Wendy Copley's Blog, page 10

Help! My Kid Won’t Eat His Lunch!

My older son, Wyatt, has never been a big eater at lunch time, but last spring he almost completely stopped eating his lunches. He’s always been the pickier of my two kids and getting him to eat vegetables is always a big challenge, but I could usually count on him to eat the majority of his lunch if I packed it full of things he liked. But as his 4th grade year wore on, his lunch box came home with less and less food missing from it. Some days I couldn’t tell if he’d eaten anything when I opened his lunch box at the end of the day!

It got so bad that by the end of the year we were butting heads over his lunch nearly every day. I was fed up with the energy it took to find something he would eat and even more so, I was tired of all the wasted food. So I went on a lunch-packing strike. I decided that if he was going to waste a meal anyway he could eat school lunch and I could save a little time in the mornings.

Now that the new school year has started, we both want to start things off with a clean slate. Neither of us was happy with the school lunch solution. My son doesn’t like the meals they serve at school because he doesn’t think they taste good. I don’t want him to eat school lunches because they are overly processed. I’d much rather he had a lunch filled with good foods that fuel his body and give him the nutrition he needs the thrive. At the end of the summer the two of us put our heads together and we came up with a few strategies that have helped make lunch packing more pleasant for both of us.

1. Get Buy-in

The first thing we did was sit down together and go through the lunch box idea list. I handed Wyatt a highlighter and had him mark everything on the list that he would be happy to see in his lunch. Some of the things he highlighted were expected — mini bagels, strawberries and pretty much any kind of meat — but other things were big surprises. Cherry tomatoes? Red bell pepper? I can work with that!

We also pulled out some of my lunch box cook books and he dog-eared some recipes that sounded good to him. Some of these I’ll be making on my own, some we’ll make together.

And finally we’ve agreed that he’ll choose two kinds of fruit and two kinds of vegetables for his lunches when I’m making the weekly grocery list. Taking ownership of of what goes in his lunch box makes him feel more in charge and he’s significantly more likely to eat the items he chooses.

2. Make nutrient rich foods more appealing

Or maybe I should say, “make appealing foods more nutrient rich.” Basically, I’ve identified a few different foods that Wyatt loves and I’ve looked for recipes and techniques that boost their nutritional profile. The first place I started was smoothies. I make these at home with loads of fruit, a little yogurt and soy or coconut milk then spoon them into pouches and freeze them to include in lunches. They’re pretty healthy to begin with but recently I’ve started adding flax meal and spinach to them. Even better! I also add grated veggies to pasta sauce and taco meat and I’ve started messing around with adding carrot puree to apple sauce with pretty good success.

3. Ease up on the treat rules

One of the main reasons Wyatt stopped eating his lunches was that he wanted more “treats” in them. More precisely, he saw what some of his friends were bringing in their lunches and decided his ideal lunch would consist of Doritos, cookies, bacon, and a Capri Sun — with a cupcake for dessert. I’m not opposed to an occasional treat now and then, but I think they should be just that — occasional. This led to a lot of teasing from the kids who brought the junkier stuff and Wyatt would reject his lunch because he was embarrassed or his friends would share their lunches with him which would fill him up enough that he wasn’t starving when he left the lunch room.

After discussing this with him a lot, we’ve made a deal: I’m going to start including a treat in his lunch most days and in return he’s agreed to eat the healthier items in his lunch box. Don’t get me wrong — we’re not suddenly talking donuts and Coke every day. Instead I’m including stuff like whole grain tortilla chips, a couple cookies, popcorn, or boxes of Horizon vanilla milk. Delicious food, but still pretty healthy!

How do you encourage your reluctant eater to finish his lunch?

This conversation is sponsored by Horizon Organic. The opinions and text are all mine.

The Week in Bentos: August 18-22, 2014

Phwew! The first week of the new school year is officially over. The kids had a pretty good week over all and I was happy to have a few uninterrupted hours to work each day. We are still adjusting to our new, earlier schedule though. Well, mostly I’m adjusting to a new earlier schedule — the kids are fine! I’ve been trying to do better at packing their lunches/snacks the night before so things aren’t so rushed in the morning and mostly it’s working.

