Summer break still one month remains, but now I've started working on campus several days a week. We've been back to our morning routine this past few weeks, preparing our lunch box!

Grandma always prepared my lunch everyday when I was in elementary school until first year of middle school. She packed double lunch box when I had extra curricular such as modern dance or band practice. What a lucky girl I was to have grandma who loved me so much. She always woke up before 5 in the morning, boiling water, cooking yummy food, and preparing our lunch. She cooked three times a day, so we always ate fresh-from-the-wok food for every meal. Since we eat rice three times a day, there's no such thing as ready-to-use food such as ham, cheese, and bun. Also at that time in my country, canned food wasn't common except sardine, spam, and some fruits. Even if we had had those food, I doubt grandma would have preferred to use it over cooking food from scratch.

I would eat lunch that I brought on the second recess. School started at 6:30 am, so the second recess would be at 10.30 am if I remember correctly. I would eat in classroom with my friends who happened to bring lunch. Eating food that I brought wasn't considered as real lunch because I'd have lunch after school. I just realized that in those days, I have four meals a days. It is hard to believe that know eating rice for breakfast seems weird and too heavy. Remembering those days stirs my heart. It reminds me how I took grandma for granted. Those days I often ate at vendors outside school's fence with my friends although I knew grandma had cooked and was waiting for us at home. Mom was a teacher, and my sisters is only a year older than I am, so we almost always went home together. Often I found grandma fell asleep on the couch waiting for us.
That lunch-box thing became less preferable for me as I went further into my teenage world. Going to school's cafeteria with friends meeting other friends bringing my own wallet was a sign of growing up for me. It felt good! I don't thing I bring lunch when I was in high school. Nothing can beat the joy of having free lunch with my ex-boyfriend. Haha, he is now my hubby

College world changed my mind. I lived by myself in a city with no family or relatives. I had to survive with monthly allowance my parents gave me, although I sometimes called dad asking for more

I started bringing food once in a while to save money. Grandma and mom liked to send me home food, so I brought what I got for lunch. Bringing food from home also helped me from getting bored with cafeteria's food. There were a lot of great affordable food in there, but eating them everyday made me sick of them. I did the same thing after I graduated and worked at an architecture firm, although actually I preferred going out with my friends taking break from office busyness.
Now on my journey as a student here in the United States, bringing lunch from home isn't an option. That's the simplest and wisest way to stay in our budget. I am happy that hubby and I have the same perspective about bringing lunch. Besides the saving reason, one and only concession available in my building is a overpriced chained bagel shop. If for some reason I have to buy food, the closest and the cheapest food would be Subway, $5/foot long then share the price if my friend wants to have the other half.
Usually we will bring leftover food from the night before. I would prepare the food after dinner, but when it us hubby's turn, he would do it in the morning. About Three years ago, we replaced our plastic container to the glass one after been convinced that plastic could harm our body if it's heated in certain degree. We microwave our food, so we use glass container for our main food. As you can see from the picture, our containers are different in size, and you can guess which one is hubbys. When we have cake or snack, we put it also in our lunch bag.
In case you are wondering what food we brought on the picture, it was a mix of
soto, nasi ayam Semarang, and opor lebaran. I blamed my homesickness