I hope my daughter smiles at the bento I make every morning.

There are no curtains on the small window in our bedroom. There wasn't a curtain rod to begin with, and I thought installing a roller blind would be a hassle, so it's been like that ever since we moved in.

Because of that, when dawn breaks, the bedroom brightens with the slowly filtering morning sun. Fortunately, the small window faces south, so I don't wake up to piercing sunlight. I wake up naturally as I bathe in the sunlight and serotonin is secreted.

At some point, I stopped setting an alarm. I usually wake up before the alarm goes off anyway, and I grew tired of having to turn it off after waking up, or lying in bed waiting for it to ring. Fortunately, there is almost no risk of oversleeping when waking up with the morning sun. I am sure to wake up at 5 or 6 o'clock, and even on days when I can't get up because I was up late the night before, my daughter wakes me up or my wife's alarm goes off.

Because of that, I no longer have unpleasant mornings where I'm jolted awake by a loud noise during non-REM sleep, and I start making the bento as soon as I wake up.

Sometimes I decide on the menu to some extent the night before, and other times I start making it with no plan at all.

I like seasoned rice for bento. Whether it's furikake, salmon flakes, or a three-color rice bowl. I also like rice with a red pickled plum on top.

So, naturally, my daughter's bento rice is often seasoned as well. It feels a bit lacking if it's just plain white, and I end up wanting to put something on it.

I usually make about three side dishes. A main meat or fish dish, a rolled omelet, and a side dish. Since my daughter loves rolled omelets, I make them almost every day. Our family's rolled omelets are the salty kind, seasoned with dashi soy sauce.
When it comes to rolled omelets, opinions are divided between the sweet camp and the salty camp, but I like both. I don't think of a rolled omelet as having one fixed flavor; I just think there are sweet versions and salty versions.
It's like how I like both tomato sauce and basil sauce for pasta. They aren't even competing on the same playing field. It's nonsense to argue about it.

Even though I make them every day, there are times when I can roll them well, and times when I fail a bit and they get air pockets inside. A rolled omelet that is plump and fluffy without any air pockets makes me feel very happy.

Recently, my daughter has been wanting to make these rolled omelets herself.
It's still difficult for her to roll them well, but if the day comes when I can eat a rolled omelet she made, I'll be very happy. I wonder if she will make me a sweet one or a salty one.

Above all, I'm bad at plating bento.
Sometimes I want one more dish to fill a small gap, but if I pack too much, it becomes too much for my daughter. I want it to be colorful, but she can't eat everything, and I really want bento time to be a fun time for her.
Right now, I think it's many times more important for her to enjoy eating than to get a little bit of vitamins from a few vegetables.

“What's in the bento today?”

When I place the finished bento on the table, my daughter comes over with a pitter-patter and peeks inside.

Sometimes she says, “Ugh, this is something I hate!” and other times she is super excited, saying, “This is something I really love! You're a cooking pro, Dad!”

Well then.

Tomorrow, I'll make meatballs and a rolled omelet, and what else should I make?
I'm sure she'll be happy and say, “This is something I really love!” I hope my daughter looks forward to bento time and smiles with a grin the moment she pops the lid open.

See you tomorrow.