Augie is currently wait-listed for a spot in the after school program so he only had snacks this week. When he starts (hopefully in a few weeks) I’ll have lunches for him too.

Let’s go!

This post contains affiliate links.

Monday

Wyatt requested mini-tacos for the first lunch of the school year, so I made sure to buy a box when I went to Trader Joes. I’m not super thrilled with the quality of these, though I think they’re fine for a lunch once in a while. I’m thinking I might try to make them myself at home though. I paired the little tacos with some spicy edamame guacamole for dipping. Wyatt tried this at the sample table on a trip to TJ’s and I was shocked — shocked! — that he liked it because it’s made of two foods he normally rejects — avocados and edamame. I was happy to buy some when he asked me to.

He also had carrots, black bean dip, blueberries and a few Nilla Wafers. This was packed in our Yumbox Panino. (Get 15% off all in stock Yumboxes with coupon code: wendy15 through 8/31.)

I packed Augie’s snack in our Steeltainer snack-size box: yellow bell pepper strips, carrots, hummus and blueberries with lion and hippo fork picks.

Tuesday

Tuesday Wyatt asked for a Yumbox again. These are quickly becoming some of his favorite lunch boxes and he requests them frequently now. We are working on expanding Wyatt’s palate for vegetables and he told me he would like to give red bell peppers a try. So I packed some of those along with  pirate’s booty, strawberries, blueberries, a blueberry cereal bar and low-sodium salami slices.

Augie had salami in a silicone baking cup, red and yellow bell pepper strips decorated with an Iron Man ring, hummus in a Lego cup and just a few blueberries to fill the last little bit of space in the bento box.

Augie wanted this snack to be packed in our little house bento box, but if I had used both layers it would have been much too big. Instead I just used a single layer of the box. This is a great trick when you only need a little bit of food and it works well with a lot of traditional Japanese 2-tier bento boxes.

Wednesday

Wednesday was Minecraft day! I wanted to make extra cool, fully-themed Minecraft lunches with our new Minecraft cookie cutters this week but I didn’t get it together to do the planning so instead I decided to just dive in and use the stuff I had on hand. This ended up being some red bell pepper. I used the cutters to make a creeper and a sword and the kids were borderline disgusted that I used a red pepper instead of a green one because “Creepers are green. Duh, Mom.” Little ingrates!

Wyatt also got strawberries, Ritz-like crackers, salami and Nilla Wafers. I packed his lunch in a Laptop Lunches bento box.

Augie also had not-green Creeper peppers, salami and crackers. I packed this in our car snack box.

Thursday

Thursday morning I reheated some leftover pasta for Wyatt and packed it into our LunchBots thermal jar. It was a big portion, so I kept the side dish smallish and just filled a side-car box with strawberries.

Augie had cucumbers with smiley faces stamped into them, a small tub of hummus and strawberries with dancing panda picks. This was packed in the Steeltainer snack-size box.

Friday

Friday Wyatt’s lunch was a repeat of the stuff he had throughout the rest of the week: salami, strawberries, crackers, carrots, black bean dip and Nilla Wafers. This was packed in a Yumbox original — again. Don’t forget: you can get 15% off all in stock Yumboxes with coupon code: wendy15 through 8/31/14.

Friday was RED day at Kindergarten! Augie dressed in a red shirt, brought a red toy for sharing and learned the red song and dance so of course he needed a red snack to go with it! I used a red inner container from one of our Laptop Lunches sets and filled it with a red silicone cup with salami inside along with some strawberries and a red crayon pick.

Are you looking for more ideas for packed lunches! My book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun, delicious lunches. With 50 brand new bento box lunches and step-by-step photo tutorials showing how to make them it will provide you with loads of inspiration when it’s time to pack lunch. Order today from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powell’s.

Dinner Table Drawing

Last night I tried a little art experiment at dinner-time. Before the boys came in to set the table, I spread several sheets of butcher paper across our kitchen table and set out a few pencils. They were so excited when they saw it and both of them commented that it was like “being at a fancy restaurant.” Ha!

I was a little worried that the drawing would distract the kids from eating, but this turned out not to be a problem. I think it helped that I was serving a favorite meal (spaghetti and garlic bread) and that we were all very hungry, but the kids dutifully ate while we all doodled.

