#83: Breakfast for Lunch

Oh, faithful readers (Hi, L!). We are sorry for the way We have treated you.  Neglectfully.  Without consideration.  We have been a Rude King.  Sneakiness, yes, but abandonment?  No!  That is not the way of the Kingdom!

Sans camera today, We thought to Ourself, well, a crappy phone photo is better than no photo at all.  And so We took a phone photo.  Then we thought, Self, We can e-mail that to Ourself, and then post it for the citizenry!  And that is what We have done.  So it is Our hope that you will enjoy it despite the questionable quality.

Today, We are sickies.  We have some sort of aggravating head cold thing.  The Royal Nose leaks (and is now dry and scratchy and scabby on the outside).  The Royal Head is full of heavy and hurt.  The Royal Limbs are listless and pasty. 

So We brought comforting lunch.  Gentle, mildly sweet foods.  All the components came in separate little cute tubs, and then were added together when We remembered to take a photo. 

In the red panda bowl on the left is vanilla lowfat yogurt and frozen blueberries.  We almost never buy the yogurt w/ sugar in it, so this was appallingly deliciously ice-creamy!  The blue bowl is 1-minute oats (not the sugary instant packet crap, just regular oats--albeit the instant, not-as-good-for-you kind), walnuts, and cinnamon.  After it was rehydrated We put sliced banana in.  Yum.  We feel nourished and able to go teach a second class!

Er, mostly.

Fall Roundup: Lunches #65-82

It's been a busy time here in the Kingdom, kids.  Your faithful King has been editing, teaching, grading, running, singing, and just generally trying to keep Her bizniz going.

As the lunch photos stacked up on Our camera, the process of pulling them off became, for some reason, a more and more daunting task.  Each additional photo meant We wanted to do it less.  For some reason, while We love taking the photo and We love posting the photo, the in-between process--the finding the camera cable, the sorting, the tiny bit of editing, etc. became too much.  We despaired.

So finally, in an effort to remedy the problem, We pulled all the photos from the past month and a half.  At once.  Right here.  So, We proudly present you with the Awesome Fall Roundup Extravaganza!

First, the Identical Salad Photos:

This is a delicious salad that We ate frequently while the weather was still hot.  Its basic components are cottage cheese, tomato, cucumber, peas, salt, and pepper.  Delicious and protein-y.

This lunch also had an apple!  So much fiber, so little time.

The gold standard.

Just the peas, please.  We believe that Our fridge was very empty and that We were in a serious hurry that morning.  This is not enough lunch, We know.  Still, better than nothing.

Our friend, M, was having a rough day this day so We walked over to her building and brought her a Diet Coke (which We do not usually drink) and some Combos (which We do not usually eat).  Naughty!  So We finished the Coke with Our lunch.

This lunch, taken at home because transit would surely have shaken up the pretty little pattern, is in a new box the Queen sent Us in the mail!  What a great random gift, Queen!  We love it.  We used it four times in the first week We owned it.  It's a Fit and Fresh sandwich box, with the gel-cool in the lid--but it really comes into its own as a bento box, b/c it's the perfect size.  Hooray!

And now, the Parade of Sandwiches:

Fried egg on Kingdom bread with a banana.  Not very much lunch, but at least it's got protein and whole grains for staying power.

Tofurkey on Shame bread with mayo, mustard, spinach, and tomato.  This was part of Our Vegan-Except-For-Eggs-And-Also-Only-Whole-Grains-Plus-No-Caffeine-But-Tea Cleanse.  It was very effective, and We felt much better about two days into the program.  Sandwich is backed up by apples and carrots.

 The innards!  Gosh, looking at that makes Us hungry.

Just can't get enough stunt meat.  Another Tofurkey on Shame.

We were particularly pleased with this lunch.  The salad is spinach and tomato with a little orange tulip of Newman's Raspberry Vinaigrette.  The sandwich is a fried egg on Kingdom with mayo and mustard.  Then there's an apple.  The cup is green tea--We were at Starbucks, grading.  We were suprised and pleased that the baristas did not get all up ons for Us bringing Our own lunch.

Here is a peanut butter and blackberry preserves on Kingdom, with baby carrots, blueberry yogurt, and a banana.  There is tea in the Santa mug.  Because We are on a serious running training program now, We find that We need food almost constantly or We start to fall down.  So some of the beefier lunches are a result of that.

Now, Rice is Nice!

Ah, rice is nice.  Here's brown rice w/ ebi furikake, tamagoyaki, apple slices, and instant miso soup.  Oh, and a BC Powder, because We had things to do.  And Our head was bad. 

Check out Our not-very-good rolling skillz.  Who cares?  It was delicious.  Check out the Thirsty Bat hovering over the lunch.  Bat want nomz?  Well, too bad!

This lunch was so good it was almost unholy.  Spinach, onion, and tofu stir fry with brown rice and green tea.  Why was this so delicious?  We do not know, but it was one of the most satisfying lunches We had made in a long time.  Bonus: vegan!

Ah, what would the Sneaky Kingdom be without fried rice?  Also, check out Our homemade daikon pickles.  We think We did an okay job.  We will tweak the recipe later.  We also made some righteous pickled garlic, but that is far too pungent for lunch!  It is available only in the Royal Castle, where We will not offend the citizenry with Our Fire Breath of Doom.

Fried Rice and Fried Rice Alone day!

And, the Lunches of Less-Commonly-Used Device:

That's right.  Lentil soup.  Yum!  With a homemade biscuit, apple slices, and coffee candy.

More of the same!  But also with some carrots in there.  We love how the little mushroom guy on the lid of this bowl is so enthusiastic.

This was a weird choice.  We made a squash stuffed with apple slices one day during the Vegan Cleanse.  It was good, but would have been better with butter.  To back it up, there was a hard-boiled egg and some carrots.  This was a little awkward to eat at Our desk, and We got olive oil on Our pants, and then had to teach with Conspicuous Crotch Blots.  The shame!

Okay, there you go, citizens: the King's Fall Lunches.  We hope that you have enjoyed this glut of lunch, you hedonists!  We hope to resume regular posting soon, now that this backlog is no longer hanging over Our head, so please do not think that We have abandoned you!

Bento #64: Eggs and Fail

On the day of this lunch, We had baked banana bread and brought it in for Our colleagues.  Fellow teachers, we thought, should enjoy a tasty breakfast treat.  So We were pleased to have a carbohydrate component of lunch already in place, and brought just two hard-boiled eggs with a mixture of mayo, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika in the little bear, for spreading-on-eggs purposes.  There was also a plum.  We wore a happy yellow sundress and were so pleased to be of use. 

This plan all went to hell when no one wanted our banana bread.  Very few takers.  We were forced to bring a nearly-full plate of banana bread back home.  We foisted some off on Our friend, M, in order to process the unexpected overload.  What's wrong with people, anyway?

Bento #64: P, B, & PB sandwich

This sandwich was great.  It was a peanut-butter, blackberry preserves, and mooshed banana sandwich.  It's excellent.  You should try doing this, seriously.

Bento 62: Mystery Sandwich

Here you see an ordinary bento.  Plum, check.  Baby carrots, check.  Mystery sandwich, check.  Seriously, We have no idea what kind of sandwich this is.  Feel free to guess.

Bento #61: Quiche

It's a quiche!  We love quiche.  We believe that there is spinach, onion, and cheese in this particular quiche.  It has a whole wheat/olive oil crust.  Alongside the quiche, there's a plum, two coffee candies, and a packet of tea (which is sitting in front of another cup of tea.  Oh, well, We can never have too much tea here in the Sneaky Kingdom!).

Quiche is magical and delicious. It can contain anything and can be as healthy or as decadent as you like.  It is delicious at room temperature or hot or cold.  All hail the majesty of quiche!

Bento #60: Mystery Lentils

A mystery in the sense that We do not know when We ate it, not in the sense that We do not know what it is.

This is the beloved lentils and brown rice combo again, in the hot foods thermos, with some grapes and plums on the side.

This is an excellent lunch thermos, by the way.  Our lentils were still piping hot at lunchtime, which is excellent, because of the heinous cold in Our building.  Seriously, yesterday We were wearing jeans, full shoes and socks, a t-shirt, a sweater, and then a baggy sweatshirt over everything in order to keep from freezing.  Although hot lunch is impossible to contemplate while We are at home, it is highly desirable at work!

Today We had to walk across campus to pick up some work for a friend who's sick at home and had foolishly left her class prep materials in her office.  It's freezing in the buildings.  Walking across campus, We sweated not just through Our t-shirt, but through the knees of Our jeans.  Now We are back in the a/c, trying to dry off before We go teach again, and We are wet and freezing.  This means 1) it is impossible to dress correctly and 2) the university is wasting a whole lot of cash keeping its staff freezing in sweaters in August.  Can't something be done about this?  Like, budget committee, what if you gave $ back to programs in exchange for everyone turning the temperature up two degrees in each building?

We must be overlooking or unaware of something.

Bento #59: They Taste Good to Her

Okay, so let's dispense with the basics: We have a sandwich of almond butter and blackberry preserves, a few sticks of celery, a hard-boiled egg, some grapes for packing material, and a plum.

Look at it!  Look at it really hard.  Look at the deep, rich, red color.  Look at the beautiful dark, thin skins,  Look at the way that, even in this low-res lunch photo, the juice glistens, a sweet wet promise.  Look at the way the flesh lightens inward where the stone has been removed, an almost solar-eclipse-like effect, making the plum both absence and presence at the same time. 

We bought a huge sack of these plums and ate them all week, letting juice run down Our arms and chin, staining fingers and lips a rich violet red unusual in a plum.  We must tell you, We are a little weak in the knees.  No kidding, W.C.W., these plums were so good that Our desire for them was nearly sexual in its intensity.  Solace of ripe plums, indeed.

Snackbox, Toddler-Style

We woke up.  We put on Our cute "Yellow Submarine" dress.  We got ready for work.  And then, petulance set in.  We did not want to have to pack a lunch.  Besides which, We were not quite running on all Our cylinders that morning, and thinking about food was kind of a no-go.  So, We packed the only thing that seemed good to Us: Our Noodle Bear box full of grapes. 

We knew perfectly well that this is not a lunch, that We would have to go buy something else somewhere within walking distance of Our building.  We could not care enough to scare up something else back at the castle before leaving.

In Our defense, grapes are delicious, aren't they?

Snackbox: Trail Mix

We love a snackbox.  We often have a snackbox like this hidden somewhere in the depths of Our bag.  This is trail mix from Our local hippie grocery.  It's kind of chocolate-heavy.  Usually, We get a fruit-heavy one. 

This tiny little Tupperware container is a good snackbox to have tucked in the backpack.  It won't go bad if We don't eat it the day We pack it, it's a good hit of calories to keep Us from going crazy with hunger, and it's way tastier than most of the premade granola bars out there. 

So if We do not post many snackboxes, here is why: the majority of them look something like this. 

Bento #58: Pizza and a Salad

We do love lunches that make use of both halves of the tiffin.

In the back tier is a salad of spinach, cucumber, and lettuce, with a little green bird container of Newman's dressing (look hard; it's there!)

In the front tier is a slice of leftover anchovy-and-olive pizza from Decent Pizza, whose pizza is, in fact, pretty great.  There's also a plum and two strawberries to hold everything in place.

As it turns out, Our friend S's husband, J, loves anchovy pizza.  Oh, We do love someone who loves salty fish snacks.  And particularly on pizza, where nobody likes them!  Nobody except the discerning elite of pizza-eating, that is.

Bento #57: Breakfast!

When We woke up this morning, We did not want any of the food that was available in the fridge.  Salad again?  No!  An egg-based construction?  No!  We were a petulant King.  An angry and pouty King.

Fortunately, gumption and initiative are highly-prized virtues in the Sneaky Kingdom, and so your King did not wallow for long.  Oh, no.  Instead, We rolled up Our sleeves and made blueberry muffins.  We forget exactly what We ate for breakfast while the muffins were baking.

For the rest of lunch, We brought the rest of breakfast!  We started with blueberry yogurt--zero percent fat, which is unfortunate, but blueberry, which is awesome.  Life is a compromise.  In the big noodle-bear container, We have a plum and some grapes.  In the smaller panda container behind, there are two of Our freshly baked blueberry muffins.  Not pictured somewhere off to the side is some tea.  Also off to the side is Our iPod.  It was wearing Our favorite of its little covers--the one with multicolored skulls on it.

Bento #56: A Brief Vegan Detox

Here is the same salad, but now with tofu chunks!

When it is hot, sometimes, We want to eat just plain cold tofu.  Mild and cold, it's a nice cooling lunch for summertime. 

Aside from tofu, this salad contains mixed lettuce, spinach, cucumber, tomato, and raspberry-walnut vinaigrette.

Bentos #53, 54, and 55

All week long, We ate this salad:

Here's the first one.  Lettuce, spinach, chicken, tomato, and cucumber, with Newman's Raspberry Vinaigrette.  Look closely and see the Royal Toes!

Here it is again, this time perched at a rakish angle!

