I came home to a lovely dinner of black beans with sauteed carrots, peppers, and onions last night. That was delightful, delicious, and delovely, but not the most exciting thing about today’s bento. See, I’ve been trying to eat less junk food over the past year, and to that end I’ve been assigning myself three points every day, graphing them using Beeminder, and then taking a point away whenever I have a day in which I consume one or more items falling into of any of the following three categories: 1) caffeine or sweets, 2) red meat or salty-crunchy junk like potato chips, 3) booze. Sometimes I fudge it a little, like with the chocolate-covered hemp seeds, since it’s such a small amount of sugar, but mostly I’ve been pretty honest. I make myself earn a set number of points per week, and if I fail to reach that number, I have to pay Beeminder every time I cross the bare-minimum line. I was pretty lenient with myself this past year, only requiring 12 points a week (which gives me quite a lot of wiggle room), but as soon as I reach my goal tomorrow I intend to ratchet that number up, functionally reducing the amount of junk I allow myself. To celebrate achieving a year of no line-crossing, though, I’ve decided to pack dessert in my bento today! One of the big advantages of making my lunch every night is that I’m much more likely to make virtuous decisions affecting myself in the future than I am when I’m hungry and standing in the lunch line on the day in question. I’ve been pretty good about loading up on vegetables and avoiding junk in my packed lunches. Not so much when I’m on my way home after work and trying to talk myself out of buying a bag of chips to eat on the train. Ah, well. Tomorrow I’ll tighten the belt.

Today, though… Today is about pie: Lemon meringue pie from the convenience store – surprisingly tasty for pre-packaged glop. Adorning it is a wodge of dried dragonfruit, some roasted macadamias, some fresh red currants (which I’d thought were impossible to find in the US until stumbling across them recently in a fancy grocery store!), and the pièce de résistance, a handful of finger limes. I ordered these off the internet a few weeks ago, and both my wife and I have been wild for them ever since. They’re like pine-scented citrus caviar: fantastic in margaritas, on fruit, or even just squeezed onto a plate and schlorped down solo. We’ve already nearly finished our supply, and when we do, I think I might have to order another shipment. They’re just fantastic.

Finally, rounding out the vice pile, some of those chocolate hemp seeds on top of the pleasantly bizarre cappuccino-flavored potato chips that Lays is currently promoting in its Save Your Fave contest. They’re kinda gross but I also kinda like ‘em? I dunno, man. It’s my junk day. Get off my back.