1,000 Facebook Likes Giveaway!

On Wednesday Creative Food reached 1,000 likes on Facebook!!!!
I wanted to take the time to again thank you for liking Creative Food and for following our blog! I appreciate every single like, every reader, and every comment on this blog. Over these past few months I have watched my blog grow and it is only because of you! so THANK YOU!

Eliana is thankful for all the likes too!

I love that making Creative Food has helped Eliana eat healthier and has encouraged her to eat and try new things! When I started making Creative Food I honestly never thought I would end up loving it so much. But I do. Hubby thinks I'm borderline obsessed. But that is not the point ;) 

So to celebrate reaching 1,000 likes and to thank you 

Creative Food is teaming up with All Things For Sale for giveaway!

So what is the prize?! 

Pandas Pandas Pandas! Eliana's hat gave it away! ;)

One lucky winner will get one Panda Sandwich Cutter Mold and one pack of 8 Bento Panda Picks. A total prize value of over $18.00! I hope you like pandas ;) We certainly do in this household! My grandma loved all things panda and loved oriental decor so my mom inherited a lot of panda figurines--even a panda cookie jar! I grew up surrounded by cute pandas. They are simple adorable. I mean seriously. Have you not seen this video?

Eliana and I were so excited to try out the Panda Sandwich Cutter Mold and panda picks! We made a Panda Themed Bento in our EasyLunchboxes:

For this lunch I made two different panda sandwiches, one with oatmeal bread and the other with whole wheat bread. They were both filled with Chocolate Soynut Butter. Behind the pandas are celery leaves.

On the upper left Eliana had some blackberries with two cute little panda picks. She chose blackberries because pandas are white and black :)
On the lower left she had some cut up cucumbers with two more panda picks.

The low down: Eliana and I love the Panda Sandwich cutter mold. It is soooo simple and oh so easy to make the cutest little panda sandwiches! You simply press the bread stamp down on both pieces of bread. Choose your filling and put filling inside the panda head outline on one slice.  Put your sandwich together, place it inside the base and push the cover down. And voilà! your little panda has become a sandwich pocket! The sides are sealed and the filling stays inside (be careful not to overfill the sandwich or else the filling could ooze out!) You could also choose to just use the base and the cover and make shaped pocket sandwiches.  If you add the right details you could turn the sandwich into a bear, a pig, a frog... the options are endless :)  This sandwich cutter mold is a huge hit already with us!

(wondering what to do with those extra bread scraps after making some panda sandwiches? Save them if you don't eat them right away! You could make French Toast Sticks or you could make French Toast Casserole! or even make your own croutons!)

This lunch took less than 15 minutes to make including washing and cutting of the fruits and veggies. You could take more time and add details but I love how simple and quick it is to just use the mold. The picks are also super adorable! Take note that they are tiny and have a sharp point so they may not be suitable for toddlers. 

Here is my little panda with her panda lunch!

Eliana apparently has been preparing for a panda lunch as she has been wearing her panda winter hat all day every day the past few days. Even if it was warm out lol. It matched perfectly with her panda lunch so we had to take a pciture! Pandas everywhere!!

If you love pandas and want to make some cute panda lunches enter below!
**This giveaway is now closed**

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This giveaway is now closed!**

This giveaway closes Wednesday October 10 at 12:01 am EST. The winner will be randomly selected through the Rafflecopter and announced on Wednesday. The winner will receive an email notifying them of their win. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email to claim the prize or they will forfeit their prize and another winner will be selected.

GOOD LUCK!

A Bug's Life Lunch Part Three

This is Part Three of A Bug's Life Lunch: Muffin Tin Meal Style :)

A Muffin Tin Meal is a meal served in muffin tins, and in this case frog muffin cups.  I found these cute frog silicone baking cups at Christmas Tree Shops.  ((Please see more amazingness about Muffin Tin Meals at Muffin Tin Mom!))

This was a super easy way to this simple meal even cuter :)  Continuing through our box of Crazy Bugs Macaroni & Cheese I decided to make a Bug themed muffin tin meal. Frogs eat bugs.. so why not make a Froggy Bug themed Muffin Tin Meal?! :)

In the upper left Froggy: we have our Crazy Bugs Macaroni & Cheese

In the upper right Froggy: cut green seedless grapes

In the lower left Froggy: thinly sliced celery underneath some "ants" on a log ("glued" with Creamy Honey Soynut Butter) If you prefer "flies" on a log you could add some sunflower kernels for wings (see example here). I was out of nut free/peanut free sunflower kernels so we went with ants on a log instead :)

In the lower right Froggy: Honey Cinnamon baked Chickpeas (we take a can of organic chickpeas, rinse and drain well. Dry them out on a paper towel. Put chickpeas on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake until crispy. Toss the hot chickpeas with honey and cinnamon. Then put back into the oven for about 10 min. No real measurements of ingredients or time-- super simple and easy to do though! We have made other flavors too. It is a favorite snack of mine and Eliana's! We make a batch every other week about :))


(You can check out A Bug's Life Lunch Part One here and A Bug's Life Lunch Part Two here)

**Stay tuned for A Bug's Life Lunch Part Four!!**

Here is what I used to make this lunch:

I Link up.

Moo Cow Bento

A few weeks ago Horizon Organic sent us some goodies and we have been enjoying them! And just so you know: apparently when milk is in a milk box it tastes so much better (according to Eliana) ;)

This "Moo Cow" bento was super simple and very quick to make:

So I had needed to pack her a quick lunch and decided to use my Lock and Lock box (the exact model I believe is discontinued but I linked a similar one below.) I got the idea from Cristi at BentOnBetterLunches to put the milk box in the Lock and Lock. I love how everything fits in together so nice and snug all in one box!!

Eliana had a soynut butter sandwich (stacked) with "Moo" written out in cheese with my alphabet cutters in the upper right compartment. The "M" looks a little wonky to me but Eliana didn't seem to mind. I wonder if I used the "W" instead of the "M". Its going to drive me crazy for days but the point is she liked it.. and not that I am a crazy perfectionist...

Below the sandwich is the cucumber cow.  I sliced down the two sides of the cucumber so that it wouldn't roll around in the lunchbox. Then I used a mini cow cutter on the cucumber peel. On the left she has her Horizon Organic chocolate milk and one of her favorite treats, an Enjoy Life Chewy Cocoa Loco Bar.

It was sooo nice that this all came together so quickly. Sometimes you just need a super quick lunch. And I love how the milk box fits perfectly in here. I do mean love. Perfectionist crazy woman speaking here :)

Here is what I used to make this lunch (or similar):
   

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Yo ho ho! A Pirate's Life For Me!

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day! AND a Bento Booty Blog Hop! Arrrrr!! 
Come and celebrate with us and of course talk like a pirate! 

**and be sure to read th' whole post, despite me talking like a pirate, 
fer some info on some bento booty that ye could win**

AHOY Mateys! It be a salt-blasted dark day and a storm be coming. Shiver me timbers! So we took our pictures on th' front lawn. This here be our lunch to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day:

In this here main compartment Eliana has her treasure map cheese quesadilla. (Me got th' idea from Little Nummies! Check er out!) Me used kitchen scissors t' cut th' tortilla into a map shape. Me chose a sun dried basil tortilla since it had more of a worn treasure map feel t' it. Me then used me food writer markers and drew a map on top!

We went apple pick'n on Monday an' picked a few pears too. So me cut aloft one o' our freshly picked Asian pears an' put it with some cucumber in the upper right compartment with a treasure map pick. 

Me found a blastedly cute pirate themed cupcake picks an' wrapper set very cheap and decided to get them fer this!  They be nay reusable but they worked perfect with this here lunch. Me do prefer blithering plastic food safe reusable picks though because of course they last longer and can be reused.  ((There are some Pirate Ship Cupcake Picks that me found on Amazon and some pirate cupcake topper rings from All Things For Sale that me will keep in me mind for another time :))

What be in this here treasure chest?!

Pirate's Booty. Literally. We made a "treasure chest" out of pretzels ("glued" together by melted chocolate).  Eliana munched on the pretzels while we made this and.. avast!.. there weren't enough pretzels to make a lid on our treasure chest LOL! It works just as well me thinks! The treasure chest is overflowing with Pirate's Booty treasure and some Sixlets "pirate jewels" ((Sixlets are made in a peanut free facility!!)) 

So ye want some bento booty?

Here be th' directions Mateys:

Every blog in the hop has a piece of the map to the bento booty treasure ((a giveaway!!)) As ye go through the hop, collect the pieces and put them in the right order to find out where to enter! There are 39 blogs to visit, so 39 pieces to collect. 37 pieces will spell the URL and there are 2 bonus pieces with words on them will get you 2 entries to win! This giveaway ends on September 23 at 11:59 pm mateys. What is th' booty ye ask? You'll have to complete the entire hop and collect all the pieces to find out! :)

Here be me piece o' th' map:

Now Click on this here button to hop on o'r to Bentobloggy next (and continue to hop on through the other blogs to collect all yer pieces!)

