Last week has a huge downer and I feel like you can actually see that in my food. Even though I managed to make a whopping all five lunches I feel like they’re less cute and less interesting than they had any right to be. Also, so many apple. So many.

Caramelized Onion and goat cheese tart, side salad, tomato soup, apple Baked Chicken with Apple and Rosemary, Spiced Rice, Carrots and Hummus, Kiwi Lentil Falfel, Yogurt Sauce, Couscous, Apple Vegetable Lasagna, Side Salad, Apple and Kiwi Squash and White Bean Saute, Cornbread, Apple

This week the theme was basically just nice hearty comfort food to herald in the cold weather. There’s plenty more delicious comfort foods in our future, chicken and dumplings comes to mind but that’ll have to wait for another week.

Breakfast Roll Up, Roasted Sweet Potato, Side Salad, Apple

Homemade Spaghettios with meatballs, salad, bread, apple

Baked Chicken, Green Beans and Tomatoes, Spiced Rice, Chocolate and an Orange

Spinach Mac and Cheese, Sliced Orange, Coleslaw

Just a few simple ones from the week. Sometimes you gotta just keep things easy and moving I suppose.

Pasta with vegetable sauce, side salad, rye bread, apple

Mini homemade vegetable pizza (zucchini, pepper, onion), chocolate, carrots and hummus

Chicken tikka masala, rice, grapes

Minestrone, side salad, white bread

I actually made all 5 days of lunch this week instead of 4 just on a whim. I don’t think it’s any harder or easier to do so but I feel pretty satisfied about it anyway.

Turkey sandwich, kiwi, boiled egg, pickles, carrots and red peppers with hummus

Roast Drumsticks with Potatoes and Carrots, Salad, and Apple

Creamy Broad Beans, Rice, Hot Sauce, Greens with Orange Segments

Chickpea Curry, Rice, Apple

Creamy Chicken Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Rice, Bread, Pickles, Kiwi and Orange

These are pretty uninspired but hey, sometimes you just eat so you don’t die. That said at least I made four distinct bentos over the week so it’s a win anyway!

Apple, edam and crackers, pasta with spinach

Turkey, potato, and cheese casserole, cucumber salad, banana

General Tso’s Cauliflower, rice with grated carrot and sesame, Banana and Oranges

Goat cheese, pear, and black pepper scone, cucumber salad, boiled eggs, pear and apple

On Tuesday I had packed lunch for Andrew for two days and he accidentally took BOTH meals so lunch was a bit strange for the week. That’s also why there’s a picture of my lunch on Wednesday instead of his. Best rest assured, it was the same :p

Chicken noodle soup, white bread for dipping, black grapes

Rolled vegetable omelette, rice with homemade furikake, and quick salted pickles

Roasted chicken, curry fried eggplant, mashed potatoes

Salad with apple and walnut, boiled egg, quick salted pickles, vegetable cornmeal fritters

Packing something different every day is an actual challenge for me! It also mean cooking more often than I’m used to but I’m finding that I enjoy it. The only problem is that I keep forgetting to take pictures of the new dishes before I put them in the boxes. Live and learn I guess…

Creamy White Beans with Mushrooms, Rice, Tomato-Cucumber-Red Onion Salad

Turkey and Cheese Stromboli, Salad with Walnuts, Orange

Vegetable Lasagna, Garlic Butter Rye Toast, Mixed Salad

Roasted Drumsticks with Carrots and Potatoes, Apples and Oranges

Trying to make each bento with a unique food four times a week is a challenge that I wouldn’t suggest unless you’re not working or you really love being extremely industrious by the way. I finally found a thing that will work as a divider in bentos though so look forward to those next week!

Smoked Salmon Roll Ups, Mac and Cheese, Grapes, Nectarine

Chicken Goulash, Rice, Must Leib (Black Rye Bread) and Butter, Apple

Vegetable Quiche, Salad with Walnuts and Nectarines, Banana and Grapes

Red Chickpea Curry, Rice, Cucumbers and Carrots with Hummus, Boiled Egg

I was able to use up the last of the leftovers during this week and make much fancier food. Going forward I hope I can keep up the unique thing every day of lunch but I’m not sure if I can have that many ideas. I’m sure after a while some of them will repeat.

Grilled shrimp salad, carrots and hummus, boiled egg, kiwi and nectarines

Vegetable fried rice, carrots, oranges and kiwis

Sticky chicken, garlic ginger green beans, rice, orange slices

Bean patties, red peppers and hummus, apple and kiwi

I could really use some dividers and I miss my old bento boxes but we’re making do with what we have right now. The selection of tupperwear in the store is pretty uh, haphazard and there aren’t really dollar stores here so I just make do with what I’ve got.

Apple, Nectarine, Grilled Shrimp Salad

Apple, Nectarine, Chicken Kerala, Rice

Apple, Vegetable Hash, Boiled Egg, Bread, Kiwi, Camembert

Kiwi, Apple, Spiced Couscous, Meatball and White Bean Vegetable Soup