 Amazon is charging!

Lion on the Savannah Bento Lunch Box

I saw a cute lion on Pinterest the other day. It was made with a flower shaped cutter for the mane and a circle cutter for the face. How easy is that? I love browsing online; it's a constant source of inspiration and also reminds me to think outside the box!

For my lion, I used my tiny flower sandwich cutter for his mane (out of Colby Jack cheese). His face was made with a circle fondant cutter (out of provolone). I also added a body with my oval fondant cutter and then just used a knife to make little legs. I wanted them to be larger on one end than the other, so they'd be more like paws.  

I cut out a tail, and for the little puff on the end of his tail, I ripped the cheese with my fingers. It naturally tore that way, with the perfect little "fur" edging.

His face was made with Chinese oyster sauce (although you could totally use BBQ sauce, teriyaki sauce, or anything dark) and a toothpick.

The sandwich is prosciutto and provolone. Yum!
















On the right, I made a sun out of a mango, using my largest circle cutter and then a knife to cut the triangles around the sun. You could probably just throw in a circle though, and call it a sun. I guess I had extra time this morning to work on details. :) 

Below that we have celery "grass" and a totally-out-of-place panda with peanut butter. Oh well!

Quick as a Bunny! Bento Lunch

Today's bento is full of bunnies and bunny burrows. I had to make something fast, so I just cut half a green apple for a shrub/bush, piled in some Annie's Honey Graham Bunnies, cut out two colby jack cheese bunnies, and made a peanut butter and jelly "rabbit hole" using my circle fondant cutter. I squeezed some orange juice on the cut side of the apple to keep it from getting brown. Add some silicone grass and leaves and we're done!

Caterpillar Bento Box Lunch

I've been thinking about doing a caterpillar for awhile; I love the way cucumbers look when they're cut and layered, and I figured a caterpillar would be perfect and easy! I will say I am desperate for my new kitchen tweezers to arrive; it is so hard to position little nori pieces and to make faces without something small to help you! Today I used cucumber pieces to make the antenna and mouth of the caterpillar, and black sesame seeds for the eyes. I think he came out pretty cute!

Here's our caterpillar with the whole bento box:

In the panda we have ranch dressing for all those crisp, fresh veggies; an orange half from our friend's orange tree, and on the right, Japanese potato salad, and Korean melon with blackberries. Japanese potato salad is traditionally mashed, with mayo and little pieces of carrot and cucumber (I remove all the seeds). Sometimes it has a little bit of sugar or seasoning in it, but I just added a teaspoon of Mirin (Japanese seasoning) instead.  

Close up of the potato salad and blackberries:

The red bell pepper "star flower" was an afterthought; the box just needed a little something extra for color. My triangles aren't all even but it still came out pretty cute!

Late Friday Review: Bento Websites

I use Pinterest to keep track of things I find interesting, but I also browse a few different websites/blogs of bento professionals and experts, who have been doing this much longer than me. Two of these bento blogs offer a lot of information on prepping and how to create variety, and they are Just Bento and Organized Bites. 

The author of Just Bento has a cookbook out! She is Japanese and showcases a lot of Japanese type bentos, which I hope to do more of in the future. She only makes the occasional charaben (cute character lunch), which I am all about, but I use her website mostly for things like linking to good resources, supplies, etc.

This website is a good starting off point to introduce the novice to the world of bento, and how to maintain portion control, use bento to lose weight, and incorporate bento into your daily life. This link goes to her "Bento Basics" page. 

She also has a link called "The Guy Does Bento" in which her significant other makes bentos! Now if I can inspire Mike to follow suit...


Organized Bites is a vegetarian and vegan bento blog. The mom uses a lot of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods products, and her child eats better than most people! I love how beautiful her lunches are. She also is not totally into charaben, and her bentos are super Americanized, but I really appreciate how healthy they are. Plus she is totally into the environment and conserving resources, etc.

I use the Organized Bites website to remind me of things I may have forgotten, like heirloom carrots in the above lunch (see the cute flowers with hot pink/purple edges?). Or using green beans, which would be delicious in salads or to dip into hummus, etc. Her child eats a much better variety of vegetables than my Mike would, but I can always hope.