Dinner is often prime bicker-time for my boys, but the drawing distracted them and we all had a nice time talking about what we were making and building on each other’s drawings. When dinner was over we all cleared our dishes, but the empty spaces where out plates had been called us back to the table for more drawing. Augie wanted more color on the table so he ran back and forth to the art cart grabbing big handfuls of markers and colored pencils for us to use. We ended up drawing and chatting for another hour and a half after dinner was over!

This is probably not something I’ll do every night, but we all enjoyed it so I know I’ll do it again in the near future. Maybe it will become a spaghetti dinner thing?

What do you do to make dinners more special for your family?

First Day of School!

The kids are back in school! Yesterday was the first day of school and it was a good one!

Wyatt is starting 5th grade and Augie is headed to Kindergarten. I seriously can’t believe how big and grown-up both my boys are. This is what Wyatt looked like when I started this blog. And Augie wasn’t even born yet back then. Now they are tall and gangly and they are smart, independent boys who make me laugh a lot and enjoy wearing neon-colored clothing.

I like to take those traditional first day of school photos so I thought I’d share a few if you’re willing to indulge me.

They started off being super cooperative with nice smiles

And then things took a goofy turn!

They wrapped our photo session up by posing as ninjas. Ninjas who dress in neon, that is…

I can tell we are going to have a great year!

Are you back in school yet? When did/will your kids start?

 

Giveaway: Inklings Paperie Scratch-off Lunch Box Notes

The last giveaway this week is for a super fun lunch box product: Inklings Paperie scratch-off lunch box notes! We received a pack of these to try out last week and I liked them so much that I asked if I could do a giveaway because I think you’ll love them too.

Here’s how they work:

Write a message or draw a picture in the white box on the front of the card.
Cover your message with one of the scratch-off stickers included in the set.
Add it to your kid’s lunch box along with a penny or something else they can use for scratching.
At lunch time your kid can scratch off the silver part to reveal your secret message.

Each set includes 20 write-in notecards, 20 scratch-off stickers, and instructions and they are packed in an adorable hand-stamped cotton bag. They can be purchased at Amazon for $12.99 per set.

The boys and I really liked these for a few reasons. First off, the interactive nature of these cards is super fun. I also liked that the black design is gender-neutral and cool enough for my big fifth grader. But my favorite part of these is the fact that you can add your own message. We have lots of pre-printed lunch notes and I use them pretty regularly but almost all of them have written messages on them. As a pre-reader, these are really frustrating for my five year old. With these lunch notes, I can draw him a picture and he can still enjoy a personalized note from home. Fun!

Time for the giveaway! Inklings Paperie is offering up a set of these cards to one Wendolonia reader. Also, this giveaway is open internationally! Woot! Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway: Funkins Reusable Napkins

I have another fun back-to-school giveaway for you today: Funkins reusable napkins!

Funkins sent me a pack of their cloth napkins for us to try out and I am looking forward to adding them to the kids’ lunch boxes when school starts in a couple weeks. Each of their napkins are made from 100% cotton fabric colored with low impact dyes and have a bright, kid-friendly patterns on each side. They are 13 x 15 inches so they can be used as both a napkin and a placemat.

I don’t talk about this a lot on Wendolonia, but one of the main reasons I pack bentos for my kids is because I want to generate as little trash in their lunches as possible. I use reusable lunch boxes, utensils, lunch bags, ice packs — even the fun stuff I add to their bento boxes is almost always resuable. In fact, one of the few disposable products I regularly use is paper napkins. No more! Now that we have fun cloth napkins, I’ll be sending those instead.

Funkins is also committed to reducing lunch waste and they made this cute video to spread the word: Funkins : Pack a Waste-Free Lunch

Funkins has generously offered three (3) Wendolonia readers a pack of five (5) napkins each. You pick the ones you like best from their dozens of cute patterns!

Enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Lunch Box Library: 5 Books for Packed Lunch Inspiration

I’ve packed more than 1800 lunches for my kids over the past few years and I think in that time I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I’ve got a shelf full of lunch boxes, an over flowing basket of cookie cutters and a list of lunch box ideas posted on my fridge, but even with all that I frequently get stumped when it’s time to pack the lunches in the morning.

