I don’t usually have time to make myself anything very elaborate when I’m packing lunches for playgroup or a family outing. I’ve done a few charabens for my own consumption (and I have another on the way shortly). To be honest, though, I made those for a late dinner after the youngsters were tucked into their beds. When I make myself a packed lunch, they mostly look something like this:
That’s a nice pile of tortellini pasta salad (riffed from this one), sliced sausage tossed in a sweet/salty glaze, blackberries and pineapple, and a daifuku mochi for dessert. Tasty, and I threw it together in between doing other kitcheny tasks.
Here’s another lunch from the same week. I’ve never been able to successfully scale a pasta salad recipe so that it feeds just one, so the Greek tortellini showed up again in this bento. Mini burgers chock full of chopped lotus root added some extra protein, and a pluot and some blackberries gave sweetness. I also had a chocolate hazelnut bonbon for dessert. My son managed to claim that as his own exclusive property, though. Such is life. 🙂
So there they are – grown-up lunches. As much as I relish a good cartoony charaben in my own lunchbox, the time to make them is just a little thin on the ground on most days.
Happy nibbling!
~ K.
Floribento 