Goodies Company Taster's Box - Try it before you buy (lots of) it

If you read my blog regularly you know that I love subscription boxes. I love them for so many reasons but my main reason is that I love offering my family healthy snacks but don't always have the time to scout stores for new healthy alternatives. Or often when I do I have to finish what I bought since no one liked it. And that happens more often then you'd think! Who knew cinnamon sugared sprouted lentils were just not what my kids want for snack? The other reason why I love subscription boxes is the fact that they show up at your door and surprise you. A box filled with snacks everyone gets to try - who wouldn't love mail like that?

The only issue with subscription boxes is that they often come with a big price ticket.

Well, not anymore. I stumbled upon the Goodies Company Tasters Box and it only costs $7 a month with free shipping! You get 5-8 snacks to try and if your family does not approve you are not forcing yourself to finish those BBQ flavored chick peas! Win -Win!

Plus, you can review the items you get and can earn points towards a FREE Tasters Box. That sounds even better! Get a free box (after earning enough points) for simply reviewing what was in your box. 

Since Goodies Company's Taster's Box is so popular it is by invitation only and there is a waitlist.

However, if you would like to try the Taster's Box and jump the waitlist line - 

just use BLOGVIP when you sign up HERE and get your subscription now!

Once you enter the code into the promo page you will receive two emails from Goodies. One to let you know that you are now in line for an invitation and then a second email that will let you know that your invitation has arrived - you skipped the line right to the front :)

To sum up:

With a Goodies Company Subscription box you get:

• 5-8 snacks a month
• all for only $7 shipped
• you can review your box to earn points towards a free box
• no more wasted snacks 
• no more boring snacks

So what are you waiting for? Limited invitations with BLOGVIP! Sign up HERE!

Thanks to the Goodies Co. for sponsoring this discussion. I am being compensated for this post but all opinions are my own!

LOOK! Lunch!

It is another busy day - but we did pack lunch :)

Apples, oranges and Angry Bird cheese crackers packed in Easylunchboxes with a Pepperoni and Salad Hulk sandwich.

Apples, Oranges and Angry Bird cheese crackers in our new Good lunchbox with two chocolate spread Spider-Man sandwiches.

Monbento Review

Monbento kindly sent me their Original bento box to review.

You can really see and feel the quality of this two-tier bento box. The box itself has nearly a soft feel to it and the plastic is thick and matte - simply beautiful. The MB Original bento box comes in many color combinations but I love the simplicity of this white butterfly box.

The box comes with

• two containers and 1 top lid
• two intermediary lids
• 1 divider
• two silicone caps + joints and
• 1 elastic band

The top tier comes with a divider and both compartments have a lid that forms an airtight seal and enables both tiers to be microwavable thanks to the silicone caps that make it easy to vent. 

There is ample room in both tiers for either an adult bento, big kid's lunch or when used with only one tier a smaller child's lunch.

I packed lunch for myself as a change and was able to fit some left over taco chicken, black beans and corn with cheese butterflies and tortilla chips on the side and in the lower tier a salad with cucumber, radishes and carrots with poppy seed dressing ( you can see the dressing bottle peek out behind the butterfly silicone cup) and a silicone cup full of sprouted lentils seasoned with brown sugar.

It held plenty of food for a generous lunch and nothing leaked thanks to the air tight seal!

Pros of the MB Original bento box:

• sleek modern design with soft touch plastic
• a choice of many fun colors
• microwave-safe
• dishwasher-safe
• airtight
• BPA-free

There really were not really any negatives besides the fact that you probably want to buy the box for yourself since it looks just to good to share with your kids ;) Check out the Monbento website for more bento boxes, bags, accessories and cutlery. I fell in love with their whole line!

You can also find Monbento at Amazon.com or of course at http://en.monbento.com

Throw (together) & Go Lunches

We have been running late in the morning all week and the result has been quick "Throw (together)&Go" Lunches. Today was no exception and with 5 min to spare lunches were literally packed on the fly with no Friday in sight yet...

A quick Throw&Go Lunch in our Easylunchboxes: Goldfish, apple sauce and a pepperoni and salad sandwich with Spiderman stamp. They also packed water and yogurt.

