Just Bento

The Wii Fit Rocks! I just tried it at my friends house. It's wonderful. You'll definitely get a workout!

Hi. I'm new to this site, but wanted to jump in on the challenge. I think I'm gonna start off with just the basics... committing to 3 bentos a week to start. I'd like to try the planning portion, but think I'd get a better feel after I've tried making a few bentos. I'm looking forward to a tasty week of lunches :)

Hey! I enjoy this challenge. Has been a while I couldn't do bentoing (travelling too much) now it's really time to get on tracks and be careful about well-balancing my meals and to think about weight loss. I'm not into calory counting so there"s no way I could manage that part. I'll just try to do 5 different bentos a week and try to post the photos (I think I'll post them in one go at the end of the week).
That'll be hard enough. I'm trying to stick to a plan for this week, but I have serious doubts I'll be able to do so...Sure it'll be less expensive. But, let say that I'm not eating out so this is a good thing for saving money...
I cannot have pretty cute bentos as I'm eating with colleagues now, and as I'm the only women, I don't want to have again stupid comments...

No pic of today's bento as it's just leftovers from yesterday and is the same minus the edamame. i have added a separate box with grapes and blueberries in as I am working until 7.30pm so will need a bit of a boost about 5ish.

I've just posted a detailed report of my Day 1 bento. I don't intend to do detailed reports on all the bentos - and I don't expect you all to either! - but I thought it might be useful to see what I'm doing and where I'm going and so on.

:D... hahahaha, I've started on the bento stuff but the working out stuff I haven't gotten around to thinking about. I have a huge roadblock in my head when it comes to exercise. i'm hoping this will change that a little.

Oh yeah the exercise bit.... erm.... lol.... I walked to work yesterday (which was my day 1) and that took 50mins. I didn't walk today as I had to hurry son up so needed to leave later than usual. I plan on walking tomorrow. Thinking of what to put in tomorrow's bento as I have no leftovers. I'm thinking of the red lentil snacks that Maki made from the Hungry Tiger blog, as I altered the recipe slightly to suit me better. They would go lovely with some salad.

I'll ponder it over a restorative glass of wine!

I started today as that worked out for me schedule wise. I've started a blog which will be easier for me to document my Challenge stuff. Here's the address http://barbsblab.blogspot.com/ if anyone's interested you can check it out.

I'm starting to realize my biggest downfall will be trying to plan ahead.

In our household dinner is decided by The Dinner Game: "What do you want for dinner?" "I don't know. What are you in the mood for?" etc.

Maybe we will both have to sit down and decide on dinner menu for the week that will allow me some leftovers to put into bento... (I'm only making lunch for myself. My DH is set in his ways when it comes to his brown bag.)

My bento last summer were usually rice with furikake, and little odds from the fridge like cheese and fruit.

I'll definitely have a bento this week (Thursday). But I have work to do!

Well, my goals are to make tasty vegetarian Weight Watchers friendly bentos, which can be kinda tough at times, but I"m working through it. Mainly having trouble finding protein I love, other than boiled eggs, tamagoyaki, and of course tofu..

I had an excellent bento on Monday..took a picture and had it all ready to post and then when I did.. BAM! It deleted. :( So another bento this week is in progress.

As for exercise, starting a "Biggest Loser" type club tomorrow and there's a workout class involved, and am beginning Tai Chi classes on Sunday, so I'm excited about that!

I already make a bento everyday for both myself and my husband, although I must admit I do not make them the morning of. I have all ready lost a few pounds that I gained over the holidays, before the challenge. But I would like to continue to lose more. So I will continue to make my ovo-vegetarian bentos under 500 calories, with plenty of snacks to get me through the day but still within my daily caloric allowances.

I am also trying to be better about walking to public transit [now that I am over my cold]. I walked twice this week all ready, but the hubs needed a break from picking me up at night [several people are not a fan of me walking home alone in the dark].

I've been posting my bento pics on flickr, and will do the wrapup report on the weekend. So far so good for me with the bentos, but I am not exercising much ... well ok, not at all! It's really cold outside and snowing on and off almost every day...so walking for 30 min outside seems so brrr... excuses excuses. I'll try to do something, Wii Fit, an exercise DVD, something tomorrow!

I'm also getting these weird sugar cravings late in the afternoon. It seems that my blood sugar or something drops a lot then. Instead of snacking as I usually do though (and I'm not even that hungry when I do it!), I've been trying to take a nap, and that has helped a lot. I am not munching mindlessly on cookies or chocolate before dinnertime at least!

