Laptop Lunches Review Including a shake test!

Yay! It’s another lunchbox review! Aren’t you excited? I sure am! I really love to review lunchboxes for my readers! I sure hope you like to read them as much as I like to write them. ♥♥

 

It’s true! We do! We love our Laptop Lunches! The Laptop Lunch Box was one of our very first lunchbox purchases. I had viewed many a bento blog which used them and quickly fell in love with the bright containers and endless possibilities. We started off with the purchase of the Purple Laptop Lunchbox and the Garden Laptop Lunch box. You can see a few of our lunches that were packed in these boxes in the photo above.

Imagine my surprised when the generous folks at Laptop Lunches offered us another lunchbox for this review! We of course chose pink this time around! ♥♥

The generous people at Laptop Lunches provided us with a pink Laptop Lunches box  for review. No other compensation was given for this post. All views and opinions expressed are my own or that of my children. This post does contain affiliate links.

Laptop Lunches Lunch Boxes are made from strong, durable, and safe plastic. They contain no lead and are free of BPA, phthalates, and PVC. Laptop Lunches are dishwasher (top rack only, without heat boost) and inner containers are microwave (without lids) safe. Want to know my favorite part about Laptop Lunches? They are USA made!

The EXACT lunchbox  as pictured above (as well as many others) can be purchased for $23.99. A really excellent price considering that this one lunchbox alone can eliminate the use of plastic snack bags forever! Each Laptop Lunches lunchbox comes complete with it’s own set of brightly colored inner containers. 2 large, 2 medium, and 1 small. 3 of the containers come with leak proof lids making those particular containers great for messy foods. Sure, there are a lot of extra pieces to wash, and heaven forbid, lose, but I personally am a container addict, so this doesn’t bother me a bit! In fact, one of the things I love most of all of the individual inner containers, is how easy it is to pack lunch ahead of time. It is very convenient to be able to separate refrigerated items from no refrigerated items with ease.  I can pack yogurt and/or fruit in one of the lidded containers the night before and then just pop them in the fridge while still being able to keep crackers or other non fridge items out. This saves me so much time in those hectic mornings when we are trying to get out the door on time. ♥

Laptop Lunches also provides lots of other products to complement your Laptop Lunchbox. Insulated lunch bags, water bottles, ice packs, and more! One of my personal favorite Laptop add on would have to be the Bento Buddies, and we don’t even have them yet! They are definitely next on my list of purchases. They are a set of extra containers including one larger container that could easily hold a full sized sandwich! ♥

Okay, how about some new Laptop Lunches lunchboxes that I have recently packed for my tiny princesses…

Tiny princess K chose the pink Laptop Lunchbox (courtesy of  Laptop Lunches) for her meal. She had… Chunked Colby cheese, some mini pepperoni rounds, Trader Joe’s sour cream and onion puffed corn, 2 Trader Joe’s yogurt stars, blueberry Greek yogurt with sprinkles, carrots with ranch for dipping in the small Laptop Lunches lidded container, a yummy berry mix, and few chunks of assorted melon. Another thing we really LOVE about the Laptop Lunches box is the side compartment which is PERFECT for utensils and a napkin! ♥

We decided to to a shake test with A’s Laptop Lunches meal and we think it was a great success!

Here is her meal before the shake…

She chose the Garden Laptop Lunches box that we purchased as one of our very first lunchbox purchases. She had… Blueberry yogurt with sprinkles, assorted grapes, carrot and snow peas with ranch for dipping, Colby cheese chunks, garden vegetable ritz crackers, Trader Joe’s yogurt stars, Trader Joe’s puffed corn, and a turkey sandwich.

As with our other shake tests, we gave the Laptop Lunches lunchbox a good hearty shake. So, if you ever wonder what our meals look like after traveling from home to school lunch table this might give you a better idea…

As usual the sprinkles were mixed into the yogurt, the seal food pick got somewhat buried in the grapes, and the yogurt starts shifted a bit, but all in all I think everything stayed together quite nicely. What do you think?

