My Week 2 in a nutshell: I was fairly happy with my bentos. I'm progressing at bit on my fitness goals - at least I did some exercise! And on the one day when I didn't have bento, I really felt it.

I think I am really back in a nice bento-making groove now. Except for Friday, when I had to go to a restaurant for lunch, I made bentos every day for The Guy as well as myself.

I finally did get in some some exercise (3 WiiFit sessions). But, I realize now that I really don't enjoy exercising indoors very much, even though WiiFit does make the time pass faster. (I'm partial to the boxing.) As has been suggested by several people in the Couch Potatoes Unite discussion, exercise is great if it's fun, as in sports or other activities, or you do it incidentally, such as walking or bicycling to commute, go to the shops, and so on. It's only about a 5 minute walk for me to go to the bus stop, so that's not much exercise. Plus, I don't commute every day - there are days when I never leave the house. I'm looking forward to warmer weather when walking outside will become a pleasure. (And, I'm really thinking about where to move to (I have som leeway due to the nature of my job)...a place where I could go outdoors all year round without freezing would be really nice. OK, I am quite a chilly type person - I'm usually complaining about being too cold for about 60% of the year.)

Healthier bentos?

I think that I was already making some fairly healthy bentos, but this week I really tried to get in as much vegetables as possible. Next week I might try making all, or most, of the bentos vegetarian or vegan...just to see if I can do it.

The bentos

Click on the images to get to the flickr page where there are notes.

Day 1: This bento is described in detail here. I made enough extra of the chicken tenders that I have enough for 2-3 more bento rounds, or 4 to 6 bentos. Total calories: about 390.

Day 2: This is a vegan, rather macrobiotic bento (again, see the notes on the flickr image). I made a new batch of gomashio (sesame salt), using white (brown) sesame seeds. It is so good! Of all the furikake recipes I've posted here so far, this is my favorite one, and I make it more than all the other recipes combined because it's so versatile and tasty! Total calories of this bento are about 550.

Day 3: Another vegan bento, trying to take advantage of the nutrition-richness of épeautre (spelt in English, dinkel in German; whole-wheat grains, similar to farro). I cooked the épeautre in a pressure cooker the night before, sautéed them with the vegetables, and added the canned borlotti beans at the end. I wish I hadn't used the canned beans though - they were very mushy, and made the dish rather pasty. Next time I'll use home cooked or frozen beans. Total calories: about 450.

Day 4: Back to being an omnivore. This bento was really tasty I must say, and almost all the components are from my freezer stash or leftovers. The only thing I made fresh was the tamagoyaki, but the stewed hijiki I mixed in (about 1 Tbs. of hijiki per egg) was from a freezer stash. Total calories: about 520.

On Friday as I mentioned earlier I went to a restaurant for lunch. While it was great, I felt very bloated and sleepy in the afternoon - probably because of all the salt in the sausages I had! (This is Zürich after all, where the sausages are really good.) It really made me realize anew how good a healthy bento makes me feel.

(I know I should have chosen something a bit healthier...but hey, I rarely eat sausages any more, and the ones at the Zeughauskeller are so good. And I was so healthy the rest of the week! I don't dare to think of the calories though...)

How was your week? Share with us on the forum!