Monbento Original #74 (Double Tier)

 

So a weird thing happened on the way to this lunch. Maybe weird is the wrong word. I'll explain more below.

But anyway. I had deliberately purchased a jar of kalamata olives to make this recipe for Mediterranean Herbed Lemon Tofu and Couscous Bowls from Healthie Nut. This was, in part, to use up some couscous. But when I made it, I made it with quinoa instead.

I didn't bother with pita; I am not crazy about pita anyway and I would have had to have bought it. So that wasn't weird. But going askew of my plans was a little weird.

Here you see the quinoa salad, the tofu, some pickled red onion, a little cup of flaky salt, some fruit (fresh pineapple and clementine segments), and a larger cup of the tahini sauce that goes with the salad.

This was good! And pretty! 

But maybe it's not weird that I wasn't thinking clearly, as a close colleague had just died from injuries sustained in a tragic accident, one of those random things that makes the world feel unpredictable and dangerous in various ways. I do not work in a field where people are ever expected to be killed at work. That's not to say that any industry where that happens is populated with hard people who don't feel things, but it's just to say that it made this all the more shocking.

I may use this space a bit, in coming weeks, to share some of my thoughts on workplace culture and how weird it is that grief is "allowed" until it isn't. But anyway. I'm working to feed myself and to keep up with other things in my life while allowing for some gentleness. So if I make mistakes and don't meet my expectations (whatever those were), and still get through, I figure it's not worth spending energy on worrying about it.

Quinoa subbed in fine for couscous in this recipe, incidentally, which makes it gluten free, if you need gluten free options.