FunBites Review & Giveaway, Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray, today's the day for my FunBites review & giveaway!

You may have seen these around recently, but in case you haven't.... 

These cute colourful gadgets are FunBites http://www.funbites.com/ 

and you use them to cut food into fun bites :) They come in 2 styles, Cube it! which makes 12 cube shaped bites, and Luv it! which makes a big heart of 8 geometric shaped bites plus 2 bite size hearts.

FunBites were invented by a mom & her kids! Gotta love that :) They are dishwasher safe and BPA-free. The idea is to make food more appealing to little ones by making it fun, and the perfect size for little hands, mouths, and appetites. I got to try both out styles and see what they could do!

Make Food Fun!

Play with your food! I saw a cute snowman made of bread bites among FunBites' Facebook photos, and wanted to try to make my own FunBites Snowman with my 7 year old peanut butter sandwich monster, Pickle. I chose Luv it! to get the shapes FunBites used for theirs and followed the instructions:

Step 1: Place cutter on top of food.  Remove popper top and set to side.
Step 2: Grab cutter handles on both sides, press down firmly and rock 5-6 times to cut through the food.
Step 3: Lift cutter up, insert popper top and pop out the bite-sized pieces!

Hmm.... it didn't quite work with my peanut butter sandwich.  Peanut butter oozed and squished out of my bread's nooks and crannys, and made a big mess of the Luv it! cutter too. Maybe I used too much peanut butter. Or maybe firmer sandwich fillings are better. Silly me, snowmen are white, I should have stuck with plain bread :) UPDATE: I've since perfected a mess-free method for using my FunBites cutters with squishy sandwich spreads like peanut butter - click here for that post!

Notice the FunBites is smaller than the bread. More cheese slice sized.

Pickle didn't mind though. We flipped the Luv it! bites over to the intact side and made a snowman-ish shape - then Pickle added the triangles and turned it into a "snow star man". He had no use for the hearts but I stuck them on the plate anyways because "you can't forget the love!"

I tried them again the next time I made a peanut butter sandwich, but I didn't use as much PB this time, and they were less messy. Pickle used the shapes from this sandwich made with the Luv it! to arrange tangram-like pictures - a fish and a bird, he said:  

I still don't think they are ideal for PB sandwiches, but that's OK, sandwich cutters I have. 

FunBites do things sandwich cutters don't - read on...

Cut almost any food into bite size pieces!

FunBites are extremely sturdy, quite a bit more so than any of my sandwich cutters. They are made of DuPont Delrin, a polymer bridge between plastic and metal, to be strong, sharp, and durable.  I figured they could handle cutting through a hunk of cheese an inch thick then....

Well, the FunBites could handle it, but the cheese crumbled and stuck and made a big mess. So this cheese was a Fail for me, but you can learn from my mistake; while very thick hunks of cheese will not harm the FunBites cutter, your results may be less than desirable :) Normal slices work great though, even string cheese comes out fine - but cheddar an inch or more, not so much.

No worries though, I could still make something with that cheese. 

I used Cube it! to cut up chicken breast - it cubed like butter. And since the cutters aren't metal, I figured they'd be perfect for chopping lettuce since they wouldn't contribute to oxidization, and my lettuce wouldn't brown as quickly.

Along with the Luv it! cheese chunks, the lettuce and chicken made a tasty, healthy, fresh salad lunch for my 9 year old Bella to pack to school.

Make food safer!

FunBites can be used to make tot-friendly bite sized pieces of foods that little ones might choke on, such as hot dogs. No need for any other tools, just use the Cube It! like this:

You can use the same method to cut mozzarella cheese sticks, celery sticks, even carrot sticks. Yes, raw carrot sticks! Although, you might not want to cut hard things like raw veggies into smaller pieces for a little toddler ... but still, you could... and maybe your kid has lots of teeth, what do I know. I'm just saying because I tried it and they did. I told you, FunBites are sturdy :)

Make food kid-friendly!

Serve a meal in wee little nibble pieces and it suddenly tot-friendly. Plus, you can put a few bites out at first and as they get eaten, magically (sneakily) add more - try to get away with that with a big sandwich :)

Almost everything in this lunch was cut using the Cube it! or Luv it! FunBites. Along with the strawberries and yogurt, my sproutlets got cubed mozzarella, cheddar and wienies, and heart & triangle apples and pancakes.Perfect for toddler finger food, and even more fun for a child old enough to give a pick to :)

Make Eating Out With Toddlers Easier

This is just a thought I had. I think the FunBites would be really convenient to tote around in the outing/diaper bag, for several reasons:

1 - They are small, so wouldn't take up much room.

2 - Although they cut, they are not sharp to the touch, so aren't dangerous to carry around.

3 - They are not a weapon, so could go in a carry-on bag for air travel.

4 - They cut uniformly - so you could make unfamiliar food look more familiar to your child.

5 - You can turn food into finger food without using eatery disposable cutlery, so they are more environmental (not to mention cleaner... how many hands reach into those bins...)

I didn't put any of those reasons to the test, but they sound good to me!

Make Food Pretty!

My favourite thing I did using FunBites was decorate! I used the Luv it! to cut out fruit leather shapes, then arranged them like a stained glass mosaic on the inside of the lid of my daughter's lunch container:

Lovely! The bright flower garden scene on the lunch box lid makes the plain sandwich and banana lunch look cheerful and fun!

Want to win the FunBites of your choice ?

All you have to do is leave ONE comment telling me which FunBites you would like to win, Cube it! or Luv it!  That's it! *

I'd love it if you would visit FunBites on Facebook and Like them. Even tell them I sent you! But not everyone has a Facebook account (It's true! I know people!)  so I'm not going to make that a requirement. And if you want to Like me or Follow my blog the buttons are there for you :)

The winner will be chosen by comment #, using Random.org,  on Saturday night, December 17th, at midnight. Good luck!

* I need a way to contact you.  If you enter as Anonymous, with no contact information, I can't contact you to get your information to give to FunBites and they can't send you your prize.  So make sure your comment includes a way to contact you :) 1 comment only. Oh, and US entries only, please.

Oh, and if you can't wait the 3 days to see if you win, or if you want to order the other style, or whatever, FunBites is offering FREE shipping (US only) through December 25th with the code FreeShipDec2011. Enter at checkout on the FunBites website http://www.funbites.com/

Disclosure: I received 1 of each FunBites to review and then do what I please with.  No other compensation or payment was given. All opinions and descriptions are my own.  Prize will be provided by FunBites.