When the lunch box doldrums hit me or my kids start complaining about seeing the same foods in their bento boxes day after day, I find I almost always get invigorated by reading a book filled with lunch box inspiration. In the past few years a number of excellent lunch box books have hit the shelves and I’ve purchased lots of them. Today I’m going to share some of my favorites with you so you can get your lunch box gears turning too!

Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for a fun giveaway!

The Best Homemade Kids’ Lunches on the Planet by Laura Fuentes

The most recent addition to my collection is The Best Homemade Kids’ Lunches on the Planet by Laura Fuentes. Laura runs the popular lunch box menu planning service, Momables, so she has lunch boxes down pat. Her book is full of the kind of recipes kids love — not the kind of recipes that parents wish kids loved — and they’re made with whole foods and full of good nutrition. When I asked my son to sit down with it and mark some recipes he would like to try, I was surprised and thrilled to see that he’d flagged dozens of recipes. Fuentes offers tons of tips for planning and cooking in advance throughout the book and the end features a super helpful feedbakc chart where kids can mark off each recipe they’ve tried with a star rating.

Beating the Lunch Box Blues by J.M. Hirsch

Released at back to school time last year, Beating the Lunch Box Blues by J.M. Hirsch is jam-packed with gorgeous photos and dozens of interesting and unusual ideas.   It’s important to note that this is not a recipe book — not really. Rather it’s filled with photos that provide inspiration for lunches and short notes with ideas for assembling meals to go quickly and with little fuss. There are a a dozen dinner recipes sprinkled  throughout with ideas for repurposing the leftovers for lunch the next day, but mostly you’ll find ideas for combining ingredients in your fridge to make quick and tasty lunches. Over the past year I’ve found myself flipping through this book several times to get my idea flowing for my own lunches as well as for my kids’. Read my full review of this book.

Weelicious Lunches by Catherine McCord

Catherine McCord of the mega-popular kids’ food site, Weelicious, published this book last year and it’s a real winner. Weelicious Lunches is filled with recipes that provide a fresh take on lunch box staples. There are dozens of recipes for variations on sandwiches, dips, and treats and peanut butter and jelly even gets it’s own chapter. Some of my favorite recipes in the book are her homemade — and much healthier — versions of packaged favorites: cheese crackers, animal cookies, cereal bars and fruit leather, just to name a few. In addition, McCord provides lots of information about lunch box basics. Her section on food allergies is top-notch and she even provides a helpful chart listing allergen information for every recipe in the book. Read my full review of this book here.

Yum-Yum Bento Box by Maki Ogawa and Crystal Watanabe

Looking for ideas for cute bento lunches? Yum-Yum Bento Box by Maki Ogawa and Crystal Watanabe will give you plenty of ideas for incredibly adorable lunches. I’ve had this book for a few years now, but I still love flipping through it for all of the inspiration it provides. The authors are especially adept at creating cute characters and nearly every bento box sports a person or animal with a smiling face. To go along with that theme, they’ve included a chart with ideas for making different elements of faces — eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, ears, etc. — from different types of food which is really helpful when you are brainstorming your own creations. The book tends to lean more toward Asian ingredients for crafting the decorative elements of the lunches (there’s a lot of rice in this book), so if your kid is a strict peanut-butter-and-jelly-atarian and you want to follow instructions exactly this might not be a perfect fit. But no matter what types of food you pack for your kids you will find a lot of fun ideas here.

Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go by Wendy Thorpe Copley

May I be so bold as to suggest my own book as a source of inspiration? Obviously, I’m not going to be able to give you an unbiased review, but my book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun and tasty bento lunches. It opens with information about basic bento packing techniques, types of bento boxes and all the fun tools we all love so much. The meat of the book shows fifty different bento lunches along with detailed photo tutorials explaining exactly how to recreate them in your kitchen. Most of the  bentos have a fun theme – rainbow, robot, butterfly, rock ‘n’ roll, holidays — but there are more grown-up options intended for adults as well. I break down all the steps for bento beginners and I’ve been pleased to hear reports that kids are using the book to make their own lunches. Bento pros will find some more challenging techniques as well.

