Posts: 624
3/31/09 8:32 P

Meowmeow had great suggestions there! I love tucking in olives into the bento. They're small and yummy!

I'm also a big fan of homemade steamed potstickers. Yum! My daughter likes sandwiches cut into cute shapes, but my son's a "just give me a wrap" sort of kid.

Another favorite of mine is to buy mini sweet peppers and stuff them with some sort of protein like a chicken or crab salad.

Welcome to the team!

current weight: 295.0

295 291.75 288.5 285.25

282

SparkPoints: (4,211)
Fitness Minutes: (6,580)
Posts: 161
3/31/09 12:57 P

We eat a lot of chicken, carrots, grapes, celery, oranges and apples. Broccoli for my boxes, peas for his. I like taking peanut butter sandwiches and cutting them up into bits so they fit in. Tuna salad with some crackers is good too, just keep the crackers out of the box otherwise they get a bit soggy from the moisture the tuna gives off.

I love those babybel cheese! I had them for the first time last week, I also like the laughing cow wedges too.

I fix quiches and we freeze them, makes for a quick lunch combined with a salad and fresh vegetables/fruit. That's what I'm having for lunch today.

We're slowly learning to pre-cook and freeze, to make things easier. I'm going to do meatballs up today to freeze in portion sizes for our boxes. Then I'll just have to pop the stuff out and load the boxes!

I do fix onigiri too, with brown rice I soak the rice overnight before cooking, and with basmati I soak about an hour before I cook it. Then I dye it witha bit of food dye to make my box pretty haha. My husband's lunches make me giggle when I send him to work with flower and teddy bear shaped rice, dyed pink or purple. Then I put carrot hearts on top, hehehehe

Usually my lunches range from 300 to 450 calories, but I find the higher calorie ones tend to last me lunch and a snack later because it's a bit too much food.

About once a week I put a boiled egg in, now that I have cute egg molds that came last week it's more fun when I have a bunny in my bunny box :)

There's some good bento sites out there too, Just Bento and Lunch in a Box. Both have forums too, with loads of tips and recipes. Just Bento is where I saw how to cook brown rice for rice balls, it works pretty good. Not as good as normal rice, but not too bad considering that it's brown rice hehe

Pounds lost: 16.6

0 6.5 13 19.5

26

Posts: 9
3/31/09 10:21 A

My Name is Tia, I am in Central PA.

I had been tossing the idea around on getting Bento gear for a year or so now.

This past summer I was Diagnosed with PCOS Polly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome & put on Meds, for High Cholestorol, High BP, & a BC pill to try & regulate my ovaries. In order to get off these meds I need to loose weight....well things got pushed to the side & here it is the new year.
so like many, I made reslolutions

#1 Take the darn Meds! I went & got a day of the week pill case & now keep it by my bed,
I have successfully taken my meds for 3 months straight!

#2 Eat More Veggies & Fruit, Over the past month I have incorporated salads & at least 2 veggies or fruit with every meal into the diet.

Here is also where I hit a stumbling block...I hate packing a lunch, I get Bored eating the same thing & I really do hate left overs. Solution?
BENTO! they are fun, cute, and you really can put anything into them.

I have been very very bad about packing my bentos though, this week I am doing really good with 2 in a row :)

And I have tomorrows almost planned out.

So I will ask you all What do you find your self consistantly reaching for to pack in your bentos?

I am loving Babybel cheeses this week, Pickles & Olives.

I am trying to keep the carbs at bay, so been limiting my rice and noodles etc...what other options have you all found?