Since I showed you some of the adorable food that you can make in your lust for bento I thought you might like to check out some of my favorite cute bento cookbooks too. These are ones I actually own and use often.

Great cute food cookbook, terrific ideas and all made for bento.

I adore this cookbook, plus it’s spiral so it lays flat. You can literally make anything with a piece of cheese and ham or turkey!

This is part two and I cannot wait for it to get here!

This is a great book that talks about charaben and has some of the finest examples I’ve seen.

This book may not have the best photos but it does have tons of ideas and recipes. You will be making bento in a snap.

Another new book, I will update you once I go through it.

Also new and looking forward to getting it.

I am the Queen of bento boxes even though I never pack a lunch. It’s a little nutty but I love all the super kawaii things to make bento. I have made bento for other people I care about and that is kind of nice. Adoring bento lead me to look for cute food too, how some people make adorable and kawaii bento box lunches. First some photos of cute food.

Nothing cuter than Hello Kitty pocky!

Dig these Panda cookies!

Gorgeous chick bento – this kills me!

Awesome wild rice pilaf bear.

Super kawaii ice cream cone lunch.

Kitty cat sun rice ball – yummy – love the colors!

Bunny sammie – yum!

Yikes, too kawaii – could not eat!

Bunny rice balls = super kawaii!

It’s no secret to those who know me that I adore cupcakes. I especially like mini-cupcakes but I will not turn away from a big cuppie with tons of frosting and sprinkles.

I especially like vegan cupcakes. How do they make them taste so wonderful? There are many genius vegan bakers out there. (Just so you know: I am vegetarian so I do eat dairy but also eat a lot of vegan foods too).

There are great books like the following:

This is my favorite vegan cupcakes book of all time. If you buy only one vegan cupcake book this is the one. It will astound you and amaze you and is from the authors of Vegan with a Vengeance. I love all of their books. It has amazing reviews on amazon.com , so click here to buy it. And no I don’t get a kickback or anything. I just love cupcakes!

This has desserts of all kinds that will blow your mind. From the bakery in NYC of the same name, this allows fans from all over the world to dig into gluten-free, dairy-free and some sugar-free recipes of noms! Is a picture worth a thousand words? Well the cover should be edible or at least smell like chocolate! Check out their website and buy the book too.

I love this book and the author has a seriously awesome blog too. Interestingly that is how I originally found the book. Heather also has a couple of awesome e-books too available from her blog. Her photos will make you drool. Buy the book here.

One of my largest collections of completely adorable things is my huge bento box and bento accessories collection. This is actually quite humorous since I work from home and never take a lunch anywhere. On a couple of occasions I have made bento for road trips or picnics but otherwise my bento collection is quite pristine. I keep telling myself that someday I will make bentos the way the Japanese do (every day) since I have some wonderful bento cookbooks and even belong to a couple of vegetarian and vegan bento groups at Flickr.

Perhaps the sheer volume of bento stuff intimidates me or maybe it is just the notion of having to make all these little bits of food and stick them on kawaii little picks and stuff them in Hello Kitty bento boxes that keeps me staring at the piled high clear totes where I store my bento collection.

If I was better organized I might not have this problem. It would be good (I tell myself) to make bento every day, to take time out and create a healthy meal and spend creativity energy on making it kawaii. It could even be meditative.

So why don’t I do it?

Here are some beautiful bentos that should inspire me. I will let you know if they actually do.

This Hello Kitty fruit bento just screams summer fresh! How about the super cute bunny pick in the nectarines? So love.

Another fruitie bento with some added veg. Check out the purple cauliflower. How about Pandapple and the pick of edamame? Yikes too much for me!

Veggie sushi with grapes and other kawaii accessories. Yummy.  I must have veggie sushi – stat!

Hello Kitty fruit bunny bento – awwwww!

Check out the lychees that look like acorns and the cute little bunny sauce bottle. So sweet. Looks delish.

Blue potato bunny and then egg flowers! Oh my gosh – I am stunned at the adorability! Little sheep sauce container.

I love the little animal food dividers. Super sweet.

Happy acorn sammie! Bunny apples and smiley face boo-berries.

I love the monkey mayo container and elephnat pick in the falafel. Yummy!