My tiny princesses give the Laptop Lunches lunchbox 4.5 out of 5 crowns. Wonder why 4.5? Well, my youngest tiny princess couldn’t quite give it all 5 crowns. The opening method can be a tad on the tricky side for younger lunchers. This should definitely be considered before your purchase. There is sort of an exact science for opening the box. I will say that once your child figures it out it’s easy as pie. It’s just a matter of getting there first. ♥♥ Other than that we have NO complaints. We love our Laptop Lunches boxes and my girls look forward to having lunch packed in them!

some things I used to make these meals…

Laptop Lunches for my tiny princesses (and friend)

If you remember, last Thursday my oldest tiny princess had a friend spend the night as part of her 10 year birthday celebration.  I made them all lunches in EasyLunchboxes. You can check the post out here. ♥ On Friday the asked me to make their lunches again! I was so excited. It feels really good to be packing lunch again.

Tiny princess A’s friend was pretty infatuated with our lunch box collection. She spent over an hour checking out each one, as well as all of the accessories we use to make lunch fun!  She asked if I would pretty please use the Laptop Lunchboxes. I did. :) Stay tuned, cause pretty soon I will be doing a Laptop Lunchbox review!

Tiny princess K’s lunch…

She had: Green beans with blue flower pick, four vanilla wafer cookies, bow tie pasta with pink kitty pick, pizza sauce with a bit of parmesan cheese on top for dipping, extra parmesan in the shooting star cup, all natural applesauce with sprinkles, two slices of garlic toast cut using our Cute-Z-Cute cutter from All Things For Sale, (the toast was a bit overdone so the slices were more like giant sized croutons, but the girls didn’t seem to care) colby cheese scraps underneath some cubed cuts, topped with a flower cutout and stem food pick.

Tiny princess S’s lunch…

S’s lunch contained the exact same items as K’s. Hold the sprinkles, a little change in picks, and instead of the kitty face from the Cute-Z-Cute cutter, she chose the pig. ♥

Tiny princess A’s lunch…

A’s lunch had a few more differences. She is not a fan of applesauce so we exchanged that with some all natural strawberry yogurt with a few berries on top. She is not much of a fruit eater, but she handles a few just to make her mama happy. A is not big on cheese either. She will eat it from time to time, but only when the mood strikes her. We switched out the cheese with some turkey rolls and added a flowerbed of picks to keep them together. She also decided on a different animal from the Cute-Z-Cute cutter. She chose the frog, so naturally we went with the frog food pick for her pasta. 

 

Some things I used to make these lunches…

Some forgotten dance night dinners and Mickey Mouse!

Well, today is chicken sandwich day at school and if you are a tried and true reader of tiny princess lunch box, then you know that chickens sandwich days are  “Mama, don’t pack my lunch” days. Today was no different. No matter how I pleaded, begged, or offered to add fun treats they just weren't having it!

It’s a good thing I have lunch pictures backed up out the whazoo, cause it’s high time I start blogging again! ♥

I’m not sure which day these dance night dinners came from. I just know that they are from before school let out for winter break. My tiny princesses helped plan these as you can see from the not so healthy choices. I also made one for myself.

I’ll start first with the tiny princess dinners. They both contained the same items…

Here is what they had packed in Yubo lunch boxes…

• Cheese quesadillas
• Mini pop tart crisps
• Princess fruit snacks
• One triangle each of cream cheese, cinnamon sugar quesadillas
• Organic vanilla yogurt with frozen fruit topping. *disclaimer* they still will not eat the fruit that is put in their yogurt, but they have decided that it does add a nice flavor as it melts and I will continue to add it in there because surely at some point they may decide it’s not so bad after all!
• snack mix

I personally think packing in a Yubo alone makes a meal special and fun. The brightly colored boxes and super versatile inner containers can make any food look inviting and yummy, but here is a few other special details I added to make these meals fun….

• Silicone food cups in the largest container to keep food tidy and separate
• fun food pick which in this case serves no purpose. It’s just for fun! ♥
• LunchBox Love Notes add a great personal and fun touch!

Here is my dinner. Believe it or not this is the very first Bento style meal I have ever made myself! It was delicious and I will definitely be doing it more often!

