Downloads
This section contains the downloadable bento-related forms and other materials available on Just Bento.
The Weekly Menu Planner With Bento Lunch Box - now with Weekend Page 2
[Update:] Now with a second page for the weekend plus expanded shopping list! See below.
Last year I introduced the Weekly Bento Planner [1], a simple form to plan your bento lunches. It’s been very popular, and both files have been downloaded thousands of times.
One comment I got several times was that the form was fine for mapping out the week’s bento plans, but what if you wanted to plan all of your meals for the week too? To address this need, after a lot of thinking and testing - and just in time for the Bento Challenge! - I present you the Weekly Menu Planner With Bento Lunch form.
[2]
(Click on the image to get to the flickr page where you can see it at a large size.)
This form has Monday to Friday columns for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. The key feature though is the Lunch box, which looks like this:
As you can see, it’s divided up like a mini bento box. There are sections for protein, carbs, and vegetables, with a small area for fruits and snacks. The section sizes are meant to represent more or less how much of each kind of macro-nutrient food items you should try to pack into your bento box. (The vegetable section is bigger on purpose, to encourage you to pack more of them.) Here’s a box filled out:
You can use the sections as-is for straightforward bentos, but don’t let the lines hold you in! On days when you have a combination food, such as spinach fritatta (protein and vegetable) you can write it so that it spans both Protein and Veg sections. Or, if you’re planning to go to a restaurant, you can write that over the whole box. Zoom in on the large image on the flickr page [2] (click All Sizes at top) to see how you can use it.
Which form is right for you?
If you want a simple form to just plan out your lunches, the original Weekly Bento Planner [1] is for you. But if you want to plan your whole eating day a bit more, you might want to give this form a try.
A planner or a diary
You could use either form as a diary instead of a planner too. If you really want to go the extra step, use one form to plan out your meals, and another one to record what you actually ate. (I did this for a week and it was a bit depressing. Potato chips are the bane of my existence I tell ya.)
Update: Weekend Page 2
I’ve now added a Page 2 to cover the weekend! Click on the image below go to the Flickr page, where you can enbiggen it:
[3]
As you see, I’ve added two columns for Saturday and Sunday, and used the other side of the page for a shopping list, or notes, or whatever. You could print this on the back side of the weekday planner to save some trees.
Download for free!
The Weekly Menu Planner With Bento Lunch forms are PDF files. Windows users will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader [4]. (Mac users can open and print the forms in Preview.) You may need to select the Fit On Page or similar setting on your printer to make everything print.
- Download the Weekly Menu Planner With Bento Box (US Letter size) [5]
Download the Weekly Menu Planner With Bento Box (A4 size) [6]
Download the Weekly Menu Planner With Bento Box Weekend Page 2 (US Letter size) [7]
- Download the Weekly Menu Planner With Bento Box Weekend Page 2 (A4 size) [8]
Other languages
Special thanks to Antje, who made all the different language forms for us!
Thank you to Antje for the German versions!
- Wochen-Mahlzeitsplaner-mit-Bento auf Deutsch, die Woche (German, whole week) [9]
- Wochen-Mahlzeitsplaner_Bento auf Deutsch, nur Montag bis Freitag (German, weekdays only) [10]
- Wochenend-Mahlzeitsplaner_Bento auf Deutsch (German, weekends only) [11]
Thank you to Momoko * Bárbara for the Portuguese versions!
- Plano semanal de refeições com almoço bento (Portuguese, full week) [12]
- Plano semanal de refeições com almoço bento (Dias úteis) (Portuguese, weekdays only) [13]
- Plano Fim-de-semanal de refeições com almoço bento (Portuguese, weekends only) [14]
The following are .zip files containing both the Weekly Meal Planner and the Weekly Bento Planner [1] pages in each language.
French planner pages [15] (thanks Céine!)
Norwegian planner pages [16] (thanks Ren!)
Hungarian planner pages [17] (thanks Ren!)
