I was in jest about doing bento for the days I'm working from home, but I've decided I'm going to go ahead and do that as a regular thing. It made such a difference Monday and I noticed the difference even more yesterday when I didn't do one. Especially because yesterday was so lovely, and it would've been perfect to take a break from work, walk down to Cathedral Park, and have a nice little lunch break, which I hardly ever do at home (I have lunch, and I may even be away from my computer during that time, but I'm still within hearing distance so I can listen for an email ding; I think I shall be changing that habit, however -- it's become a tad too Pavlovian for my comfort level). It's another pretty day here, so I'm headed out to eat my lunch. ;)
;)
clockwise from right:
- small baked potato with a lattice of colby cheese strips and maple-smoked cheddar shapes -- my lattice doesn't look quite as nice as it did at first since I put it on while the potato was still warm, so it melted in the middle
- peas with a border of pickles; carrots would've been better contrast than pickles, but I'm out and have held off buying any groceries for awhile in anticipation of Thanksgiving, since we'll need every spare inch of space to store food (Hall-Smiley Thanksgiving Extravaganza WOOT WOOT!)
- left side: strawberry yogurt with little flowers designed from pomengranate seeds; right side: mango slices with pomegranate seeds as gap fillers
The pomegranate in our last organics bin was ginormous. Took me about 40 minutes to seed it. What's in the container is less than half of what I ended up with. No complaints here because I lurve me some pomegranate, especially juice, but it's no wonder pomegranate-anything is so freaking expensive -- seeding the darn things is labor-intensive!
Someone asked me about the container sizes* and overall between the three containers, the Ms. Bento holds about 710 mL to 770 mL**, depending on how full you fill it.The soup container, which is the smallest (the one with the potato in it in this pic), holds about 6 oz. The large, middle container (peas) holds closer to 11 oz., but the way the lid works you can't fill it to the brim because the lid is insulated (thick) and sits down inside the container, so you lose volume to that. Generally, I think you can fit about 9 or 10 oz. in it. Then the divided container holds about another 9 oz.
*Read here for the whole philosophy of sizes for bento, if you're not familiar. Hence, the Ms. Bento packs about a 710 calorie meal if you follow the 3:2:1 guideline. (I play kind of fast and loose with that guideline since I tend to have more fruit/veg and less protein in mine than called for.)
**The specs from the booklet put it at 840 mL (soup bowl: 6.8 oz; middle bowl: 10.5 oz; divided bowl: 11. 2 oz.) but I measured it when I got it and it came out closer to 710 mL to 770 mL (24 oz to 26 oz) if you measure to the levels you can actually fill it. Also, since lunch is my main meal for the day (when I've packed one), I treat it as my food for the majority of my day. That means a snack and/or breakfast/morning meal. Oftentimes, I don't get an opportunity to eat more than once during the work day, but I do spread it out if I can.