Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Bento Lunch Boxes



I discovered recently, to my shock and horror, that my husband had not been eating lunch at work because he was too busy to go down to the cafeteria in his office building. On top of that, he had been drinking, on average, 5 cups of coffee a day, and was a nervous wreck by the time he got home every night. I even caught him sneaking in a few puffs of cigarettes, a habit that I thought he broke a few years ago, outside our home.

Naturally, I felt horrible about this and wanted to find a way to encourage him to eat lunch with very minimal effort. I decided to invest in a thermal bento box that does not require microwaving. This cost $9, and you can pack a pretty substantial amount in there.

There are some really fancy ways to create bentos, as documented by many blogs, but I'm an amateur at this and I wanted to just start with leftovers and whatever is in the refrigerator.

This morning, I started with a layer of red jasmine rice packed down really tight with a spoon, some baby carrots and a tomato wedge on the side compartment. Then I added some pork that I sliced up really thin, and some stir fried Chinese greens. The content of the lunch was under $2.