Another on the fly lunch in Easylunchboxes with Goldfish, apple sauce and bus peanut butter sandwiches. Yogurt and ice water was packed as well :)

We made similar sandwiches yesterday:

A quick and easy Captain America Lunch with apple sauce and Goldfish and...

...an equally fast Hulk and Captain America Lunch with Naturebox Cranberry Energy Bites and grapes with a tangerine. Fast & easy but still fun :)

Super Lunches

My friend Sarah from Bentoriffic sent me an amazing Marvel Hero cookie cutter set from William Sonoma and we were excited to try it out today:

We packed our Easylunchboxes with:

• Naturebox Cranberry Almond Bites
• Green grapes and a cutie clementine
• a Hulk and a Captain America peanut butter and jelly sandwich

and as always they have yogurt, ice water and today also the perfect Lunchbox Love Card!

Love these sandwiches! Even my youngest son wanted a Captain America sandwich and that means a lot since he really does not like sandwiches in general!

I packed him Goldfish crackers, apple sauce and one Captain America peanut butter sandwich. He also has ice water and yogurt.

My oldest son just wanted a plain lunch in his Easylunchboxes and so I packed him: 

• Naturebox Masa Chips and Goldfish crackers
• a cutie clementine and green grapes 
• and a pepperoni and salad sandwich

My four year old wanted to pack her own morning lunch today - for girls without super heroes:

She packed grapes, popcorn and peanut butter and jelly bunnies :)

Muffin Tin Monday

Happy Earth Day!

We had a yummy Earth Day themed muffin tin lunch today:

• two loving peanut butter monsters who love our earth
• red tomatoes symbolizing our love for the earth
• a wild blueberry and green grape earth
• cheese trees with carrot flowers
• a vanilla yogurt with a dye-free fruit leather heart and
• butterfly crackers

For more Earth Day themed muffin tins click here:

UPDATE: Many have asked about the silicone cups I used in this Muffin Tin Meal. The butterfly one is a gift from a friend and the others were all purchased from www.allthingsforsale.com. Click the pictures below for more info :)

Innobaby Din Din SMART Platter Review

The folks at Innobaby generously provided us with a Din Din Smart Platter for review.

I was impressed immediately! The platter is made with durable stainless steel and the lid is made with thick BPA-free plastic. The color of the lid is beautiful and bright and the whole platter just looked and felt durable and fun!

My daughter loved this tray immediately. A pink bus shaped platter - just for her? Yes, please!!

And I liked that it is dishwasher safe, BPA-, Phthalate-, PVC- and Lead-free and I can serve warm

foods without worry! I also love that the sectional lid keeps the food fresh when I need to prepare lunch or dinner ahead of time and I can keep the platter in the fridge until needed. It is also convenient when we are on the go. It keeps the food in it's place until we are ready to eat - however runny foods like apple sauce or yogurt are only recommended if you can carry the tray flat since the lid does not make the compartments leak proof. 

The tray is shaped like a bus and has 5 compartments - perfect for introducing the 5 food groups.

There are three smaller and two bigger compartments. The compartments are slightly more shallow then a muffin tin. 

Offering different foods to your child is so much fun with this Innobaby Din Din Smart Platter.

It holds enough food for my 4 year old daughter and I think this tray would be perfect from the first solid foods up until Kindergarten age!

For today's snack we packed a carrot bear, bear shaped cucumbers, Teddy Grahams, Straw-bearies and two mini peanut butter bear sandwiches in our Innobaby Din Din Smart Platter. 

The Din Din Smart platter has been a great addition to our meal times and we have eaten several lunches while on the go as well as many fun dinners at home. My daughter loves this platter and it makes our meal times more fun for her and more convenient for me  :)

Pros:

• dishwasher safe
• BPA-, Phthalate-, PVC- and Lead-free
• made with durable stainless steel
• 5 compartments that keep foods seperate - great for picky eaters!
• great sectional lid for eating on the go
• fun and worry-free meal solution
• stain resistant - bring on the tomato sauce!
• stack easy

Things to keep in mind:

• the platter is not leak proof however I don't really consider this a real negative since you can always bring the applesauce or yogurt in a separate container!

