Experimenting with two boxes

I won't be eating dinner until late tonight, so I packed myself two bentos today, the 500 mL box with breakfast and an afternoon snack, Ms. Bento with lunch, with the Ms. Bento not packed as densely as I would normally to make sure the overall eating portions for the day are normal. (at left: bento box in its little furoshiki :)

breakfast/snack, clockwise from right:

• strawberry yogurt with bits of banana mixed in, as well as banana slices for decoration
• kishu mandarins (OMG SO CUTE) that Sue brought to Second Saturday with honey-glazed peanuts as gap filler
• sweet pickles and two mozz pearls for snack

closeup of one of the sections of the kishu mandarins for size comparison. Were these made for bento or what? They're jam-packed with flavor, too. And here I thought nothing could beat satsumas...

lunch/afternoon snack, clockwise from right:

• more of that crockpot chicken soup thing I made last week with a few carrot shapes for garnish -- ran out of broccoli and didn't feel like making rice, so I'm just eating it as a soup today
• rosemary and water crackers with sesame sticks as gap filler for a snack
• left half: carrot sticks with the last of the green beans in the center; right half: animal crackers

Life is good

I am definitely getting more of these smaller boxes. They're just right for these days at home, or days when I can take both breakfast and lunch to work. And so much fun to pack! I love packing my two systems, but these are even more fun, if that's possible!

clockwise from right:

• tangerine, a few sweet pickles, some fresh string beans for baran, and bits of herb-roasted turkey breast slices from the New Seasons deli (they kind of come apart as you handle them since they're so thinly sliced, so I just sort of rolled bits and pieces together into a half dozen little rolls)
• picks with ends from the carrots and beans that had to be cut off to make them fit; underneath are alternating slices of rosemary-cheddar and Cotswold cheeses (the rosemary-cheddar, by the way, is made by a local cheesemaker and used to only be available at the Farmers' Market so I would buy a package everytime we went; the day New Seasons started carrying it, I did a little jig in front of the cheese case, ngl :)
• carrot sticks and dark chocolate-covered raisins

I'm working out of the nook today, so there's an added dimension of enjoyment of my little lunch box. Life is pretty great today.

It's official: I'm addicted

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ALSD;AF L;AKSJD A;LJFA;S AS;ALAKLJ;SKL;SF

You guys. I am totally crazy. No really.

I now have in my possession a THIRD bento box. WTF I DON"T EVEN KNOW. And also! I have miscellaneous other bento-related paraphernalia and/or accoutrements. And it's all your fault! Because I was all, "HALP HALP I AM SUCCUMBING TO BADNESS" and you guys were all "COME TO THE DARK SIDE WE HAVE COOKIES" and so anyway.

So here is my saga of more bento gear. IT MUST BE DOCUMENTED FOR POSTERITY BECAUSE WE WILL LOOK BACK AND SAY THIS IS WHERE IT ALL STARTED TO GO DOWNHILL.

I've been thinking for awhile of getting a smaller bento box for the days when I'm working from home, and thus have regular breakfast (oatmeal, usually) and dinner at a reasonable time, as well as the fruit basket readily at hand for snacks and so don't need as much eat. The two systems I have work really great for the office because they're my lunch and snacks for the day and my days in the office are usually long (witness last night, when I didn't get home until after 8 PM, thankyouverymuch). Ultimately, I think I'm actually going to get a few more boxes of varying (small) sizes, so I can mix and match according to my meal needs for the day.

Or possibly I am justifying my craving for more boxes. Whatever.

I have some picked out on my wishlist, but they'll have to be ordered, and I have to actually convince myself to buy them. (That whole "buying yourself things you want is selfish" thing is a bitch.) They have to ship from Japan, which also means some steeper shipping costs than usual, and it takes, like 6 weeks or something, so I figured I'd check out a few places in town first to see what they had, as well as to get a few of the incidentals, if possible. Less to ship that way. I AM BEING TOTALLY PRACTICAL OKAY.

[skip a whole bunch of boring explanatory shit that I typed up but does nothing but make my already long posts even longer]

SO ANYWAY. I am now in possession of the following:

• Bento box (500 mL) -- Nothing special, and certainly not the cutest they had (of the limited selection), but it'll give me a chance to experiment with the smaller size before I order the super cute ones I want on my wishlist. I picked this one because of the adorable Nintendo-ese on the top:  "We are passionate about lunch communication. The lunch is a good day pastime." Right? That alone will make any lunch 10x better. Oh, and it came with a mini furoshiki!
• mini microwave veggie steamer thingie -- This was on my wishlist so I was glad to not have to pay shipping for it; it'll be handy for being able to do some bentos in the morning instead of the night before, when I can steam a small handful of veggies real quick without having to heat up water and use my steamer basket.
• food picks -- Again, nothing special (they didn't have any selection), but I didn't want anything too fancy or bulky or cutesy and these were just right, for cheap.
• EGG MOLDS! The exact heart & star package I wanted, even! Plus, no shipping, so yay!
• Pocky -- Because you just can't go to an Asian grocery and not get Pocky. It's a law.
• Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Movie -- A big bag of wasabi peas for Sal, because he loves them. They weren't a bribe. Shut up.

So here's the new box with today's lunch.

clockwise from bottom:

• fresh green beans on the bottom, with slices of chicken basil sausage to each side and cheese decorations; centerpiece is my very first molded egg, the shape of which is supposed to be a star but which you can barely make out because I used the large eggs we had on hand instead of the extra-large/jumbos you're supposed to use to really get the effect (I was too impatient to wait for a trip to the store...I've been waiting a looooong time to have a molded egg in my bento; I am also five)
• Cotswold and rosemary-cheddar cheese slices with 2 carrot sticks as baran (divider)
• 2 more carrot sticks and a tangerine

You'll note one of my new little flower picks for eating and the lid in the background. The last pic of the box makes it look black, but it's actually a pretty, dark blue color with a small pink flower detail on the lid. The furoshiki (the patterned cloth under the box) matches the flowers on the lid.

This is the beginning of the end, you guys.