Lunch & A Snack for Monday

I didn't have any leftovers yet this week, so I made some Crab-Stuffed Tomatoes (WW recipe) and some of Hungry Girl's Artichoke Hummus (which you will be seeing throughout the week). Today's lunch bento comes to a whopping 7.5 points:

This bento contains:
2 Crab-Stuffed Tomatoes (4.5 points...I used smaller tomatoes, so these don't come to the full 6 points of the original recipe)
1/4 cup Hungry Girl's Artichoke Hummus (1 point)
Cucumbers (0 points)
Celery (0 points)
Red Bell Pepper (0 points)
1 Tbsp. Smucker's Sugar-Free Strawberry Preserves

My snack for today comes to 4.5 points. I know, this is all a lot of points! I am breastfeeding, so I have a huge daily allowance, but honestly, I find myself unable to eat all of the points some days.

This bento contains:
15 baby carrots (.5 points)
1 hard-boiled egg (2 points)
1 cup edamame (1 point)
1 Babybel cheese (1 point)
1 small Apricot (0 points)

Monday's Breakfast

The goal is to make it to the gym every morning these days, therefore I need a packed breakfast. My reasoning is sound: the only way to get ready in the morning is to take baby Ashni to daycare first, go to gym, workout, and have an unhurried shower. The only problem is that it is equidistant from daycare to my home as it is from daycare to the gym. So, because Ashni decided to sleep very badly last night, I took her in and promptly went home to sleep for another 45 minutes, shower, dress, and then went to work. So I still needed the pre-packed breakfast, just not for the same reason. :) It is very hard to workout on less than 5 hours of sleep.

Anyway, today's bento (and my breakfast bento for the rest of the week) comes to 5 points:

This bento contains:
2 'Oat'-nigiri (1 cup oatmeal, 1 tsp raisins, 1 tsp craisins) (2 points)
1 Morningstar Farms sausage patty (2 points)
1/2 cup of grapes (.5 points)
1 Tbsp. Lite syrup (.5 points)

Wednesday's Bento

Today's bento is dipping back into my freezer stash, which needs to be done more frequently. I always intend to, there are just usually so many dinner leftovers to be used that I forget about it. This bento comes to 4 Weight Watcher's points.

This bento contains:

1/4 cup 1% cottage cheese (1 point)
3 frozen falafel patties (2 points)
lettuce (0 points)
red bell pepper (0 points)
cucumber (0 points)
2 tbsp. chickpeas (.5 points)

not pictured:
1 tbsp. Newman's Own Lite Sesame Ginger Dressing (.5 points)

Wednesday's Bento

This will be my last bento for the week. I'll be eating out tomorrow and staying at home on Friday, so no more lunch bentos for the week. Today's bento is simple but quite filling and delicious and comes to only 4 points:

This bento contains:

4 Ravioli (from Costco) (2 points)
1/4 cup 1% cottage cheese (1 point)
1/2 serving Sesame Ginger Cabbage Salad (.5 points)

not pictured:
1/4 cup Classico Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce (.5 points)

Monday's Bento

Today's bento is simple, and helps use up the tortillas I have in the fridge. :) Unfortunately, it wasn't that filling...I think I should have thrown some cottage cheese in there. It was a little lacking in the protein department. Anyway, this bento comes to 4 Weight Watchers points.

This bento contains:
Cheese Quesadilla (1 wheat tortilla + 1/4 cup shredded 2% cheddar) (4 points)
1 tbsp. salsa (0 points)
cucumber flowers (0 points)
8 cherry tomatoes (0 points)

Breakfast Bento for the Week

So this week's breakfast bento (meaning all breakfast bentos for the week are going to be exactly the same...not that this one bento will be my breakfast all week) ;) is very similar to last week's, except there is a different kind of muffin in it. I tried another Weight Watcher's muffin recipe, this time a Maple Bran muffin from thier Complete Cookbook. I was pleased with these results and I think this is a winner. This breakfast bento comes to 3 Weight Watcher's points:

This bento contains:
2 Maple Bran mini muffins (2 points)
1/2 cup grapes (.5 points)
1 Morningstar Breakfast Link (.5 points)
1/2 tbsp. reduced calorie syrup (0 points)

By the way, the whole reason I make breakfast bentos is because the idea is that I am supposed to be going to the gym before work and then I eat my breakfast at my desk in the morning. Yeah, that hasn't been happening. These last few pounds are a pain to lose, and exercise is crucial is helping that process along (it's crucial anyway, I've just been lazy). My goal was to get back on the gym-wagon this week, but when my alarm went off this morning, I just felt so tired. I will be going after work, but I do prefer to workout in the morning. Here's to getting up tomorrow morning!

Happy Friday!

Yay Friday! I don't know about you, but I am very glad it's Friday. Today's bento is simple, but that doesn't mean it isn't delicious! In planning meals for next week, I really need to take my husband into consideration. He's been giving me puppy eyes in the evening as I make my bento, asking, "Don't I get a bento?". *Sigh* So pathetic. ;) So I'll need to make sure I either make enough food at dinner or get enough extras at the grocery for his bentos too.

Today's bento comes to 4 Weight Watchers points.

This bento contains:
1/2 serving of Penne w/ Olives & Sun-Dried Tomatoes (2.5 points)
1/4 cup 1% cottage cheese (1 point)
cucumber flowers (0 points)
6 cherry tomatoes (0 points)
1/4 cup edamame (.5 points)

Wednesday's Breakfast Bento

I tried a new recipe for my breakfast bento this week: Weight Watchers Glazed Pear Muffins. The results were okay, but I probably will look for another muffin recipe. This morning's breakfast comes to 2.5 points:

This bento contains:
2/3 serving Glazed Pear Muffins (w/o glaze) (1.5 points)
1 Morningstar Breakfast Link (.5 points)
1/2 tbsp. Reduced Calorie Syrup in the strawberry (0 points)
1/2 cup grapes (.5 points)

This is going to be my breakfast for the next few days, so I won't be posting the same thing everyday this week. But next week should have something different!

Yay! I'm back on the bento wagon!

Hey there! It's been awhile, I know. But I'm back and ready to get in the bento swing of things once more. Because I have decided to continue to try and lose 5 to 10 more pounds, my points allowance is now down to 18, so my lunches are going to be kind of small. My husband, however, is starting back on a call month at the hospital, so you should be seeing some bentos for him pop up during the month. Today's bento comes to a low 3 points! I brought snacks of grapes and Babybel cheese, so we'll see how that gets me through the day. Although I have noticed that I have not been as hungry as I used to be, so I may be able to do this.

This bento contains:

1/2 serving of Hungry Girl's Tamale Pie (click for recipe) (2 points)
1/4 cup 1% cottage cheese (1 point)
cucumber flower cut-outs (0 points)
cherry tomatoes (0 points)
4 baby carrots (0 points)

If you are vegetarian, I highly recommend the Hungry Girl recipe (you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page I linked to above to find it). I usually find any recipe involving 'fake' meat very hit-or-miss, but this was very good, and extremely easy to make! Even my husband, who is not vegetarian, and frowns upon all fake meat really liked this.

Tuesday's Bentos

My husband liked his bento so much last time that he now asks me when I'm making mine, 'So, what are you putting in mine?'. I actually wasn't planning on making him one for today, but luckily we had still had some leftovers from last week. So he was happy. I'm going to keep counting points for his bentos because: (1) he is trying to lose weight, though he's not doing Weight Watchers, and (2) that is the purpose of this blog. Does anyone know of any men doing Weight Watchers? I know they have a new program for them, but I have no idea what the target points for a man would be.

My bento for today comes to 4 points.

