Bento #98: PB&J

We were a bit pressed for time at this point.  Here is an almond butter and jam sandwich on kingdom bread, a banana, and carrots.  There is tea in the cup and honey in the tea from the little bear.

Sometimes, it's hard to get out the door in the morning.  We explain this lunch thusly.

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.

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 #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.

Bento #42: Second Verse, Same as the First!

...a little bit louder and a little bit worse!

You are not mistaken.  That is an almond-butter and blackberry-preserves sandwich you see before you.

You also see a metal shotglass from Epcot's Mission: Space full of blueberries, some celery our friend S did't want, and some peanut dip.  Then there's the Unattractive But Spacious Office Mug full of green tea.

People are consistently amazed that We drink our loose-leaf tea...loose.  As in, "You just put it right in there?'  Well, er, yes.  It sinks right to the bottom--and sometimes, the shortest distance between two points, blah, blah.

Bento #41: PB&J--Or Rather, AB&P

Hooray!  Faithful subjects, rejoice; the King is back at work!

Let Us say that a paycheck cannot come soon enough.  Your Faithful King?  Is broke.  It is a poor Kingdom lately.  An impoverished Kingdom.  A Kingdom of No Bizzles.  The flow has ceased; the lettuce has died; someone has moved Our cheese. 

We thought about petitioning the UN for aid--but then realized that We must lead by example--and fortune helps Those who help Themselves.  Therefore, We are now doing some freelance editing.  Lo, it is tedious.  Lo, it is time-consuming.  But King gotta get paid, son!  So We are now back to packing a lunch.  But be warned: Our lunches will not be extravagant until that flow starts to come in.  Prepare to see Poverty Lunches.

To wit: Exhibit A.  Here is an almond-butter and blackberry preserves sandwich.  Kingdom-made bread.  Alongside, We have half a nectarine, some blueberries, carrot sticks, and a container of the ubiquitous spicy peanut dip. 

You know, We find that so many sandwiches benefit from being made on pre-toasted bread.  A little warmth, a little more stability--brilliant!  It must be said, Our love of toast is undeniable.  Fresh, hot toast, with sweet butter and perhaps a little jam?  Marvelous!  Hot toast points dipped in the yolk of a sunny-side up egg?  Citizenry, take note: this is the way to your King's heart.  And many sandwiches benefit even if the device is not put to its use until several hours later.  For example, it's a rare egg sandwich--fried, egg salad, it's all the same--that isn't better on toast, even hours later.  Even something that relies on crispness in all its aspects--the hallowed BLT, all three of whose letters must be crisp and perfect--will generally keep, if properly toasted and not overburdened with mayo, for at least an hour or two.

However.  We somehow erred in the construction of this particular sandwich.  We have found in past encounters that making a PB&J with toast contains the wet innards, preventing the premature soaking of the bread and the oozing of the vital fluids.  Meanwhile, said fluids generally help the toast retain a freshness, a vitality.  This, however, was not the case here.  The toast somehow dehydrated the inner workings of the sandwich while not actually getting any moister itself, with the result that the sandwich was a bit cumbersome to the teeth.  And what's more, the edges were positively stale.  How?  We are mystified.  Perhaps the fault lies with the preserves, which definitely do not have the soothing wetness of, say, strawberry jam.  It's not the bread--this is the Kingdom's daily, gold-standard whole-wheat bread, moistened with oil and sweetened with molasses--which also have a humectant quality.

Clearly, more research is indicated.