Yeah, I’m on a bento kick. It’s a hobby that ensures a healthy meal. It’s better than jello shots or collecting used underwear, so get off my back!
This is a breakfast bento. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for the man of the house and I. He’s got an ungodly early meeting and I have a class to teach. If I skip breakfast before teaching, I’m throwing dry erase pens and those plastic erasers at the students too soon into the day. I like to hold off until at least noon…
I’d made “oatnigiri” (cooked steel cut oats molded into shape with cinnamon and sugar) that needed to be used up, so I figured a breakfast bento would be good for both of us to start the day off right. Yes, yes, the term oatnigiri is a complete abomination since nigiri actually means “pressed rice”. I didn’t name it and can’t think of a better term. If you can, then I’ll mention your linguistic genius in my next blog post and start using the term, crediting your brilliance.
It is interesting to point out that you can mold glutenous grains other than rice into shapes for later consumption. If you’re not into rice, but wanna try it, there’s always polenta or a dozen other grains that you can cook sticky and thick, then make sure they’re either sweet or savory to eat for later. Oatnigiri are good if you like steel cut oats in the first place.
Breakfast is usually a fend for yourself meal in my household, but since I was doing a breakfast bento for myself, it’s just as easy to do two as one. I’ll do it in preparation for the really busy days.
Lunch for the man of the house I did make special, since I have a lunch meeting tomorrow, so wasn’t making one for myself. I made it sort of special, anyway. This is actually close to what we had for dinner. The pork chops weren’t cut into bite-sized bits and I didn’t arrange dinner in a cute box, but while I’m making dinner, it’s just as easy to make a little extra to put in a plastic box for lunch.
I’m going to be taking a train trip to visit a friend sometime next month and need to figure out a couple of good ekiben for myself. Ideally I’d like one to eat on the way down, then another to eat on the trip back home. It’s the second one that has me scratching my head. Of course, he has a fridge, so I suppose all I really have to do is make something that’ll take about 36 hours in a fridge okay, and it’ll be all good. I’d rather have a bento than train or even train station food.