Somewhere "Clover" the Rainbow Bento - and "Green With Envy" yubo Giveaway

I was extremely excited to get my new green yubo lunchbox with the medium oval-shaped containers and an attachable drink holder sleeve. I already had pink and blue yubo boxes, each with a large square and two small circle containers. Plus ice packs. Now my collection is complete! Muahahaha! [Wait, what? They make orange and black boxes too? Hmmm...]

Baked Pancakes, powdered sugar; organic  raspberries, carrots, golden beets, sugar snap peas, blueberries;
Greek honey yogurt, dye-free sprinkles, chocolate coins (water in drink bottle)

Somewhere "Clover" the Rainbow: I made some Baked Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pie Pancakes using my shamrock muffin pan (this was before we went gluten-free. But I have it on good authority you can sub a GF flour mix 1:1 for the flour in the recipe!) I put some organic powdered sugar in the mini shamrock sauce container, since I didn't want to deal with the mess of syrup. Plus she's just as happy with less sugar this way!

Cloudy Skies: I packed some Greek honey-flavored yogurt in one of the small containers to be a "cloud" under the "rainbow." I put some India Tree Nature's Colors "Carnival Mix" jimmies sprinkles in the little rainbow sauce container to sprinkle on top.

Taste the Rainbow!: To make a rainbow, I used one of the medium containers and lined up some organic raspberries, orange carrot and golden beet flowers (cut with a flower veggie cutter,) sugar snap peas, and blueberries.

Pot O' Gold: I was super excited about this one! It turns out the mini Pot O' Gold I got at a party supply store ages ago fits perfectly in a small container slot in the yubo box! So I added a few gold foil chocolate coins (I found small bags both at a party store and at Target's Dollar Spot. They were by Fort Knox, and had no artificial ingredients. Not fantastic ingredients, mind you. But nothing Z reacts to.) 

I stuffed a cloth napkin inside to help fill it, plus Little Z could use it to keep her hands clean!

Also shown are my new green drink holder and a Lunchbox Love note (now available at getyubo.com too!) The cloud trivia was perfect for this lunch. Since I couldn't find one about rainbows...

Her new Thermos Funtainer bottle (Z chose the Lalaloopsy one, naturally!) fit perfectly in the neoprene drink holder. But it was a tad snug. She might have a hard time getting it back in by herself. 

What Mama Thinks

Yays

I love the versatility of the yubo's inner containers. Basically, there are 6 "spots." The large container takes up 4 spots, mediums 2, and the smalls 1. So depending on what you're packing, you can change and customize the configuration to fit the needs of each lunch! 

The different interchangeable faceplates are also super fun. They not only allow for fun changes for seasons or themes, but also allow the lunchbox to grow with your child's changing likes and cuteness tolerance.

Everything comes apart, which makes for easy washing! And dishwasher-safe is always a plus with me! I like that even the ice pack is dishwasher safe - I haven't ever seen any other dishwasher-safe ice pack.

And because they make a custom ice pack to fit inside the box, you don't need a separate insulated bag to hold everything!

Mehs

Due to their very versatility, it means that there are a bajillion parts to wash and keep track of each time. You don't need to wash the whole box and ice pack every time, unless they get goopy, but even just washing the inner containers can add up to a lot of bits to worry about. (Especially if your Hubby does the dishes and they don't all get washed in the same load, so one gets put away in the Tupperware cupboard by accident, and another gets put "somewhere with your bento stuff." But the third gets put with random stuff he doesn't know what to do with so leaves on the counter for you to sort out, and maybe falls behind the baby's bottle drying rack so you don't find it for a while... And that's if you're lucky enough that the lids stayed with the bases for each one!)
Totally worth it though, for the ability to customize.

I had a hard time with the drink holder. I love that it attaches on the outside, but because it can't be kept chilled, you're pretty much restricted to water or juice. The neoprene will insulate it a bit, and you can get insulated drink bottles too. But I still wouldn't trust putting milk in there, unless I knew that she would drink it all up at lunch time. (And that I'd remember to rinse it out immediately after she got home! But that's a keep-the-bottle-from-getting-skanky issue, and nothing to do with the holder, really.

