Fit & Fresh & CuteZcute Koala Bento!

The folks at Fit & Fresh recently offered to send me some of their fantastic chilled lunch containers. I've had one small Fit & Fresh chilled container for a few years now - it's one of Beanstalk's favourites (see it in this post), so I'm familiar with Fit & Fresh's overall quality and their ice packs that snap into the lid, and was thrilled to say "yes, please" to getting more :) They sent me the Lunch Pak Carrier, the Dip N' Dunk Snack Container, and the Bento Lunch Kit, in which I packed this koala bento for Bella:

All the Fit & Fresh chilled containers have their own ice packs that snap into the lids. The bento lunch kit has 2! Very handy if you want to keep one side cold but not the other. The bento kit also comes with 2 lidded containers, or "pods", that fit into the small sections - perfect for packing runny foods, or foods you don't want getting condensation from the ice pack. I put a cloth napkin over the koala sandwich on the open side to keep it dry. 

The cloth napkin is from Beneficial-Bento, who, incidentally, happens to be a big fan of Fit & Fresh, and recently created a Pinterest board for meals packed in Fit & Fresh containers. Maybe she'll pin this post :)

To make the koala sandwich I used 2 very versatile CuteZcute tools, the Cuddle Palz Sandwich Cutter & Cookie Stamp Kit for the koala itself, & the new Fun Vegetable Cutter Set, for it's cheese moustache. (It was still "Movember" when I packed this bento - I'm really behind!) The 6 piece set also includes cute flower, butterfly, house, face, & top hat cutters :)

I tucked some pepperoni stick "bamboo" next to Bella's cute koala cheese sandwich. In the side containers I packed carrots & tomatoes, & grapes embellished with koala picks. Beside the koala sandwich I packed a little container of ranch dip for the veggies, & a box of dried cranberries - which inspired my choice of Lunchbox Love note (from our Thanksgiving volume).

The Fit & Fresh Bento Lunch Kit fits perfectly in it's included insulated chiller bag, which comes in a variety of colourful prints. Bella loves our bag's "Woodstock" print - it's cute but not childish, & her favourite colour!

The next day, Bella chose to have pizza at school, but took some veggies & dip as a side dish. The Dip N' Dunk Snack Container was perfect for that.

Like the other Fit & Fresh Chilled Containers,  the Dip N' Dunk has a snap in ice pack, but with a neat-o feature; it surrounds the dip well!

The lidded dip well holds 2 tablespoons in the centre of a tray in the top of the 1 cup capacity cube.  Plenty of room for enough fresh veggies for Bella's side dish. It would also be great for yogurt dip & fruit, or corn chips & salsa or cheese dip! I can think of lots of snack possibilities for the Dip N' Dunk :)

Hopefully I'll share the Christmas bento I packed in the Lunch Pak Carrier within the next couple of days. The 2 tiered box comes with an ice pack that can be snapped into the lid or under the top tier, as shown below.

All the Fit & Fresh containers are microwave, freezer, & top rack dishwasher safe (I recommend no heat dry or sanitize cycle though). They're easy for the littles to open, & \seem to be as durable as the one we've had for years that has been banged around plenty :)

Fit & Fresh containers are Sproutlet approved!

Bats Amore!

Eeek! Today is a special day for my blog, it's the day one of my bentos is part of Wendolonia's series,  3 Tools, 4 Lunches, in which 4 different bloggers are challenged to make a lunch using the same 3 tools :) This week's tools are the CuteZcute Animal Palz Mini Sandwich & Egg Press,  alphabet bento picks,  & the PlanetBox Rover lunch box to pack them in. This is what I came up with:

Of the 4 Animal Palz that can be created with the sandwich & egg press, I love the bat the most, so I went with that for a theme. "Bats Amore!"  But Bella didn't get my pun. Oh well, I chuckled at it :) And I even found a bat fact Lunchbox Love note.  For lunch details and to see what the other 3 bloggers did with the same stuff, visit the post at Wendolonia!

It's not just being part of this bento challenge that makes this a special day for my blog, it's having one of my lunches on Wendolonia, period! Wendy's blog was one of the ones that inspired me to try my hand at both bento & blogging almost 3 years ago! So it's pretty thrilling to be featured on there :)

Some of the stuff I used to make this bento:

A Pair of Bears

The school hot lunch today is breakfast: pancakes, waffles, yogurt, fruit ...
and if you follow my blog you know that's one of the sproutlets favourites. Only Pickle wanted to take lunch, his usual peanut butter sandwich & yogurt.

I made him a pair of peanut butter sandwich bears with my CuteZCute Animal Friends Food Cutter & Stamp. I made one bear's face using the cutter side, and the other bear using the stamp. Aren't they cute? :)

Stuff I used for Pickle's lunch today:

Hopping Back To School in EasyLunchboxes!

Winter break is over, the sproutlets are back in school. The older 3 chose to get the school's hot lunch on this cold day (well, cold for the PNW) but my Bean Sprout wanted me to pack her one:

Sydney Bean took a froggy-themed EasyLunchboxes bento with a frog face peanut butter & Nutella sandwich (made with our CuteZcute Animal Friends stamp & cutter), carrot sticks & green grapes with frog picks, & a GoGurt. GoGurts fit well folded in an L shape. I should try freezing some like this!

