Bento #108: Random Junk from the Fridge

Citizens, this is a weird one.  Our fridge was full of random stuffs, and We had not been shopping in a while, so here is a Very Strange Lunch.

The left tier has kind of a deconstructed California roll: sushi-seasoned brown rice, fake krab sticks leftover from something else, and avocado.  The right tier has greek yogurt, frozen blueberries, and plums.

This is not Our best lunch, citizens.  We admit to a certain lack of planning and forethought.  Fruit salad doesn't really go with fallen-apart sushi.  This is also not the most nutritionally sound lunch either, somehow.  Something is off.  We are somewhat shamed.

Bento #103: Fruit Salad

Here We see a lovely summery fruit salad made of yogurt, frozen cherries and blueberries, and underneath, apple and banana.   Alongside there's a nice warm mug of tea. 

Yogurt, it must be said, has almost miraculous properties.  Yogurt is an excellent device for repopulating one's innards with Charming Helper Bacteria after any sort of illness.  In fact, with certain digestive illnesses, dear yogurt can head the bad guys off at the pass, prevening some of the more unfortunate effects.  Our Royal Physician assures Us that yogurt, eaten regularly, helps prevent certain Lady Problems by reinforcing the Lady's own resistance.  Yogurt is an excellent Protein Delivery System for those who do not want to consume the Creature from Whence Yogurt Springs.  And, it must be said, that in Sunny FL, sometimes it becomes Very Diffiult to consume actual food, what with the heat and all, and dear Fruit and Yogurt Salad becomes invaluable at such times.

As summer rapidly approaches and the heat begins to build, Your King is bracing Herself for the time when she begins to live entirely on mangoes, yogurt, and fruit-juice popsicles while lying on the Castle Floor in Her underwear and Weeping Piteously.

Bento #102: TMT on Shame

Here, citizens, is the first part of this lunch: TMT on the end of what appears to be whole wheat shame, carrots, celery, and apple.

And here is the second: yogurt and frozen blueberries.  Well, not frozen anymore.  Ah, delcious yogurt.

Dearest citizens, We are sorry that it has taken Us so long to post more springtime lunches.  What can We say?  We were busy. 

In this semester, We stupidly assigned Ourself way more grading than We could keep up with.  We also went to Vegas to visit the Royal Family, We picked up running again, and We have been trying to nail out this prospectus so Our advisor does not light Us on fire.  All of which is to say, that Our dear little lunchtime parade has been neglected.  But this is good for you, as it means We now have a backlog of lunches to show you.  And this is the first.

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.

#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.

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 #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. 

Snackbox: Pineapple!

During finals week, Our students had to turn in a paper in the evening.  After they turned in their work, We went to a yoga class.  We knew We would want a snack to fuel the yoga practice.  So We brought this to nom on while We collected papers: pineapple Greek yogurt and low-sugar dried pineapple rings.  So tasty!

Bento #29: Some Stuff We Found in the Fridge

We were at T-24 for prelims when We packed this lunch.  Yes, this was the day before the written exam, and We had a thousand more pressing things to freak out about than lunch.  So this was definitely a "er, is there food here anywhere?" kind of lunch.  We suspect that Our fridge was also a bit on the empty side at this point, due to nonstop studying. 

This is why this lunch is clearly not enough food for a lunch.  We suspect that, all told, there were about 250 calories here.  Maybe (remember the oil in the bear).  We know that this is not a lunch.  This is a large snack.  We do not suggest that anyone else bring this for lunch unless, as We did, you go home about three hours after eating it and eat another snack.

You can see what it is for yourself: spinach and tomato salad with vinegar and oil in the little bear; an apple, and a greek yogurt.  This yogurt also sucked.  Which is not to say it was bad, necessarily, but just that it tasted like slightly thickened regular yogurt.  We mean, it was probably 20 times better than that terrible nonfat 90 calorie yogurt the Queen (Our Mama! <3) eats for lunch, but We generally eat a tastier yogurt, so this particular yogurt was not so impressive. 

Royal Decree:  All yogurt must have a minimum of 1% fat content.  2% is better.  More fat is at your own discretion.

Notes for figuring out the King's family, as royal lineages are often quite complex: We, Asher, are the King.  Our Mom prefers the title "Queen."  Our Grandma is the Queen Mother.  Our Dad is a knight, the Royal Man-at-Arms, Captain of the Royal Guard, etc. unless the Queen is irritated with him, at which point he is the Royal Concubine, a role he plays well and with humor. 

Snackbox: Prelims Day 2 and a Bonus Bento

The snackbox for Prelims 2: Greek yogurt and apple slices to dip in it, with two charming little strawberries taking up the extra space.

The day 1 snackbox was excellent brain fuel.  But We found out that the dried fruit and the cookie was too sweet.  Meh.  That said, We are also way tired of things in tortillas. We have been eating burrito-y devices for dinner lately, and so two tortilla-based things in one day is too much!  Rather than change dinner (We still have refried beans left!), We will change Our snackbox.  We hope the yogurt is not too sweet.  We also have hopes that the yogurt will soothe Our still troubled tummy, send some backup to the front lines.  Perhaps Our tummy troubles will go away when the stress does.

In related news, We have been going on a yogurt quest lately, eating small quantities of various Greek yogurts before We buy a giant tub.  This has been a wise idea.  Most stores seem to stock mostly fat-free Greek-style yogurt, which We think is a shame and a farce.  We spent half a year in Greece, and let Us assure you, We did not find fat-free yogurt in that kingdom!  We prefer 2%.  Enough to make the yogurt tasty and give it some body; not so much that We feel saturated with fat.  2% Greek yogurt only really comes in tiny tubs.  We can find giant tubs of 0% yogurt, but We have not found a kind of 0% that We like yet.  (Lookin' at you, Chobani.  Bleaugh.  Your 2% was fine, but 2% only comes in pineapple.  How weird!) All of which is to say, We have high hopes for you, Stonyfield Farms.  Otherwise it's plain 2% (The Royal Choice) in lots of tiny, non-recyclable tubs (the Royal Sorrow).

Oh, and here's a bonus bento We made for a Friend of the Kingdom who has a night class:

We have officially decided that it is impossible to take a photograph in Our apartment in the afternoon.  The natural light throws off the artificial and makes it all funny-colored, and yet if We go with natural light only, it's all pseudo-dramatic and not-very-visible. 

Anyway.  Two Tofurkey, cheese, spinach, and carrot wraps on whole wheat tortillas with Vegenaise and mustard; apple slices, dried low-sugar pineapple rings, strawberries, and an oatmeal-nutmeg cookie.  Vegan 'til the cookie. We have hopes that it made our friend's class easier to handle.