It may have been just user error, but I also had a difficult time getting the holder attached onto the side of the box. Maybe with more practice it won't be so difficult. But the straps seem to be a bit wider than the holes, and you have to thread them through four layers of neoprene total, plus the holes on the side of the box.
And my insulated thermos was a tad large for it. And many of our water bottles are even wider. So I'd have to find the perfect bottle to fit, so she could take it in and out herself.
But - the fact that it attaches on the outside means that her drink won't get left behind somewhere, since she'd notice the empty drink holder flapping on the side! And it won't get lost somewhere in the bottom of her backpack. Nor would we need a separate bag to hold everything to keep her lunch and drink together.

The custom ice pack that fits inside the box means one more thing I need to keep in my freezer at all times - unless I plan ahead well enough to remember to put it in the night before. But it means I don't need to worry about a separate insulated bag!

I don't really have any "Boos," since they're all upgraded due to being worth the hassle!

Okay, no wait. I do have one Boo. The box is carried vertically instead of flat, so I have to plan for that when designing and packing the lunch. I can't have items that won't hold up to being tipped sideways and jostled around. Not a problem for this lunch though! And most things that might be an issue could be solved by packing a cloth napkin inside that container to help keep everything in place.

"Green With Envy" Giveaway!

You know you want one! So in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, yubo has offered to send one lucky winner a GREEN yubo lunchbox set with a non-personalized faceplate of their choice! (Set includes outer box (including lids and handle, of course!) and ice pack, plus one large and two small inner containers!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I received the green yubo with "Peace" faceplates, three medium containers, and a green drink holder from yubo to review. But I said "Heck, yeah!" because I really love these lunchboxes! I'm at the point now where we have so many bento boxes, I have to really want it to allow another one into my home, no matter how free it is! I'm no longer so cheap and easy!

Tools of the Trade
You can buy yubo, yubo accessories, and Lunchbox Love notes at getyubo.com!

 

      

       

Follow the Yellow Brick Road - The Great and Powerful Blog Hop

To celebrate the release of the new Oz movie, Bento Bloggers and Friends is doing a Wizard of Oz themed Blog Hop! (Hey, who am I kidding. We don't really need a reason to come up with themed lunches!)
Not only that... we'll be doing TWO Blog Hops! One today (Thursday,) and another tomorrow, the day of the movie release! There will be different lunches in each hop, and we split them up to make them each small and manageable to go through in one sitting!

So have a heart and scroll down to check out the story behind my lunch for Little Z, then click your heels three times and hop to Mommy + Me Lunch Box for more Oz fun!

Fly my pretties, fly fly! to see more of my OZ lunch for Little Z in our PlanetBox! I went with the MGM movie version for the most part, because it is the most familiar not only to me, but to pretty much everyone else in the history of ever.

Organic cheddar cheese; organic carrots, Chioggia beets, edamame; dye-free candy-coated sunflower seeds,
organic strawberries, gluten-free cinnamon raisin bread with Sunbutter and (GF) Barbara's Multigrain Puffins cereal

Somewhere Over the Rainbow: In the little treaties compartment, I put some natural-colored candy-coated sunflower seeds from Trader Joe's, to represent a rainbow.

We Welcome You to Munchkinland: I had a mini gnome cutter (I found mine on eBay) and thought it would be perfect to make pseudo-Munchkins! There are actually six gnomes Munchkins cut out, so it's almost a whole slice of cheese in there.

Ruby Slippers: Although the magic slippers in the original book were silver, MGM chose to change them to red because they were more visually stunning. I agree! Plus I had this convenient Ruby Slippers bookmark cupcake topper from my friend Deb at iPackLunch!

Out of all my fun lion picks, I chose the screaming lion - because he's cowardly, yeah? I couldn't think of anything quick and easy for the scarecrow or tin man, so I left them out. I really only stuck a lion in there because it was just so easy. And the screaming picks (or laughing or singing... your call) just crack me up!

Poppies!: I used a small flower veggie cutter on some organic carrots and Chioggia beets from my weekly farm box. The poppies in the movie were red, but I didn't think Z would buy it if I tried to pass off the bright finger-stainy beets as "sweet carrots," like I do with golden and Chioggia beets. *wink* I love those gorgeous stripes!

I thought the organic edamame pods made nice "leaves" peeking out from underneath. Plus even if she refused to eat the "carrots," she'd probably eat the soybeans! 

Follow the Yellow Brick Road: I made the sandwich with some new gluten-free cinnamon raisin bread (ours was made by a local bakery, and I buy it at our weekly produce pick-up at the farm.) Because we were headed to Baby's nut-free preschool, I chose Sunbutter instead of PB. And really I was stumped for Oz lunch ideas until I thought of using our new Barbara's Multigrain Puffins cereal to make the bricks for the yellow brick road! 

I used alphabet picks to spell "OZ" (I have two sets, and happened to have both letters in the same color between the sets!) 

Fly, My Pretties! Fly! Fly!: My favorite part of this whole lunch are the flying monkeys! I used my "cheeky" monkey picks stuck into the side of the bread and added wing picks underneath them. I bought two sets with the monkeys to get two different color combinations. Yayyy! [Look closely. You'll see why we call this set of picks the "dirty koala" set!]

Z-omewhere Over the Rainbow

Despite her refusal to wear any other wig that she's made me buy, on the grounds that they are too itchy, she picked out a Dorothy wig on clearance after Halloween. And she loves to wear it - she even wore it to school one day, and made it almost two hours before taking it off! The itch does bother her eventually. But she's willing to power-through because she loves this one so much, for some reason.

So to celebrate her Wizard of Oz lunch, she wanted to wear her Dorothy wig. She's seen the movie once, at Nana's house, but that was a while ago. And somewhere along the line I picked up a used copy of a short picture book of the story. I can't find it online, but the pictures look so familiar, I could swear I had that version as a child. Heck. It could even be the one I had as a kid. I did get some of our kids books from my mom. So we've read that a bajillion times. 

Anyway, once she had the wig on (and I had to pull her hair back, since for the first time ever, she was upset that her hair was showing under,) she needed a "beautiful dwess." So we dug through her dress-up chest and she found a princess dress from her Auntie Casi (also Halloween clearance, except even better, since Auntie worked at the store seasonally, and got an extra discount! Scoooore!)

Then of course she needed the crown... and wings...

She threw them down for the photos, but she also had some cheap pompoms I got from Dollar Tree, and was waving them around and making up cheers. Fanciest Dorothy EVER!

Tools of the Trade

       

   

Going Gluten-Free! (Week 1)

Without getting into all the gory details, the girls and I have been having some GI issues for a while (almost 20 years for me!) and I've been thinking about trying us on a gluten-elimination diet 6-week trial to see if it helps. Z had been complaining of tummy aches roughly once a week for a while. Then twice a week. And lately, almost every day! So I talked with her about trying a special diet that might help, but it would mean a lot of changes. More foods we'd miss out on. And the substitutes might taste or feel very different. She wasn't willing to give it a go right away. I figured she'd hold out for at least a month. Nope. Around a week, apparently!

Monday, February 25 to Sunday, March 3

Monday - Day 1 - I was unprepared when Z told me that morning that she was ready to try not eating gluten, since her tummy still hurt. I was waiting to try a gluten-free diet until she was on board, since it would be hardest on her to give up the things she was used to, especially after having to do the same to go artificial-free.
As it happens, I had already packed wheat pancakes into her lunch that day, and she was eating some kind of wheat-y cereal for breakfast. Doh! So I packed her a gluten-free afternoon preschool snack, and we started from there.
She ended up not eating most of her lunch pancakes, but Baby swiped them.

For dinner I picked up a gluten-free pizza at Naked Pizza - and all-natural pizza place nearby. Even their fountain sodas are all-natural! [Since our symptoms are fairly mild, and definitely not allergies, I'm not going to worry about avoiding exposure to other gluten ingredients in restaurants and facilities and such at this point.]

Tuesday - Day 2 - I messed up and put some gluten-y Ranch Peas in Z's afternoon snack, and I slid and pigged out on some minty chocolate cookies. And baby fished a reeeeally old cupcake out of the compost and ate most of it before I caught her. Do-over?

But we discovered that we all really like the Udi's whole grain bread and bagels (I've found them at Safeway, Trader Joe's, and Fred Meyer so far.) Well, maybe not the baby. She's been rejecting all the gluten-free breads. Except she took a few bites of garlic toasted bagel. Although to be fair, the GF rosemary bread I bought at a local bakery was pretty blah. Z and I didn't like it either. But Z exclaimed when trying a toasted slice of Udi's with butter and garlic powder on top, "Even the CRUST tastes good!" High praise indeed!

But I did get a "Mama! I've been glu'en fwee for TWO DAYS and my tummy STILL hurts!" Poor baby.

Wednesday - Day 3 - Baby's first challenge. We all went to Baby's co-op preschool, where the babies all cadge food off the other mommies. So I had to remain diligent and not let her panhandle gluten foods. And then I had to remember not to let us eat the baked goods brought for the parents. I'm going to need to bake up a batch of something to freeze and thaw for Wednesday mornings!

Thursday - Day 4 - Nothing exciting.

Friday - Day 5 - Our first challenge: Birthday Party! I wasn't prepared to bake gluten-free cupcakes yet, and Hubby was working late all week. He's my batter mixer. Otherwise anything I touch feels chewy or tough instead of fluffy.
But I found Kinnikinnick GF chocolate-dipped donuts (frozen) at a local natural market we stopped at to find an acceptable substitute for birthday cake. Those plus the leftover GF pizza from Monday (the party was at a pizza place) and we were good to go! I got half of Baby's donut, and oh my, was it goooood!

Birthday party dinner and "cake" for both girls: Gluten-Free Naked Pizza leftovers, Emergen-C drink powder packets,
Plum Organics Puffs, Kinnikinnick chocolate-covered donuts, black olives

Saturday - Day 6 - No slips or new discoveries. Except Baby and I started exhibiting some "movement," which could just be cyclical, or might be related. And Little Z said her tummy hadn't been hurting for a bit. Yay!

Sunday - Day 7 - At Little Z's Little Gym class, there were some other little ones out in the lobby waiting with us, and one family had Cheetos Puffs. And they let their 1-year-old and 3-year-old run around loose with them, so they were scattered all over the floor. I didn't want to look like a judgy jerk and pick them all up, so I just kept a good eye on Baby to redirect her away from them. Except then Z came out for something and I got distracted! Doh!
I took them away from her, and got coated in orange oily smoodge in the process. Bleck. I was actually more concerned about the dyes, but that sounds judgier, so I said I wasn't sure if they had gluten in them and didn't want Baby to get sick. (As it happens, Cheetos Puffs don't have gluten. But the artificial colors and flavors are enough to turn me off!)

We discovered at our weekly shopping trip at Trader Joe's that their dye-free Easter bunny gummies and jelly beans treats that I've been looking forward to getting all year have wheat in them. Argh! But we found some gluten-free jelly beans at another all-natural grocery I just discovered near there. Where we also enjoyed a gluten-free lunch at their deli!

And as it turns out, the garlic fries I'd bought at Trader Joe's and made for dinner also had wheat in them. Don't know how I missed it! I really need to keep their gluten-free products list on me at all times when I shop there! (You can pick one up at customer service!) So now we're all starting all over. *sigh*

Have A Very Seussical Day!

To celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss, I threw together a quickie muffin tin meal lunch for Little Z. I knew I wanted to use my fishy cups, so I needed a round cup muffin tin. The only round 6-cup muffin pan I have is crusty and old, so I spruced it up with colorful silicone muffin cups.

Clockwise from top left: GF Mac-n-Cheese,  dye-free yogurt, strawberries, blue corn tortilla chips, guacamole, snap peas

Flootery Snoots: The girls and I are trying a 6-week gluten-free diet, to see if it helps some... erm... GI issues. So this was our first experience with gluten-free pasta. I had heard good reviews for the Trader Joe's rice noodles mac-n-cheese, and stocked up. It was pretty good. The noodles were a bit stickier, so I had more noodle clumps. But the taste and texture were great. And the cheese sauce had the same nasty tang I hate from the dye-filled Kraft stuff, so the girls loved it! Haha!
Since this was a Seuss-y themed lunch, Z insisted that it couldn't just be called macaroni and cheese, since it isn't in the stories anywhere. So I made up a name for them, and told her they were all the fancy tube-y bendery things in the illustrations.

The Cat in the Hat goldfish pick came from a friend. No clue where she found it!

Rainbow Goo: Trix yogurt was on sale, plus had a store coupon, plus a manufacturer peelie coupon on the package, so I couldn't pass them up. Little Z has been asking for "the rainbow yogurt with the rabbit on it," and since it's artificial-free, I'm not opposed to it outright. I'm not in love with all the processed sugars, but I will support the companies TRYING to make stuff safer, when I can.

I chose a little animal spoon with an elephant on it to represent Horton.

Red Fish, Blue Fish: I love these cups, and got them specifically for a Seuss-themed lunch! A friend found them at Christmas Tree Stores and mailed them to me. Woop!
Organic strawberries for the red, and I made them sticking up, to kind of look, I dunno... Seussery, with all the humps and lumps.

For the blue fish, I used some gluten-free Whale Tail Blue Corn Tor"chia" Chips. I had initially got a little sample bag in one of my foodie boxes, but found a larger bag of them plus the yellow ones at Home Goods (like TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Ross, etc.) When I was first planning this lunch out in my head, I was just planning on making mac-n-cheese and missing out on doing a Seuss lunch this year, but I had to push the whale chips aside to make room on the stove, and something went *click.* Blue fish... red fish blue fish... This just might work!
When I asked Z if she'd like some of the blue whale chips in her lunch, she asked for guacamole to go with. Done!

Star-Bellied Peas: I was in a hurry, since I hadn't even started making lunch until after lunchtime, so I couldn't quickly think of anything cute to do with veggies. I cut the organic sugar snap peas open, since they look cooler that way. Like a whole family of Whoville heads peeking out. And then a star-shaped silicone cup, as a nod to the Star-Bellied Sneetches.  

The Grinch: I thawed a frozen Wholly Guacamole 100-Calorie pack (I keep them in the freezer to last longer) and snipped a corner to squeeze it into the silicone cup. I used an animal-face nori punch to make the mouth and nose out of some nori, and then hand-snipped some quicky little scraps to be pupils. I used two yellow candy-coated sunflower seeds from Trader Joe's (no artificial ingredients) and used my bento tweezers (stainless steel so I can put them in the dishwasher when they gett ooky!) to get some guacamole on the "pupils" and place them on the candies.

Not the best Grinch ever. But pretty good for under 2-minutes!

...although she thought it was the Cat in the Hat, and the whole tin should have been themed that way. "Mama, you forgot Thing 1 and Thing 2!" Doh!

Find more Seussical inspiration at Bento Bloggers and Friends and AllThingsForSale!

 

Tools of the Trade

    

Quick and Simple On-the-Go Breakfast Options for Disorganized Mamas!

I'm not exactly known for my time-management skills... Just ask Little Z's bus driver and Little Gym teachers! They're visibly shocked when we arrive on time or even early (that one time...) Z and I are both night owls, and slow to get going in the mornings. But now that I have to have her fed, dressed, and out the door before 9am, we've had to change our habits some.

It takes Little Z some time to even be ready to start eating after waking up, which is a luxury we no longer have. She usually sleeps until 8 or 8:15, which gives us a very narrow window. She doesn't have her usual 30-minutes to sit there like a zombie as she's waking up. And it's like pulling teeth to get her moving. So I've had to be a bit creative with breakfast options.

Plus with trying to get the girls fed and ready, there's no time for Mama to eat! I have to grab something I can quickly gulp down in the car at stoplights!

Mama On-the-Go

My bag - clearly my life is orderly and well-planned! Ha!

My usual grab-and-go breakfasts are chewy bars or yogurt. Since the girls and I are currently trying a gluten-free diet (long story - blah blah stomach stuff, blah blah potty issues, etc etc) all my chewy bars had to hit the road. So yogurt it is!
I prefer Greek yogurt for several reasons. It's supposedly healthier than regular yogurt, with more protein and vitamins. Plus it's apparently lactose free (or 98% free - good enough for me!) But most importantly, I prefer the thicker texture; less drippy when trying to feed a baby, less drippy when trying to eat in the car while driving stopped in traffic, and less drippy wherever the 4-year-old happens to be eating it!

I love shopping at Safeway over the other grocery stores near us because they not only have a better selection of the types of foods I buy (like yogurt,) but also a ton of organic (and therefore dye-free and non-GMO) produce and packaged items. And I can find free-range eggs in a pinch, if I can't wait until my next trip to the farm. Plus now I'm discovering their wonderful selection of gluten-free items!

And they have better sales and coupons than the specialty stores!

The Dannon OIKOS Greek yogurt single-serve containers are on sale this week at Safeway at 10/$10, so I decided to give them a try! None of them contain artificial petrol-derived ingredients, so they are safe for my whole family! As an added bonus, there were three cups left of Vanilla flavor that had 50% off stickers due to a short expiration date! Scooooore! These stickers usually stack with a sale price (and manufacturer coupons, if you have any,) so are a fantastic value! As long as you can go through it fairly quickly! Um, no problem!

I usually buy large tubs and dole out my own single-servings, but the flavors are pretty limited. There is usually a wide assortment of unique flavors in the single serves. And sometimes I just need to be able to grab a cup and run out the door. So I try and keep some of each on hand.

I've got to say the vanilla was a big hit. Everyone agreed how tasty it was. Sadly, I won't be buying Dannon's OIKOS again. The tubs they use are #6 plastic, which, while deemed "safe" by the FDA (who is totally looking out for our welfare *eyeroll*) also happen to emit carcinogenic chemicals. Oh goody.
I was disappointed, but not as upset as when I discovered that Gerber's microwave meals for babies and toddlers use plastic #7. You know. The one that releases BPA! (!!!)

[Here's how I remember the truly food-safe plastics - "Four, five, one, two - all the rest are bad for you!"]

On the plus side, I discovered that there's also an organic Stonyfield OIKOS assortment. It has been very hard finding organic Greek yogurt at all, much less flavors other than "Plain." (Thanks to dairy farmers feeding their cows dye-filled junk, I try and avoid non-organic dairy products, as I've heard that the dyes can transfer through the milk. And there's no way to know which farms do it and which products use milk from those farms.) And Stonyfield uses plastic #5, which is pretty much the safest one there is to use for food. Did I mention they were on sale too? In fact, most of Safeway's yogurt selection was on sale. It was hard to resist, but I only have so much room in my fridge, and we can only eat so much yogurt per day! (I did break down and buy some Trix yogurt as a treat for my girlie. She's been asking for "that rainbow yogurt with the rabbit onnit," and since they use natural colors and flavors, I like to support them. And there's an extra coupon in the Safeway flyer, plus you can often find manufacturer coupon peelies stuck right on the packages.)

Since I'm tethered to my car all day, I can just grab a yogurt and a spoon, and then bring it back inside when we get home to toss the spoon in the sink and rinse out the cup for recycling. My husband, however, rides the train to work, and doesn't want to be dragging around a cup with yogurt residue all day. Plus he can't be trusted to bring spoons home. Or pens. Or nail clippers...

Dadda On-the-Go

Safeway has a large variety of breakfast items on sale with a big Buy 4 Save $4 promotion, in preparation for National Breakfast Week (March 4-8.) A ton of cereals, chewy bars, juice, and more! Since all the Kellogg's and General Mills cereals either contain artificial ingredients or gluten, they were a no-go for us.