We started eating this one before We remembered the photo.  If you look, you can see Our running shoes in the photo--We forgot real shoes when we packed Our gym back that morning.  Sad but true.

But King, you must surely be thinking, Didn't you get tired of that lunch?  Not really--at the end of the week, We were still going strong.  However, it must be said that this box is sort of a contraption to try to wash, and We are now mightily tired of that process, which must be done every night so the blue gel bit has a chance to freeze overnight.

Bento #52: Tofu Stir Fry

Holy blurry photo, Batman!  Also, holy "We forgot to take a photo until well after digging in!"

This is tofu and veggie stir fry--spicy, with garlic chili paste.  In the back is kiwi and blueberry.

This was a very light lunch, but We were feeling light.  So it's calorically low, I'm sure, but it was actually very satisfying.  Perhaps the fiber?  We do not know, but it was delicious and exactly the right answer.

Bento #51: Spinachroll

Just like the Reubenroll, except a spinachroll!  With swiss cheese.  And here are some carrots, and some random soup, and two coffee candies.

The soup was a weird "But it's so cold in the office!" gesture.  It's a vegetable stock/soy sauce/Sriracha broth, with some frozen veggies, some leftover noodles, and some tofu cubes.  It would have been better with miso, but We are out.

The innards!

Bento #50: Everyone Loves Savory Pastry!

Here is a reubenroll, some carrots with spicy peanut dip, a kiwi, and two little coffee-flavored hard candies for dessert.

Have We ever told you that Our favorite sandwich is a reuben?  Well, it is.  We love a pungently savory flavor.  We also love pickled things.  To that end, the mighty reuben.  No lie--it was the reuben that was Our last holdout for being a vegetarian.  For a while, We even held it out as our one exclusionary principle--no land animals but in the reuben!  But We did not make this compromise, instead choosing occasional fish as Our holdout. 

But during the Omnivore Reboot, We decided that we would bake these rolls for a picnic.  They contain some basic reuben flavoring: corned beef, swiss cheese, Russian dressing.  Because We were baking these to take them to the 4th of July in the park, We did not add sauerkraut, as We did not know the taste preferences of the others in the party.  Turns out, they love sauerkraut.  We should have included it!  Next time.  These rolls were crazy delicious.  We scarfed down three of them in one day.

This principle, by the way, can be applied to any sandwich, as long as it isn't overly wet or dependent on raw veggies: wet will escape and raw will wilt.  Take your favorite bread recipe and divide it in eight parts.  Roll each ball to about 1/4" thickness.  Lay out your sandwich components on the sheet of dough, roll it up, pinch the roll closed, and let rise.  Brush with egg, slash, and bake at the usual temperature for about 30 minutes.  Seriously, you won't regret this.

Bento #49: Saved by Onigiri

From an empty lunch, that is.

Our fridge was way empty when We made this lunch.  But if there are two things that are always available in the Sneaky Kingdom, it's eggs and rice.   Here are two onigiri made with ebi furikake and hard-boiled egg mashed into very small bits mixed in.  By the way, egg white does not stick well to rice.  Just saying.  Next to the onigiri are grapes, several of which picked up the ebi flavoring.  Shrimpy grapes are not quite as nice as standard ones.

In the tier behind, there's carrot sticks and kiwi slices.  Yum; kiwi!  We do love different fruits for Our bentos.  And finally, in the lid, there's a slice of fruitcake which the Queen Mother sent Us.  Yum; fruitcake!  Though We do wish she'd convert to standard dried fruits instead of the lurid candied kind, which can make the bread too sugary.  Still, very sweet of her to send it so that it could be Our bento dessert!  It was good with tea.

Oh, and the knitted widget behind the lunch?  That is Our work hat.  You see, the air conditioning is kept so high in the building We work at that We often have to bundle up in winter clothes so as not to freeze.  This seems ludicrous to Us, and yet, there it is.  So that is a hat that would be appropriate for fall in Our Original Kingdom up north.  Here, where it is Sunny, We keep the hat in Our office for a/c resistance purposes.  Oh, and the staff often resorts to opening the windows and letting the 97-degree air from outside in, to try to warm the room up a little. We--by which We, the King, mean everyone who works there--is aware that this is stupid, and yet, we don't have access to thermostat controls.  So instead, lots of wasted energy.  If someone else would like to draw a  moral here, by all means, do it.

Bento #48: El Fiesta del Luncho!

Orale! 

