National Soup Month -Thermos Review

This month is National Soup Month and many of you participated in voting for your favorite soup over at the Thermos Facebook page. And the results are in:

Chicken Noodle Soup won! 

We are celebrating with a Chicken Noodle Soup School Lunch and a Thermos Review!

Thermos sent me their Vacuum Insulated 16 oz Matte Black Food Jar with Folding Spoon to help celebrate National Soup Month! It keeps your food hot for up to 7h and can keep foods cold for up to 9h. It also stays cool to the touch with hot liquids and is condensation-free with cold!!

I love the wide mouth opening for easy filling and easy cleaning and especially the full-size, folding stainless steel spoon tucked into the lid! No more forgotten utensils! No more lost spoons!

The lid is sized so it can double as a serving bowl for example for yogurt, fruit or pasta! 

The food jar is made of unbreakable stainless steel interior and exterior which means in can stand up to not being tossed in the car, your bag or really anywhere.

So what did we end up packing for lunch?

• Chicken Noodle Soup in our Vacuum Insulated 16 oz Matte Black Food Jar with Folding Spoon
• and a Lunchbots Trio container with home made Wheat Thins, apple slices and a home made pop tart for dessert!

The food jar is available in Matte Black (shown) and Midnight Blue on Thermos.com and also at Amazon.com (may contain affiliate links):


Disclaimer: Thermos sent me the food jar for review. All opinions are my own.

Thermos School Lunch Week Feature

Thermos sent us some new fun lunch items so we would be able to pack healthy and fun lunches for National School Lunch Week. As always we had a lot of fun testing them out and packing lunches!

First up: Hello Kitty Preschool Lunch

Thermos send us this adorable Hello Kitty FUNtainer Food Jar and Hello Kitty Dual Compartment Lunch kit. Did I mention how adorable the set it? The perfect set for my 4 year old. 

The FUNtainer Food Jar keeps food hot for 5 hours and cold for up to 7 hours. You can check out my FUNtainer review HERE for ideas on packing oatmeal and Swiss muesli for brunch and my photo tutorial on packing fruit parfaits for school HERE. I love that I can send everything from cut up fruit to yogurt and soup without having to worry that my kids will get it either warm and mushy or cold and unappetizing. They are also easy to open and from my 4 YO to my 10 YO these are our favorite food jars!

So what did we pack for lunch?

We packed our Hello Kitty Lunch kit with:

• a Hello Kitty Food Jar filled with Macaroni and Cheese
• a FUNtainer filled with Aqua Fresca (not pictured)
• a Hello Kitty Lunch box filled with a CuteZCute Hello Kitty sandwich, a cereal bar, baby carrots and a small container with pumpkin shaped snacks.

Everything fit perfectly!
I love how soft the Hello Kitty Lunch pack is and how roomy! The convenient bottom compartment holds our FUNtainer water bottle with ice pack and the top has plenty of room for a lunchbox and Thermos! 2 thumbs up!

Next: Scooby Doo Mystery Van Lunch Kit

My kids are huge Scooby Doo fans so they simply loved this lunch kit for what it was: A Scooby Doo Mystery Machine! And I can't blame them. This lunch kit rocks!

I love that you open this lunch kit from the back or trunk! My kids loved that detail! The lunch kit is VERY roomy! It fit our Easylunchboxes, plus a Thermos FUNtainer water bottle, an apple and a quick snack for after school! I forgot to take a picture of it filled so I had to settle for an after school picture but you can see how big the lunchbox is!

What's for lunch?

We of course packed a Scooby Doo lunch in our Scoopy Doo Mystery Machine lunch kit and Easylunchboxes:

• We packed ghost chips for the mystery they solve every time
• baby carrots and apples with a hot dog and pizza pick since Scooby and Shaggy are ALWAYS hungry
• and Scooby's dog tag made with Honey Wheat bread, cheese, lettuce and cheese letters

Scooooooobbbbbbyyyyyy Dooooooooooo.

Last but not least: R2D2 Lunch

This Star Wars R2D2 lunch kit again is surprisingly roomy and suited for bigger appetites or snack and lunch combined. It was very well received by my Star Wars fans and the padded handle makes this lunch kit easy to carry. 

Besides the size this lunch kit has another amazing feature:

 

Have you guessed it yet? Light and Sound! Any little Star Wars fan would love this lunch kit!

So, what did we come up with for lunch?