Things I used to make today's lunch:

 

Muffin Tin Monday

We had a busy morning and I am late posting today's lunch. We are linking up for the first time to Muffin Tin Monday at another lunch and today's theme is the 60's:

We packed a fun variety of food:

• Flower Ritz Crackers
• Flower shaped cheese and chicken
• a heart shaped cookie
• Macaroni and Cheese with flowers
• a VW beetle sandwich and
• an all natural tie dye yogurt 

GROOVY!

Check out more fun and groovy Muffin Tins at:

Will the mouse get the cheese?

We woke up to a thunderstorm and sick kids so there will be no school lunches today. Instead I packed my daughter a fun lunch in her new Innobaby Din Din Smart Platter:

I packed her some banana and strawberry yogurt, a radish mouse trying to steal her cheese cubes, a fruit salad with honey and two mini cheese quesadillas.

My daughter loved the radish mouse and wondered if she was hungry, too. Maybe they can share the cheese ;) If you'd like to find out how to make this radish mouse check out THIS tutorial!

Muffin Tin Lunch

We are again out and about today so an early lunch is packed in our Innobaby Din Din platter with lid.

We packed no bake energy bites, strawberries, apples, two jelly sandwiches and some carrots with ranch dip.

And thanks to the lid we can bring our early lunch with us if we are running late :) 

[Review to come - stay tuned]

Things I used for today's lunch:

Snack for Lunch

We have a busy morning today so we are packing a snack lunch to go:

Our Easylunchboxes are filled with apples, Pirate Booty, snack mix, carrots, 1/4 whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and Annie's bunny graham cookies.

Have a great day y'all!

Kiwi Fruit and the Importance of Food Education at School

My kids had a special unit at school last week which included a mobile agricultural products laboratory and besides learning so many fun and important facts, each class won a case of kiwifruit for answering closing questions.

The elementary school classes won kiwifruit and ate them in class. And three very excited kids came running home that day full of things to share with me including that they love kiwifruit. I was stunned. My kids are not very adventurous when it comes to trying new fruit and since I love kiwi I have offered it before - with no luck. However, learning about the fruit in school and sharing a special "prize" with their teacher and class allowed my kids to try it away from home - and it was a full success. I wonder how many kids came home that day asking their parents to buy kiwi.

I think this is amazing and a great lesson to learn. We all know we have to keep offering our kids food they may be hesitant to try or taste but learning about food at school with a chance to try something in class has made a big impression on my kids. And now they love kiwifruit!

This is the lunch my first grader packed himself in his Easylunchboxes today:

• no bake energy bites
• strawberries
• kiwifruit
• carrots
• tangerine
• cereal bar and 
• a slice of starfruit

I helped him arrange the food so it would not get soggy and I cannot wait to see how lunch went today! Not only did they try a new food at school but they were open to pack some starfruit in their lunch as well to try.

My two older kids packed also no bake energy bites, strawberries, kiwifruit, starfruit and a sandwich. All kids also packed yogurt and ice water.

Pack ' N ' Tote Review

I posted some pictures on Instagram today of my new reusable Pack'n'Tote Grocery Cart Helper and so many of you wanted a link and more information that I decided to write a mini review with link!

I have been looking for a good reusable grocery bag for a while and found something similar when another Instagram friend, Becka from Just a Bunch of Momsense, suggested these. She was very happy with these and at $8.95 each I felt I could not really do anything wrong.

First off: I LOVE the size. When folded they take up less room in your car or cabinet then a regular grocery bag and they are easy to grab & go!

It doesn't matter if you need one or...

...two, they clip onto your shopping cart and stay in place while you shop!

And when you are done, you can close them up and walk to your car or load them into your trunk comfortably. *side note: bread, fruit and eggs should be handled with care in these bags since they can get smooshed when the bag is grabbed out of the cart. 

Two of them in my trunk!

Pros:

• holds up to 40lbs of groceries
• folds very small for storage
• helps eliminate lots of bags - just use two
• has a small pocket on the front to hold keys and other things
• recyclable

Things to consider:

• not machine washable 
• bread, fruit and eggs can get squished if not handled with care

Overall, I am very happy with these bags and they have solved a big headache for me. I always forget my reusable bags at home or don't have enough bags with me. Now I just leave these two in the car and grab 1 or 2 depending on my size of shopping :)

If you want to check them out, here is where I got mine: