ECOlunchbox Tri Bento Review and GIVEAWAY

ECOlunchboxes added a new bento box to their collection: The Tri Bento. I am excited to review it and I am also hosting a giveaway so stay tuned until the end of the post! 

The Tri Bento ECOlunchbox is made of food-grade Stainless Steel 205. It is made in India in a family-owned factory ECOlunchboxes has worked with since it's beginning. Therefore the Tri Bento is plastic-free, lead-free, BPA-free, phthalate-free and waste-free!

I immediately liked the tiffin style of the lunchbox! It reminded me of lunch containers used in India and the old fashioned metal lunch containers used in the 50's. However with a lot more beauty and style!

The Tri Bento is a larger lunch box .Each layer holds about 1 1/2 cups for a total capacity of about 4 3/4 cups of food. The larger size of this container makes it appropriate for either adults or children who like to pack a larger lunch.

The only issue I had was that my kids could not easily open the Tri Bento. However, the clips can be adjusted to desired stiffness. For very small children, the clips may be loosened using pliers. Adults may prefer clips very snug. For more information about how to adjust the clips, visit the ECOlunchboxes FAQ page. This is a great tip as well if you have other ECOLunchboxes with clips.

After adjusting the clips to make them slightly looser.

Success! My 4 year old was able to open the box by herself after I adjusted the clips. 

Our first Tri Bento lunch was packed for my preschooler to show you that this would even work for smaller kids (it held enough for lunch and a snack):

• cucumber trees, carrots and cucumber flowers
• a snack layer with grapes, crackers and cheese
• as well as a round Nutella sandwich

And how does it all stack up?

We packed and layered as following: 

1. the sandwich
2. the veggies
3. the snack
4. the packed lunchbox

Our Pros:

• elegant tiffin style lunch box
• big capacity and therefore versatile (for adults and kids)
• clips are kid tested and can be adjusted. Pinch safe!
• plastic-free, lead-free, BPA-free, phthalate-free and waste-free
• highly durable
• dishwasher safe

Things to think about:

• The lunchbox is definitely on the bigger side but that also means that with a few dividers and silicone cups you can pack for a smaller appetite and the lunchbox grows with your child.
• The Tri Bento is not leak proof! All runny ingredients like applesauce and yogurt have to be packed separately.
• The lunchbox does not fit into all standard lunch bags. However, ECOlunchboxes offers a matching lunch bag which if purchased as a set is only $5 more and they come in beautiful color combinations:

Would you love to win a Tri Bento ECOlunchbox? Enter my giveaway here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open only to US Residents. Winner will be notified via email and has 24 h to claim their prize before a new winner is drawn.

Disclaimer: ECOlunchboxes sent me the Tri Bento to review. However, I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own!

Fit & Fresh Review

Fit & Fresh approached me recently to review a few of their popular lunch products. We already have a few Fit & Fresh products that we love so I was curious and excited to try a few more products from their lunch line.

The first item we tried was the Bento Lunch Kit – Sun Swirls:

A bento lunch box with it's own case in these fun sun swirl colors! I love the quality of the lunch bag (great for both boys and girls) and my kids loved the look of the laptop like bag!

The bento lunch kit comes with the lunch bag, a lunch box, two small containers with lids and built-in removeable ice packs in the lid. The liunchbox is microwave, freezer and top rack dishwasher safe!

We loved packing a bento style lunch in the lunch box with 

• orange slices
• grapes
• Goldfish crackers
• a gluten free cereal bar
• a ham and cheese star sandwich and
• animal crackers

The bento lunch kit is very versatile, easy to use (even for small hands), colorful, and easy to clean. The large conatiner holds up to 3 cups of food and the small containers hold up to 0.75 cup of fruit, snacks, applesauce or yogurt and the new lid makes them leak resistant! We have packed everything from applesauce to yogurt and fruit dip and love that the new lids keep the food in the containers!

And the size? Perfect to grow with your child or if you have several children using the bento lunch kit you can pack depending on every kid's appetite:

• Middle Schooler (big appetite):

Goldfish crackers, grapes, a whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a pumpkin second layer and a gluten free cereal bar.

• 3rd Grader (Medium appetite):

Goldfish crackers, grapes, a whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a pumpkin second layer and a gluten free cereal bar.