Would you like a little lunch box inspiration to hold in your own hands? I have five copies of Everyday Bento to giveaway to five Wendolonia readers! Enter below for your chance to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post contains affiliate links.

Lunch Box Library: 5 Books for Packed Lunch Inspiration – PLUS a GIVEAWAY!

I’ve packed more than 1800 lunches for my kids over the past few years and I think in that time I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I’ve got a shelf full of lunch boxes, an over flowing basket of cookie cutters and a list of lunch box ideas posted on my fridge, but even with all that I frequently get stumped when it’s time to pack the lunches in the morning.

When the lunch box doldrums hit me or my kids start complaining about seeing the same foods in their bento boxes day after day, I find I almost always get invigorated by reading a book filled with lunch box inspiration. In the past few years a number of excellent lunch box books have hit the shelves and I’ve purchased lots of them. Today I’m going to share some of my favorites with you so you can get your lunch box gears turning too!

Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for a fun giveaway!

The Best Homemade Kids’ Lunches on the Planet by Laura Fuentes

The most recent addition to my collection is The Best Homemade Kids’ Lunches on the Planet by Laura Fuentes. Laura runs the popular lunch box menu planning service, Momables, so she has lunch boxes down pat. Her book is full of the kind of recipes kids love — not the kind of recipes that parents wish kids loved — and they’re made with whole foods and full of good nutrition. When I asked my son to sit down with it and mark some recipes he would like to try, I was surprised and thrilled to see that he’d flagged dozens of recipes. Fuentes offers tons of tips for planning and cooking in advance throughout the book and the end features a super helpful feedbakc chart where kids can mark off each recipe they’ve tried with a star rating.

Beating the Lunch Box Blues by J.M. Hirsch

Released at back to school time last year, Beating the Lunch Box Blues by J.M. Hirsch is jam-packed with gorgeous photos and dozens of interesting and unusual ideas.   It’s important to note that this is not a recipe book — not really. Rather it’s filled with photos that provide inspiration for lunches and short notes with ideas for assembling meals to go quickly and with little fuss. There are a a dozen dinner recipes sprinkled  throughout with ideas for repurposing the leftovers for lunch the next day, but mostly you’ll find ideas for combining ingredients in your fridge to make quick and tasty lunches. Over the past year I’ve found myself flipping through this book several times to get my idea flowing for my own lunches as well as for my kids’. Read my full review of this book.

Weelicious Lunches by Catherine McCord

Catherine McCord of the mega-popular kids’ food site, Weelicious, published this book last year and it’s a real winner. Weelicious Lunches is filled with recipes that provide a fresh take on lunch box staples. There are dozens of recipes for variations on sandwiches, dips, and treats and peanut butter and jelly even gets it’s own chapter. Some of my favorite recipes in the book are her homemade — and much healthier — versions of packaged favorites: cheese crackers, animal cookies, cereal bars and fruit leather, just to name a few. In addition, McCord provides lots of information about lunch box basics. Her section on food allergies is top-notch and she even provides a helpful chart listing allergen information for every recipe in the book. Read my full review of this book here.

Yum-Yum Bento Box by Maki Ogawa and Crystal Watanabe

Looking for ideas for cute bento lunches? Yum-Yum Bento Box by Maki Ogawa and Crystal Watanabe will give you plenty of ideas for incredibly adorable lunches. I’ve had this book for a few years now, but I still love flipping through it for all of the inspiration it provides. The authors are especially adept at creating cute characters and nearly every bento box sports a person or animal with a smiling face. To go along with that theme, they’ve included a chart with ideas for making different elements of faces — eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, ears, etc. — from different types of food which is really helpful when you are brainstorming your own creations. The book tends to lean more toward Asian ingredients for crafting the decorative elements of the lunches (there’s a lot of rice in this book), so if your kid is a strict peanut-butter-and-jelly-atarian and you want to follow instructions exactly this might not be a perfect fit. But no matter what types of food you pack for your kids you will find a lot of fun ideas here.

Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go by Wendy Thorpe Copley

May I be so bold as to suggest my own book as a source of inspiration? Obviously, I’m not going to be able to give you an unbiased review, but my book, Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go is packed with ideas for fun and tasty bento lunches. It opens with information about basic bento packing techniques, types of bento boxes and all the fun tools we all love so much. The meat of the book shows fifty different bento lunches along with detailed photo tutorials explaining exactly how to recreate them in your kitchen. Most of the  bentos have a fun theme – rainbow, robot, butterfly, rock ‘n’ roll, holidays — but there are more grown-up options intended for adults as well. I break down all the steps for bento beginners and I’ve been pleased to hear reports that kids are using the book to make their own lunches. Bento pros will find some more challenging techniques as well.

Would you like a little lunch box inspiration to hold in your own hands? I have five copies of Everyday Bento to giveaway to five Wendolonia readers! Enter below for your chance to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post contains affiliate links.

Yumbox Panino vs. Yumbox Original Comparison

A few weeks ago Yumbox sent us one of their new Panino style lunch boxes to try out. I was excited to get my hands on this lunch box because I’ve been using the original Yumbox for about a year now and it quickly rose up the ranks as one of my family’s favorite lunch boxes. Now that I’ve had some time to pack lunches in it and use it for a few weeks I thought it might be useful to compare this new Yumbox with the original.

And stay tuned to the end because there is a giveaway down at the bottom of this post!

Please note: Yumbox is an advertiser on this site, but I have not been compensated to write this post. This post contains affiliate links.

Let’s start by reviewing some of the features of the original Yumbox:

This box has six separate compartments — five that hold 1/2 cup each and a tiny little dip/treat compartment. It’s great for kids who like to graze on lots of different foods at lunch time.
When the box is closed the compartments are water-tight. In the year we’ve been using it, we have never had a problem with food from one compartment leaking into another compartment. (I don’t recommend packing soup in it though.)
The box locks tight, but it is very easy to open. Most preschoolers have no trouble with the wide, chunky latch.

Read my full review of the original Yumbox over here.

I love to use the Yumbox original on mornings where I’m feeling rushed. I can pull little bits of this and that out of the fridge and pantry with no plan and it always ends up looking good. Both of my kids — aged 5 and 9 — are fond of this box and request it often. I expected that my 5-year-old would like it because it is designed for a kid his age and he likes all our lunch boxes (much like his mom) but I was a little surprised to discover that my older son likes it even more than his brother. As the pickier eater, he enjoys having a lot of choices and he appreciates that nothing ever mixes together. The original Yumbox is priced at $28.00 and it can be purchased on the Yumbox site or at Amazon.com. It comes in four colors: green, pink, blue and purple. (It is currently out of stock in both places at the moment, but it is expected to be back in stock in a matter of days.)

I was pleased to see that the Yumbox Panino maintains all the best features of the original Yumbox with a few changes:

This version of the box has four compartments — a large section that holds two cups, two smaller areas with a 1/2 cup capacity and a small area that holds about 1/4 cup of food. The different configuration of the compartments means that this Yumbox holds up to 3/4 cup more food than the original.
The lid is configured a little differently than the original but it is still water-tight.
It has the same easy to open latch and the hinge has been redesigned to be even sturdier than the original.
While it holds about the same amount of food that many of the other divided, tray-style lunch boxes on the market hold, the foot print of the Yumbox Panino is much smaller than most of them. This allows it to fit easily in many thermal lunch bags.

The Yumbox Panino is priced at $30.00 and it can be purchased on the Yumbox site or at Amazon.com. It comes in three colors: red, pink, and blue. (My five-year-old chose the red because “it’s the color of danger.” Heh!)

This new configuration of the tray is great for a couple reasons. Number one on the list has to be that the large compartment allows you to pack a full sized sandwich. (This was obviously a major consideration when they were designing the box — “Panino” means sandwich in Italian, after all.) One of the big complaints I heard about the original Yumbox was that it was a pain to pack a sandwich in it so this solves that problem handily.

Another plus is that this Yumbox holds plenty of food for an older child or an adult. We’ve been able to use the original for my older son, but I can see that in a few years it will be too small for him.