This bento contains:
4 Cheese & Spinach Ravioli (2 points)
1/8 cup edamame hummus (1 point)
3 small sweet peppers (0 points)
1/2 cup asparagus with garlic & sesame oil (1 point)
Not pictured:
1/2 cup Classico Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce (1 point)

My husband's bento comes to 8 points:

This bento contains:
1/2 serving of Soba Noodles with Garlic Tofu (2 points)
1 slice Colby Jack cheese (2 points)
2 oz lean ham (2 points)
Asparagus with garlic & sesame oil (1 point)
1/8 cup edamame hummus (1 point)
3 small sweet peppers (o points)

Making his bento was actually a pretty big deal for me. I'm vegetarian (well, pescetarian, because I eat fish), and I don't cook any meat for him. If he wants chicken or something, he makes it himself. So the fact that I actually handled the ham to make the roll-ups was a pretty big deal. I guess my compulsion to make it pretty outweighed my avoidance of touching meat.

Breakfast Bento for Tuesday

Pretty much the same old, same old. I mixed it up with raspberries this time. I make breakfast bentos almost everyday, I just don't post them because they all look the same. :) This breakfast bento comes to 3.5 points.

This bento contains:
2 oat-nigiri [1 cup oatmeal, 1 tsp dried cranberries, & 1 tsp golden raisins] (2 points)
2 Morningstar Breakfast Links (1 point)
1 tbsp. Lite Syrup (.5 points)
1/2 cup raspberries (0 points)

My first multiple bento packing!

So my husband followed up on his previous wish to have a bento lunch, and asked if I could make him one for today. Since we had a decent amount of leftovers, I thought it would be pretty easy to do. And happily, it was! :) I have no idea if this will be enough or too much food for him. I'm sure he'll let me know. I guess it isn't truly a wwBento because he isn't doing Weight Watchers and I didn't take any points values into account when making it. But, I can still add them all up for you!

So here's my bento for the day, which comes to 4.5 points.

This bento contains:
1/2 serving of Soba Noodles with garlic tofu (2 points)
1 small sweet peppers (0 points)
1/4 cup edamame hummus (2 points)
1/2 serving of Grilled Japanese Eggplant (.5 points)

My husbands bento comes to 7.5 points:

This bento contains:
1/2 serving of Soba Noodles with garlic tofu (2 points)
1 serving of Grilled Japanese Eggplant (2 points)
2 small fish cakes (2 points)
1/8 cup edamame hummus (1 point)
10 baby carrots (.5 points)

Tuesday's Breakfast Bento

I usually bring the Fruit-Filled Wontons for breakfast with a grapefruit. But, that isn't always filling, and I can't make a bento out of that. So, I made the wontons smaller this time so they would fit in a bento and threw in some veggie links. For more information about the wontons, see the bottom of this previous post. This morning's bento comes to 4 points.

This bento contains:
2 Fruit-Filled Breakfast Wontons (2 points)
2 Morningstar Farms Breakfast Links (1 point)
1/2 cup grapes (.5 points)
1 tbsp Lite Syrup in the birdy (.5 points)

Middle Eastern-esque Bento

I was at Whole Foods this weekend and couldn't resist buying some of their red pepper hummus. So, naturally, I had to construct the rest of this bento around that theme. ;) This bento comes to 5.5 Weight Watchers points.

This bento contains:

3 spicy frozen Falafel patties (2 points)
1/2 cup spinach (0 points)
1/4 cup red pepper hummus (2 points)
cherry tomato (0 points)
1 cup zucchini (0 points)
1/2 cup Fantastic Foods Curry Couscous (1.5 points)

First Attempt at a 'Real' Breakfast Bento

While I bring my breakfast to work every day, I have never bothered to actually make it into a bento. I was inspired by mushmo over at Livejournal to attempt to make one. She said in her comments that she has made fake onigiri out of oatmeal for breakfast before, and I decided to give it a try. I think they turned out pretty well. I filled them with a couple of dried cranberries, and they held their shape even when I had to move them into a different box. I didn't try to hold them and eat them though...I just used a fork. :) They did taste a little funny and I'm not sure if it's because the oats are probably pretty old, or if they just took on a weird taste from the bento box. Either way, once I figure it out, these will definitely become a regular staple in my breakfast bentos! This bento comes to 4 Weight Watchers points.

