Lately I’ve been reading a lot of bento sites– I bring my lunch to work regularly and thought it would be fun to add a little extra something to my midday sustenance.

There are some seriously inspiring creations out there!  I mean, check out the work of these artists:

AnnaTheRed's farm bento

AIBento's decorated sandwiches

However, I’ve decided that given my cooking habits and the way we eat, bento making is probably not in my near future.  Over the weekend I do the bulk of my cooking consisting of the protein and a large portion of veggies.  During the first part of the week we eat these two basic dishes in a number of variations with some sort of carbs, scrambled in eggs, in soup or chili form, or on top of salad…  Basically anything that doesn’t require more than 5 min of prep when I get home.  Because I’m lazy like that. (Of course, the best is when he cooks and there’s NO prep whatsoever. )

I also bring food to work in tupperware, hence the bento idea– it’s just a different container, right? And then although my guy comes home for lunch, I thought I could make 2 every day.  One for me, and one for him.  That illusion was dispelled fast!

Have you ever tried to portion out a chunk of pork shoulder or pot roast into a bento box?  Even turkey sliders gave me trouble.  Veggies and rice are easier, but a man-sized meal doesn’t fit easily or prettily into a bento.  I tried this once, dividers and all, foregoing any of the cute decorative elements.   It looked, shall we say, less than appetizing.  No amount of cherry tomatoes or apple bunnies or cute toothpicks could have saved that thing from its ugly (although nutritionally balanced) demise.

Nothing like the cute bentos from Lunchinabox…  how disappointing.

After that, I told my boyfriend, “Think of the fridge like one big bento.  It contains food with diverse colors/textures and good nutritional value, you just have to portion it out accordingly.”  Tiny Japanese bento box not necessary.  I guess we all have to have something to aspire to, right?

Yeah.  Maybe when we have kids I’ll start making cutesy lunches to encourage them to try new foods, but I think the fridge-as-bento concept works for now.

Anyone else get overambitious in the kitchen?  Oh, the stories I could tell…