Friday, March 8, 2013

Wonderful Wizard of Oz Cowardly Lion Bento

Surprise! Wizard of Oz Hop, Take 2 ! I already blogged my Oz bento in yesterday's hop, but I just had to jump into today's as well, so I could share this wonderful Cowardly Lion bento, that I did NOT make :) 

Wizard of Oz Cowardly Lion bento in EasyLunchboxes
Isn't it incredible? My friend Lauri Fitzsimmons made this bento. Lauri is an amazing food artist.  She not only contributed her gluten-free recipes, but she helped Kelly Lester of EasyLunchboxes choose & style some of the lunches for the Cooking with Trader Joe's: Easy Lunch Boxes cookbook, (that I am featured in!), and she makes bentos for her husband & son. Lauri is one of the few Bento Bloggers & Friends who don't blog, but this awesome bento needed to be seen, so I asked her if I could share it. Thank you Lauri!

Now,  get back on the yellow brick road to 


OR, scroll down to read more about Lauri's bento...

I took the liberty of playing with Lauri's photo above, just for fun,  but here is the original, and the description of her bento, in her own words:

Wizard of Oz Cowardly Lion bento in EasyLunchboxes
This lunch was in honor of my fateful meeting with Kelly Lester, the ELB queen. (More on that below, keep reading.) The face is provolone cheese, the mane is a combo of roast beef, ham, turkey and prosciutto, and the eyes are corned beef. The whiskers are sliced chives (from my garden) all on a slice of potato bread with mayo (so basically, an open faced sandwich) all lying on a bed of wild greens. The upper right corner is blue jello with cupcake sprinkles for the rainbow, the lower right is pomegranate applesauce with pineapple slices and half a maraschino cherry for the "medal" and that's it. It took 20 minutes tops to make!
More on Lauri & the ELB Queen...

Lauri & Kelly working on the TJ's cookbook
I met Kelly Lester through an amazing “Small World” story. I had become a fan of her EasyLunchboxes on Facebook and had been following her for about a year and a half. I loved admiring all the lunches, since I enjoyed making bentos as well. When I saw that she had posted a video about a Summer Camp that she taught at for young actors, I private messaged her and asked her for information about the camp because I knew my son would love it. She wrote back and asked if we lived in Northern California, and I told her no, we were in Southern California. She wrote back that she did too! What a small world! But wait, after a few more messages back and forth she said that she had noticed that we have several friends in common. She asked how I knew Ronnie Sperling, and I told her that we had known each other for quite awhile but that my son happened to be in a show he was directing. Kelly wrote back “The Wizard of Oz?” Um, yes! She wrote again that her daughter was playing Dorothy! Well my son was playing the Cowardly Lion! And thus a friendship was born, our families adore each other and I owe it all to EasyLunchboxes!
Thanks for reading! Now go visit Robot Squirrel and the Monkeys!




Like the look of the EasyLunchboxes? Get some!
And the Mini Dippers, and of course,  the cookbook too!

20 comments:

  1. OH I recognized this right away!! LOVE IT LAURI!!
    So nice of you to showcase it for her.

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  2. Holy COW!! You are freaking AMAZING!! I simply ADORE this. Fantastic job.

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  3. Oh, I'm so glad you shared this, Cristi! Very artistic, and I love the story about Lauri and Kelly, too!

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  4. Anonymous3/08/2013

    Love the details on the lion, so nicely done!

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  5. OHHH I feel so honored!!! I do want to clarify that I only styled the Cute Food lunches in the TJ's cookbook based on the wonderful submissions by the contributors. Marla Meridith styled and photographed all of the other wonderful dishes! THANK YOU SO MUCH CRISTI!

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  6. Wowza!!! This is so amazing, Lauri! Cristi, thank you for sharing it! <3 And, Lauri, thanks for sharing your story...some connections are just meant to be made, that's too awesome. :)

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  7. What a fabulous post! Love Lauri's magnificent food art, and your awesomeness for sharing. The world is truly small and wonderful. God always makes a great connection that people meet in a magical way.

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  8. Awww, so sweet. and so amazing Lauri is! wow.

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  9. WOW! That lion is beyond awesome!!!!

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  10. This is simply stunning AND amazing! Such talent!!!

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  11. Lauri, WOW! That is incredible!

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  12. Wow! When we hopped thru to your blog, my son and I just kept saying "wow"! Boogs also said, "You should write a good comment for this one!" The lion is incredible! Nicely done, Lauri!

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  13. Amazing, very realistic lion! :)

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  14. WOW!!!! The lion! Amazing!!

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  15. Ha! I'm in the middle of writing a post about Lauri's lunches too, and the whole Wizard of Oz blog hop and I just clicked on this one Cristi!! Oh wow! Too fun. Thank you - what a fun surprise! I didn't know you were writing this :) Now that Lauri will see her lunches in TWO posts, hopefully it will inspire her to start her own blog and share all her marvelous creations :)... LAURI?? I LOVE what you did with the pic at the top/under the rainbow and all!! :)

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  16. Amazeballs, Lauri! AND NOW WE CAN PIN IT! Muahahaha! FINALLY!

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  17. Woooow! Look that lion! It's so real!!

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  18. These are so cute. I could never have made those look like the real thing. You are quite the lunch meat artist!

    Kelly is a friend of mine as well. What a lovely woman. :) Best wishes in your endeavors.

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