This bento contains:
2 oatmeal onigiri = 1 cup of oatmeal (2 points)
1 tsp. dried cranberries (0 points)
2 Morningstar Breakfast Links (1 point)
1/4 cup grapes (.5 points)
1 tbsp. Lite Syrup in the blue strawberry (.5 points)

Another Pasta Bento

This is an extremely common bento in my repertoire. Amazingly, I haven't featured it much on my blog (probably to prevent anyone else from experiencing my bento boredom). We usually make pasta once a week for dinner and there are always leftovers, and a salad is quick and easy to throw together. But I am getting sick of the salad. I tend to keep putting salads in my bento because they are easy fillers and I don't have to spend too much time on them. However, I have decided to start finding more quick and easy recipes to make for my bento and concentrate on changing things up a bit. I have found a lot of possible winners on the Weight Watchers site, just looking up Japanese and Chinese cuisine. And there are a lot of good fillers mentioned on various bento sites. So hopefully I will have more variety in my bentos in the coming weeks. In the meantime, this bento comes in at 4.5 Weight Watchers points.

Contents of this bento:
1/2 a serving of Pasta with Olives (2.5 points)
1/8 cup part-skim mozzarella (1 point)
1/2 cup of spinach leaves (0 points)
1/4 cup broccoli (0 points)
1/4 cup bean sprouts (0 points)
1/4 cup red peppers (0 points)

Not pictured:
2 tablespoons Newman's Own Low Fat Ginger Dressing (1 point)

Diwali Puja Leftovers Bento

On Saturday, we did Diwali puja, which means lots of delicious leftovers! I put everything in one of my thermal jars because there is a lot of watery items in this one. This bento comes to 4 Weight Watchers points, and the snack comes to 2.5 points.

This Diwali bento contains:
1 serving Aloo Muttar (potatoes & peas) (3 points)
1 serving Patta Gobi (curried cabbage) (1 point)

Sidecar (my snack for later) contains:
2 servings Halwa (2.5 points)

Tuesday's Falafel Bento

Today's bento has a bit of a middle-eastern theme with hummus and falafel patties, and comes to a total of 5.5 Weight Watchers points. These frozen falafel patties are wonderful! I found them at my local International Market and love their flavor and convenience.

Today's bento contains:
1/2 cup of mixed greens (0 points)
2 sliced shiitake mushrooms (0 points)
1/4 cup chickpeas (1 point)
2 tbsp. sliced beets (0 points)
3 cherry tomatoes (0 points)
3 falafel patties (2 points)
3 mini sweet peppers stuffed with red pepper hummus (.5 points)
Havarti cheese flower cut-outs (1 point)

Not pictured:
2 tbsp. Newman's Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing (1 point)

Monday's Bento

Today's lunch bento comes to only 6 Weight Watchers points. I try to keep my lunches between 5-7 points, so this was perfect.

In the top layer is a salad composed of:
1/2 cup mixed greens (0 points)
4 cherry tomatoes (0 points)
2 sliced shiitake mushrooms (0 points)
2 tablespoons chickpeas (.5 points)
2 tablespoons beets (0 points)

The bottom layer has:
Half a serving of leftover Pasta with Olives (2.5 points)
1 slice (cut into leaf shapes) of Havarti cheese (2 points)

Not pictured:
2 tablespoons of Newman's Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing (1 point)

Recipe for Pasta with Olives

WW Points: 5 points per serving
Serves: 8

1 lb uncooked penne, bow-tie, or any other pasta of choice
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
10 large kalamata olives
1 tbsp. capers
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
2-3 tbsp oregano
1-2 tbsp thyme
1-2 tbsp basil

Boil pasta according to cooking time on package. Meanwhile, slice olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Once pasta is done boiling, strain, and return to pot.

Mix olive oil, olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, and spices.