Bento lunch with quinoa, carrot-orange salad and aduki beans

I freely admit that neatness and attention to detail are not my strong points. I'm all about rustic food and a laissez-faire attitude. And yet I am fascinated by bento and love the whole concept of a well-presented, home-made lunch. So when the opportunity to learn to make bento came up on a free, do-it-when-you-want-to basis came up, I was first in line. We are on lesson number 2b and not even supposed to be attempting to make bento lunches yet, but I was all geared-up and feeling a bit scared and intimidated, which according to my life philosophy translates as "jump in right now at the deep end before you reconsider". Sometimes it's worth doing something badly, just to dissipate the fear. Now, a quick disclaimer: sometimes this is a really bad idea and I have hurt myself many times (especially while snowboarding) with my impatient run-before-you-can-walk philosophy. Yet in this case, it worked, because while showing me that there's a whole lot of work to be done and many things to be learnt, I also found that I love making bento! And this is despite all the faffing around with cardboard dividers (I made these so that the dishes stayed neatly in place, then took them out at the end) and the impractical sunflower seeds, which produced a sinister-looking smiley face in my quinoa rather than a cute one

Ingredients (for 2)

150g quinoa

Vegetable stock

Pumpkin seeds to decorate (would use something else in the future)

2 carrots, grated

1 teaspoon Russian-Korean spice mix 

(or 1/3 teaspoon cumin, 1/3 teaspoon coriander, 1/3 cayenne pepper)

Juice of 1 orange

Bit of olive oil

Salt and pepper

Tin of aduki beans

Small red onion chopped and fried in oil

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Salt and pepper

Juice of 1 lime