Monbento Original #41

One recent morning I woke up after a really rough night and I needed to do something calming before work. I have a shifted schedule so I don't go to work very early in the morning, and I've found that going to work later means I have a leisurely morning that helps me get more done in terms of chores. But I wasn't up to chores. 

It's been hard to sleep after the flood. I know it's a normal trauma response, but it's frustrating to fight so hard to get to sleep only to wake up a few hours before my alarm every day, especially when I'm just anxious when I wake up and definitely not well-rested. We were under another flash flood watch that day, and I'd spent some time figuring out where I could park my new car on higher ground to avoid having it be ruined if the watch turned into a real flood. I wasn't doing that well with things. So I decided to take care of myself in the way I knew how, and made a real bento (of sorts; this is still not all that labor intensive).

There are grapes and Neapolitan coconut candy for dessert, and the meal itself is steamed rice, seaweed furikake, some plant-based nuggets with a homemade "honey" sriracha sauce (veganized from this recipe), and steamed broccoli. I topped my nuggets with sesame seeds.

If you're eating lots of nuggets in the hard times--it's a thing I find I sometimes do--varying the sauces and sides can make the experience fresh and new. I've had a lot of meals involving tater tots, which I love, but it was time for something else. So I got up, and I made my lunch, and gave myself a midday present.

That evening, I parked my car a 20-minute walk away from home, and walked through the puddles in rain boots. I crossed the bridge of a nearby creek that looked more like a river, several feet higher than it usually is, and on the verge of escaping its banks. The ground just doesn't get the chance to dry out lately, and there's been a lot of rain. I'm grateful that my car came with an app that means my phone tells me where the car is and how it's doing while it sits there so far away. It made it easier leaving it in a strange-ish place.

I'm glad to take you with me in these unfamiliar times, to share the good meals, the struggle meals, and the meals made to try to lift me out of the struggles. So here's to trying and the promise of trying again soon. Let me know what your favorite nugget sauce is.