Finally, I love that the size of the smallest section has been increased. The dip/treat well on the original Yumbox was so small that I had trouble using it to it’s full advantage. For example, my younger son loves to dip his veggies in hummus and he’ll eat a great deal of it in one sitting. The original treat well didn’t hold nearly enough for him, but this one holds plenty.  Also, the diameter of this area has increased so it’s now large enough to hold a couple small cookies or another treat. And it’s just the right size for a serving of nuts, dried cranberries or even a little fruit.

Another problem that’s been addressed is the way the back of the tray is set up. The trays on both versions of the Yumbox are top rack dishwasher safe (it is recommended that you hand-wash the outer box to preserve the seal). The old tray has lots of nooks and crannies on the back and when I wash it in the dishwasher, quite a bit of water pools up in it. I’ve found that I always need to dump this water out when I unload it and then turn it over on the dish drainer to completely dry for a few hours. Not a huge issue, of course, but it is an annoyance.

The back of the Panino tray is flat, so this almost completely eliminates this problem. Water can still pool up on the edges, but it’s a huge improvement.

One other thing to note is that the Yumbox original and the Yumbox Panino have exactly the same foot print.

You can actually fit the tray from one set into the outer box of the other. This may sound like a great way to save a little money — buy one complete set and then pick up an extra tray with the other configuration — but I do not recommend doing this! The problem is that the lid of each box is designed to match up with a specific tray and if you pair it with the wrong one, the seals will not match up and it will no longer be a leak proof box. I’m pretty sure you could also damage the seal on the lid thereby wrecking it for the tray it was meant for as well. (I haven’t tried this to verify it because I don’t want to risk damaging my Yumboxes.) If you mix the trays you will be cancelling out one of major benefits of this lunch box. Not worth it!

The original Yumbox and the Yumbox Panino are both terrific lunch boxes. I’m thrilled with the introduction of the Panino because it gives me more options for packing lunches for my boys, but I will still regularly use the original.

Would you like to try to win a Yumbox of your own? The lovely people at Yumbox are offering one Wendolonia reader a chance to win the Yumbox of her choice! Enter below:

Can’t wait to see if you win a Yumbox of your own? I have coupon code for you! Get 15% off the Yumbox Panino at Yumboxlunch.com with coupon code: wendy15

This coupon is good through August 31, 2014. (The original Yumboxes are currently out of stock, but they are expected within the week.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Yumbox sent me a Panino for review and they are an advertiser on this site. I have not been compensated to write this post and everything I’ve written here is my honest opinion. This post contains affiliate links.

 

Yumbox Panino vs. Yumbox Original Comparison — PLUS GIVEAWAY

A few weeks ago Yumbox sent us one of their new Panino style lunch boxes to try out. I was excited to get my hands on this lunch box because I’ve been using the original Yumbox for about a year now and it quickly rose up the ranks as one of my family’s favorite lunch boxes. Now that I’ve had some time to pack lunches in it and use it for a few weeks I thought it might be useful to compare this new Yumbox with the original.

And stay tuned to the end because there is a giveaway down at the bottom of this post!

Please note: Yumbox is an advertiser on this site, but I have not been compensated to write this post. This post contains affiliate links.

Let’s start by reviewing some of the features of the original Yumbox:

This box has six separate compartments — five that hold 1/2 cup each and a tiny little dip/treat compartment. It’s great for kids who like to graze on lots of different foods at lunch time.
When the box is closed the compartments are water-tight. In the year we’ve been using it, we have never had a problem with food from one compartment leaking into another compartment. (I don’t recommend packing soup in it though.)
The box locks tight, but it is very easy to open. Most preschoolers have no trouble with the wide, chunky latch.

Read my full review of the original Yumbox over here.

I love to use the Yumbox original on mornings where I’m feeling rushed. I can pull little bits of this and that out of the fridge and pantry with no plan and it always ends up looking good. Both of my kids — aged 5 and 9 — are fond of this box and request it often. I expected that my 5-year-old would like it because it is designed for a kid his age and he likes all our lunch boxes (much like his mom) but I was a little surprised to discover that my older son likes it even more than his brother. As the pickier eater, he enjoys having a lot of choices and he appreciates that nothing ever mixes together. The original Yumbox is priced at $28.00 and it can be purchased on the Yumbox site or at Amazon.com. It comes in four colors: green, pink, blue and purple. (It is currently out of stock in both places at the moment, but it is expected to be back in stock in a matter of days.)