There is a whole world of bento inspiration out there, so start with these websites and get browsing! :)

Under The Sea Bento Box Lunch with a Crab Sandwich and Seastars/Starfish

Mike and I are vacationing soon and are excited to see all things ocean-y. Following that theme, I decided to make him a crab sandwich today, with sea star accompaniments. Our crab sandwich is on one of Yamasaki's (local Japanese bakery) delicious butter rolls, with ham and cheese (no actual crab). His legs and claws are made of carrot, and his eyes are provolone cheese with carrot centers. 

I have to mention that we've been getting ham from the charcuterie counter at Whole Foods, and they make it in-house. It is absolutely delicious and the pigs are ethically raised on an organic diet, which is important to us. It was only a couple dollars more per pound than the local grocery store deli, and totally worth it!

As an accompaniment to the sandwich, I have Korean melon that I cubed, topped with blackberries and a piece of starfruit. Korean melon has a yellow, striped outside, is about the size of a large coffee mug, and smells delicious. Tastes sort of like a crunchy cantaloupe. I linked a good description and pics above if you'd like more information. Starfruit is something I get to eat all the time when I travel to Hawaii or Hong Kong, but not so much here in the States. I bought some at the local market, but I wasn't impressed with the flavor. Still, it looks beautiful in a bento!

Finally, a bird's eye view of the whole bento put together. The extra treats on the side are "jujubee" star candies from Whole Foods.

Poison Dart Frog Bento Box Lunch

Mike and I love frogs, so I thought I'd try to make a froggie bento today. I was going to try and make one from an apple, but I googled yellow dart frogs, and they were so adorable! I ended up using a yellow bell pepper. Grape fruit roll ups are the patterns on his skin; I cut them with scissors. I smushed some fruit roll up scraps for his eyes. He's sitting on top of some egg salad (hidden) and my ever so useful silicone leaves and grass. On the side, we have broccoli and hummus (in the little pig) and blackberries. 

Here's a pic of a real poison dart frog. What do you think?

Close up of my froggie: 

Field of Flowers Bento Box Salad

Mike didn't need a lunch today, so I made one for myself. Below is an example of a super quick bento, using only one tool and a knife. The salad is romaine lettuce and cilantro, with mozzarella and bell pepper flowers, and a few black olives. Very simple. Dressing is in the bottle to the right. In retrospect I should have added some nuts for additional protein, but I've got pita chips and Greek yogurt at work, so it should be a filling lunch.

Stay tuned for Friday's review and bento, I've got a super cute one planned for tomorrow!

Back to Basics - Simple Egg Salad Bento Box Lunch

After Monday's and Tuesday's crazy bentos, it was time to tone it back down and get back to 10-minute bento making! To be honest, this morning's bento took me more like 20 minutes because I had to make the egg salad, but if I had prepped it the night before, this would have totally been a 10-minute bento.

Although it's super fun to make bentos all creative and cute, the real point is to have a healthy, portion controlled, colorful and visually stimulating meal. I kept that in mind with today's lunch. Although all the components are simple, we have lots of color and a good balance of protein, fiber, and fruits/veggies. 

On the left there's egg salad sandwiches with lettuce. On the right, we have celery sticks with peanut butter in my favorite panda container, blackberries, and sunflower seeds. I added fruit roll up flower garnishes to brighten up the box a bit.

As a side note, I would like to say to whoever invented fruit roll ups - thank you! They are the perfect color splash to bento lunches. Tip: be sure to dry off your veggies or whatever you put fruit roll up flowers/stars/etc on, because if they are wet, they get all goopy. Ick.

And just a final close up pic of the blackberries, which are coming in season here, and look just delicious!

REVIEW: Both Mike and I agreed that the blackberries have been delicious!! Just another reason why it's so important to eat fruit in season and local, if possible. It just plain tastes better. 

Tropic and Arctic (Bipolar) Bento Box Lunch

I had all the supplies to make penguins today, but I also had strawberries that I wanted to turn into alligators, so I just went with it and made them both! Alligators are tropical and penguins are from the frigid climes of Antarctica, but hey, in a bento they can peacefully coexist. 

