Couscous has surpassed rice and pasta to become my favourite carb of choice.
It’s versatile, fast, easy to cook, and always turns out delicious.
I love that I can add a ton of veggies, beans, nuts and dried fruits to enhance the flavour and add crunch.
Couscous is refreshing as summer side dish, although it’s usually the main for me.
When loaded with veggies and protein packed beans or legumes, it’s the perfect balanced meal.
Here’s an easy yummy couscous recipe with possibilities for many variations, add and omit ingredients as you wish.
Enjoy!

So whatever happened to my bento lunches?

I don’t take lunch to work anymore these days; I miss that.

For several months last year, I meticulously and lovingly packed my own cute scrumptious lunches.

It was such fun endeavour, not at all the work I thought it’ll be. I ate better and felt better then too.

Thankfully I have a ton of pictures to remember my bentos by:

The best part about packing my own lunches was having control over what’s in my lunch.

Plus it was way cheaper than buying lunch and it tastes better.

(more…)

I don’t have scientific proof (yet) but I do believe there’s strong correlation between my blogging and running.

I tend to blog at the same rate I run; hence when I’m not writing chances are I’m not running either.

I’ve stopped making excuses for my new sedentary life, it’s gotten too ridiculous – the good thing is I’ve managed to lose 10lbs through portion control/bento lunches.

Bento lunches have saved my life, It’s become my passion – I tend to pack lunches for every where I go now, not just for work. It’s been fun fun fun!

I’m hoping to lose another 10lbs by May 1^st. For months I was convinced my scale was broken, there was no way I’d gained 20lbs, I didn’t feel that heavy.

I had a little hiccup last week. I can’t even begin to say how evil Daim is! Good thing I can only get it from Ikea. I lay in bed popping one piece after the other until the whole (very large) bag’s gone.

I’m deliberating running the half marathon again this year, I’d like to better my time.

So, it’s been two full weeks of Bento making. I’m still beating myself up for not having thought of this before?

There’s a little bit more work involved but the payout is totally worth it. Thankfully, Pearlsa loves cooking so I haven’t had to worry myself with that. I’m eating so much better than before – I had a different meal for lunch every day. I don’t bother much with supper anymore because I’m normally still not hungry after lunch.

The assembly, arrangement and packing definitely adds to the fun, there’s still so much to learn, so much I to incorporate but I’m taking it easy, I don’t want to burn out.

I’ve lost five pounds; I think it’s because my portions are much smaller now, I’m more energetic throughout the day

Below are a week’s worth of bentos in pictures – enjoy… it surely was yummy!:

Have I mentioned my new diet? I’ve found another passion.

Well, it’s not really a diet; I’ve been packing my own Bento style lunches and even though it’s slowly taking over my life, I love it!

Until a couple of weeks ago the only Bento I knew was Portuguese for St. Benedict (Sao Bento).

A Bento is basically a boxed lunch in Japanese cuisine – but it’s so much more when you consider the time, art and flair involved in making these meals.

Pearlsa mentioned a while back that she’d like take lunch to work, I didn’t care – I hated taking lunch to work, I tried; it’s boring, tedious and not cool.

She found out about Bentos through a blog (how did people find stuff out before the Internet?), she thought it’ll be interesting but I still wasn’t keen on the idea.

So we were in Bellingham two weekends ago when we came upon the new Daiso Store at the Bellis Fair Mall I just feel in love with the little Bento boxes, although I decided the boxes were too small for lunch, maybe a snack, I thought.

I bought two Bento boxes that day brought them home and went on the Internet to find out what the heck people put in those tiny boxes. I didn’t know!

There’s a massive online community of Bento lovers out there, and I had no idea. It felt like some secret society that I wasn’t privy too, kind of how it felt when I discovered the soldering community (although, I’m still not soldering… but I at least know they exist).

I’ve just had my first full week of taking bento lunches to work. It’s amazing for portion control, I’m eating a much healthier balanced diet because I pack a little of everything. I like to think I’m saving money as I’m not buying lunch anymore. I don’t bother with dinner that much because I’m still full by the time I get home. I feel like I’ll be writing an entry soon about how I lost weight on Bento lunches.

Today I had rice with Cuban style beans, orange wedges, red grapes, mixed nuts, candy & raincoast crisps, all packed in my uber cute Bonjour, les fleures box (not pictured)

There’s a huge resource out there to tap into, here are a few sites that inspired me:

Bento Yum, Lunch in a box, Livejournal Bento Community, Flcikr Bento Boxes, Bento Corner, Just Bento

Technorati Tags: Bento, food, lunch, bento boxes