I packed my dinner in one of our laptop lunch boxes! I just love all the different inner container options that it offers!
Here is what I had….

• pickles
• cheese quesadillas
• fresh green beans (raw)
• snack mix
• rice cake with peanut butter to spread

Now onto Mickey Mouse! We adore anything Disney related! This week was the week we were supposed to be in Walt Disney World. You can read more about why we didn’t go, HERE.
Earlier this week I received a surprise package in the mail from a very sweet friend who happens to live just minutes away from the Disney Land Resort! Mickey head pretzels!!! YAY! Naturally I couldn’t wait to use them in a lunch!
These were yesterday’s lunches packed on our PlanetBox Rovers….
These lunches were EXACTLY the same so I will just include one photo.

Here’s what they had…

• Cheese chunks on Mickey and Minnie head picks
• Applesauce in the planetbox mini dipper
• Leftover cooked carrots and potatoes
• Mickey head pretzels with sauce container of Nutella for dipping
• Nutella sandwich rounds arranged in the shape of a Mickey Head. ♥
• Also included in each tiny princess’s lunch was a Lunchbox Love Note from sayplease.com

Somethings I used to make these meals…
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Soup for a chilly day

I really can’t remember which day theses lunches came from, but I do remember that is was chilly! Tiny princess K requested leftover potato soup and even though A likes all things potato, I can’t get her to eat this soup to save my life. Crazy girl! She had some snowflake sandwiches instead. ♥

For K, I added some potato soup to her littlest pet shop thermos and also filled up a sassy box with some shredded cheese, crackers, vanilla yogurt, and half a banana. She said this was her favorite lunch yet!

Want a fun tip on how to keep food hot in a thermos? Of course you do. Who wouldn’t? This is something that I used to do a lot for tiny princess A, but for some reason I forgot all about it. That is, until I discovered MOMables. What is MOMables you ask? Well, it’s awesome, that’s what it is, but I’ll get to that in a minute. First we gotta talk thermoses….. In order to keep your food warm throughout the day simply fill your thermos with hot water (boiled water works best, but I’ll admit sometimes I just use the hot faucet water), replace the lid, and leave it sit for a good 5 minutes and heat up your desired contents, dump the hot water, add your food, lid it up and your good to go! I can’t believe I totally forgot about that trick, but I’m so happy that I found MOMables cause they reminded me again! ♥

So, I think you asked me what MOMables was right? Well, to sum it up shortly, MOMables is a preplanned school lunch menu program (by subscription), that literally takes the guess work out of the age old question…. “What should I pack for lunch?”  But guess what? It doesn’t stop at menu planning. Each week’s menu also includes awesome recipes, fabulous photos of each recipe, AND, wait for it…… A shopping list to help you plan the week’s lunches! That right there is worth it’s weight in gold!! FOR SURE!
I purchased a 3 months subscription and only wish I would have gone with a longer one. Mine is just about up and I fully intend to renew! At less that 25 cents per day I’m not sure how I can go wrong! The menus are awesome.
Not sure if MOMables is for you? Try it free for week. Go ahead, click the link. You won’t be disappointed. :)   MOMables

Alrighty, now on to tiny princess A’s lunch. Silly non potato soup lover! :p

Here’s what she had….

• honey butter snow flake sandwiches
• sweet yellow peppers with cream cheese for dipping. She doesn’t really love these, but she tolerates them just to keep her mama happy! ♥
• vanilla yogurt
• start shaped pretzels
• chunked string cheese
• packed in a laptop lunch box

Here are some things I did/used to make these lunches speical

• fun cutters are great for sandwiches
• colorful sauce/dip cups add great flair
• add sprinkles to yogurt to make it festive
• food/cupcake picks are great to help with eating finger foods and adds such sweetness
• silicone cups are also great for color and keep food separated

Some thing I used to make these lunches…

Bigger is NOT always better!

I picked up these adorable princess boxes at one of our local dollar stores.

They are pretty small compared to some of our other boxes. In fact they really aren’t much larger than your average sandwich container.

Here they are stacked with some of our other boxes. From top to bottom they are… sandwich container, new princesses container, EasyLunchbox, Laptop Lunchbox, and a Planetbox.

