For sure!

And much healthier than fast food!

Wow! Thank you so much for your comment! I’m really happy to get your reply. Bento is a wounderful idea for health and saving money, so I hope many people try it and continue.

Hi Rie-san, that's a great tip that makes bento preparation on busy weekday mornings easier. Thanks for sharing! I'm so glad to hear you've found my site helpful for everyday meal prep, and I hadn't really planned for my videos to be a resource for learning English, but I'm glad to hear they've been useful for you. Please thank your English teacher for me!

Agreed, I'm sure the regular broilers are raised in factory style farms, but when I say "Japanese Chicken" I mean Jidori. One of my favorite types is Hinai Jidori from Akita prefecture and I've visited the farms and processing plants and they are world class. Because these are a cross breed of Rhode Island Red and Hinai birds, they are delicate birds that have a tendency to scare and stampede, which is why they have to be kept in large open enclosures with only a limited number of birds per enclosure. I don't actually eat very much meat at home and totally agree that I'd rather have a smaller amount of something higher quality than a lot of something cheap.

Thanks for the reply! Glad to hear the eggs are free range, I wish I could get such good quality eggs at that price. As for the chicken, I'm of the opinion that it's better to eat less meat than to eat cheap meat, but I know it's my own choice and I can't force it on everyone. I'm not sure Japanese chicken would always be better just because it's Japanese, unless you know it's been raised in decent conditions. From what I gather animal welfare is not a big topic in Japan? I've heard of 地鶏 but even then, the bar seems pretty low (my Japanese is not that great but if I understand the wikipedia article correctly, they don't even need to be outdoors and there can be up to 10 chicken per square meter?) In France more and more people are concerned about animal welfare, and it's very easy to buy free-range or organic chicken where they are required to have 2 or 4 square meters of outdoor space per chicken respectively. But of course, it's a lot more expensive that 4 euros a kilo. In any case, I appreciate the discussion.

Hi PekoPeko, yes the chicken was a bargain. I bought it in bulk, on sale at a local grocery store, but the meat was imported from Brazil. To be honest I usually prefer using Japanese products, but it just would not have fit within the budget if I'd used Japanese chicken. As for the eggs, they're free range from a local farm (I buy it from the farm directly, and they don't even come in a carton) which is why they are so inexpensive. Obviously if you can afford it I would recommend using higher quality chicken, but the point of this exercise is to show that bringing lunches from home is a great way to save money over buying something at a fast food restaurant.