May 2006 | Features

An A+ Lunch with Obento

Artful eating, the Japanese way

by Sara Francis Fujimura

As schools make slow headway in creating healthier lunches, many nutrition-conscious families opt to prepare their children’s lunches at home. But take a closer look at what you’re packing. Is it really better than cafeteria fare? Single-serving foods are super convenient for today’s busy parents, but are often big lunchbox losers—low in nutrition, high in waste. The average disposable lunch creates four to eight ounces of garbage a day, which translates into 45-90 pounds of garbage a year, or almost 10 tons of garbage per average elementary school.

One solution is to give your child’s lunchbox an international makeover by adopting the Japanese idea of obento. Obento, or boxed meal, is an art form in Japan. Japanese moms create mini works of edible art each day—carrot roses, apple-slice bunnies, rice transformed into popular cartoon characters—for a balance of taste, color and texture. Packed in a traditional obento box with a pair of chopsticks, a thermos and a cotton napkin, these lunches create nearly zero waste.

Now look in your child’s lunch box. Feeling inspired yet? Try this 4-step plan to an A+ lunch:

• Use food-grade containers only. One-time-use plastic containers may leach chemicals into food, and some soft plastic lunchboxes leach lead. Pick something easy to wash and fit inside your child’s lunchbox. Buy a set of smaller containers to separate juicy foods, and have your child pick out a new thermos. You can even buy a special obento lunchbox at laptoplunches.com, or at Whole Foods Market.

• Be conscious of mixing colors, textures and taste. Try adding a side of cherry tomatoes or kiwi slices to liven up ho-hum PB&J.

• Make lunches while you make dinner. Leftover chicken breasts quickly transform into chicken salad. Or spoon out a helping of pasta before adding sauce to make pasta salad.

• Take it one step at a time. This week, ditch the juice boxes. Next week, the single-serving yogurts. Slowly work your way to a healthier, trash-free lunch. Your kids—and the Earth—will thank you.

After a visit to Japan, freelance writer Sara Fujimura came home embarrassed about what she was packing in her childrens’ lunchboxes. Much to their relief, she switched to the obento way.

[Send] Recommend this page to a friend

AddThis Feed Button

Top Ten pages recommended to friends:

  1. A World Without Men
  2. The Fluoride Factor
  3. Cook’s Double Dutch
  4. Mastering Migraines
  5. We Like it Raw
  6. LA’s Blue Velvet takes its place at the sustainable table
  7. Exploring Yoga’s Outer Limits with Ana Forrest
  8. Open Up and Say Raw
  9. A Family Undertaking
  10. Eco-fashion Comes of Age

Find WLT In Print
Subscribe to Newsletter