• 2nd Grader (small appetite):

Goldfish crackers, grapes, a small pumpkin shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Another fun lunch product combination was the Kids' Soft Touch Lid Lunch Pod and the Kids' Dip N' Dunk Snack Container:

My kids love dips of any kind and the Kids' Dip N' Dunk Snack Container is perfect. We packed peanut butter and celery but the possibilities are endless. I loved the ice pack in the lid that ensures the dip stays cold until lunch time. So, no matter if your kids prefer Ranch dressing, yogurt and honey or nut butter you know the dip will be cool and fresh until lunch time! The size of the vegetable or fruit container is very generous and fits a good amount of fruit and veggies for my kids! 

Also pictured above is the Kids' Soft Touch Lid Lunch Pod. We loved the size for all ages (4-11). Packed here are an apple sauce, orange slice, a gluten free cereal bar and an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into puzzle shapes. Again, we loved the ice pack in the lid which kept both the fruit and sandwich nice and cold!

I also packed a fun preschool lunch in the Kids' Soft Touch Lid Lunch Pod recently and you can see that it is easy to pack as much or little as you want! This Halloween themed lunch pod contains:

• a CuteZCute cheese and nori sandwich
• grapes
• yogurt with Halloween sprinkles and
• a few ghost shaped tomato chips

We were also lucky enough to get to test the Liam Kids' Chiller Lunch Bag - Comic Yo:

And all the boys loved the print. We do have to take turns with this one since it is both roomy and has a great design!

One of my favorite features of this bag is the little mesh bag that you can use to hold a napkin, utensil or ice pack!

It fit both one of our big Thermos FUNtainers and the Kids' Soft Touch Lid Lunch Pod with room for another ice pack, napkin and utensil.

We also tried the Gabby Kids' Chiller Lunch Bag – Hoot:

Again, the print won over the practicality and design immediately! Plus, we love the cute pocket on the outside that can hold extra food or utensils!

This lunch bag is even roomier due to it's unique shape and held a juice box, apple, the lunch pod and a cereal bar easily with a napkin, utensil and ice pack fitting neatly in as well. Plus we had room to spare!!

Overall, we loved all the Fit & Fresh products we tried. The unique design that incorporates the ice pack into the lid makes it easy in the mornings ( I keep both the lid and ice pack in the freezer) and I know that my kids' food will still be fresh and cold by lunchtime. My kids really loved all the fun colors and designs and I appreciated the fun, easy to use design, easy of cleaning and versatility of all the products! And of course, all products are BPA free, the cooler bags have an easy to clean PEVA lining and all products are dishwasher, freezer and microwave safe!

Mac-n-Mo’s Morselicious Mix Review { +GIVEAWAY}

Happy Halloween!

We made some delicious Halloween treats with our Mac-n-Mo’s Morselicious Mix . Mac-n-Mo's is a low sugar, no sodium, gluten free, vegan, no preservative, Kosher, Non-GMO Project Verified baked goods company. 

Mo created her Morselicious Mix and Morselicious Treats out of love, for her diabetic father, Mac, who survived a quadruple bypass surgery in 2010 and has to comply to a strict diet. Mac-n-Mo’s Morselicious Mix is a completely natural mix of brown rice, almonds, unsweetened coconut, flax and spices. This mix can be used to create anything from delicious baked morsels, muffins, cakes, to cupcakes and casseroles. The possibilities are endless!

I wanted to create a treat my kids would love but that would still be healthier then the average Halloween treat. I love the idea of morsels since they are easy to eat, mess free and fun for young and old.

My Chocolate Banana Coconut Morsels were absolutely delicous and made for a great hostess gift as well!

Chocolate Banana Coconut Morsels

Ingredients:

1 bag of Morselicious Mix
7 TBS Water
1/2 cup of mashed banana
2 tsp honey
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup of chocolate chips depending on your taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix well and form into small balls. Bake 15 - 20 min.

Would you love to win a bag of Morselicious Mix to create your own goodies and Mo’s “12 Days of MORSELICIOUSness” e-cookbook?

Enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open to US Residents only. Winner will be notified via email and has 24 h to respond before a new winner will be drawn.

Nugget And Fang - a Literary Lunch

Nugget and Fang is a lovely children's book written by Tammi Sauer that explores the friendship of two unlikely friends: a fish and a shark. A beautiful and humorous undersea story with amazing illustrations by Michael Slack.

post contains affiliate links

We packed a fun and colorful undersea lunch in our Innobaby Keepin' Fresh Bento to match:

• a Fang peanut butter sandwich with a carrot Nugget, 
• surrounded by cucumber, pepper, carrot, celery, corn and strawberry corals and underwater plants.

Head over to The Little Crooked Cottage for an exclusive interview with Fang and to see my guest post there as well!

