Monbento Original #56 (Double Tier)

 

This was one of those lunches that benefits from having a well-designed bento box to put things in, because I just sort of raided my kitchen and stuck stuff where it seemed to fit and tried to get a diversity of colors and it worked really well! This consisted of apple slices, some dark chocolate, a bit of dark chocolate sunflower seed butter for dipping, an 88 Acres seed-and-oat bar (like granola, but also not quite like granola), Yves veggie ham, Triscuits, Daiya Monterey jack cheese cut into cubes, cucumber slices, some baby-cut carrots, and crunchy peanut butter.

It's a lot of little snacky things and I didn't think I'd get through the whole thing but I did! Way to tempt my appetite, so go me! The 88 Acres bars are wonderful, incidentally. I've enjoyed all the ones I've tried. Sunflower seed butter isn't my thing, I think, though I did pick up another brand to try because I am apparently committed to the nonsensical (getting myself to like all the nut-and-seed butters is not actually important, so long as I like some of them).

The apple was a Pink Lady. It's been a long time since I had one and they are so delicious! I love that we're headed into apple season. It's time for me to remind myself just how good apples are. I keep at least one apple around all the time, because they're a sturdier fruit than a lot of the summer fruits and will last longer in my fridge, so even at a time like this when I haven't been to the store for a bit I still get fresh fruit. But mostly I've been buying other varieties. Pink Ladies happened to be less expensive this time. Seasonal eating has been really fun, and I'm glad I have been more intentional about that this year.

Lately I've been having trouble meal planning, so it's good to keep reminding myself that it's still possible to pull stuff together anyway. When you don't know what to do, just eat something. The scaffolding is there. Just build on it.