Hinged Fish Bento

For Valentine's Day, Richard surprised me with an adorable hollow fish with a hinged tail to use in my bento lunches. Thinking of something to do with it is a little challenging, as it is not liquid safe (I think it's made of laquered wood, although I'm not quite sure). Well, there's nothing like a challenge to get the creativity flowing, so I've decided to use the fish every day this week, for something different each time. For added variety, I'll try to use a different bento box each day. Today it holds dessert. I built today's lunch around the star-shaped sandwich cutter I picked up at the dollar store. It looked so pretty in the cutter that I just left it that way until I was ready to eat it. A sandwich cutter is one of those silly things that is really aimed at the parents of picky eaters who won't eat bread crusts. I'm not picky - I ate the sandwich trimmings with yesterday's lunch.

This lunch is also an example of how the Bento Box Diet is improving my nutrition. The steamed vegies are not leftovers - I cooked and added them specifically because I needed to fill in the spaces around the food containers with something colorful. I really am eating more vegetables now - especially orange and green ones. I considered reheating the vegies, but decided that a little bit of poppy seed dressing would turn them into salad. And, in fact, they were delicious eaten cold with only half a bear of dressing.

Bento #20 - Hinged Fish with Tuna Sandwich Star-shaped tuna sandwich; heart-shaped egg; mashed potatoes with a little gravy; steamed asparagus, brocolli and baby carrots. Condiments: salad dressing in the bear, soy sauce in the applehead, and Ghiardelli chocolate chips in the hinged fish.

What the heck?

Anybody have any idea what this is?

	Mystery Object A sinister little "gift" left in my car by the company that replaced my broken window. Some kind of bug??
	More and more mysterious It can be clipped onto things! It opens and shuts! But what the heck IS it? No, not a stapler. Inside the mouth of the thing are a couple of plain black foam pads. I simply cannot imagine what it is for.