Lunch at Work: Bento Boxes and Meals
When I started working an honest-to-goodness full time job, I bought lunch - a lot. I ate at the on-site dining room or went out to nearby delis and restaurants for a bite to eat. Eventually, however, that wore off. I couldn't afford, and didn't want to spend, $30+ per week on lunch-time meals. So I began bringing lunch - turning to leftovers and pre-packaged meals from the grocery store. None of these options factored in calories - and I liked less and less what my scale reported back.
Then an article in the New York Times covered a method that has been catching on recently: the bento box. I won't get into the history of bento, but one of the interesting ideas behind bento boxes is that if you fill your box with normal food (for example, not with chocolate fudge), the size of the bento equals roughly how many calories you are eating. It's an interesting way to control caloric intake.
Another thing that a bento does well is food separation. Why carry three tupperware containers of various sizes because you don't want to mix strawberries with chicken teriyaki? A bento box with dividers will keep your food separated, either in different sections on the same "level", or in a different tier if you have a multi-tier bento box.
Personally, I use a two-tier bento box that fits approximately 580ml of food, or just shy of 2.5 cups worth of food. So, my meal each day is about 580 calories.
What do I put into a bento? I generally go for laziness over creativity - I make a little extra for dinner the night before, pack the bento and let it cool on the countertop, then refrigerate it overnight. I try, however, to pack foods that will do well in a bento: small pieces of chicken, miniature burgers (I love Just Bento's meat and tofu recipe), small-cut vegetables, small fruits, etc. Liquid-based and very heavily sauced items can leak out if your box isn't water-tight; extra sauce can be kept in little bento sauce bottles.