See that? They’re pretty small aren’t they? Of course I could have easily used these just as snack containers for my tiny princesses, but I like a challenge. Today’s lunches prove that sometimes a small lunchbox packs a big punch!!

Today’s lunches in our new dollar store small snack sized box contained, vanilla yogurt with sprinkles in an Easylunchbox little dipper, mozzarella cheese flowers, (colby jack cheese for A) bread and butter roll ups, (I tired to add a bit of food coloring to the butter for a pretty rolled effect, but it didn’t really work) bow tie pasta with swirly candy food pick, “rose” rolled salami slices held together with a “magic wand” pick, small container of parmesan cheese, a couple of princess fruit snacks, and a Goodbyn sauce container of meatless spaghetti sauce for pasta dipping.

  

One of the best “tricks” I’ve learned from packing lunch for my tiny princesses this way is that when you purchase items from the grocery store that come in individual packets, it’s OKAY not to give your child the whole pack at once. When you add enough of a variety a little bit goes a long way. For example, the princess fruit snacks. Let’s face it, fruit snacks are not the most healthy of food options, but our kids love them. Am I right? Why not pack your child lots of other options and split up the pack of snacks. This allows your child to still get what they love and not to mention makes items such as this go a looong way! For this lunch I opened up a pack of princess fruit snacks and divided them (4 each) among my girls. They’re happy. I’m happy. My wallet is happy. Now a box of fruit snacks lasts us 2-3 weeks opposed to just 1! Win, win, win!!

Some things I used to make these lunches…

What is it Wed., lost puppies, lots of tears, lots of lunches, and happy endings!

Lots to post today so I’m going to try to keep it simple and short! (yeah, right! When have I ever kept anything short?)
So, did you all see the “What is it Wednesday?” picture on the TPLB fb page? If not, or if you need a refresher, here is the picture….

What do you think it is? Keep reading to find out.( Answer is at the bottom of the post.)

Now onto some lunches….

These may not be in the exact order they were received as a couple of them contain my what is it Wednesday item. I don’t want to give it away too quick!

Tiny princess K’s lunch with inner container lids off. 11/2/12

Here’s what she had…

• Ritz crackers in a silicone flower cup
• 2 sandwich cookies in a square silicone cup. Yes, these cookies are very unhealthy, though they are true weakness for everyone of my family members and every now and then Grandma sends them home with the girls. :) Who am I do deny a treat from Grandma?
• Star Colby cheese slices in silicone heart cup
• Fruit snacks of the unhealthy variety
• Organic Vanilla yogurt with crown and glass slipper sprinkles
• Veggie straws in dollar store container
• Packed in Yubo lunchboxes

Tiny princess A’s lunch with all inner container lids on. Plus a lunch box love note! (A had the same as K)

And here is my my sweet husband’s lunch from the same day. It’s pretty self explanatory. ;) and boring!

Packed in an easylunchbox

Tiny princess A and K’s lunch 11/6/12 both the same one minor difference.

inner container lids off

inner  container lids on

Here is what they had…

• Pretzels with cream chesse
• Chicken sandwich stack. Hold the cheese for A.
• M&M’s
• Brown Cow Maple Yogurt
• Fortune cookie
• Gerber Graduates Veggie puffs
• Packed in Easylunchboxes

Here is my husband’s lunch from today. Which explains my lost dog and happy ending title. Long story short our sweet pooch AKA #thebestdogever came up missing Sunday night. We were all devastated. He is home now safe and sound so all is right with the world. The tiny princesses of course had chicken sandwich day at school, but I just couldn’t resist this pup themed lunch for my guy!

Sorry for the even worse than usual photo quality…. oh and the water spots on our planet box….. #awkward

Here’s what he had…

• Mini cheddar rice cakes
• Colby cheese cubed
• 2 little dippers of apple sauce…. cause one is just not enough.
• Candy bones
• Granola bar
• a few veggie straws
• Dog in house chicken and cheese sandwich

Finally on to What is it Wednesday!!!!

Here is a photo of the first lunch in which it was featured.  11/1/12 (a no school day for my princesses)

Can you tell what it is yet? Still kinda looks like a Jelly Donut, doesn’t it?
Here is what they had…

• Green Beans
• M&M’s (remember this was an at home lunch… don’t worry there was no mixing of the green bean juice with the yummy candy!
• Cinnamon applesauce
• Organic french vanilla yogurt
• Pretzel sticks……….

And…. A Peanut Butter And Jelly Biscuit! YUM!!

hold the Jelly for A

Here is what you need and how we made them

• 1 package of pillsbury  Grand biscuits.
• Peanut Butter
• Jelly

Preheat your oven according to the directions on the biscuit package. Open up your biscuits and separate each one at the middle to form two pieces. Set one half aside  and one half on a baking sheet. Add about 1 table spoon of peanut butter to each half that is on the baking sheet. Replace the half you set aside to each one of your peanut butter halves. Crimp the edges to seal and form just one biscuit again. Use your thumb or rounded spoon to create an intent on the top of each biscuit. Leave some alone if you have a jelly hater like me. ;) Add just enough jelly to fill the hole. Baked as directed on biscuit package. If you want to fake people into believing these are Jelly donuts you can add a glaze. (just a mixture of powdered sugar and milk) Then top with sprinkles and a dusting of powdered sugar. :)

We also had these in Monday’s lunch 11/5/12. My pictures are bad cause the batteries in my speedlite died, but you can see the insides a little better in these photos since I halved them to fit better in our Goodbyn Byntos.

Both girls enjoyed basically the same items. K got purple nerds and A got pink nerds…. oh and of course no jelly for A!

Here’s what they had…

• Organic vanilla yogurt
• Peanut butter and jelly biscuit hold the jelly for A
• Green beans
• Mini cheddar rice cakes
• Frit puffs
• Nerds
• Roasted sunflower seeds with a few chocolate covered ones on top for color.

So, did you guess correctly? I’d love to hear some of your guesses. Feel free to leave them in the comments section!

Some things used to make these lunches

Halloween Wrap Up

Well, I’m finally getting around to posting our last few lunches. Life got hectic really fast, and thought I’ve still been making lunches, it’s been hard to find the time to blog about them. :)
So, here we go!

Tiny princess A’s lunch 10/29/12

Here’s what she had…

• Halloween shaped pretzels with decorative ghost candy. (My girls don’t like to eat these so they are included solely as a decoration)
• Cream cheese for pretzel dipping and bagel spreading
• Half of a bagel
• Mott’s Medleys fruit snacks
• A few Skittles candies…. taste the rainbow!
• Vanilla yogurt with Halloween sprinkles
• Carrots and ranch

Tiny princess K’s lunch 10/29/12

Here’s what she had…

• Halloween shaped pretzels
• Half a bagel
• Cream cheese for pretzel dipping and bagel spreading
• Applesauce with vampire teeth and sprinkles
• Vanilla yogurt with sprinkles
• Veggie chips

Tiny princess A’s lunch 10/31/12

Here’s what she had…

• Carrots with spider ring. Container to the right of the silicone spider cup holds ranch for dipping.
• Silicone spider cup with string cheese worms
• Creepy vampire cream cheese bagel. Complete with candy eyes and taffy tongue.
• 1 lone chocolate eye
• Mott’s Medleys peach applesauce
• Ritz crackers
• Half of a granola bar
• Vanilla Yogurt with Halloween sprinkles

Tiny princess K’s lunch with inner container lids on 10/31/12 (here lunch contained the same items as A’s.

Both packed in our Easylunchboxes. I love these lunchboxes! They are really just perfect, but one of the main things I love about them is that even with the lid on them you can get a glimpse of the lunch. Check out this awesome picture with the top lid on of tiny princess K’s lunch! ((LOVE IT))

I also made my sweet husband a Halloween lunch in an Easylunchbox!

Here’s what he had…

• One bat and two cat peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches
• Oyster crackers in dollar store coffin container. (3 for a dollar. each contained candy to start)
• Small silicone cup with spreadable butter for crackers
• Lots of chocolate eyes
• A few cheese puffs
• Granola bar halved
• Applesauce