Tag: lunchbox

Great Lunch Box Gear & Goodies

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

We’re a week into the new school year, and so far, so good. Since we’re all about gear and gadgets that make life easier, I thought I’d share just a few favorite lunch box gear & goodies that have gotten our school year off to a great start!

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Genuine Thermos Brand

Probably half of my lunch box gear is Genuine Thermos Brand simply because these products work well and are durable. The Dual Lunch Kit in teal is replacing a branded Thermos lunch box that we’ve had for a few years. We’re loving this lunch kit because the dual compartments make for great space while not over complicating it. The side mesh pouch is perfect for a small water bottle or even a banana. The little pocket with a zipper is great for ice cream money.

The Funtainer Food Jar is another staple in our lunch box. The boys love the licensed characters, especially Star Wars; I personally love the versatility of the food jar. I’ve packed spaghetti, salad, mac & cheese and oatmeal, but Little’s absolute favorite lunch that I pack for him in the food jar are easy chicken fajitas (more like nuggets) with tortillas on the side. I’ll have to devote a whole post on different ideas on what to pack in these fun containers.

I used to waste money on juiceboxes, until I came to my senses. Genuine Thermos Brand Funtainer Bottles are a must for kids who have outgrown sippy cups. The ease of washing the straw pieces, lid and stainless Funtainer Bottle make bringing milk/juice/water to school that much easier.

GoGo SqueeZ Yogurtz

We’ve been longtime fans of GoGo SqueeZ, but after being introduced to their new Yogurtz line earlier this summer, we’re officially smitten. These shelf-stable yogurt packs come in three delicious flavors: banana, berry and strawberry. GoGo SqueeZ Applesauces have been some of our go-to travel snacks, so I’m glad we have another option. These convenient yogurt packs are so easy to pop into the lunch box or throw in my bag for after school snacks. And, as if we don’t love GoGo SqueeZ enough, it was recently revealed that GoGo SqueeZ was named the official applesauce for Disney World and Disneyland.

GoGo squeeZ is the presenting sponsor of allrunDisney Kids Races, a fun way to engage kids early in healthy activities as part of Disney’s race weekends. The brand is also a sponsor of the annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival and of all Disney Social Media Moms Celebrations.

Sabra Hummus

Singles ToGo Hum ClassicHummus is such a versatile snack, I love including it in the kids’ lunch box. Sabra makes it super easy with their single packs. The classic flavor hummus is a great complement for veggies, pitas, pretzels and crackers. Sabra also has individual packs of guacamole, which adds lunch quesadillas and chips.

Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars

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I’m slightly obsessed with Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars because of the great ingredients, great taste and better nutritional offerings than similar bars. Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars are non-GMO, cholesterol-free, dairy free, kosher, whole wheat, and the now have gluten-free bars. While apple is my personal favorite, we’ve been known to have a box of blueberry fig bars in our car since we’re constantly on the go.

Sneaky Chef No Nut Butter 

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Like many students, my preschooler cannot bring nut products for lunch. Though Sunbutter has been an option, it’s nice to have other alternatives onhand. We recently had the chance to taste No Nut Butter from Sneaky Chef. This delicious option is creamy and is made entirely of peas. So, not only is it a great alternative to peanut butter, it also has veggies! While I don’t typically hide ingredients, I did find this No Nut Butter a fun way to include veggies in my kids’ sandwiches. My little guy love dipping carrot and celery sticks in the No Nut Butter. It’s been an overall hit in our house! I’m currently working on a couple of recipes to keep things interesting. I’ll be sure to share!

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Nalgene Lunch Buddy

Nalgene, the maker of the incredibly durable water bottles, now makes a great lunch box. The Lunch Buddy is a lunch box that has a convenient outer case. I love the Lunch Buddy because I can easily pack my guy’s lunch and just strap it together. My 4yo can easily open and close it, which makes it ideal for preschoolers and younger grade schoolers. I love that I can just throw the lunch box into the dishwasher if something leaked. Also, the outer case can be thrown in the washing machine! So cool! Nalgene offers a lifetime warranty on all of their products, so it’s great to know that we won’t be going through a lunch box every year!

Full disclosure: I received some samples from Genuine Thermos Brand, Sneaky Chef, Nalgene and GoGo SqueeZ to facilitate these reviews and round up. As always, opinions on NKT are my own.

 

Going Back to School with Target

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

The other week, I had the pleasure of attending a back to school event hosted by Target. The event highlighted great back to school gear and cool new styles that the retailer is featuring this season.

 

As a lunchbox fanatic, I was thrilled that model, actress and mom of 3, Camila Alves was onhand to personally share lunchbox tips!

