Hulk PlanetBox Lunch

My middle-schooler Beanstalk surprised me by asking if I would pack him lunch! A rare request. I couldn't resist making it just a little bit fun:

He chose what went into his PlanetBox - grapes, Halo oranges, pistachios & a peanut butter sandwich - then I used one of my Marvel Comics cookie cutter stamps, green & purple silicone muffin cups, and a Marvel Heroes cloth napkin to give it an Incredible Hulk theme :)

ThrifTeeGear Backpack Style Lunch Bag Review + Sherlock Lunch!

Check out my 7th grader's new backpack lunch bag from ThrifTee Gear!

12 year old Beanstalk is not at all interested in taking a lunchbox to middle school, but he does need something to tote his lunch & drink from his locker to the lunchroom. A ThrifTee Gear lunch bag, designed with tweens & teens in mind, is just the ticket - it's cool, unique, and nothing like a little kid's lunchbox. (Although any little kid would probably love it too!) 

Can't find a lunchbox with your kid's favourite character on it?  Well, if you can find them on a t-shirt, you can have it upcycled into a custom one-of-a-kind ThrifTee Gear lunch bag, that's even better! That's what we did last year - and Beanstalk loves his Minecraft Creeper ThrifTee Gear bag.  

I've been wanting another ThrifTee Gear bag, for wash days, so was totally psyched when the amazing & talented Trixie of ThrifTee Gear offered us one of their new backpack style lunch bags to review! And I get to share the ThrifTee Gear awesomeness with one lucky reader too! Yay, giveaway!

Beanstalk & I are both fans of Sherlock Holmes and the BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock. We decided to have his ThrifTee Gear backpack lunch bag made from his Sherlock t-shirt (design by Avia Asner):

After I was done forcing my tween to have his picture taken, I stuffed his (clean) t-shirt in the waterproof postage paid envelope provided by ThrifTee Gear and popped it in the mail. Easy-peasy :)

Ta-dah! Barely a week later, Beanstalk's Sherlock ThrifTee Gear backpack style bag was back in our mailbox! Amazing! How excellent is this? ...

The backpack style ThrifTee Gear bag has two pockets - one that's the full length of the bag, essentially dividing the interior into two large sections, and one smaller 3" deep pocket with a soft velcro closure. It's near the top of the bag, perfect for keeping small items (like cell phone) separate and handy:

The backpack style bag has soft cotton rope drawstring ties. Measuring about 13" x 16", it's wider and longer than the original ThrifTee Gear lunch bag, so of course it's also bigger on the inside :)

So how much stuff fits? More than you might think! It's roomy enough for my Macbook Air and my DSLR camera and my water bottle, so I'm definitely getting one for myself next! Below, Beanstalk's bag is shown packed with his lunch in an EasyLunchbox, a size 14 hoodie sweatshirt, his Klean Kanteen water bottle, & iPhone - with room to spare.

And you know that's not just a plain sandwich in that EasyLunchbox :)  He's vetoed cute lunches, but I knew he'd be cool with a Sherlock lunch...

Beanstalk's Sherlock bento lunch is an "I AM SHER LOCKED" peanut butter sandwich (from A Scandal in Belgravia), apple slices, Cotton Candy grapes (delicious!) & cherry plums from our own tree, packed in EasyLunchboxes.

Beanstalk (conveniently) wasn't around when I wanted to get a picture of his ThrifTee Gear backpack packed & worn, so I asked our teenage neighbour to stand in. Thanks neighbour!

BTW, when she handed it back to me she commented "Cool bag" :) 

Teenager approved!

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You really want one now, don't you? Enter my giveaway! 

The prize is a Custom ThrifTee Gear Lunch Bag :)

Winner chooses which style!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!

This giveaway is offered to US residents only.  Please do not enter this giveaway if you have won or received free product from ThrifTee Gear within the past 3 months.

Regular Show Benson Bento!

My 12 year old, Beanstalk, loves Cartoon Network's Regular Show, so when my fellow bento lunch maker & friend Lauri suggested making Regular Show bentos for the birthday of her friend who voices Rigby the Raccoon on the show, I immediately thought of my gumball machine Lunch Punch sandwich cutter to make Benson, the Park Manager :)

Benson is a peanut butter sandwich, with details made of cherry fruit leather, mozzarella string cheese, & sugar sprinkles. His name is spelled with alphabet bento picks stuck in the remainder of the mozzarella cheese stick I used for his details. On the side is a checkered Granny Smith apple and some seedless red grapes - which kind of look like Benson's gumballs, I think! 

Happy Birthday William Salyers, voice of Rigby!

Benson says you'd better enjoy this bento, or you're fired!

Linked to:

&

Stuff used to make this lunch:

Iron Man Bento

Iron Man 3 is in theatres today, and Beanstalk is so looking forward to it! I packed him an Iron Man bento lunch in his Lego-style bento box.

I used the Iron Man cutter from our Marvel Comics Hero stamp cookie cutter set to make his peanut butter sandwich. Pretty decent detail for a cookie cutter on bread, it's actually recognizeable! Beanstalk was impressed :) 

Pretty cool bento box, wouldn't you say? Like a big Lego brick! 