Packing cereal to-go kind of poses the same problems for Hubby as a yogurt would, so he does better with dry items, like chewy bars or Pop Tarts. 

Every flavor of Pop Tarts either has artificial colors (and flavors,) or  for the few that don't, a petrol-derived artificial preservative (BHT, BHA, or TBHQ.) So I got him a box of the Apple Cinnamon Nutri-Grain bars. It's the only variety without artificial colors or preservatives. There are still artificial flavors, so these aren't something I'd normally buy. But since you can't ever tell which artificial flavors contain petrol-derived ingredients, and he'd be eating them away from home, I made an exception! 

The Nutri-Grain bars are regularly $3.99 per box, and with a sale price of $2.99, plus a promotional price of $1.99 if you buy 4 participating products, that's quite a deal! And you can usually find manufacturer coupons floating about - either in a weekly mailer, the Sunday paper, printed on the box of other Kellogg's products, or printable online - for even bigger savings!

I didn't really have any coupons (I either have time to find, save, and clip coupons or shop - not both!) But with the OIKOS on sale at 10/$10 and Rise and Shine With Savings Buy 4 Save $4 promotion, I still managed to save a fair chunk off my total purchase!

Kiddo On-the-Go

I've been loving these reusable food pouches that are coming out. They're great for making your own squeezy fruit pouches to send in lunches or as a snack instead of those disposable ones. Or kid-friendly smoothie pouches. 

But the easiest for me (and therefore my favorite use) is to make pouches of slorpable yogurt! 

Easy to fill with a spoon or funnel (the Greek yogurts are thick - they need a spoon!)

There are several reusable pouch brands I've found online, and they come in an assortment of sizes, but the two brands I have are Little Green Pouch and Squishy Snak Pak. I like the former as it holds a bit more, and the latter because it has a window, so I can see what's inside. Because sometimes I forget!
The big tubs of yogurt are great for these, but if I have time and plan on offering one of the single-serve flavors anyway, I like to fill the pouch so I can wash and recycle the container, rather than see it get tossed once she gets to school. Or worse yet, find it in her backpack a few days later... (If you happen to find a pouch later, the lid keeps it from getting too nasty inside, and they're still easy to clean with a bottle brush and the top rack of the dishwasher! Not that I would know...)
It's also an easier (and less messy) way for Baby to feed herself in the car on the way to our morning activities. Because sometimes it's a matter of Mama getting a shower or Baby getting breakfast before we leave, and I can't exactly shower in the car!

Plus when I use up smaller containers, I get to lick up the leftovers! Hey, I'm a mom. My 5 major food groups are: kiddie leftovers, kiddie rejects, crumbs from the bottom of a box (or in this case, yogurt,) no-longer-warm food, and previously licked or chewed items shoved into my mouth by the baby. And then there's the "binge on junk food because I'm starving and too tired to make something" food group. So trust me. Licking out a yogurt cup is like fine dining!

These pouches are great in general for muss-free yogurt eating, as well as an easy way to take yogurt to-go. No messy spoon ooking up the inside of a lunch bag or backpack. The cap goes back on and seals off any leftovers. Easy! If you're a planner (ie: not me) you can pack up a week's worth at a time for your family, and store in the fridge for a quick grab-and-go meal or snack. Or store some in the freezer to use as ice packs in lunches - they thaw by lunch time!

But I mostly use them for an "Oh crap! We need to get to the bus stop! Why didn't you eat your cereal? Argh! Okay here, eat this on the way!" breakfast option. That's how we roll.

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Check out my whole Safeway shopping trip experience (with cute Baby photos!) and gain a little peek into my random and unorganized shopping process, and a little about what I look for and why I buy (or don't buy) certain products.

See Safeway's Rise and Shine With Savings for more of the Buy 4 Save $4 and other breakfast item deals! And be sure to visit Kellogg's Share Breakfast page - for every share via the social media links provided there, they'll donate one breakfast to a child in need!

I am a member of the Collective Bias (R) Social Fabric (R) Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias (R) and Safeway. All opinions are my own.