I was pleased to see that the Yumbox Panino maintains all the best features of the original Yumbox with a few changes:

This version of the box has four compartments — a large section that holds two cups, two smaller areas with a 1/2 cup capacity and a small area that holds about 1/4 cup of food. The different configuration of the compartments means that this Yumbox holds up to 3/4 cup more food than the original.
The lid is configured a little differently than the original but it is still water-tight.
It has the same easy to open latch and the hinge has been redesigned to be even sturdier than the original.
While it holds about the same amount of food that many of the other divided, tray-style lunch boxes on the market hold, the foot print of the Yumbox Panino is much smaller than most of them. This allows it to fit easily in many thermal lunch bags.

The Yumbox Panino is priced at $30.00 and it can be purchased on the Yumbox site or at Amazon.com. It comes in three colors: red, pink, and blue. (My five-year-old chose the red because “it’s the color of danger.” Heh!)

This new configuration of the tray is great for a couple reasons. Number one on the list has to be that the large compartment allows you to pack a full sized sandwich. (This was obviously a major consideration when they were designing the box — “Panino” means sandwich in Italian, after all.) One of the big complaints I heard about the original Yumbox was that it was a pain to pack a sandwich in it so this solves that problem handily.

Another plus is that this Yumbox holds plenty of food for an older child or an adult. We’ve been able to use the original for my older son, but I can see that in a few years it will be too small for him.

Finally, I love that the size of the smallest section has been increased. The dip/treat well on the original Yumbox was so small that I had trouble using it to it’s full advantage. For example, my younger son loves to dip his veggies in hummus and he’ll eat a great deal of it in one sitting. The original treat well didn’t hold nearly enough for him, but this one holds plenty.  Also, the diameter of this area has increased so it’s now large enough to hold a couple small cookies or another treat. And it’s just the right size for a serving of nuts, dried cranberries or even a little fruit.

Another problem that’s been addressed is the way the back of the tray is set up. The trays on both versions of the Yumbox are top rack dishwasher safe (it is recommended that you hand-wash the outer box to preserve the seal). The old tray has lots of nooks and crannies on the back and when I wash it in the dishwasher, quite a bit of water pools up in it. I’ve found that I always need to dump this water out when I unload it and then turn it over on the dish drainer to completely dry for a few hours. Not a huge issue, of course, but it is an annoyance.

The back of the Panino tray is flat, so this almost completely eliminates this problem. Water can still pool up on the edges, but it’s a huge improvement.

One other thing to note is that the Yumbox original and the Yumbox Panino have exactly the same foot print.

You can actually fit the tray from one set into the outer box of the other. This may sound like a great way to save a little money — buy one complete set and then pick up an extra tray with the other configuration — but I do not recommend doing this! The problem is that the lid of each box is designed to match up with a specific tray and if you pair it with the wrong one, the seals will not match up and it will no longer be a leak proof box. I’m pretty sure you could also damage the seal on the lid thereby wrecking it for the tray it was meant for as well. (I haven’t tried this to verify it because I don’t want to risk damaging my Yumboxes.) If you mix the trays you will be cancelling out one of major benefits of this lunch box. Not worth it!

The original Yumbox and the Yumbox Panino are both terrific lunch boxes. I’m thrilled with the introduction of the Panino because it gives me more options for packing lunches for my boys, but I will still regularly use the original.

Would you like to try to win a Yumbox of your own? The lovely people at Yumbox are offering one Wendolonia reader a chance to win the Yumbox of her choice! Enter below:

Can’t wait to see if you win a Yumbox of your own? I have coupon code for you! Get 15% off in stock Yumboxes at Yumboxlunch.com with coupon code: wendy15

This coupon is good through August 31, 2014. (The original Yumboxes are currently out of stock, but they are expected within the week.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Yumbox sent me a Panino for review and they are an advertiser on this site. I have not been compensated to write this post and everything I’ve written here is my honest opinion. This post contains affiliate links.