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Monday, July 29, 2013


Review: Happy Tiffin Bento Boxes (bears onigiri, car bento and a snack bento) #446

Happy Tiffin generously sent me two of their stainless steel bento boxes to review. When I was given the chance to choose which one I preferred, I chose the 'Road Hog' and they pleasantly surprised me with an additional bento box, 'Happy Home'.

Tiffin, a term popular mostly in India, refers generally to a lunch or small meal in a container intended for transport. Having grown up in a country of great cultural diversity, I remember my mother using the multi-tier version when going to visit friends or relatives and my grandmother using them to cater dinners for neighborhood families.
Now on to the review!

The 'Road Hog' or car shaped container is totally adorable! Made of stainless steel, it is durable, easy to clean, and shines. Of course its designed to do more than look nice, so it is also a convenient container 6.5 inches long, 4.5 inches wide and 2 inches deep. Inside there is the 'spare tire' a cylindrical container with its own lid, perfect for those foods you want to keep separate from the rest.

The 'Happy Home' is 4.7 inches wide, 7 inches high and is also 2 inches deep, and every bit of it is simply adorable. Like the 'Road Hog' it also has a separate interior container and latches to secure the top. Both are dishwasher safe.

Things that we like:
- They are very cute!
- Stainless steel will not retain stains, odors or residues.
- Stainless steel will last for a long time with proper care.
- Dishwasher safe.
- Lead free, plastic free, BPA free, phthalate free and waste free.   

 Things to consider:
- The latches are quite secure, but could take a little practice. Our eight year old son experienced some difficulty opening it.
- Not for use in microwave.

To see other Happy Tiffins, visit their site here.

Here are the Happy Tiffins which I received.


Here is a view of the inside.


Here is a bento lunch in the Happy Home

In this bento lunch: 
  • Seedless red and green grapes
  • Bears shaped onigiri with nori(seaweed) features.
  • Leftovers meatloaf and broccoli florets. 
 Here is a bento lunch in the Road Hog.

In this bento lunch:
  • Seedless red and green grapes.
  • Car shaped sandwich using the lunch punch and accents are nori and cheddar cheese.
  • Greek yogurt in the 'spare tire' with organic fruit leather.
  • Organic baby carrots.
And here is a simple bento snack for after swim in the Happy Home.

In this bento snack:
  • Papaya pieces, seedless red and green grapes.
  • Goldfish crackers
Here are the supplies or similar that I used to make and pack these lunches and snack.

Disclosure: Happy Tiffin generously provided me with the products for review without cost to me. Other than receiving the products, I have not received any compensation to write this review.
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Thursday, July 11, 2013


Leftovers For Lunch: Thai Style Fried Rice Bento, Rotini Pasta Bento And a Snack Bento (3)

Time seems to be flying by too quickly!! We love to travel and still have several places to visit before school resumes. I expect that we will be super busy preparing for school when we get home, the usual shopping for school supplies, open house at school and more. I have recently purchased school uniforms and shoes.

These lunches and snack were made awhile back and at the time I just didn't get them posted. We do pack leftovers for lunch quite often but I'm sometimes in a hurry in the mornings or totally forgot to snap the pictures.

In this bento lunch:
  • Thai style chicken fried rice with eggs, red bell pepper and yellow bell pepper.
  • Strawberry slices and cucumber slices. This lunch is packed in our Steeltainer lunch box.
Here is another leftovers bento lunch.
 In this bento lunch:
  • Rotini pasta with broccoli florets.
  • Corn on the cob and a baran to separate the cherries. We purchased the Mickey Mouse ear corn holders from Disney. This lunch is packed in our Lunchbots Duo.

And here is a snack bento. 


In this snack bento:
  • Octocheese ( I free hand-cut a string cheese in half and the tentacles)  on pretzel sticks. I used a toothpick to make the face impressions.
  • V8 V-Fusion in juice bottle.
  • Seedless red grapes and kettle corn. This snack is packed in our Goodbyn Bynto.
Here are the supplies or similar that I used to make and pack these lunches and snack.
Shop LunchBots
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Monday, July 8, 2013


Review: FunBites Triangles

In June I was sent the newest item from FunBites, the New Triangles to review. This comes as a two piece set. One piece is a rocking curved blade to cut foods into pieces and the other is the popper topper which removes the food with one motion and drops them onto your plate. It was easy to use and their New Triangles not only worked for sandwiches but also for a variety of other foods including cheese, fruit, pizza, pancakes and more. The cutter piece is not sharp to the touch so it is safe for kids to use and both are easy to clean.

