Go Green Lunch Box Review

The wonderful folks at Go Green Lunch Box sent me a Go Green Lunch Box to review and I packed a couple of lunches to see how we like it:

Today's lunch is an CuteZCute Angry Bird Pig chocolate spread sandwich, Angry Bird crackers with a cheese stick, a cereal bar, sunflower seeds and some fruit snacks and a yogurt as well as a bottle of ice water. 

I also packed a lunch around Halloween containing a pretzel roll with cold cuts, cheese and lettuce, a cereal bar, cheese and crackers, oranges and apples and a vanilla yogurt as well as ice water.

The first thing I noticed packing the lunchbox is that it has very deep compartments and you can fit a lot of food - which is perfect especially for my 5th Grader. I also liked right away that there was a space for the water bottle and that the bottle is stainless steel.

My boys really like the cool carrying case and even though it is not washable so far we had no issues since the lunch box is leak proof.

I really liked that it comes with a name tag since things do get lost and this tag matches the carrying bag!

Another neat feature is the little white board in the lid of the carrying bag. You can write your child a sweet note and have enough room to include a spoon, straw or napkin.

Also perfect for lunch notes!

My older kids really liked the wide mouth water bottle and I liked how easy it was to add ice. However for the little kids (3 and 5) it was hard to drink out of and I switched out the water bottle with one with a spout for now until they get a little bigger.

There are so many great features this lunchbox offers like the secure leak proof lid, the turn 'n' lock technology that keeps food fresh and the retention clips that help keep the lid attached to the lunch box. 

{Pros:}

• Lots of compartments
• leak proof lid which makes packing yogurt and applesauce a no mess affair
• retention clips to keep the lid attached to the lunch box
• a 9 oz stainless steel water bottle
• a whiteboard for leaving notes
• a insulated cooler bag 
• that it is BPA, lead, leach and phthalate free

{Cons:}

• I would love to have the option to buy a water bottle with a spout for younger kids. This can be easily solved however by swapping out water bottles until they are older.
• The lid is not dishwasher safe and you have to remove the silicone bands when washing. It does not take long however and since I wash several lunch items by hand I do not mind.

 

GreenPaxx Reusable & Eco-friendly Cool Straw and Cool Cap Review and Giveaway

A little while ago, Cindy from GreenPaxx sent us two Cool Straws and one Cool Cap to review (and some for YOU! Scroll down to enter my giveaway!) and we fell in love right away! We love making smoothies after school and these straws are not only reusable, eco-friendly and fun but also got some of my more reluctant kids to try some different smoothies because they loved to use these straws!

We have always made fruit smoothies but I wanted to try a green smoothie with my kids, too (There is a great Kale Smoothie video with recipe on the GreenPaxx website!) I did not make the exact green smoothie  because I wanted to ease my kids in to the idea of a green smoothie and therefore added some plain yogurt and a little coconut milk to make it not quite as green :)

Here is the test. What will they think?

They loved it and asked for more!

Everyone was home ~ I have 4 kids ~ when I served the fruit smoothie but we only had two straws. You can see why the two kids with the disposable straws were pretty upset and I had to make individual smoothies right after the picture was taken:
 Greenpaxx straws are bigger, wider, easier to drink from and well a lot more exciting then those flimsy other ones!

We also received a GreenPaxx Cool Cap and I use it a lot to carry my glass of water around the house. However, as you can see my daughter loves drinking water with the GreenPaxx Straw and lid, too, and I love that I can give her a regular glass with a top. I find this easier then trying to assemble some of these other sippy cups. It makes it also easy to just take your ice coffee, smoothie or water with you if you have errands to run, kids to pick up or are running late and have to turn your coffee into a quick to go coffee :)

I really like the Greenpaxx Cool Straws and Cool Caps because:

• They are reusable! We drink a lot of smoothies, water and kefir and we used to go through disposable straws fast! 4 kids + 2 adults! 
• They are easy to clean! Other re-usable straws we have tried before were always hard to clean       or there was residue left after washing, yuck. GreenPaxx straws come apart (see picture) and you can literally see if they are clean! Oh, and did I mention they are dishwasher safe! Win!

• They prevent spills! The caps are not 100% leakproof but have saved my car and laptop several times from spills which are just a reality when you have kids!
• They help the enviroment by keeping straws out of our landfills!

Overall, I have to say I love GreenPaxx and I will have to order some more straws!

And the best part is: You can win 2 Cool Caps and 4 Straws by entering my RaffleCopter below! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here is the fine print:

Please leave me an email address so I can email you. If I cannot contact you I will re-draw the prize. The winner has 48h to contact me or I will have to re-draw the winner. This giveaway is offered to US residents only. Please do not enter this giveaway if you have received free products from GreenPaxx within the past 3 months. GreenPaxx supplied me with two straws and 1 Cool Cap. All opinions are my own!

Fruity Lunch

Inspired by Meet the Dubien's Smoothie 101 I made us all Smoothies this morning and they were a big success!! I used frozen Bananas, Strawberries and Mango, Berry Kefir, Pomegranate Berry Yoghurt and Orange Juice, mhmmm.

Check out her post here if you are like me and hate to measure or just want to be spontaneous and use what you have but need some ideas! Plus, she has great tips on how to make big batches and freeze for those hectic mornings :)

I made lunch sticking with the same theme of fruity breakfast and included blackberries, strawberries, Goldfish crackers and a toasted waffle :)

Happy Monday!