My alligators are simple - I just cut strawberries on their sides with little teeth, used pieces of chocolate for their eyes, and put them into a "pool" of greek yogurt.

Close up:

My penguins are made from black olives and mini mozzarella balls, with carrot beaks and feet. I used a piece of pasta to spear them together. Very simple, took me only a few minutes! They are chilling next to a peanut butter and apple jam "iceberg." These would be so cute for a party appetizer. I got the idea from our Pinterest page.

Camping Bento Box...Campfires, Tents and Bears, oh my!

One of our favorite activities in camping, and so when I saw a camping bento online (click here to see it our Pinterest page), it totally inspired me to make my own! 

I used red, orange, and yellow bell peppers to make the flames, celery for the logs, and black olives for the fire circle. Carrot shreds are the heat and embers coming off the fire. Sorry about the crappy picture today, it's gloomy and raining in Southern California, so I had no natural light.

On the right we have "Berry Mountain," complete with little bear friend! 

And a peanut butter and apple jam tent. I used fruit roll ups for the tent outline and opening. 

The full camping bento!

Friday Review: Dip, Dressing and Sauce Containers - Panda, Pig and Chick

I just bought these items about 2 weeks ago, but they have fast become my new favorite bento accessory! Next to the silicone ware and animal picks, they are just about the most useful thing for putting together cute, yummy lunches. 

Panda, Pig and Chicken Dip and Sauce Containers - perfect for holding hummus, peanut butter, ranch, etc!

For those of you that have children who may not carry their lunch boxes all carefully into the classroom, these little guys will be invaluable. The lids are easy to put on and take off, and they keep all liquids and runny dressings secure until lunchtime. No more dressing all over the sandwich! They may look tiny, but they hold plenty enough. We've been testing them out for a week and whether it's hummus, ranch, peanut butter or just salt and pepper (for hard boiled eggs or whatever), it's just the right amount.

The containers open like Easter eggs and have enough space in them for condiments.

I bought these at the Tokyo Japanese Outlet here in Los Angeles, and they were about $5.00 for the set of 3. Totally worth it!

Facebook and Pinterest!

In case you have other social media outlets and want to check us out, we just launched our new Facebook page!

You can also follow us on Pinterest, where we also pin other awesome bentos and food art for inspiration. 

Both these sites are easily accessible up top in our tabs.

Thanks for checking us out!

Heart Sandwich Bento Box - Who Doesn't Love BBQ Pulled Pork?

We made BBQ pulled pork in the slow cooker this week, and before any Southerners jump all over me, we know it's not true smoked BBQ, it's just BBQ sauce that's on it. :) But it was delicious and the leftovers make a really good sandwich. Today's bento has those leftovers in between two slices of wheat-oat bread, which does not cut very easily. You'll find that those cute bento sandwich presses and cutters work best with crappy low-fiber, totally processed white bread, unfortunately. While that's ok once in a long while, Mike and I prefer healthier, heartier whole grain breads, and therefore have to settle with slightly-shoddily-cut sandwiches.

Heart Shaped Pulled Pork Sandwich Bento Box with Veggies, Ranch Dip and Fruit Salad

Here's a bird's eye view of the bento and how everything is laid out. 

Around the sandwich I placed a few potato chips for crunch. Below that, we have veggies (red bell peppers, celery and carrots) with ranch dip (hiding in the cute panda), and a mini fruit salad - watermelon stars, kiwis and pineapple, which all go really well with BBQ!

I've been using my silicone grass and leaves a lot lately because they add a nice color aesthetic, and they're reusable. Some bento-ers will tuck lettuce leaves around each section, which is gorgeous, but wasteful for our purposes, since Mike won't eat the garnish. 

In the end, I also decided to just put the potato chips back into the bag and attach it to the bento by squishing it in between the lid and the box. This effectively keeps them from getting stale or spilling out, and now Mike won't forget them!

And a final pic of our super adorable panda container. I just love this bento accessory! This product came with a little piggy and a chick as well. Haven't had a chance to use the chick because it's so small, but the piggy and panda get used very frequently.

Super Cute Panda Bento Accessory!