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For those of you in the throes of back to school shopping, Target had several tips to offer that I’d love to share:

School supplies
DIY notebooks, markers, stickers and washi tape to add a personal touch

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One of the biggest trends in back to school supplies is personalization. Graphics are always awesome, but kids can truly make their gear unique with vibrant stickers and washi tape.

Backpacks & lunch bags
Target has some cool new gear that’s worth checking out. The Eco-friendly Embark Backpacks, Embark Crush Resistant Lunch Bags and Circo Light up Backpacks


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While I love and am now carrying around the Embark Crush Resistant Lunch Bag as my kids’ drink container these last few days of summer, it was that light up backpack from Circo that really caught my eye!

 

 

 

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I love that it can be switched on and off, unlike those flashing sneakers that always blind me. I thought this was a cool feature that could double as a safety feature when out at night!

Lunch items
Market Pantry and Simply Balanced products to make back-to-school snacks easy peasy.

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Truth be told, one of the main reasons almost everything I own is bought at Target is because I can get all of my shopping done under one roof! And that goes for lunch box supplies. I appreciate that Target has organic and inexpensive drinks and snacks to fill the kids’ lunch boxes. Even better, Camila shared several amazing recipes to make back-to-school snacks even more delicious!

 

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Kids’ Fashion
From Stevie’s Shoes to the new stretchy denim assortment to plaid—lots of plaid, Target has all of the best trends in stock at reasonable prices.

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Styles from my teenage years are back: moto boots, mixed patterns and plaid consumed me in the early 90s, so it’s fun to see them back on racks as my kids start school. I loved that Target had talented kid dancers at the event showcasing the stretchy jeans. With two very active boys and one who would rather see my kids in clothing other than athletic gear, I appreciate jeans and styles for active kids!

 

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And leave it up to Target to make school shopping totally seamless. Target’s new tool: School List Assist. The tool, which is in beta, is a curated assortment of the most common K-8 supplies on the list making it quick and easy for guests to find what they need. With a few clicks, you can purchase the supplies you might need and pick them up in store or have them shipped to home. For those of us who are still traveling and soaking up every last minute of summer, School List Assist sounds like it’s key in the time managment assistance department!

 

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Be sure to check out your local for the latest deals for back to school gear and supplies. And don’t forget to match and stack deals with your Cartwheel App!

8 Delicious and Easy Lunchbox Ideas

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Now that Spring is in full swing, I’ve already started to hear the collective sigh of students, parents and teachers in regards to the end of the school year. It’s been a long year, and many of us are ready for the carefree days of summer. But, not so fast! If you’re like us, we still have a good two months to go until we bid adieu to the school days.

So, what to do when you’re all exhausted with the school routine—well, besides go on a vacation. Aside from re-engaging in homework and getting outdoors, renewing the excitement of the school day can be as simple as refreshing the lunchbox. School lunches shouldn’t complicate life, but instead, make it a little lighter.

With that, I thought I’d round up a few delicious goodies that we’re currently craving and coveting for our lunchbox. 

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1. Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars

These delicious fig bars have been around for quite sometime, but they’ve become even more accessible as of late. As an avid Costco shopper, I first picked up a multi-pack of these fig bars and we all fell in love with the taste. These bars are made with stone wheat, are free of GMOs and come in several tasty flavors like apple-cinnamon, raspberry and blueberry.

2. Grapefruits

Grapefruits are rich in Vitamin C and a great source of lycopene, which makes this citrus fruit a delicious treat for kids. An alternative to oranges, grapefruits provide a tart, but refreshing taste to a Spring lunchbox.

3. Sistema containers

Since I picked up my first container for back to school last year, Sistema has been popping up more places. In fact, I’ve been eyeing the different sizes and colors at my local HomeGoods. These compact BPA-free plastic containers are ideal for packing small portions and eliminating all the excess wrappers and Ziploc bags.

4. Contigo Stainless Steel Autospout Flip Chill Kids’ Water Bottle

We have the plastic Flip Chill Kids’ Water Bottle, which is a great refillable water bottle for my preschooler. Instead of juice boxes, we’ve been trying to drink more water every day. We need to be hydrated to keep us going through the day! This Stainless Steel version of the Autospout Flip Chill Kids’ Water Bottle is sleek, practical and spill-free.

5. Fruttata Tropical Freeze Dried Fruits

Nothing will ever beat the taste of fresh fruits, but Fruttata Freeze Dried Fruits comes close. These freeze dried fruits are virtually mess-free and ideal for lunch boxes and kids on the go. Once again, I love that there’s a Costco sized bag available because once you have one, these crisps go quick!

