FUN BITES WINNER!!

And the winner is #7 :
I "liked" funbites. trishbazin@yahoo.com


Congrats Trish!! Watch your email :)  Thank you to everyone who entered and make sure you use the code OneCoolFunBites at checkout to get 15% off your FunBites order at FunBites.com. 

The Eat Cleaner winner is.....

The winner is comment number 7 from Candy Girl!! Congrats!!

Are you ready for some football?

I had planned a really cute Super Bowl themed lunch, but then my daughter came home with the worst news: she ordered hot lunch!!! What?! Apparently they started using these really cute baskets to serve the lunch at school and she just had to try it,lol!! See, even the school knows it's all about the presentation ;)

So instead all I have for you are my Super Bowl Strawberries. Due to the colors of this years teams,these would also be great for 4th of July and Memorial Day! So file this away for those summer parties!

As you probably have noticed, I like strawberries. I think it's the fact that they are easily manipulated into different things and they are so sweet, it's like eating a dessert. You know, a dessert that is actually good for you! And well most kids love them! Now these are not as healthy but they are better than a slice cake! And they are a piece of cake to make!

Wash and dry your strawberries, the bigger the better for these.

Put some blue sanding sugar( you could use jimmies too) in a bowl

Put out a piece of wax paper for cooling

Melt white chocolate candy pieces in your double boiler. Once the chocolate is melted, dip the strawberry part way in, you want to see the red so you get the red, white and blue effect. Make sure the excess drips off and then dip the bottom tip into the sugar. Allow to cool and harden on wax paper.

And that's it!!

These are best made day of or night before as the sugar can get weird if it's stored too long in the fridge.

Hope you have a great weekend and don't indulge in too much bad Super Bowl foods and I hope your team wins!

Fun Bites ! More than just a Sandwich Cutter!

Recently I was sent a new product to try called Fun Bites. At first, I have to admit, I was thinking it's just another sandwich cutter. And you are probably saying " Jennifer, how many cutters do you need?" well that depends and  Lord knows I have a shameful amount!  But after using it for a few weeks I found it was more than just a sandwich cutter. It was a great kitchen tool!

First, a little background on the company. Fun Bites was started by a mom and I love mom companies. I mean who knows what a mom wants in a product better than another mom? Not only that, they are 100% made in the USA,  BPA free and top rack dishwasher safe. Fun Bites come in 2 designs, Cube It and Luv It.

The first lunch I did I used the Cube It. I made my sandwich as usual and used the cutter. It was very simple and cut very easily. I love the popper that is included that just pops your cubes out! I stacked up my cubes on cute picks to make it easy to eat. My daughter said she loved her little "mini" sandwiches.

The next cutter is the Luv It and my daughter wanted in on the fun. So she made her sandwich the way she wanted it. She thought it was lots of fun to be able to easily make her own design. She used food writers to "color" it. The ease of use and lack of sharp edges makes this a great way to get your kids involved in meal making. And when kids help make their meals they are more likely to try new things and eat all their food!! Here's her creation:

The other day I went to make croutons and I realized the cube it would be perfect for that. I sliced my beer bread and used the cube it to quickly make perfect little croutons. It was so fast and easy!!  This also would be a great tool to cut up meat and cheese for an antipasto salad. With the Superbowl coming up, I can see myself using this little green guy alot!!

The Luv It has lots of great geometric shapes that could be made into a million things! This morning I was in a hurry and did a quick face on my daughters sandwich. Literally took 2 seconds and I didn't have to look for a bunch of small cutters or try to free hand it.

 As you can probably tell , I really like these and I think they could be used a million ways I haven't even thought of yet! Both for cool lunches and your everyday meals.

Now for the best part! Fun Bites has graciously offered to give one of my lucky readers the cutter of their choice!!  To enter, do one or more of the following and leave a separate comment for each. make sure you include an email so I can contact you if you should win.

Mandatory entry: "Like" Fun Bites on Facebook, if you already do that counts too.

Visit Fun Bites.com and tell me what you are most excited to cut first if you win!

"Like" One Cool Lunch and share this giveaway on your wall!!

But wait there's more!! Fun Bites has given all One Cool Lunch readers a great coupon code! Visit Fun Bites and when you place your order use code OneCoolFunBites at check out to receive 15% off your entire order!! So there's no excuse for you not to have one or 2 of these!!

Contest ends on Feb. 23rd at Midnight. Open to US residents.

** I was sent a sample of this product to try. The thoughts and opinions shared on this page are mine and mine alone and I was in no way told what to say nor was I paid to write it.**

Strawberry-orange Jello Bites!

While cruising around Pinterest the other day, a place I visit too many times in a day,I stumbled upon some really cool strawberry margarita jello shots. I knew that these would make a cool lunch or snack item, all I had to do was remove the alcohol !! Easy Peasy! I used orange jello for mine but I think lime, strawberry or really any flavor you have would work as well.

