Previously, on Tracking Eleven Clovers’ Challenge Progress… (need to think of a better name <_<) “My goals for Week 2: 1. mise en place, reducing bento making time to 20min (I don't even cook much! Why is it taking me so long??) 2. reduce carb content and try to squish in more nutritious veggies 3. exercise! Booo 4. keep track of calories, maybe by means of a food diary? Hmm sounds a wee bit ambitious to me. Well, we'll see how badly I fail by the end of the week ;)” How did I do? 1. I kind of forgot about mise en place on several days, but I only really needed it on Monday and Wednesday because I was doing some form of ‘cooking’ rather than assembling leftovers :P My bento preparing times, chronologically from Monday to Friday: 35min, 30min, 25min, 10min, 15min. Alright, I’m on the way! ^_^ 2. Hmm, this was a little difficult. Partially because I’m not in control of the pantry. Monday’s lunch was VERY carb heavy. As to veggies… well I had spinach, kohlrabi, romaine lettuce, pumpkin, mung bean sprouts, celery and uh, cucumbers (ok, those are like practically water, but on the whole I think I’m doing a little better than last week). 3. Ha! I DID do some! Not a lot, mind, but it beats nothing ~_^ My old exercise bike from years before I was born has been resurrected! On Monday I got in about 30min, Tuesday 20min, and Thursday 40min. On Wednesday a 1 hour dance session. I tried Brownwyn’s Mt Everest via stairs idea, and I got up to about… ‘Seattle Space Needle,USA ‘ (hee) in three days but then towards the end of Friday I started losing count, so maybe I’ll reset my Day 1 to this Monday. 4. Well… I kind of did. Well I did the food diary bit, but was too lazy to count up the calories until last night, so that wasn’t very helpful. Alright, I will use as a guideline for next week. I forgot about dinner on two nights though, whoops! Anywho, my lunches: Monday EDIT: problem with getting my image into this post. Click here to view on my photobucket 4 summer rolls (nom nom nom), 2 mini sticky rice onigiri that got squished by the lid, vanilla yoghurt, bit of cream cheese, Oreos, half a bread roll and some cucumbers. Not shown are my friends for the day, Monsieur Pamplemousse and Madame Tangerine :D On Sunday night I found 4 grapefruits in the garage. They lasted until Wednesday morning ^^’ But we have 3 more again! Total: 775cal + *unknown value*dinner (Alright a lot, I had rehearsals, don’t judge me >.<) Tuesday Roast duck, rice w/ furikake, celery, quick pickled kohlrabi, romaine lettuce, plain yoghurt, cheerios, and a mini white toblerone. Also, my friends from Monday again. I actually arranged the duck nicely with kohlrabi sunbursts and clovers but my friend took the photo from the wrong angle D: Total: 1530 (655 bento + 525 dinner + 350 toastie. Boooo shouldn’t have given in to temptation) Wednesday Long rehearsal day! Ramen with beef, celery, mung bean sprouts and a bit of coriander. My snackbox had half a ham and lettuce sandwich, plain yoghurt w/ honey, Oreos, a tangerine and 2 sections of grapefruit. Total: 685 + *unknown value*dinner Thursday Plain yoghurt with apple chunks, spinach log, mung bean sprouts, ‘cubes’ of Vietnamese Lunar New Year Savoury Sticky Rice Cake (more about this soonish), and dry shredded pork. Total: 1370 (300 bento (WOW) + 550 dinner + 2 mini Toblerones and a slice of my friend’s birthday cake) Friday Pumpkin ‘soil’, lettuce separator ‘grass’, coriander ‘plant’ :D Rice, omelette of sorts with ground pork, apple chunks, plain yoghurt with banana. I don’t really like carrot, but I guess I can use pumpkin as a substitute to make a carrot rice lookalike! Total: 1370 (385 bento + a pancake w/ cottage cheese, fruit and a dollop of cream. I couldn’t resist >.< + random snacking at my BFF’s brother’s birthday party) Phew! That was long! Sorry to anyone who was reading this ^^’ Time to go tackle Week 3! … And maybe get some schoolwork done.