We kept it simple with a Lunchbot:

• lightsaber strawberries
• two PBJ sandwiches shaped like C-3PO
• and a Star Wars apple

We were able to fit all this with room to spare!


Where can you find all these fun products? Right here (contains affiliate links):

Back to School Thermos Review

Did you know that Thermos is celebrating 60 years of licensed lunch kits? The first ever licensed thermos lunch kit was the Roy Rogers Lunch Box! In celebration, Thermos released several new licensed lunch kit which are now available at Target, Walmart and Toys R Us!

Thermos sent us their Superman Man of Steel lunchbox and Superman hydration bottle so we could be part of 60 years of licensed lunch kits! Needless to say my kids were ecstatic!

The lunch kit is soft and...well...super cool! My boys cannot wait to use it! It is as always insulated and has a padded handle. It is durable, easy to clean and made out of 100% PVC free PEVA lining! 

The 12 oz hydration bottle is BPA-free, impact resistant (which Mom wouldn't love that?), and dishwasher proof! It has a leak-proof lid with straw, is ergonomically shaped and has a flip up carrying loop which comes in handy when you are toting more then one or have kids that love attaching everything to their backpack (like mine;).

Our sandwich box and hydration bottle fit perfectly inside the lunch kit with extra room for an ice pack and Lunchbox Love Card (how perfect is this one?).

We packed our Superman Man of Steel lunch kit with:

• a cheese sandwich with Superman tomato and cheese logo,
• rice crackers, 
• grapes and 
• a few honey cookies. 

Our hydration bottle is filled with ice water.

Here the lunch kit is pictured with an EasyLunchbox.

Overall, this is a great lunch kit! I really love how easy the lunch kit is to clean and that the hydration bottle is both dishwasher safe and impact resistant! A must when you have boys! Plus, if I know that they love their lunchbox I know they will take care of it and it will last us all school year and longer!

Hope you have a super day!

The links above contain affiliate links.

Packing Lunch for Camp with Thermos

Thermos generously sent me some of their new products to help pack lunch for camp this summer.

We reviewed the FUNtainer food jars and drink bottles at the beginning of this year and have since packed hot and cold lunch a lot more often since these containers hold their promise of staying hot for 5 h and cold for up to 7 h. The drink bottles stay cold for up to 12 h. Perfect for packing refreshing summer lunches!

Camps start next week and the kids will need lunch, of course. I wanted to share a few ideas of using Thermos food jars and FUNtainer drink containers to pack a fun and refreshing lunch for your kids.

Thermos Food Jar Lunch Ideas:

My kids love fruit and the Thermos food jars are the perfect container to pack fruit and keep them nice and cold until the kids eat at lunch! No matter what your child's favorite fruit is, they will stay cold and appetizing! I freeze my food jars over night before adding the fruit and it keeps them fresh and cool - perfect for watermelon!

Here is an easy and fast lunch packed in the Thermos Radiance cooler. We packed watermelon in our food jar, water with ice in the FUNtainer drink container and a nitrate-free salami sandwich with iceberg salad and carrot slivers. Also packed are an apple and fig bar for snack throughout the day. Also pictured a Lunchbox Love Card - they even have some for camp this year!

Another kid favorite are fruit parfaits. Easy and fast packed and fun and nutritious!

Here is what you need:

• a Thermos food jar
• fruit of your choice ( I used strawberries and blueberries)
• plain or vanilla yogurt 
• granola

Freeze the food jar overnight or for at least one hour before packing to keep the food cool!

Add about two Tablespoons yogurt.

Add granola - about 1-2 Tablespoons.

Next, add a big tablespoon of fruit and repeat until jar is full. 

Fruit Parfait for lunch!

Paired with a few Italian cookies, a few Goldfish and a fruit snack this was a great lunch for both my 2nd and 5th grader!

Thermos FUNtainer drink container ideas:

These FUNtainer bottles hold 12 oz of liquid and I love them since a juice box often just is not enough to drink - especially during these hot summers. The problem is: what to pack that appeals to kids and is healthy? The answer: fruit water! If you are not sure if your kids will like it, let them help fill a pitcher with water, ice cubes and frozen fruit and let them try! I won my skeptical kids over on the first try!

To make your own fruit water, fill a pitcher with water and ice cubes and add a generous handful of frozen fruit (or two kids can help and add two handfuls of fruit to the pitcher). Let the water either infuse over night in the fridge (best results) or for at least 1-2 hours. We prefer frozen fruit because they seem to flavor the water faster. We love strawberries and blueberries but there are endless delicious combinations out there. I love this MOMable post if you want to read more!

