"Cute" news and stories

For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Another great example of the Japanese obsession with kawaii (cuteness), this dangerously adorable Pokemon-themed bento from Kotaku features two onigiri decorated with Pikachu-stamped nori and a fish cake with an embedded Pikachu image.

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For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. The boxes can range from austere lacquered trays to multi-tiered Hello Kitty confections of neon pink plastic. The meals themselves are anything from rice and leftovers to elaborate themed affairs of Pikachu-shaped dumplings with sesame seed eyes and carved radish trees. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's bento is super kawaii (cute) - just don't eat the plastic. Created by I Love Egg, it features an egg cat with nori whiskers, a heart-shaped onigiri, crab stick rolls, baby corn, carrots, gyoza, meatball, and homemade mochi (Japanese rice flour pastry, in this case filled with chocolate chips). The koala and turtle are presumably non-edible.

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You know how they say "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb?" Well, leave it to Martha Stewart to turn a proverb into a cupcake. Take a look at these "lions and lambs," ideal for a March baby shower or kids party.

The lambs have chubby mini-marshmallow cheeks and bubblegum noses, while the lions sport resplendent toasted coconut manes. Both are vanilla cupcakes with Swiss Meringue buttercream frosting (I've made Martha's buttercream many times before - it's a solid recipe).

Look forward to "April shower" and "May flower" cupcakes in the months to come. Having just driven through a mid-March snowstorm, I'm looking forward to the "lamb" part myself.

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CuteOverload isn't about food unless cute animals are eating it. A post yesterday detailed how to make a miniature burger for your pet hamster. Using a little coring tool, simply punch out buns, cheese and ham, toss on a little parsley for lettuce, and your mini sammie - as Rachael Ray, who loves those cutesy expressions, would say - is good to go! And don't worry about the inclusion of ham, because hamsters are omnivorous and do sometimes eat meat. If you want your little hamster to stick to a vegetarian diet, just swap the "patty" out with a small carrot round instead. Either way, a little burger is a little more interesting, not to mention a bit healthier, than most gourmet pet foods.

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For the Mom who's a fashionista as well as a chocoholic, these chocolates from Moonstruck Chocolate Co. could be just the right thing for Mother's Day. Each of the eight truffles in the ribboned box is shaped like a little bonnet. Handmade and adorned with tiny edible flowers, the adorable confections come in four flavors: raspberry frappe, summermint tea, lemon mousse and orange mousse, all of which are fittingly summery. It's $24 for eight candies, but they're so unique that it's a gift Mom will surely appreciate.

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