This neat brick bento box from Bento USA has 2 tiers with plastic lids that seal them. One lid holds chopsticks and the other holds a little ice pack (included) - but I used the space to pack his Marvel superheroes cloth napkin & Lunchbox Love note. It's held together by an included elastic bento strap. 

Beanstalk's Iron Man lunch contains apple & cantaloupe wedges, chocolate covered raisins, & almonds (in the small red & yellow Lego-style boxes), the IronMan peanut butter sandwich, & a granola bar.

My friend Jenn & Karen made Iron Man lunch for their little guys too, check them out on their blogs, Bento for Kidlet & What's In our Lunch Bags?

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Some of the stuff used to make this lunch:

ThrifTee Gear Review & Giveaway + MineCraft Steve & Creeper Lunch!

Do you have a favourite t-shirt that you don't wear anymore? Maybe it just doesn't fit right, or maybe it's torn or stained... but you just can't part with it, and so it sits in a drawer or closet, not getting the love it deserves... Poor t-shirt :( But wait, it doesn't have to end up like this! Your beloved old tee can begin life anew, as a ThrifTee Gear bag!

Beanstalk doesn't normally take a cute lunch to school, in fact, he hasn't taken a home-packed lunch very much at all recently.  But I'm thinking he'll want to more often now that he has a cool MineCraft Creeper ThrifTee Gear lunch bag! He was pretty excited to take lunch in it, and even let me make him this:

Steve is a peanut butter sandwich with a Clif Kidz brownie bar for hair,  embellished with fruit leather features (stuck on with honey as "glue"). The sheep, pig & chicken mobs decorate stacks of cheddar & mozzarella, and more fruit leather turns half a Granny Smith apple into a Creeper. And then of course, it was packed in this awesome bag:

Just kidding! A little Minecraft humour ;) That's it below. How cool is that? My biggest boy couldn't wait to take it to school. ThrifTee Gear bags are the perfect lunch bags for older kids who've outgrown their little kid lunchboxes.

Isn't it brilliant? The kind of thing you see and ask yourself "Now why didn't I think of that?!" Well, Trixie of ThrifTee Gear did. She thought the world needed cool lunch bags that would make teens want to take waste-free lunches to school, and she made it happen :)

I was thrilled when ThrifTee Gear generously offered me a bag to review, I knew it would be just the thing for my older kid, and chose a custom bag. Within days a prepaid mailer arrived, which I sent back filled with Beanstalk's Minecraft Creeper t-shirt (that I didn't think to photograph first, but it's this one) and about a week later I received this in return! Awesome!

I'm really impressed with our ThrifTee Gear lunch bag! It's very roomy - in the photo above I've packed it with 2 EasyLunchboxes and 2 Klean Kanteen bottles. The lining is durable, washable, water resistant, food-safe nylon. It's really well-made too, even the drawstring casings have fully finished edges, they won't be fraying in the wash. I can tell this bag will be able to handle the abuse it's going to be subjected to in the hands of my 6th grader :) 

I love that it's so eco-cool. It even arrived in a little cloth pouch, with a repurposed library card as a receipt - how fun! And it's wide enough on the bottom to carry our EasyLunchboxes flat - so I can be fairly confident that sandwich Steve arrived at school with his smile intact :)

ThrifTee Gear Lunch Bags

Awesome because they are:

• Made from recycled t-shirts!
• Trash-free & reusable
• Machine washable
• Cool enough for school
• One of a kind
• Mom-made!

The ONLY thing not so awesome is:

• It's hard to decide which t-shirt to use!

Bonus Awesomeness:

• ThrifTee Gear gives back!
 $1 from the sale of each ThrifTee Gear goes to one of four charities, and YOU get to choose to which :)

ThrifTee Gear bags are Sproutlet Approved :)

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You want one, don't you? 
Enter my Giveaway!

Congratulations to the Winner, Sarah D!

This giveaway is offered to US residents only. Please do not enter this giveaway if you have won or received free product from ThrifTee Gear within the past 3 months. 

Marvel Hero Muffin Tin Meal

It's Stan Lee's birthday today, so I made my biggest boy a Marvel hero muffin tin meal. Represented are the Thing, the Incredible Hulk, the Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, & Captain America:

Beanstalk's lunch contains:

• Chex Mix
• green apples 
• mozzarella string cheese
• barbecue sauce, for dipping 
• beef franks
• & a peanut butter sandwich

I don't often get to make my 6th grader a muffin tin meal, he's not into cute lunches anymore - but he liked this one :)

Pickle had a Captain America sandwich & yogurt with sugar sprinkles:

The sandwich didn't turn out the way it looked in my head and I was a little heavy-handed with the sugar sprinkles, but he liked it, so that's all right.
I served it with an invitation leftover from Beanstalk's Avengers birthday party, he liked that too  :)

Happy 90th Birthday Mr. Stan Lee!

Here are some past Marvel lunches:

   
   

plus...

check out a marvelous Marvel lunch
Birthday wish over at Our Lunch Bags!
&
a round-up of amazing Marvel
lunches from Bento for Kidlet
&
a couple of comic-al lunches by
Robot Squirrel and the Monkeys