My first bentos

A few weeks ago I followed a link on Brandi's blog to Adventures in Bentomaking and I was fascinated with the really cool bentos that were posted and I got it into my head that it would be fun to bring bentos to work. One of the benefits to making and taking bentos to work is that it saves money and is healthier because you don't have to buy lunch. I usually bring home lunch anyway because I'm not a fan of school lunch (and geez, the price went up!) and I don't have enough time to drive down the bloody hill to the nearest food place (which is McDonald's so really not the healthiest choice) so I wouldn't save money or reap any health benefits by bringing a bento to work. However, I would waste a lot of precious sleeping time, as bentos are generally made in the morning. I'm really really not a morning person and I have a hard time getting myself to work on time as it is. So bringing bentos wouldn't save me any money, wouldn't be any healthier for me, and would cost me precious sleeping time. So why was I suddenly obsessed with the idea of bringing bentos to work? Because they were pretty. Yes, that's right. Because they were pretty.

So here I was, obsessed with the idea of bringing bentos, but knowing full well what my limitations are in the morning. And then I discovered Lunch in a Box. I really liked this blog because it was interesting, the writer's pretty good, and I really liked the writer's view on bento. The writer makes bentos for her son but doesn't like spending a lot of time on them. Her bentos are appealing without the time consuming stuff. After reading a few of her entries, I decided that I too could manage to make bentos without killing myself. I've been obsessing about making bentos for weeks now and now that the convention's finally over, I can finally devote some brain power to figuring them out. I took a bento to work twice this week. The first one was sort of an experiment. I wanted to see if I could pack most of the bento the night before because I wasn't exaggerating when I said I wasn't a morning person. It turns out that most of it can be packed the night before so that's really good for me. Anyway, the first bento has onigiri with ume inside and little shoyu hot dogs that my dad made. In the blue silicone cups there's shelled edamame and pickled radish (the one that the Curry House sells). There's also three shrimp shumai, which was the only thing that I had to heat up in the morning. I was really concerned that the onigiri was gonna taste yucky since it spent the night in the fridge, but it was still really good. I think as long as I pack it fresh the night before it'll be okay. The second bento has another onigiri with ume and left over chicken from the oyako donburi I made the night before. I put kim chee in the silicone cup and popped in a couple of grape tomatoes as fillers. I actually packed the whole thing the night before and it was fine when I ate it for lunch.

I'm not planning to bring bento everyday because I do still love sandwiches and leftovers and I don't think I have enough energy to pack a cool lunch everyday, but I'm gonna try and bring them at least once a week. As I said, they're pretty (well, they will be once I get the hang of it) and I really love typical bento food like onigiri and pickled vegetables. And to be honest, sometimes I just need something to look forward to at work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job...most of the time. But sometimes the kids (and sometimes their parents), the other adults, and just the overall nature of my job can get to me. I admit, sometimes lunch is the highlight of my day.