To start I washed and dried my strawberries. Then I cut the bottoms flat so they could stand on their own. You only need to cut a tiny bit on most of them. I put the bits  I cut off  on my salad for lunch since I hate wasting! Then I used  my strawberry huller to clean off the tops and insides. It works great for this. If you don't have a huller a small sharp knife will work too. Next I made the jello and used a straw to easily get the jello into the strawberries. The I put them in the fridge. Once they were done I used sour apple Laffy Taffy to make the  "stems". * Do not put the "stems" in until ready to serve, the Laffy Taffy can get weird in the fridge*

My daughter who does not like jello, I know it's hard to believe their is a kid who won't eat it, even liked them!  I think they make a cute party snack as well and are perfect size for lunches!

I still plan to make the margarita ones for a Mom's Night Out sometime because even moms want a cool treat ;)


Jen

Eat Cleaner in 2012! Giveaway too!

With all the recent food scares and the growing use of pesticides it feels like it's not even safe to give your family fruits and veggies anymore! I try to buy organic when I can but let's face it it can be expensive and it's not always easy to find what you need. I started looking for ways I could make sure the healthy foods I was putting in our meals were actually healthy and I needed to do it in a economical and earth friendly way. That's when I found Eat Cleaner products.

Eat Cleaner is company that was started by a mom who shares my sames concerns for her family. So she designed a safe all natural product that will get all the gunk like wax, pesticide residue and other bacteria off your foods. And not only does it make safer for your family it also makes your food last longer!! And they stand behind their products 100% so you can try them without worry!!

I personally did my own test using an apple. I washed the apple with the Eat Cleaner produce wash and could tell the difference right way. I then cut the apple and sprayed half with the produce wash and left the other half as is. The next morning the apple that had Eat Cleaner on it was almost as perfect as when I cut it and the other side was getting brown and my family would have never touched it! I left it the rest of the day and even after almost 24 hours of siting on my counter the apple half that was treated was barely browning and my daughter happily ate it, while the other half she declared was gross! Here is a photo of the apple test as conducted by Eat Cleaner.

Eat Cleaner is also Made in the USA and has FDA approved ingredients that are safe for the whole family. They are made with a natural blend of plant-based ingredients including Citric Acid, which naturally occurs in most fruits and vegetables.Other ingredients include Sodium Citrate, a citric acid salt, Calcium Ascorbate, an antioxident that helps prolong shelf life, Sea Salt, a natural preservative and anti-bacterial, and Vegetable Glycerin. 

Needless to say I am sold on this product and have been using it for a few months now and am still very happy with it. I will continue to purchase and use this product for my family. And I hope you will try out there products as well!


Now on to the best part- A GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

The wonderful folks at Eat Cleaner want you to try their product so they have given me a great travel size pack, yes they even have a travel pack for safe food on the go, to give away to one lucky reader. Here are the things Eat Cleaner would like you do in order to win. After doing each one make sure you leave a separate comment for each thing and an email so I can contact you should you win. Contest will end Feb. 14th at noon.US residents only.

Entry Requirements:

Follow Eat Cleaner on Facebook

Follow Eat Cleaner on Twitter

Sign up for the Cleaner Plate Club newsletter and you'll also get 25% your first order!!

Watch this video and answer the following questions:

On average how many hands touch your food before you do?
Name 2 reasons why washing with Eat Cleaner is better than washing with water.

And as always like One Cool Lunch on Facebook for an entry as well. If you already do that counts too!


*** I was given a sample of this product to review and one to use for a giveaway. All views presented are solely mine and I was in no way told what to say in my review**

2012!

It's hard to believe that it's 2012 already and January is nearly half over! I have been crazy busy with the holidays and computer issues!! Now that the holidays are over and my computer issues seem to be resolved I can get back to posting! I am already looking ahead to Valentine's day and wanted to share one of my daughters favorite treats. They are super cute and so easy in fact, my daughter usually does most of the work, I always seem to get stuck with the clean up though!

Chocolate covered marshmallows! These are always a kid favorite and the best thing is you can do them a million different ways! The ones above are completely dipped in milk chocolate and sprinkles and are on a stick. Of course you could do less chocolate and sprinkles and no stick as well. It's totally up to you! No matter how you do them they are always yummy and super easy.

Here's what you need:

Bag of marshmallows( strawberry ones always make a fun surprise inside)

Chocolate candy coating ( I like Merckens, but use what you have or like best) any flavor, dark, milk or white.

Sprinkles, nuts, graham crackers. Anything you want to dip it in

Sucker sticks are optional but do make dipping easier.

Melt your chocolate. Once chocolate is melted dip the end of the sucker stick into the chocolate and then into your marshmallow. If you are not using sticks you can skip that step of course. Once the chocolate has set up on the stick you can dip the marshmallow into your chocolate either all the way or part way. Next dip it into the sprinkles or other topping you chose. Then I use a piece of Styrofoam to use to place my sticks into while the coating dries, you could also use wax paper to sit them on. Once the chocolate has harden you can store in an airtight container.  

And that's it. Instant super cute, fun and tasty treat. Let your kids do them. They will have a blast!! And they make a fun surprise in their lunch boxes too :)

Enjoy!!

Jennifer