So there’s a bento staple known as an octodog. I don’t know why, but they’ve always kinda creeped me out. I like hot dogs; I just don’t like eating food that’s staring at me, whether the eyes are real or not. But my wife and I invented what we quickly came to call Vegan Calamari a few years ago when we were looking to improve the texture of our stir fries, and I have to admit their goofy little tentacles always cheer me up. So let’s consider this my slightly less fleshy version of the ubiquitous bento octodog.

Oh, also: I cooked the chicken thighs according to this recipe, the alternating butter-and-Marmite crackers were inspired by the peanut butter and jelly crackers in GloriousAtom’s bento, and I increased the saturation slightly on this picture to bring out the orange of the carrots. Uncorrected, the colors looked too washed out. I think it works?