I'll be trying to make a bento for myself most days (so somewhat more than basic) - it's a step in the right direction as far as more healthy eating goes. I will probably be eating leftovers from dinner quite a lot, but hopefully combining them with more veg and in a way that works without reheating, for ease.

Once I get in the swing of it, I might start trying to plan a bit ahead, for the moment, trying to keep the fridge and pantry stocked with suitable ingredients will keep me occupied :)

Oh, and if I can motivate myself to start excercising, it would be no bad thing...

Well, I only did one bento this week since school didn't start until Tuesday (and I only had one afternoon class). Today is my full school day (8 am to 5 pm!) and so I brought a bento of leftovers from this Korean style pork recipie found at FoodNetwork.com and I tried Maki's easy Carrot Kinpira (i think i made it too salty since i downsized the proportions, a lil too much soy ><), and rice. I tried to make it pretty traditional and will post pics on flickr later today when I get home.

Biggest problem was not getting up just quite early enough. I was 10 mins late for my first class, but oh well. XD My bento was delicious and better than a sandwhich and chips!

I probably won't make any more bentos this week since I don't have classes Friday and will just make something at home. However, next week I plan to step it up to at least 2 bentos!

Thanks Maki for all of your hard work and putting this together. I think this is great so far, and I'm enjoying myself. ^__^

Luckily I left work at 3pm today as I was soooo hugnry! It appears it doesn't matter how many carrot, cucumber and celery sticks you pack, you will still be hungry!

Today was veg sticks with baby plum tomatoes, 3 mini babybel light cheeses and yoghurt

Just ate my first bento of the challenge:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/prettydaisies/3199683520/

*nom nom nom*

It's been a weird week, since we had house guests until this morning, so planning for this week's challenge has been difficult. I think I'll just stick to making the bento this week, and work on the Deeper and Weight bits next week. I will, however, be making bento for over the weekend, so I'll definitely get that part done!

:)

Andrea

One more day to go (unless you have to work on weekends) after today! Today was a crazy day for me, and I couldn't eat the bento until after 4! But I was sure glad to have it with me.

This makes me just want to make bentos to eat at home for me and my boyfriend, it would be a nice and different way for us to eat lunch when we are at home. ^_^

my workweek doesn't start until tomorrow, so i will make my first week's bento tomorrow and post the picture on flickr. i've been really mia and very busy this week so i wasn't fully able to think about it until after i had a decent day off to just relax. anyway, i'm totally excited about the challenge~ and i'm off to view picture on flickr ;]

I put my wrap up here because it's Friday earlier here than elsewhere and the wrap up thread hadn't been started. Can't delete the whole thing, so have deleted content and replaced it with this ramble.

Here, briefly, are my thoughts behind taking this challenge. I am starting with "basic" but would like to go "deeper" starting next week, particularly with meal planning.

I started making bento on and off in the fall but wanted to encourage a regular bento-making habit by taking the challenge. I really enjoy Maki's philosophy of bento-making which can apply to all different types of cuisines, diets, and budgets.

Currently, my bento goals and motivations are:
-to bring a bento every single day to work
-to make bento that sustain me through until dinner
-to increase my bento-making efficiency and creativity
-to save money

I would also specifically like to expand my Japanese cooking repertoire: homemade furikake, more pickles made in my tabletop pickle pot, and korokke, and starting to regularly make things like onigiri. I'd also like to get in the habit of making ahead and freezing large quantities of bento treats (for us) like gyoza, samosas, and korokke.

So far, the bento making this week has been going well, although my biggest challenge has been to pack my bento with enough fuel to get me through the afternoon (even though I have been filling my box). Might have to re-visit the amount of protein I'm putting in there...or it could be something else?

Hello guys! I just stumbled upon here, and I absolutely love eating bentos. Yes, you read it right: just love EATING. (and not making) lol

Anyways, I hope I can still hop on the challenge soon since I am still trying to study how to make the ultimate bento.

Hai! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

Ja ne!

Kevin

I just started my first week of bento making and eating ^_^. Today I went shopping - nothing special, 'cause I'm a student with no money =_=. Right now, I just finished the preparations for my first real bento (I love sleeping in...) and can't wait to eat it tomorow. But I think, I must work on that 1:1:1. I may hang too much on my carbs... and I used too much fat. Have to improve that (note to myself).

I hope, I can keep on track with the bento making. I need to save more money, too - so that's a neat challenge for myself ^_^.

So now I try to relax my stiff neck - got a lumbago over the weekend and right now I'm moving like an old granny.

Nina

i am so intrigued