Spirited Away Bento

In my household we are true Hayao Miyazak fans. For those of you who are in the dark about who this person is, allow me to enlighten you. Hayao Miyazaki is Japan’s greatest animator. His cinematic works hold lasting artistic value, provided audiences with magical memories for decades. Disney was so impressed with his work that they commitment to introduce the films worldwide. Miyazaki's films often emphasize environmentalism and the Earth's fragility. If you want to see one of his films I suggest Spirited Away, which happens to be the theme of today’s lunch.

Spirited Away is about a girl name Chihiro that enters the spirit world and he name changed to Sen after she starts slaving away at the bathhouse of the witch Yubaba. In this strange fantasy her parents were turned to pigs and she encounters No-Face. My granddaughter loves the villains in every movie we watch and No-Face was no exception. I like this character because it only ate people consumed by greed and covetousness. Because of this No-Face is the main feature of this lunch. Made with Nori his face is an oval slice of white cheese. I surrounded No-Face with broccoli and carrot flowers to resemble a garden. I made Chihiro pig parents using Spam. Chihiro is a simple cut out displayed next to cut apples. Haku is a Water Dragon. I place his cutout next to yogurt to resemble water or air. As a special surprise , I included a fortune cookie with a hand write note.

Ingredients: Nori, white cheese, seasoned rice, meatballs, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, yogurt, Spam meat, apple decorative toothpick eyes, and fortune cookie.

Direction:

1. Cook rice and add chicken flavoring while cooking. One cooked add rice to bento completely covering a section.

2. cook one whole carrot and broccoli.

3. Using flower shape cookie cutter create carrot flowers.

4. Add these vegetables along the edge of container.

5. Cook mini meatballs as directed. Add lettuce to the bottom half of container. Place three mini meatballs on top of lettuce. Add decorative eyes to each meatball.

6. To create No-Face, cut his shape out using nori. Next take a slice of white cheese and cutout an oval shape. Now the tricky part. Use a pastry knife to cut No-Face facial marking from nori. Place on the cheese.

7. Take the Spam and cutout two round shapes. Use nori again to create facial features.

8. To finish this lunch add the yogurt, slice apple and fortune cookie to container.

9. If you are wondering how I place message inside the fortune cookie, it’s simple. Use a tweezer to remove paper from inside cookie. Insert the same size note back inside cookie by gently sliding it in.

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