6. The Best Homemade Lunches on the Planet by Laura Fuentes

I’ll admit, I’ve been slacking on lunches now that the school year is winding down. So, when I’m feeling uninspired, I love checking out this practical recipe book for homemade lunches. Written by Laura Fuentes, known for Momables, presents a lot of easy, but delicious lunches that anyone can do.

7. Crustache Mustache Shape Crust Cutter

Even boring sandwiches taste a little better when they look fun. We can’t get enough of the Crustache Mustache Shape Crust Cutter because, well, mustaches.

My only complaint about this cool sandwich cutter is that it’s small, so when I’m cutting a larger sandwich almost half of the bread is cut off. Other than that, who can resist a mustache sandwich?

 

8. Peanut Butter & Co.

These delicious gourmet peanut butters from Peanut Butter & Co. are unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. I recently received a jar of Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Peanut Butter in a gift bag from the Home press junket since they partnered in a promotion for the film. We had this peanut butter on toasted raisin bread and we couldn’t have enough. If your kid’s school isn’t peanut free, this would be a great option for a sweet treat for lunch. Who am I kidding? This delicious peanut butter is perfect for any time of the day.

 

Fun and Easy Halloween Lunchbox Ideas

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

Happy Halloween! We get all into this spooky day by tricking out almost anything and everything…and, not surprisingly, that includes school lunch!

If you follow me on Instagram, you might already know that I’ve been a longtime lunchbox fan. I play with my kid’s food, all in the name of smiles.  For Halloween, I thought of spooky characters and incorporated them into lunch.

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 An easy go-to for Halloween-themed lunches include pumpkin-shaped sandwiches. I usually make a turkey or ham sandwich, but something not too thick. I then cut the sandwich with my pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter which has the lines in the formation. For the fruit and dessert, I cut 2 slices and pop some mini-marshmallows in for the teeth. For some containers you can just place the slices and marshmallows without any help. Since my apple wasn’t that big, I had to use tooth picks to secure the apple-lip formation, but then the marshmallows stayed in place. I just put mixed berries on the side, or rather, Boo-berries.  And finally, to give the lunch a super fun look, I threw in one of our Halloween rings I saved from our local ice cream shop. Spiders or other tiny trinkets work well for decor. Easy peasy.

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For this lunch, instead of bread, I used a pita and cut it into fourths. I stuffed the pita with ham and mustard for an easy sandwich. For the veggie, I roasted sweet potatoes the night before, like you would sweet potato fries. But before roasting cut out a jack o’lantern face to give it a fun effect.  For the fruit, I threw in more berries!

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And today’s Halloween lunch includes an easy, kid friendly salad.  Salad? Why salad? Because my kid will be consume candy by the fistful later, I thought I’d throw in some nutrition for lunch. In a Konserve stainless steel container, I mixed some greens, goat cheese, tiny apple chunks and cranberries. I included some honey balsamic on the side and will cross fingers at least some of it gets eaten! For extra measure, I made a quick pumpkin-shaped sandwich and berries. The candy eyeballs were totally for effect. I wonder if those will get eaten first?!

 

For me, making lunch isn’t supposed to cumbersome, but rather, fun and delicious. If it takes more than 10 minutes to make, that’s just not fun for me. If my 7 year old can’t do it himself, again, that’s not fun. So, rule of thumb, make lunch fun and keep it simple.   So, with that said, here are just a few Halloween-inspired lunches.

So, if you’re not into bento boxes or fun lunches for kids, before you say “somebody’s got too much time on their hands,” consider this: bento boxes have been around for centuries in Japan, and they incorporate healthier eating by limiting portion size and encouraging more wholesome foods.

Happy Halloween!

 

Skip Hop Adds Frog and Zebra Zoopacks and Lunchies

by Jen Rabulan-Bertram

NKT fave, Skip Hop has added more fun animals to their cool lineup up of animal-themed backpacks and lunch bags   Frog and zebra designs are the latest animal designs available for Skip Hop’s Zoopacks and Lunchies, joining faves such as the owl, dog and penguin.  Zoopacks, durable and kid-sized, are ideal for back to school and yes, the last few weeks of summer, too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I personally can’t get enough of Skip Hop gear; we could often be found toting our penguin Lunchie.  What’s so great about Skip Hop’s Zoo Lunchies, is that they’re so easy to just clip onto a stroller, bookbag strap or they can just as easily be slipped onto a kids’ wrist. But above all, I love the playful, but modern designs that Skip Hop is so well known for; and at just $20 for the Zoopacks and $13 for the Lunchies, you really can’t go wrong with Skip Hop gear.