Good luck Mateys! Fair winds to ya!

OK. So how much fun was that to talk like a pirate?! 
Eliana and I have been doing it all day since yesterday.. :-P Arrrrrr

A Bug's Life Lunch Part Two

This is Part Two of A Bug's Life Lunch: EasyLunchbox style. 

In the main compartment we have two Wilton Flower Silicone Cups filled with the Crazy Bugs Macaroni & Cheese. The flower cups are lying in some green grass (sliced green pepper and some random green peas.)

In the upper left compartment are cut strawberries for her to mix into her yogurt which is in the upper right compartment.  I added some cute butterflies cut out of organic fruit leather and placed them on top of the yogurt (if you want to pack this lunch ahead of time just make sure to add the fruit leather on top of the yogurt the day that it will be eaten. It will get mushy overnight. it will still taste good, but it may not appeal to your child visually.)

By putting the pasta in the silicone cups it makes it super easy to remove for heating purposes. Eliana doesn't like cold pasta so I was able to easily take out the silicone cups and quickly heat them up in the microwave for a few seconds :) Of course if your child will eat cold pasta I have one word for you: Lucky! hahaha I say lucky because I cannot pack cold pasta unless I know I will be able to heat it up for her :)

(You can check out A Bug's Life Part One here)

**Stay tuned for A Bug's Life Part Three!**

Here is what I used to make this lunch (or similar):
 
I link up.

Funbites Review and Giveaway!

Some readers have asked me what is a quick and easy way to add fun into your lunch? 
My answer: Try FunBites!

What is Funbites? Funbites cuts your food into perfectly bite sized pieces.  With the FunBites Cube it! you can cut food into 12 small square pieces.  With the FunBites Luv it! your food is cut into 8 geometric shapes and 2 mini hearts.

These bite size pieces are perfect for toddlers and kids.  We found it easy to use and Eliana can do it herself! You can cut through breads, pancakes, tortillas, soft fruits and/or vegetables. The options are endless. Every time we used them everything came out cleanly cut. And of course everything tastes better when it is bite size ;) 

Here is a simple Beary Bite-sized Pyramid I made for Eliana using the Funbites Cube it!:

To make this easy Beary Bite-sized Pyramid Lunch I made her a soynut butter with honey sandwich.  I used the Funbites cube it! cutter and stacked the pieces like a pyramid.  I added a bear pick on top for cuteness.  She also could use it to eat her bite size pieces if she wanted (which she did).  Using the cutter on some pineapple worked easily too.  I sliced some cucumbers and placed them below the pyramid.

And here is a simple Luvly lunch I made for Eliana with the Funbites Luv it! :

We used the FunBites Luv it! cutter on a soynut butter sandwich. Then I used the cutter on some cucumbers and some strawberries as well. 

We had a lot of fun with our FunBites ;)

I'm sure you want to make your own Creative Food with Funbites now! You could purchase these cutters for $12.99 each or $22.00 for both... OR you could enter this giveaway! (Giveaway now closed)

Creative Food is teaming up with Funbites and going to give one lucky reader their own! (your choice of either the Cube it! or the Luv it!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Giveaway is now closed Thank you for entering!**

This giveaway closes Saturday September 22st at 12:01am.  The winner will be randomly selected through rafflecopter and announced that weekend.  Open to shipping addresses only in the U.S.

**Disclaimer: FunBites sent me a Luv it! for the purpose to review it for this post.  However all opinions stated are my own**

September Savorfull Box Review

Have you ever heard of Savorfull? Well now you have. ;)

The first time I heard of Savorfull was through Keeley's review of the July box. I was instantly intrigued.  To have a monthly box delivered to our door with allergy free foods? Yes please! 

So How does it work? You can join Savorfull for one month, six months or a year and each month you receive your box delivered right to your doorstep!  Each monthly box will contain samples of food that will be gluten free, wheat free, peanut free, and dairy free.  You also receive some recipes and nutrition tips.  Then if you find something you LOVE in your box you can shop for your favorites directly from Savorfull.  See the lovely chart below taken directly from Savorfull:

Healthy, allergy free foods delivered to your doorstep for only $15 per month

Eliana LOVES the whole idea of having her own box every month. She went around telling everyone that the green box was hers because there were no peanuts in it. Ha! Thankfully she did share what was inside ;)

So what came to my doorstep?

p.s. that white packaging "stuff" is SUPER fun to play with and is perfect for crafting. Eliana played with it the rest of the day :)

The September Savorfull Box goodies!