We actually have no idea what We're doing with that word.  :)

But this was a seriously tasty lunch, though.  You see before you a lovely quesadilla with refried beans, cheese, and cilantro, with a bear face of black bean and corn salsa for dipping.  There's also a tomato-and-onion salad, which stunk up the Digital Studio wherein We tutor, some carrot sticks, and a sweet l'il kiwi.

We would have preferred to pack this lunch differently--more compactly, somehow--but We could not figure out how to do that in the time allowed Us in the morning. 

Strangely, We had a dream about bentoing last night.  We dreamed We went to an old junk store that, crazily, amid a huge pile of broken Christmas things, had a table crammed with bento boxes and tools and containers.  But nothing fit--We couldn't match lids to bases, chopsticks to holders, or box to bag.  A very frustrating dream that has left Us with the urge to make a perfect, perfect bento this morning.  If We do, We will be sure to post the Perfect Bento next.

Bento #47: Not Quite a Burrito

If We had had tortillas, this would have been a burrito.  This sandwich, on Kingdom bread, is refried beans, tomatoes, and spinach.  Tucked alongside is a carrot and some grapes. 

If you haven't tried putting refried beans on every kind of savory sandwich imaginable, you must do it.  Use it instead of mayo for Enhanced Savory Effects.  It's particularly good if there's sprouts on your sandwich--but We did not have any.

Bento #46: Rice is nice! But it's just a grain.

We love to eat rice.  Let it be said, this is a grain-loving Kingdom.  But We cannot always eat Our rice fried.  The heart rebels.  The heart says, Please, another application!  So We return to a much-loved format: the rice pudding.

This particular rice pudding is brown rice, in an egg-heavy custard pudding, flavored with blueberries and nutmeg.  It is a delicious, delicious pudding!  In the background, you can see some grapes and pineapple, to offset the heaviness of the pudding.

And here is a full photo of the bento jar.  Cute! The insulation is not all it's cracked up to be, but it is so adorable, We can't bring Ourself to fault it. 

We love--just love--that in this photo, the carrying bag has a tiny beefy arm emerging from it, Trogdor-style. 

And the lunchbox comes in the niiiight!
Lunchbox!
Lunchbox!

Bento #45: Cooling Fruit Salad for Really Hot Afternoons

As you may have heard Us mention, it has become somewhat warm in the kingdom lately.  By which We mean it has become very, very hot.

Speaking of hot, We ate this after a yoga class that unexpectedly turned out to be a hot class.  Thank goodness there was this cool fruit salad afterward!

This salad contains grapes, peaches, and blueberries, and is mixed with a cup of lowfat plain yogurt.  It is refreshing and delicious and not too sweet.  We often eat this for breakfast, but it is also a good lunch.  The only thing that would have made it better is walnuts. 

Bento #44: Endless Parade of Sandwiches Continues

And it's green!  Here's an egg-salad sandwich, some celery sticks, some green grapes, and a little green jar of peanut dip.

In the background, there's a teeny thermal jar of coffee and a water bottle.  Both came from the same place--our friend B!  Thanks, B, for supplying our beverage needs--hydration is important in the Kingdom!

Yum; innards.  What's the preferred egg-salad mix in the Kingdom, you ask?  Why, mayo, grainy mustard, and smoked paprika, of course.  With a water-based vegetable element to sort of loosen things up.  Here, We have chosen tomatoes.  Lettuce is good, too. Both is best, but unfortunately, the King rarely has lettuce on hand due to its low nutritional content.  Crunchy water, while delicious, doesn't pay the vitamin bills, it seems.

This is the last sandwich for a while, We promise!  (Trust Us; We're sick of 'em too.)

Bento #43: The Lunch Formerly Known as Sandwich

We plead the 5th.

This once was an egg-salad sandwich on Kingdom-made bread.  It was so beautifully huge it had to be cut in half and then rearranged in order to fit in the bottom of the box.  But We were so very hungry that We ate it all up, om nom nom, before We remembered to take a photo.  Oops!

To compensate, We offer you this photo of fruit salad: mango and blueberry. 

The Kingdom is so excited that it's mango season!  We love mangoes.  Unlike some others, We are not allergic to mango peel, so, after cutting off the big cheeks of flesh, We get the joy of stripping the remaining bits off the skin with Our teeth, and gnawing on the pit until Our teeth are jammed with threads of mango fiber and we are a sticky, fragrant mess.

All Hail the Fragrant King of Summer!