I even found a Lunchbox Love note (in vol. 55) with a fun frog fact to include :)

Birdie has three little pigs in her EasyLunchbox. And one big one :)

 

She has a cheese sandwich made with the stamper from our CuteZcute & a round pocket sandwich press, and a Halo orange & strawberries with piglet picks - one flipped around backwards so she could see the curly tail :)

Some stuff used to make these lunches:

 

Season's Eatings! A Joyful Yumbox

How happy is this holiday Yumbox? I love it! I can absolutely imagine my little Sydney Bean's smile when she opens her lunchbox and sees these bright colours & her favourite foods ♥ 

Sprout's joy-filled holiday Yumbox lunch contains:

• yogurt with sanding sugar
• raspberries with mozarella stars
• a cocktail tomato with a Joy cupcake pick
• snowflake Ritz crackers
• a polar bear hard-cooked egg
• yogurt-coated raisins

Also included, just not packed inside the Yumbox:

• a Light My Fire Spork Little
• Lunchbox Love for Christmas

The polar bear egg was made with one of my favourite bento tools, the CuteZcute Animal Palz Mini Sandwich & Egg Press. I wish I could give everyone a set for Christmas!

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Now hop on over to Biting The Hand That Feeds You and see what sort of season's eatings Ludicrous Mama has to offer...  ;)

Happy Holidays!

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Some stuff used to make today's lunch:

I Love You, Near & Far

Remember that Sesame Street segment with that loveable, cute & furry monster Grover running back & forth to show preschoolers the difference between near & far? I wonder if they still play that segment...  Anyways... these are not Sesame Street bentos nor do they teach near & far...  it's my lunch photo that got me thinking about Grover's lesson...  you'll see why.

Here's lunch for Birdie & Sprout. Birdie made her own cheese sandwich with our CuteZcute cutter! She didn't quite press hard enough for the kitty image to imprint well but she had fun making it & she's happy with it ♥

Usually I take the lunch's photo on the table on our front porch but Sailor Boy had some boxes on it so I put the lunch down on the porch instead, and took it from standing. Then I cropped in for this post. Now you see what got me thinking about Sesame Street's near & far skit!

I got a kick out of my toes peeking in because my socks match the lunch :) Kind of hard for those socks not to match something though, heh!

Anyways, they both have CuteZcute kitty sandwiches - Birdie's is cheese & Sprout's is Nutella & PB - carrots with one stuck through a heart cupcake topper ring, & apple wedges, packed in mis-matched Sassy boxes. I couldn't find one of the inner containers so subbed a silicone baking cup.

And here's that Sesame Street clip :)

Stuff used to make these lunches:

   

Lunch Guest: Food, Family, Fun!

Hello to all of the Bent on Better Lunches followers! I am Amanda from Food, Family, Fun and am thrilled to be guest posting today for Cristi. I hope that she is having a super stay-cation with her family.

Today I have made a fun panda themed lunch to share with you. 

This lunch is for my 4 year old daughter and is packed in her Planetbox Shuttle. Heidi has 2 strawberry jam sealed panda shaped sandwiches, babybel cheese with a baby panda cutout, a few grapes & blueberries, carrots and ranch dip in the mini panda cup, a single tucked away strawberry and a panda bear shaped boiled egg. These are pretty much all of her favourite things! 

I have 4 daughters ranging in age from 2 years old to 7 years old. I often pack similar lunches for them and I have also packed my 5 year old a panda themed lunch today. Hers is packed slightly differently and in a Planetbox Rover lunch container. If you'd like to see her fun lunch please click on my button below. I'll give you a hint about one difference- I've used the same CuteZCute sandwich sealer but in another way!

Thanks for having me Cristi. Enjoy your stay-cation.

Amanda

Lunch Guest: Loving Lunches!

G'Day, I'm Jackie from Loving Lunches (yes, I'm Australian). I'm loving the opportunity to guest post for Cristi while she gets some well deserved family time! To be honest I'm quite nervous, Cristi is one of my Bento idols and I still get a little giddy when I see her name pop up on my screen. I had intended to do a Monkeys in Suits lunch for you today, with lots of geeky references, but I'm afraid I'm only on geek level 1 and failed you there. I did however make sure I included some peanut butter for Pickle. Anyway, here's lunch!

Today's muffin tin was made for my Miss M, now 3 1/2 and contains

• banana/peanut butter/nutella smoothie (in a Take & Toss cup)
• bow-tie pasta (because bow-ties are cool... hey hey, I got one in there!) with tomato dipping sauce (using these silicon food cups)
• half a banana (I do keep wanting to sing *bzthhhhpppfft, half a banana*) with some almonds & yoghurt covered sultanas
• mashed banana/peanut butter monkey sandwiches with Nutella and peanut butter detail
• yoghurt and almonds (in a cute little banana silicon cup)
• monkey egg

When thinking on ingredients I knew I wanted to include peanut butter, and my inspiration for this lunch came from my new Animal Palz monkey, so banana was a must. Why not combine the two? I remember having banana sandwiches as a kid and earlier this year I rediscovered the joys of banana smoothies. So half a mashed banana and peanut butter it was.

I then added some Nutella and had a mummy sample with the bread offcuts.

The leftovers were wizzed with some milk and voila - smoothie. The other half of the banana ended up in the lunch so there was no waste there either.

Thank you for letting me share some Loving Lunches love with you today. I do believe you will be returning to your regular program by this time next week :-)