Balloon Race: #30

It's Derby week here in Louisville, KY. There are lots of races and celebrations leading up to the Big race on Saturday. One of those was the Balloon Race, which took place last Saturday morning.

This poor bento did not turn out at. all. the way I planned. It was truly a comedy of errors. First, I was trying to color the rice blue like I did in The Lorax bento. With that bento, I stirred in the coloring after the rice was finished. I had to kind of re-cook the rice because it was a little runny. I thought maybe I was supposed to cook the rice in the cabbage juice so I wouldn't have to recook it. Bad, bad, bad idea. Parts of it turned out blueish, but mostly it was a weird sickly greenish-yellowish-brownish color. But it tasted fine, so in it went. I guess we can pretend it was a cloudy, smoggy day. Actually, the day of the Balloon Race was the nicest most beautiful day we've had in a long time. Today it's back to rain.

Then I thought I'd make some balloons using jicama since sweetPea just looooves jicama. It's also a really nice white addition to a bento box. Well. The jicama we bought was rotten and black inside. Unfortunately it was the best of the bunch at the grocery store, so I had to make do. I used a beet slice and cucumber slices to attempt to make stripes in one balloon. The other one is just cucumber. The sun and the baskets under the balloons are cheddar cheese. The treetops are broccoli. It's also not the most well-rounded nutritionally. I'll have to do better tomorrow.

The Verdict: She ate all the cheese, all veggies except the broccoli, and about half the rice. She said she was too full for the rest.