Related forum discussion: How do you plan your bentos? [18]
The Weekly Bento Planner
The Weekly Bento Planner is a simple one-page form that I use to plan out my week, bento-wise. I don’t really bother to plan out my other meals, but since time is at such a premium in the morning when I’m assembling bentos, I spend a few minutes on the weekend writing out what I intend to make for bentos during the upcoming week.
The layout of the Weekly Bento Planner
The top 2/3rds of the page is divided into 5 vertical columns for Monday through Friday. Each column has 4 sections, for protein, carbs, vegetables, and fruits/extra. It’s divided this way so that the bentos are as balanced as possible.
If I don’t plan to make a bento for a particular day, I’ll note that down too. Sometimes I’ll jot down what I had for lunch on a non-bento day so that I can adjust my bento calories a bit on following days if needed.
The bottom part is for notes. I write down any leftovers or staples stashed away that I want to use up during the week. I also make notes to myself, such as “remember to cook some black beans on the weekend for next week” or “stop using broccoli everyday!” etc. The right side third or so is marked as ‘Shopping List’, and can be used to write down anything that’s needed and not stocked. You can optionally cut off the shopping list part to bring along with you - it’s small enough to tuck in a wallet. (I usually just fold the whole sheet in half and put it in my diary; the A4 size folded in half fits my A5 sized diary/appointment book.)
Once you start to write down the weekly plans, it can be interesting to look back at them. If you find yourself making the same bento menu over and over, it’s an incentive to try to vary it a bit. I keep my used sheets in a clear plastic folder.
This sheet could be used equally as well for brown bag or lunchbox lunch planning.
I’ve tweaked the form several times, and am pretty happy with how it looks and functions now, but suggestions for improving it are always appreciated.
Example usage
Here’s a sample sheet I’ve filled out (sorry for my scribbly writing!) Clicking on the image will take you to the flickr page for it, which has notes.
[19]
Some key points:
- I make a list of leftovers and stocked staples that I want to use up during the week if I can. This is most critical for things in the refrigerator of course, but remember that frozen food can go ‘off’ eventually too. When I’ve used them up I cross them off. I mark things that are in the freezer with an F, and refrigerated things with an R.
- In the Notes part I write down things like sales of note (Migros is one of the supermarkets here), and other things.
- I use the shopping list part to note down what I should be shopping for next week’s bentos rather than this week’s, though you could use it for the current week as well.
Download for free!
The Weekly Bento Planner forms are PDFs, so you will need to download Adobe Reader [4] if you are on Windows. (Mac OSX users can open the PDF in Preview and print from there.)
Just choose the paper size you prefer:
- Download the Weekly Bento Planner (US letter size) [20]
- Download the Weekly Bento Planner (A4 size) [21]
Other languages
Many thanks especially to Antje, who made all the different language forms!
Wochen-Bentoplaner auf Deutsch (German) [22] (thanks Antje!)
Plano semanal de refeições com almoço bento (Portuguese) [23] (thanks Momoko * Bárbara!)
The following are .zip files containing both the Weekly Bento Planner and the Weekly Meal Planner [24] pages in each language.
French planner pages [15] (thanks Céline!)
Norwegian planner pages [16] (thanks Ren!)
Hungarian planner pages [17] (thanks Ren!)
Spreadsheet versions
Avlor [25] has created a spreadsheet version of the Weekly Bento Planner, in Google Doc and Excel formats. Read about it here! [26]
(Do you need a all-meal menu planner? Try the Weekly Meal Planner With Bento Lunch [24].)
Weekly Bento Planner and Menu Planner forms now available in German
The Weekly Bento Planner [1] and Weekly Menu Planner with Bento [24] printable forms have both been downloaded thousands of times. Now, they are available in German too, thanks to Antje. She has also offered to create other language versions too, if she is provided with the translations. So if you’d like to see the planner forms in your language, please download the original forms from their respective pages (Weekly Bento Planner link [1]: Weekly Menu Planner with Bento link [24]) and send in your translations to maki at makikoitoh dot com, and I will forward them to Antje.
Der Wochen-Mahlzeitsplaner und der Wochen-Bentoplaner, welche schon tausende male heruntergeladen wurden, sind nun in deutscher Sprache verfügar; vielen Dank, Antje!