Mr. Bento for the Soup Win!!

It was a Christmas gift of Mr. Bento's food tube lunch system that got me into bentos last year, and to Mr. Bento I return when it is a question of a good-sized lunch including something liquidy like soup or chili. This capacious set of containers designed for the hungry salary man is just the best way to bring your soup to work, I think. The one container with the soup in it does not leak, can be easily microwaved, and is cute in a somber sort of way...

Above is Jan's Mr. Bento lunch with vegetarian chili, cheese stars, a carrot-cabbage slaw with mandarin oranges that was so good I could not believe I made it (recipe below), octo-dogs with one leftover take-out dumpling and plum sauce over all, and the cracker and candy container.

My lunch:



...had the dubious last of some leftover chicken wild rice soup, the leftover cheese from Jan's stars, the carrot-cabbage slaw, and a giant fruit salad which made me extremely happy at around 4:00 at work. I love fruit salad!!! And I put some sweet shredded coconut in this one so it was almost a dessert. My Mr.Bento only has 3 inner containers and one is sizeable; I am still working on dividing this container as I have seen in photos: sometimes there is a stew or curry under a sealing layer of rice. Either way, Mr. Bento means a substantial lunch and sometimes that is what you need.

Yesterday I worked out on the elliptical watching (junky TV plus) a light snowfall out the huge plate glass windows, over the football field, where a lone young man in t-shirt and shorts practiced stunts on a short bicycle. Mosshing up several seasons into one is a Minnesota custom.

Carrot-Cabbage Mandarin Slaw

1/4 head of cabbage grated or chopped
2 big sweet carrots grated
15-oz. can of mandarin oranges drained, or one large fresh Mandarin peeled and chopped in chunks

Dressing: 1/8 cup rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon fine sugar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Combine the salad ingredients; shake up the dressing ingredients until the sugar is dissolved. Pour over and allow to rest in the fridge for at least one hour.

If you bring this salad to work it will meld all morning and produce the most lovely sunny-tasting flavor by lunch time!!! Low in fat and high in good nutrition including anti-oxidants!! Yum yum...