bento

Let Everything Happen To You

…Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. (Rainer Maria Rilke)
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Top to bottom: morning prayer, Anisa-style banana split with NZ honey, local organic blueberries and home-made granola with Rye bread from Olivier, morning cycle featuring sky, bento love, and last but not least, my favorite healthy noms sent to me by my dear mama.

What Feels Like The End Is Often The Beginning

Top to bottom: flowers, rice field, bento, bento, flowers and rice field, froggy car, fancy granola, my goodbye letters to my students, rice field, real-life Pokemon Go and, bento bento bento.
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“The most important thing is this: to sacrifice what you are now for what you can become tomorrow.” ~~Shannon L. Alder

Some People Come To Japan And Turn Japanese

and others retreat to their roots.Because, there’s only so much salt, sugar and seaweed a girl can take. Ah, I feel so ready to move on to my next chapter… though I know how important it is to enjoy the now and how dangerous it is to wait wait wait. Especially when we don’t know what could happen the very next second. So, I have booked my ticket to Spain! For which, as you can imagine, I am crazy excited. I wish it was sooner. And this wish is dangerous. So, I must try to be positive and to continue making the most of my current situation. Because there are a lot of things I (hate is a strong word but still) hate about my job and my place of residence. But, it’s not forever. It’s a learning experience. It HAS been an incredible learning experience and and this too shall pass. So I will continue to actively foster creativity in my everyday at the same time as eagerly awaiting my future adventures.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
-Viktor E. Frankl

Pictures: my number 1 love, which used to be a pancake but is now a Persian breakfast and my Persian-inspired bento which is actually a big contradiction because Lunch for Iranians is the biggest meal of the day. So, this tiny thing would definitely not be sufficient but alas the flavors are there. Recipe below.
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1 cup brown jasmine rice
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 small pumpkin
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
bunch of fresh parsley (chopped or torn)
1/2 cup raw walnut pieces
1/4 cup raisins
bunch of young radish (sliced thin)

Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp honey or maple syrup
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp black pepper

Cook rice as per packet instructions but incorporate the turmeric in the cooking water.
Once done, let cool.

Chop pumpkin small then toss in a bowl with a tbsp of oil (I used olive) and a sprinkle of salt and pepper then bake in a toaster oven or oven oven on high (220C) turning every now and then and keeping a close eye on it for 20 or so minutes or until crispy and golden. Again, let cool.

Mix rice and pumpkin with remaining salad ingredients together.

To make the dressing, combine all ingredients in a small jar and do as T Swift and shake shake shake it IN TO the salad.

Refrigerate before nomnom for best results or  bon appétit if you just can’t wait!

Tomorrow’s lunch

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I have been staying away from canned tuna in Japan simply because I can’t read the labels and don’t want to end up with stinky sardines by accident. Though yesterday, my beautiful friend, Mina gifted me a can of tuna (oh, a little poem) so tonight, I decided to make a healthy version of tuna macaroni salad for my school lunch tomorrow.

1.5 cups of macaroni, cooked as per packet instructions then cooled
1 can of tuna in olive oil
1 zucchini, diced small
1 capsicum, diced small
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 cup of broccolini florets or broccoli florets, chopped small

juice of half a lemon
2 tsp seeded mustard
2 tbsp olive oil
a bunch of fresh basil, torn
salt and pepper

Mix salad ingredients together.

Mix dressing ingredients together then combine with salad ingredients.

DAS IT