Another refreshing drink is what we in Germany call "Schorle."

It is a refreshing lightly carbonated drink and to make one you need:

• 4 oz of cold water
• 4 oz of selzer
• 4 oz of fruit juice

Add fruit juice and water to the FUNtainer and finish with the selzer. The drink will be lightly carbonated and low in sugar since your mix two parts of water with one part of juice (still much better then a juice box!). We have had no issues with the carbonated drink if the FUNtainer was very cold when filled.

Have a fun summer and fun packing lunches for camp!

Similar items to the ones I used can be found on Amazon:

 

Thermos Review

Thermos generously sent me two FUNtainer food containers and two FUNtainer drink containers to review and I am so excited to share my review with you!

First, we tried out the food containers. I have several food containers that keep food warm for lunch already but so far my kids have always been disappointed when the food was not warm anymore once they opened the containers at lunch. I wanted to try how long the food stayed warm in the FUNtainers as well as if food would stay cold as well.

I was pleasantly surprised! When I tried to keep hot water warm as a test at home the FUNtainers kept the water warm well beyond the advertised 5 hours and some of the ice water I tried at home stayed cold up to 10 hours. 

So, next we of course packed some yummy food to take to school to test if this would be true for food packed. The first day I wanted to send in yogurt and placed the FUNtainers in the freezer for 30 min in the morning before filling it. 

I packed yogurt topped with Swiss Muesli, blueberries and raspberries!

The food was nice and cold once lunch time came around 11 am and my kids were very happy with the result! I am excited as well because this is a great power food and I love packing food like this for lunch for myself as well. The kids also loved how easy the containers opened since we also had issues with hard to open insulated containers before. So thumbs up so far!

I added 6 oz of vanilla yogurt topped with 3 Tablespoons of Swiss Muesli and a few raspberries and blueberries. For myself I like adding almond slices and hazelnuts as well and I bet dried fruit would be delicious as well!

I can highly recommend the Thermos FUNtainers if you are looking to send in cold fruit, yogurt or any other cold food! Some of the yogurt I sent was still very chilled by the time the food came home at the end of the day!

Of course after such wonderful results we wanted to test out as well if the food would stay warm long enough until lunch!

Looking for some fun and nutritious food to pack I decided to pack Oatmeal and again with blueberries and raspberries - my kids favorites!

Before filling the FUNtainers I added some hot water to the container 10 minutes prior to adding Oatmeal.

My son did not finish the whole container of food at school and it was still warm when he got home at 2:30pm and he was able to finish it for snack! This is the only container that has food kept warm for this long and we are definitely going to get more containers for soup, chili, oatmeal and more! My kids loved both the yogurt and cereal and the hot oatmeal and since I can be sure that their food stays warm or cold I feel like I have many more options to send in food now!

Thermos also provided us with two 12 oz FUNtainers bottles. And my kids absolutely fell in love with them! The bottles state that drinks would stay cold for up to 12 hours and that is absolutely true! I placed the bottles briefly in the freezer before filling them and my kids have been taking cold milk, smoothies and fruit water to school and if I add ice cubes they are barely melted by lunch time. I feel much more comfortable now sending in milk products or smoothies and my kids love how easy to use the bottles they are! 

To sum up: 

• We were pleasantly surprised that the Thermos FUNtainer hold what they promise! 
• They keep your food chilled or hot until lunch time and beyond. 
• They are easy to use for kids and easy to clean for Mom since all the parts come apart. 

Overall, a great product!

If you are interested in some of the {Recipes} I used to fill our Thermos FUNtainers, here they are:

Oatmeal:

What you need:

1/2 cup of rolled oats

1 cup of milk or water

Bring milk (or water) to just before boiling. Add oats. Reduce heat and cook at a gentle boil for about 5 minutes while stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add your favorite topping!

Smoothies:

What you need:

1/2 banana

1 cup of frozen sliced strawberries

milk/coconut milk or any other liquid

Add all the above to blender. Blend and fill in your favorite FUNtainer! This is enough to fill two 12 oz FUNtainers!

Fruit Water:

8 oz of cold water

fruit of your choice ( we prefer frozen)

(we added strawberries. About 6 sliced frozen strawberries per FUNtainer)

Add frozen fruit to your FUNtainer and let soak over night in the fridge! You will have a lightly flavored fruit water in the morning!