FunBites Triangles set is made of high performance material for strength, sharpness and durability to create fun, bite-sized meals in less than 10 seconds. It works best on flat surfaces, top-shelf dishwasher safe and BPA free.
 
Below are a couple of snacks that my son and I made for snack time the other day. My super creative friend, Ming from Bentomosters, made a very cute rocket ship as well. Click and see all her awesome creations here and I am sure you will love them as much as I do :)


In this snack: Sunshine shaped sandwich using a circle cutter with icing eyes and cheddar cheese smile made with a small circle cutter.  Kite sandwiches and sun-rays cut with FunBites Triangles cutter. Kite strings hand cut from seaweed (nori).


In this snack: Rocket ship shaped sandwich made from whole wheat and pumpernickel bread with FunBites Triangle cutter.

Here are the supplies that I used to make these snacks.


Disclosure: FunBites generously provided me with the product for review without cost to me.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2013


Homemade Banana Muffin bento snack and Dolphin bento (2)

First of all I'll like to mention that I am not good with baking at all and have only baked a hand full of times. My hubby and Nikolai of course are very supportive so that I would bake more often! I do bake foods for dinner though and I am trying to get into baking bread, muffins, cakes etc. I found this recipe online among many mouth watering recipes out  there. Most of my friends are great bakers and some of them have awesome recipes on their blog. They are a great inspiration to me. I am happy to say that the muffin below turned out quite yummy. It was my first attempt at banana muffins :)



In this bento snack:
  • Homemade banana muffin with choc chip eyes and nose and crackers for ears. Nikolai added those.:)
  • Blueberries, colby jack cheese and cucumber slices.Packed in Lock & Lock container.
Here is another lunch packed in PlanetBox Shuttle.



In this bento lunch:
  • Dolphin shaped sandwiches with icing eyes and blueberries sea.
  • Greek yogurt with fruit leather cut to fish shape and cucumber slices.
Here are the supplies or similar that I used to make and pack this lunch and snack.

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Tuesday, July 2, 2013


Review: Thermos FUNtainer Food Jar and Bottle, Japanese style fried rice

I was given the opportunity to review one of our favorite products, Thermos FUNtainer. As always, I asked Nikolai to choose his favorite bottle and food jar and he chose the Monsters University set. We received them the same day the movie was released in cinemas, how cool is that! We went to the movie last weekend and Nikolai was very happy to have the drink bottle with him.




We have always carried a drink container for him when ever we were away from home, and I have found that the Thermos bottles seal well enough that I have no worries even dropping one in my handbag to make sure it doesn't get left behind.

We use the food jar to pack a wide variety of foods such as chili, soups, mac and cheese and other pasta favorites, or sometimes tasty left-overs. I usually preheat or cool the container by filling it with hot or cold water and let it stand in there (around five minutes) while I prepare the food, then empty the water and fill with the food.

Both the bottle and the food jar have double wall vacuum insulation for maximum cold temperature retention and they are dishwasher safe. The bottle will keep your drink cold for 12 hours, comes with a hygienic push button lid and a pop-up silicone straw that is easy to open and use. The exterior stays condensation free, non slip, scratch resistant base and has a flip-up carry loop.

The food jar will your food cold for 7 hours or hot for 5 hours, which is long enough to keep Nikolai's food just right until lunch time comes at school.  Both the bottle and food jar are made with an unbreakable stainless steel interior and exterior that will withstand the daily wear and tear. There are so many varieties of the FUNtainer bottles and food jars that can be found at Thermos site.

As you all might know, it is school holidays here, Nikolai follows me to work and at times I will pack him a bento lunch or snack depending on our daily schedule. Here is a simple but yummy lunch packed in his Thermos FUNtainer food jar.

In this bento lunch:
  • Leftover Japanese style fried rice with tofu, edamame, seaweed and carrot sticks packed in Thermos FUNtainer food jar.
  • V8 V-Fusion juice in Thermos FUNtainer bottle.
  • Side of strawberries, baby carrots, butterfly shaped cucumber pieces, butterfly shaped cheddar cheese and limited edition Kellogg's Monsters University cereal.
Here are the supplies or similar that I used to make and pack this lunch.


Disclosure: Thermos generously provided me with the items for review without cost to me. Other than receiving the products, I have not received any compensation to write this review.
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