Vegan Valentine Bento Box
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! We are celebrating with a heart-healthy vegan bento box.
This is my second Valentine bento for Saba Man, who is at work as I’m posting this article. But it’s all good because we have our $aving’s Challenge which prohibits us from spending dollars for a romantic “dinner and a movie”. Instead, we’ll settle for watching the Winter Olympics on television with a bowl of decadent chocolate ice cream!
Speaking of the Olympics… Saba Man and I are on the hunt for reasonably priced tickets for ANY event. We must get there somehow, someway…BUT I realize that we are smack-dab-in-the-middle of our pact to not spend money on eating out, etc. I expressed my concern and Saba Man looked at me with his smile. It’s THE smile. I felt a pang of guilt… after all I made a promise…and we’ve already stowed away over $300.00!!! (2 day’s addition of $ 45.00 put us over that benchmark) Saba Man’s grin lingered, “if we make it up to Vancouver” we’ll keep a tally and continue our challenge until we make up for our indiscretion”. I quickly confirmed with a quick ”okay” and only with slight compunction. Hey, it’s the Olympics and I’ve never been to one of those. A Saba Man factlet: He attended the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea and was shown on NBC TV chanting, “USA-USA-USA”. Long lost friends, to this day, ask him “was that you?”. 
So a word to the wise… the next time I plan a similar agreement to not spend $$$, I’ll double check to be sure there’s no event or holiday within the boundaries!
But back to the bento box packed with an odd combination which seems to work. Can you spot the weirdness? It’s the musubis. They were formed with white rice cooked with sweetened dried cranberries! I grossed out when I contemplated this mixture, but you know it worked out— especially when I added salt and topped with lemon zest. It’s not something that I would do often, but for a treat, it’s good. The picture shows it with a heart shaped squirt of umeboshi paste, but don’t do it. Do not. It was too sour and I scraped it off after the photo shoot. Also notice that the box is one of my re-purposed Christmas cookie tins!
The other foods are sliced “Field Roast”, cucumbers with toasted black sesame seeds, steamed broccoli, edamame shumai and heart shaped tomatoes! The XOXO is cut from raw red bell peppers. These are the cutters that I had misplaced last week along with my other Valentine props. My dining room is currently in “bento-disarray.” (Might be a good project while hubby is at work today.)
The mini mailbox is filled with more of the cranberry musubi for Saba Man’s snack.
If you’re interested in the white rice- cranberry musubi, the ratio is 1 cup uncooked Japanese white rice to 1/2 cup of dried sweetened cranberries. Wash the rice first, then add the recommended amount of water. Stir in the dried cranberries. Make sure it’s mixed well so the cranberries don’t float to the top when cooking. I bet this rice would taste heavenly topped with curry, yes?
Oh…I guess that’s what we’ll have for dinner. A Valentine feast of curry and cranberry rice. Spicy and sweet! 
Wow it looks so fresh and tasty! Such a creative work of art!
Thank you BentoBoxUk! I noticed that you have a new blog! Congrats, headed over there now.
This bento looks very tasty. Funny I was trying to come up with a way to make my rice a more sweeter taste but couldn’t come up with anything last night. You are good girl. Thinking outside the box, no pun intended. I hope you and SabaMan have a wonderful V-day evening.
Hi Marisa, Why shucks… glad to be of assistance with the sweet rice idea. Thank you for the V-day wishes and for stopping by today.
Cranberry rice with curry? Oh, I can’t imagine that will taste good ^^” But I think you will be right about it, as always
Hi Lil’chan, The curry will be kind without coconut. More savory than sweet so I’m hoping it will taste ok. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Neat combination of flavors, textures and sweet Valentine’s Day symbols…the tomato hearts are so clever and full-looking! Hope this was a very happy Valentine’s Day for you and Saba Man
Thanks bentobird,Hope your V-Day is a happy one too!
That looks super yummy and appetizing
Thanks Julie.
Beautiful bento for V-Day! The musubis look pretty and interesting. And I like when you use your cookies tin for bento. Go green Go Valentine hehehe …
Hi Lia,
The musubis were a hit. Saba Man REALLY liked them. Thanks for your nice comments… as usual.
I love the heart shaped tomatoes – what fun.
Thanks tamara!
Heart shaped tomatoes are the perfect touch! A lovely Valentine bento.