Things I used to make this lunch (contains affiliate links):

WOWBUTTER Review {+Giveaway}

With more and more schools banning peanut products due to a rise in peanut allergies it is always good to find safe alternatives to send to school and feed to your kids. We currently have no peanut allergies at our school but I have friends who have kids with peanut allergies and many schools in surrounding towns have started to ban peanut products.

When WOWBUTTER approached me I was curious if WOWBUTTER really tasted just like peanut butter. We have tried other nut butters but none came close in taste or texture.

WOWBUTTER also generously offered to send one of you 6 (SIX) jars of WOWBUTTER so you can try it for yourself!

But back to the taste test:

It was creamy just like peanut butter when I opened it and the claims are true! It taste as close to peanut butter as you can get without peanuts! I may have licked it right of the spoon! It is nutty but mild and the creamy texture just makes the whole WOWBUTTER experience as good as peanut butter!

WOWBUTTER is simply the better food ingredient choice with:

• 7g SOY PROTEIN per 32g serving – a complete protein source containing all 9 essential amino acids
• 1200mg OMEGA-3 essential oils for good health; peanut butter has 0mg
• 4g FIBER per 32g serving
• Simple ingredients with no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or fillers
• 0g Trans Fat per 32g serving and Cholesterol Free
• 100% Peanut Free, Tree Nut Free, Gluten Free and Dairy Free

What did my kids think?

To test if my kids would notice the difference I made this WOWBUTTER Fall lunch. And my kids were immediately hooked! They love the taste and smell and the fact that they can bring WOWBUTTER instead of other nut butter and sit at the peanut free table with their friends! And because WOWBUTTER looks and smells similar to peanut butter they add identification stickers under every jar label so you can mark your lunch peanut-free:

Just stick on your lunchbox! Per the WOWBUTTER website: These identification stickers provide a viable solution for both parents and schools by satisfying the needs of both those that are allergic AND those that are not allergic while also establishing better anaphylactic allergy awareness.

After WOWBUTTER passed our taste test I wanted to see if I could replace peanut butter with WOWBUTTER in our Energy Bites recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups of Oatmeal
1 cup of WOWBUTTER
2/3 cup of honey
1/4 cup of flax seed
1 cup of coconut
1 cup of dried chopped plums
1/4 cup mini dark chocolate chips

How to make your Energy Bites:
Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl until all ingredients are wet.
Wet hands with water and form into bite size balls. Refrigerate and enjoy!

These were a huge hit with my family and I am sure yours would love this recipe as well!

Would you like to win 6 jars of WOWBUTTER? Enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open only to US residents. Winner will be notified via email and has 24 h to respond before a new winner is drawn. GOOD LUCK!

Harold and The Purple Crayon - a Literary Lunch

October 20th was Crockett Johnson's birthday, author of Harold and The Purple Crayon. My kids love this book! Harold's imagination takes him on a big adventure but also safely back home. So, we are celebrating with a Harold and the Purple Crayon lunch!

We packed lunch in our Easylunchboxes for all kids with big imaginations:

• a mini cereal bar and a second fruit filled cereal bar cut into pie shapes since Harold draws himself nine kinds of pie when he gets hungry,
• purple grapes and a purple crayon,
• a purple grape jelly sandwich decorated with purple gel to depict when Harold sails and the the moon sails along with him.

Happy Birthday, Crockett Johnson!

Frightful Fall Hop

Halloween is approaching fast! Fall is one of my favorite season with days getting cooler, the leaves changing color and more time to bake and make soups and stews on those cold afternoons. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to pack themed lunches for. Simply because there is so much you can do. Bento Blogger's and Friends is having a THREE day Frightful Fall Hop and you can see three days worth of Fall/Halloween themed lunches starting Friday! I will post a link when all hops are live! 45 Bento Blogs sharing 50 Halloween & Fall themed bento lunch ideas.

But for now you can enjoy our lunch and hop through to see 14 more! So, what did we pack?

I packed a frightful Planetbox Shuttle with:

• vanilla yogurt topped with bat and pumpkin sprinkles
• two banana coconut chocolate morsels (recipe coming soon) dipped in Halloween sprinkles
• an orange bat and a black cat gummy
• three whole wheat Nutella CuteZCute Animal Palz bats
• baby carrots and a carrot pumpkin (I found a completely round carrot in my baby carrot bag and had to use it as a pumpkin)
• ghost ketchup chips from Germany
• a Quaker mini chocolate chip bar with Hallowen design and Halloween Trivia

And now hop over to Michelle from Creative Food to see what she came up with: