bento

So, I've started this thing where I make bentos for my lunch as a way of bribing myself into going to school everyday. I've always tried to make home lunch, because as teaching assistants we get a lounge with a mini fridge and microwave, so there isn't really any excuse for settling for a boring sandwich everyday. Plus, you save loads of money and you can eat up leftovers so you don't waste food.

Photo by Luckysundae

I am really inspired by this group on flickr, have you seen them? They do amazing things with food! My favorite has to be luckysundae, she makes awesomely cute bento for her boys!
I went on this whole shopping spree before term began because I was inspired by her bentos; I got two bento boxes, a variety of sushi/musubi shapers and some really cute cut-outs for veggies, meat, anything that can be sliced easily. I'm also using these little shoyu (soy sauce) holders that look like mini vegetables that I bought a long time ago, I think I blogged about them before.


Anyway, here are two of my more recent attempts; a gyoza dumpling lunch with musubi rice and pickled vegetables and a veggie tempura patty with two cucumber miso handrolls. Today I had the tempura one; it was so delicious that I felt like I had to shut the door to my office so no one would see me eating it! The gyoza one was good too, but that one I ate last week and I had to eat it as I was running to class (my class is pretty far away, so I got a head start in my office but then I had like 10 minutes to cross campus) so I walking with my little box held up to my mouth and my chopsticks moving a mile a minute (I can only imagine how I looked)! I need to practice getting more vegetables in there; the only thing is we don't have a lot of yummy vegetables right now! Also, it's kinda hard because I have really small bento boxes; I can't eat too much because I usually teach classes right after and I might be sick in front of my students if I I eat a lot! Here is a bento box I really want from shopkawaii; it has two levels so I'll be able to fit more in there! I'm also thinking about making bento bags for my etsy, but it will probably have to wait until summer :)