Makiko Itoh, friend of SE and mastermind behind Japanese food blog Just Hungry has a passion for the boxed lunches known in Japan as bento. She's been blogging about the subject over at Just Bento since 2007, championing the bento as a tool for healthy, delicious, and affordable eating, making a good case for why a bento lunch is way more satisfying than brown-bagging it. Enter to win a copy of The Just Bento Cookbook, Itoh's newly released guide to all things bento. More

[Flickr: Mazarine] For last week's Weekend Cook and Tell, we wanted to take a peek inside your lunch box. Here are some of our favorite responses: Overcome with the spirit of generosity and an insatiable craving for Greek food, LanaRae made spanakopita turkey meatballs and homemade gyros to share with her friends and coworkers. kirbie had originally planned to make adorable heart-and-star-shaped eggs for her lunch bento but the egg sculpting didn't work out as planned. She ended with some home-cooked leftovers courtesy of her mom. As a proud new bento box owner, lemonfair went the Japanese route by making a rice Totoro served with teriyaki sauced vegetables, corn, melon, kiwi, and grapes. Lorenzo transformed steak tartare leftovers into... More

[Photograph ©iStockphoto.com/apomares] School lunch in the district where I attended K-12 was, frankly, disgusting. I was lucky enough to come from a home where there was enough money and time for me to have a home-packed lunch every day. There were plenty of kids who loved the square sausage pizza and hermetically sealed PBJs, but I'm sure there were also plenty who would have gladly eaten something else had they not been on the free-lunch program. Now, it's pretty clear that no matter if my classmates liked it or not, they shouldn't have been eating the food the school was dishing up. Schools send a message to children with the foods that are served. The additives, preservatives, and sugar... More

Back-to-school shopping is usually all about the clothes, but for gourmands in the making the right lunchbox is just as important. In support of the Future Foodies of America (FFA), I decided to go on a serious hunt for the coolest, most epically awesome lunchbox I could find. What I discovered was a hell of a lot more fun than I'd ever imagined—in fact, the Goodbyn almost made me want to go back to school. Aside from having a really cute name, the Goodbyn features a smart design that's both practical and environmentally proactive—a tough combination to master given the reputation of eco-friendly products as sometimes underperforming or requiring more work compared to non-green counterparts. Besides being made of... More

Nemo sandwich from Funky Lunch The sandwiches at Funky Lunch seem to be more for looking than eating, but in the Funky Lunch Twitter page creator Mark Northeast says he hopes to turn his funky sandwich designs into a book "to help parents encourage children to eat different foods in a fun and funky way." It works for bento boxes; bring on the funky sandwiches. [via urlesque]... More

When you're eating lunch, do you ever feel inspired to write three metrical phrases about it? Haiku Lunchbox looks like the beginning of a great site devoted to food poetry. So far there are only four entries, but I felt inspired to compose a fifth: Salty meats, damp loaf From jars of olive salad Muffuletta, love Related Awesome Burger Haikus Awesome Pizza Haikus Food Poems [Talk]... More

Photograph from erinlanigan on Flickr Cafeteria lunches are almost universally horrible. In elementary school, I went home sick a few times after "Breakfast for Lunch" day. In high school, the only non-fried options were wilted salads and half-baked cookies. I am certainly not alone in having traumatic school cafeteria memories. The blog School Lunch Talk has been investigating how other countries feed their children. In French schools, lunchtime is a time to teach students healthful eating habits. A recent lunch consisted of Basque chicken thigh with herbs, red and green bell peppers and olive oil, organic yogurt and an apple. Most interestingly, the meals only cost 6.17 euro per student, but the families pay for, at most, about half... More

The previously mentioned Anti-Theft Lunch Bag designed by Sherwood Forlee is now on sale. A pack of 25 bags costs $10, and 5 percent of your purchase will be donated to Freedom from Hunger.... More

Did your parents love you as much as the dad behind Lunch Bag Art, a blog that shows the cute lunch bags he draws each day for his kids? Mine may have been, but couldn't show it because they weren't as artistically inclined. I hope Dylan and Dana keep the bags even after they finish their lunches. Related 'Moldy' Bag Deters Lunch Thieves The Most Disgusting School Lunches Cute Cuddle-Worthy Bento Boxes... More

Honor thy lunch lady. Photograph from ricko on Flickr Despite the stomach-churning memories you might have of elementary school lunches, The Healthy School Lunch Campaign is around to make sure that mystery meat is healthy, safe, and hopefully edible. The organization formed in 1946 as a response to Harry Truman signing the National School Lunch Act. They've decided this week is National School Lunch Week, which means anthropomorphized mascots like Petunia Pita Pocket and Gloria Grilled Cheese, but also means awareness about what goes onto the little munchkins' plastic trays. (I'll always remember the pizza served in rectangular boxes.) What's your favorite school lunch or lunch lady memory? Bonus: After the jump, an ode to the lunch lady, which... More