- Compact lunch box, with design that appeals to mom and kids
- Made of BPA-free plastic
- Inexpensive enough to buy multiple sets
- Easy to store at home and school
- Microwave safe
- While the cartoon characters are cute, they don’t have the appeal of Batman or Hannah Montana
- The manufacturer recommends washing by hand
- Japanese bento box sized for child lunches
- Buttery yellow, blue, or pink, with appealing design
- Two stackable containers hold plenty of food, unless you have a teenage boy
- An elastic band keeps the box snugly together (buy separately -- just $1 more)
- After lunch, the containers nest for compact transport home
- Cartoon characters adorn the top of the box and cutlery
- Lightweight, microwave safe and BPA free
- Not recommended for dishwasher cleaning
I'm embarrassed to admit that I'd been sending my daughters' lunch to school in old Chinese food containers, the round plastic kind. But after reading yet another article about the dangers of plastics that leach chemicals into food, risking hormone damage, I decided to find a better box.
I thought of using the classic brown paper sack with sandwich bags for food. But that raises other problems. Each lunch would produce trash for a landfill, for one, when I'm trying to be gentler on the environment. And I often send dinner leftovers to school, which are best microwaved. I'm pretty sure microwaving a plastic bag of pasta wins you a spot in the Bad Moms Hall of Fame.
So I was excited to find the Clickety Click lunch box for only $1.50, soon to rise to $1.75. It's made of BPA-free plastic and is microwave safe. While the manufacturer doesn't recommend dishwasher cleaning, the very nice web operations manager for www.ichibankanusa.com assured me it does fine at lower heat settings.
Like all things Japanese, the lunch box is an aesthetic delight. The color is a buttery yellow (or you can choose pink or blue) and two separate containers stack neatly for storage or transport to school. A matching fork tucks beneath a clear top, and elastic bands hold the whole thing together.
You could fit a small sandwich or serving of pasta in the larger container, with fruit, baby carrots and some hummus in the smaller one. I recommend buying small flexible food cups for hummus or even simply to separate different foods for picky eaters.
I found the Japanese cartoons an improvement over mass marketed icons like Hannah Montana or Batman. But some kids will insist on their favorite characters. And of course, I still have to find a way to keep my husband from sticking it in the dishwasher alongside those raggedy Chinese takeout containers.
