Tasty bento

I am a big fan of only working 8 hours in a day, so I tend to eat lunch while working at my desk. It's also a good way to control what goes into my hungry belly since I can plan my lunch while in a calm state of mind (after eating dinner) and not be starving and fantasize about cupcakes and entire watermelons. By the time I'm at the ravenous stage, complete with cartoon cupcakes circling my head, I find myself stuck at my desk and only able to enjoy the nutritious lunch I so thoughtfully packed for myself the night before.

Enter: the bento. I've been a fan of bento box eating since I discovered sushi. It's most popular in Japan, where mothers vie for the title of most awesome lunch packed for their kid. The accessories alone are staggering....patterned cupcake cups of all sizes, little dividers shaped like animals, tiny squeeze bottles for sauces, even molds that you cook eggs in to create hard boiled cute piggy faces. Some people really go to the moon with this stuff. Much of my inspiration comes from this woman and the lunches she packs for herself, husband, and toddler each day. Hers are more traditionally asian, but yummy looking all the same.

I am mostly practical but admit I do have a drawer of little tidbits and have conversations with myself while packing, like, "should I use the little cup with the octopuses on it today? Or maybe one with penguins. And maybe some of that grass to keep the melon from touching the plum."

But, you know, it's all ok because I'm only packing these lunches to impress myself. It makes the bitter pill of no-cupcake-for-lunch easier to swallow if instead my hummus is tucked into a cup patterned with wee chicken heads. This is today's lunch (packed last night): part of a cut up hambuger from the previous night's dinner for my protein packed in a separate tiny tupperware, and in my bento box charlie's homemade hummus with red pepper and cherry tomatoes for dipping, and a treat of plum, cantaloupe, and cherries with a few pecans to cut the sweetness. Each portion is miniscule but they add up to be a filling satisfying lunch. For instance, that dollop of hummus is about a heaping tablespoon. The key is a colorful pleasing variety. I picked up a couple of traditional bento boxes at Daiso (the Japanese dollar store) and love their compartmentalized shape. The two levels nest neatly on top of one another.

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Things are a bit lonely in the coop. I may look into finding a companion hen for Penelope until another batch of babies comes next spring.