Here is what was inside our September Savorfull box:

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats -- I use Red Mill Flax Seed Meal but had never tried the steel cut oats before. I'm planning to make some overnight steel cut oats for myself. I've always wanted to make them and now I finally will! (there is a tree nut facility warning on the label. So if you or a family member have a serious nut allergy you need to be aware of that.)

Mila The Miracle Seed -- 100% Natural Whole Raw Chia Seeds.  It is a natural source of Omega-3s, antioxidents, protein and fiber. All that goodness in one small packet! I added the packet to a smoothie. It has no taste so I got all those extra healthy goodies just added to my favorite green smoothie :)

Enjoy Life Crunchy Vanilla Honey Graham Cookies -- We *love* Enjoy Life brand. Everything is free of the top 8 allergens and made in top 8 allergen free facilities. I love that extra assurance. And plus these cookies are yummy :)

Better Batter Gluten Free Flour -- While we do not have any gluten or wheat allergies in our family we really enjoyed trying it out! I have never tried GF flour before! Eliana and I made banana chocolate chip muffins and plan to make something else with the rest of the flour left.  It turned out good! We probably wouldn't buy it again since we don't need GF flour, but it is a good GF alternative for regular all-purpose flour!

These are the gorgeous Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins we made and baked in cute Teacup Silicone Cups just for added fun! (shout out to Lunch With Eyeness for our new cups! Thank you!)

We altered the recipe from the Banana Nut Muffins recipe on the Better Batter website. We didn't add any nuts due to Eliana's nut allergy, so we replaced the nuts with one cup of mini chocolate chips. And, if I might add, what an amazing replacement ;)

In our box we also got recipes and pamphlet booklets:

I love that we got some recipes to go along with everything! 

Savorfull is making an effort to strive to provide products that are completely free from all the top allergens.  I really admire that and I commend it! While the Steel Cut Oats were not completely free of tree nuts I can still use them for myself and my husband.  I really look forward to the day Savorfull is completely free of all the top 8 allergens because that would be ideal! And is no other company that delivers allergy free products to your door like that :)

Overall we were extremely pleased with Savorfull! For us getting a monthly box of allergy free goodies is perfect to experiment with in the kitchen and also to liven up our kitchen routine.  It also introduced us to products we didn't know of or hadn't tried yet and forced us to be creative and think outside the box on how to use up our goodies. And plus Eliana loves it, so of course I love that too! :)

(See Savorfull's past tasting boxes here)

Want to try out Savorfull?

With the promo code CREATIVEFOOD you can get: 

$1 off a one month subscription,

$9 off a six month subscription or

$20 off a 12 month subscription

If you do try it out let me know how you like it!!


**Disclaimer: I received the September box from Savorfull to try out for a review.  All opinions expressed in this post are my own**

A Bug's Life Lunch Part One

So I found this awesome Back To Nature Crazy Bugs Macaroni & Cheese at the grocery store the other day... (And by the other day I mean practically a year ago.. and its been hiding in the kitchen cabinet until I found it again when I was cleaning the cabinet....yup.. guilty as charged lol) So anyways I found this awesomeness and decided to make some lunches with it last week :) 

We made the whole box and since Eliana was all about eating the Bug Mac and Cheese I used it up for different lunches for her throughout the week. This is Part One of A Bug's Life Lunch: Flower Power

This lunch was sooooo easy to make :) I put some of the Crazy Bugs Mac & Cheese into two Wilton Flower Silicone Cups.  I put celery as the flower stems and leaves.  I also put a few of the "bugs" on the plate. A butterfly flying in the blue sky.. a beetle flying near the flower and two caterpillars by the grass.

These lunches I made with this mac and cheese reminded me of spring.. and even though we are coming into the season of fall I still find them fun :)

Eliana loved this lunch and it was very simple to make :) And Eliana ate the celery whole!!!!! (She doesn't like the stringyness of celery so I usually have to slice it super thin.) Progress!!! OK so I realize that was super exciting for me haha but it was nice to not have to slice it thinly and present it in a different way :)

Don't forget to see the rest of A Bug's Life Parts 2 through 5! :)
Part Two : EasyLunchbox Style 
Part Three : MuffinTin Style
Part Four: Bento Style
Part Five: BEE Happy :)

Creative Food Supplies:

I Link up.