Monday, June 13, 2011

My yummy Bento lunch!! & "diet" update!

So, my new think is making bento style lunch boxes for myself to take to work.  I'm still getting the hang of it and I don't quite go all out like some of the one's I've seen on line or in the bento cook books, but I'm still learning how to pack everything in there.  Packing your bento box is an art form all it's own!  So here are the pictures of my little bento lunch.  I use 2 bento boxes, they're pretty small, and like I said I haven't quite mastered the art of bento.
On to the pictures!!!

 Here are my 2 bento boxes.  The one has veggies and a hard boiled egg in it, the other has strawberries and apples in it.  The last thing is just a regular glass container that has cottage cheese and peaches in it.


Here's kind of a close-up of the veggie bento. I wanted to get a picture of the egg. It's so cute!!!!  It's kind of hard to see in the picture but it has a bunny face in it!  I have 2 egg molds that once you boil the egg you peel it then put it in these molds.  I put it in the fridge to cool them off.  I also spray them with a little olive oil because the first time I made them, I discovered that they were sticking to the molds and part of the egg would peel off and it wouldn't be very cute any more.  I have 2 little tinfoil cupcake papers in there to keep some of the stuff from getting soggy.  The bigger one has diced cucumber and tomato and the other one has feta cheese in it.  I mix those things with some hummus that I have.  I buy the hummus in individual containers so I don't have to measure out how much to give myself.  I'm going to try adding broccoli to the hummus mix and see how it is.  And I'll either squeeze the lemon juice onto it or add it to my water, not sure yet.  I'll decide that tomorrow.  So this is basically my breakfast.  I also eat the strawberries from the other bento which is actually only 2 strawberries cut up, and half of the apple with some peanut butter (which is also in a sepperate container in my bag).

Also included in my lunch (but not in the pic) are the odwalla bars I take with me.  I take 3.  I eat one on my way to work, I eat one on my 30 min lunch break and if I eat the last one, it's on my last 15 min break with the last half of my apple and the cottage cheese and fruit.

Here's everything before it goes into my lunch bag.  Aren't the boxes so cute!!!!  There's another one that I want to go and get that's like the deer, but it has other cutesy woodland animals on it.  It was pretty cheap, only $4.50, the other one with the cat on it was around $16.  I'm going to keep an eye out for other cute bento boxes.

Here's everything in my bag.  That little container is the peanut butter, you can't see it but the hummus is also in there.  And the little bunny thing is where I have my sea salt.  It's actually supposed to hold your rice sprinkles, but I decided to use it for my salt instead.  I don't really take rice with me right now.  So there's no point in taking rice sprinkles.  And since I can't find a tiny salt shaker to use, the bunny will be perfect!!  And it's super cute!!  So the only thing I have to remember to put in my lunch bag tomorrow are my vitamins.

This is also the stuff I've been eating on my "diet".  Surprisingly enough, it keeps my full, or satisfied for quite a while.  I eat my walnut odwalla bar on my way to work which holds me until 8 am when I take my first 15 min break.  That's when I eat the hummus, veggies, egg, strawberries, 1/2 the apple with a little peanut butter.  Then I get my 30 min lunch, and I'm not hungry, so to prevent myself from having that "starving" feeling, I eat a choco-walla odwalla bar.  Then for my last 15 min break which is usually around 1:30 I eat the last 1/2 of my apple with some peanut butter, the cottage cheese and fruit, and if I feel I need a little more, I eat my last odwalla bar which is the chocolate-peanut butter protein bar.  Each bar has roughly 200-210 calories in it, so I figure with the low calorie meals I'm eating, they should be ok.  Plus I get my chocolate fix which prevents me from craving sweets!  SUPER BONUS!!!  And at breakfast I have my water, and my vitamin cocktail.  Which is 1 multi-vitamin, 2 glucosamine, 2 fish oil, and 2-3 focus factor.  I find it actually does help me stay focused and helps me find the motivation to, well, get myself motivated to actually DO stuff.  I have also managed to keep soda out of my diet for the most part.  Yes, sometimes I do have a drink or 2, when I say sometimes, maybe once or twice a month.

I officially started my diet last week, and after weighing myself, I've lost more weight!!  So happy!!!  I had put on 5 plbs, but now I've lost it again and I'm down 2 more!!  I just have to keep going at it and allow myself to have that little splurge every now and again, but in moderation!  Which I actually find that easy to do anymore! :)  I'm still working on the dinner part of it.  I have been doing pretty good and not over eating at dinner lately too.

And also starting this week, mom and I are going to start swimming!  She's getting frustrated because she's gained weight since she's been here and I've actually lost!  I have a swimsuit that's too small for me so she's gonna use it and we're gonna either do aqua aerobics or laps.  It sounds like we're gonna do laps because I personally get more of a workout that way.  I talked her into swimming because it's going to be a lot gentler on her body! (and mine too!)  I'm hoping to do some bike riding with her as well. :)
Will keep writing about my weight loss efforts and hopefully with the new regime, mom will start loosing as well!  We just need to figure out what foods work best for her!  More fruits and veggies and less meat works great for me!  Now to get her to "listen" to what her body tells her it wants.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Almost summer!

Thankfully the school year is almost over! Soon munchkin and I will be able to go camping and take trips to the beach and go wherever we want! The only sad things that unfortunately I won't be able to go see my dad in Alaska this year. Really upset about that. It sucks that my externship sucked up all my vacation time. But at least school is done and out of the way now. I just wish I had a new job so I could put my schooling to use. But I guess I should be thankful that I even have a job right? And I am lucky that I only have to work three days a week, but an extra day a week would be nice too. At least I've finally got my Etsy shop up and running! Need to start organizing my time a little better so that I'm busy making stuff on my days off so I can post them and sell them in my shop. A lot of people have favorites one of my items though. That's exciting! I just wish someone would buy something. Hopefully having a contest to promote and celebrate my crafty blog will help! Still working out all the rules. I know what I'm gonna make now too. I had created my own crochet pattern awhile back so I think I'm going to make an amigurumi using that pattern. What better way to celebrate the anniversary of my crafty blog than with a pattern I created myself right ;). I'm getting pretty excited about it. I need to finish up a few projects first and then I can get cranking on the monkey pattern :)
Well I guess that's all for now. I need to go and finish up a birthday present for someone.
Hope everyone has a happy weekend!!!