Laziness Roundup #2: Bentos #85-97

Citizens, let's talk lunches.  Here's another slacker roundup--all the lunches since the last roundup, actually.  Again, organized by device for your convenience.

First off, because it is cold outside, the Soup Device:

We believe this is borscht, with sour cream and carrots.  In the back, notice Gary Snyder, a poet who We have a love-hate relationship with.  No nature, indeed--but less in the way you mean it, and more in the way Timothy Morton means it.

This is chili, with what We believe is shame bread and an orange.  Behind Our shame is the Thirsty Bat of tea or something, and behind the orange is the rose bowl of chocolate eyeballs We had on Our desk all Halloween and post-H season.  Hooray bowl of eyeballs!

Here is lentil soup, kingdom bread, and the awesome power of pineapple rings.  Meanwhile, there's a cup of tea from Starbucks with a coffee-cup-protector-warmer-thingy We made on it.  The tea was a disaster.  The obviously-new barista charged Us the  tea-latte price, even after We told her that tea was usually around $2.  She argued that Starbucks only sells tea lattes, not just regular hot tea.  So We had to physically make her turn around and look at the price of tea on the board above her head.  And then she was all, "We don't have black tea."  So what do you have?  "Green, mint, Earl Grey, blah blah blah."  Rather than fight, We took the Earl Grey.  Someone else can see to her education.  We do not mean to be mean--but We were polite at first, and then when she told Us vehemently that We were wrong, We gave up.  The moral: the tea came out too strong and was some sort of super-bitter tea concentrate when We got here, so that We took about a half-cup of tea sludge, cut it with water and honey, and reheated it in Our microwave.  Not shown: the 8 Advil We took over the course of the day while drinking the Tea Disaster.

As an aside, in Our attendance book, you can see all the student absences.  Blue highlights are absent days.  So much missed class!

Next device: Pie!

Here is veggie quiche, with leftover sweet potato hiding behind it.  Just peeking out there on the right is a bottle of water.

And more quiche, with the omnipresent carrots and apples.  Dunno what We'd do w/out carrots and apples.

Next, Crackers and Sandwiches!

Beloved rye crackers, apples and carrots, and hummus.  Woo.

PB& with apples and carrots. Woo.  At least it's kingdom bread.

In case you do not know what the inside of a PB&J looks like.  (We suspect this was so We would remember the sandwich contents.)

Man, We are boring sometimes.  Desk, desk, sandwich, putter.  Gah!  New device, quick, before We are suddenly 75!  Bring on Salads!

Ah.  Salad, yogurt, and apple.  Love yogurt.  We know We bitched and moaned about the 0% stuff--and it is indeed still not as tasty as the other kind--but 2% only comes in pineapple.  We can only eat so much pineapple yogurt.  In fact, We are going to go eat a yogurt right now, while We finish this epic post.

Horrors!  It's back.  And in low-res.  Cottage cheese, frozen peas, tomato, and cucumber.

Some Miscellaneous stuffs:

A baked potato with hard-boiled egg and sour cream, with steamed carrots on the side.  We believe that there is coffee in that Thermos.  Which, don't expect to see it again.  We forgot it for some time, and the incredible funk that was in there meant We just chucked it out.  We felt bad, yes, but some things can't be saved.

This is an amazing stir-fry: cabbage, chickpeas, garlic, popped mustard, turmeric, and cayenne.  Yum!  With brown rice.  And an apple.  And tea.

This was, We believe, the last active class day of the semester, hence Our cobbled-together lunch of instant ramen, apple and peanut butter, carrots, and a donut.  The donut was purloined from the grad lounge, as many people bribe their students for good evals.  Or get good evals b/c people are happier w/ high blood sugar.  Either way, there are a lot of snackies going spare in the department on the last few days.  The ramen?  Was pretty bad.  Sorry, Senor McDougall.  Those noodles were unpleasant. Also, as you can see, I was too busy to wash a proper water bottle, so I'm using a mason jar--which I brought to school w/ breakfast in it, which was about 2 cups of soymilk, 2 cups of coffee, and a couple tablespoons of sugar.  Oh, the health, it practically exuded from my pores.

Later, I also ate Common Room Oreos. 

And finally, your friend and Ours:

What is life without fried rice?  Not worth living, We say.

Hope you enjoyed the roundup, and We'll be back soon w/ more entries.

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 #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 #40: Lentils and Rice

Here is an interesting lunch in a box We don't think you've seen! Sadly, We don't have a full picture of it, but it's a cute little bento jar with the above two main compartments.  It works well when there are two sort of wet foods that you don't want to touch.

So, in the jar on the right, there is a lentils and brown rice combo.  It looks sort of unappetizing, but that's cheese melted over the top, and it's quite yummy.  It took Us a while to figure out what it tasted like, and cool or room-temp, this stuff tastes sort of like something we ate in Our elementary school cafeteria, We realize, and it triggers a long-ago taste memory that was hard to put down.  But there was a strange pizza-like device that tasted of tomatoes and a little spicy and with melted cheese on top and if those things had tasted good, they would taste like this rice dish does when it's cold.  That makes it sound undesirable.  Let Us assure yout that it is not.  It is very, very tasty.

In the right jar, there's a sliced nectarine with yogurt and a little bit of cane sugar. 

This was a good and desirable lunch, but We needed a snack before the gym (which is at the difficult-not-to-be-starving hour of 5 p.m.), or We were gonna die.  So We went to the hippie grocery for trail mix.  Yum.

And yes, We ate this in the car.  Don't judge.

Bento #33: Lentil Burrito Time!

This was a crazy delicious lunch.  This is taco-flavored lentils and sautéed green pepper and onion inside a tortilla, with tomato/spinach salad and oil and vinegar dressing.  Why don't We make this more often?  We now pledge to eat more lentil-taco devices in Our lunch!  The only pity was that the tortilla was tiny taco size, not monstrous burrito size.  Burrito size is for lunches packed.  Tiny Taco size is for suppers home.

There also seems to be a mug of tea of some sort in the background.

Lentil tacos are fantastically delicious and fantastically cheap (though check your packaged taco seasoning for animal broth, or make your own taco seasoning, if you don't want to be eating animal bits, as every now and then you get a seasoning package with animal bits). 

Here in the Sneaky Kingdom, We have a friend who assures us that lentils give her some weird, special sort of pep.  She claims it's the niacin.  We are not entirely sure how to process this phenomenon, which seems a little peculiar to Us.  We are refraining from drawing conclusions--We Ourselves do not experience a "lentil rush."  However, if you would like to experiment, please feel free.  If you wish to report your results to the Kingdom, We would be interested to hear about it; leave a comment below and Royal R&D will get back to you.

Bento #22: Lentilloaf Sandwich

Awww, look!  The l'il Smoking Bunny is hungry!  He wants Our carrots!  Poor l'il guy.  Our heart melts.  <3

We apologize for the blurry photo.  It is hard to hold a sandwich in one hand and a camera on macro (don't shake, don't shake!) in the other when the sandwich itself is threatening to slide apart.  A small price to pay, though for a delicious sandwich.  Here is Lentil loaf, spinach, We think some cheese (it was sort of a long time ago and We kind of misremember), mayo, and ketchup on, embarrassingly, store-bought bread.

And carrots.  We have poor enough vision as it is without forgetting to eat Our carrots.

Fun fact: this lunch features a device within a device!  Rare, even in this device-filled kingdom.

Bento #21: Homestyle dinner, redone!

Sooo, the no-flash version of this picture didn't turn out, leaving Us with only the flash version.  So that's why the rice is giving you a Blinding Voip! right now.  Also We started eating before We remembered the photo, because We were Royally Hungry.

So, in the bottom tier is vegetarian Lentil Loaf, which We think is pretty great--all the loafiness of a meatloaf, none of the actual meat.  So it's a pretty solid choice, and delicious.  Not vegan, though.  Ketchup on the side.  In the top tier is steamed spinach dressed with soy sauce, steamed asparagus dressed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and some white rice We made when We realized We were basically having Traditional American Dinner for lunch.  If We'd had potatoes in the fridge, We would have had mashed potatoes and made the circle complete.  But rice did the job just fine.

Bento #14: Lentil Soup in a Mason Jar

Because We do not have one of those fancy soup lunch thermos devices (though We covet it!), We brought our soup to work today in a Mason jar, because it will go in the microwave safely if the metal lid is removed.  We also have a slice of homemade wheat bread, halved, with hummus spread on thinly, apple slices and dates, and a mug of tea.

The soup is crock pot lentil soup, which is absolutely the best way to make lentil soup.  Everything goes all extra delicious in the slow cooker. 

Re: the tea, it is Tazo Zen.  We have a sneaking suspicion it might be something We do not like.  Because last week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, We had horrible afternoon headaches that forced Us to lie quietly on the couch and avoid thinking heavy thoughts (or indeed, moving at all).  Bad news!  When We thought about what could be occurring, the only new variable We could think of was that the tea bags We bought for the office might be giving Us troubles.  Naturally, everyone We know suggested allergies, but as far as We know, We're not allergic to anything--and We don't have headaches anywhere but the office.  While it's true that the office might have moldier carpet or something, We don't think that's the right answer.  We think it's the tea.  We are considering giving the tea away to someone else who won't be overcome.

Anyone want about ten packets of Potential Headache Tea?