lucky sundae's adorable doggie bento inspired me to check out the wonderful bento "character recipes" provided on the ajinomoto webpage as part of their contest.

my bento is copied from this cute chicken bento, except i made mine with trader joe's soy chicken nuggets.

the chickies' beaks are yellow beet, eyes and feet are nori, combs are soy pepperoni.

the chickies are sitting on rice, which is just one layer on top of a layer of shredded cheese, and beneath that a layer of refried black beans (all leftovers from veggie burritos the other night).

the top veggie portion is purple broccoli with a cheese-and-sesame flower, yellow wax beans, "twist" cut yellow squash and cucumber, asparagus, two red grape tomatoes, and maki's pickled radishes.

i liked this background paper, too, because to me it looks like little chick footprints!