Back To School Essentials: Fun Food Cutters

Back to School Essentials: Fun Food Cutters

The entire month of August has been Back to School mode over here! With Eliana starting school next Wednesday (!!) I've been sharing different "essentials" lists for Back to School every week.  Not just for you.. but for me too. This is our first experience with the whole Back to School parade and I need to get myself in order! At the moment she is completely prepared for every cute lunch she will ever get... however school supplies? we should probably go out and get her folder.. and other stuff... but anyways back to the most important part about school: FOOD! ;)

Of course this list is my favorite.  Being my blog is all about creative fun food I love using tools to make fun food easier. I love how simple fun food cutters are to use and how they transform simple sandwiches in seconds!  I also do understand that this list of fun food cutters is not exactly "essential" in the same way as a lunchbox and a lunch bag is for back to school.  But here on Creative Food using fun food cutters is part of what we do! :)

In my first two editions of Back to School Essentials I went over my personal favorite lunchboxes and lunch bags.  Again I will start off by saying, even though I make creative fun food I do not own every single fun food cutter out there, nor is this a full compliation of ALL the fun food cutters out there. I'm  just sharing my personal favorites with you and telling you why I like them so much :) 

My favorite Fun Food Cutters are The Lunch Punch, FunBites, CuteZCute, Cookie Cutters (mini and vegetable cutters included) and sandwich stampers (numerical order is not in order of preference; I like all the cutters for various reasons)

1. Lunch Punch

Ever since I laid my eyes on The Lunch Punch I knew I had to have them! I don't have them all (yet anyways) but I have four sets. The sets I have are: Sand*wishes*, Match & Munch, SWEET and VRRRM! I do love the Critter Cutters set, but honestly I already have butterfly and dolphin/fish cutters. I'd just want it for the dog and elephants so its on my wish list :)

I love ALL of our Lunch punches. They are simply the easiest way to make a plain sandwich into fun food in a matter of seconds.  You simply make your sandwich and press the cutter down on top.  Eliana can use them herself and she especially loves to make the puzzle one so she can put it all together again :)

With this Easy Back to School Bus Lunch I used the VRRM! Lunch Punch cutter. I do like to add extra details sometimes, but honestly the sandwiches look great even without the details.  To do the details I take the cheese (or whatever I'm using) and press it into the mold with my fingers.  It makes a cleaner cut and ensures that I cut out what I want.  The only problem is sometimes the shapes that have a lot of extra pieces can get stuck inside the punch.  Whenever I remove my sandwich I always do it slowly to be sure not to break any of the pieces.

2. FunBites

FunBites are food cutters that cut your food into bite sized pieces.  With the Cube it you can cut food into 12 small square pieces.  With the Luv it (available in pink or red) you can cut your food into 8 geometric shapes and two mini hearts.  With the Triangles you can cut food into 8 small triangles and 2 larger triangles.

You can use the cutters on fruits, veggies, sandwiches, pancakes, french toast, pizza etc. There are a lot of options on how to use the cutter because they are so sturdy.  My particular favorite cutter is the Cube it (what I used to make my lion, pictured above) and I use it much more than the other ones. For more Cube it Lunches click HERE.

3. CuteZCute

I said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE the CuteZCute Cutter! It is a 6 piece set and the options are endless.  You get one outer face cutter and four different animal face cutters/stamps.  One side of the animal face is used as a cutter while the other side can be used as a stamp.  You also get a cute little panda pick tool that helps you poke out the food that gets stuck in the cutter. I love how versatile this tool is and I use the panda pick all the time with other cutters too!

Here I used the CuteZCute Frog on a wowbutter (peanut free/nut free) sandwich. I had decided to punch out the face details (Eliana ate the scraps) but you could leave them in and it would look just as cute!

4. Cookie Cutters (mini cookie cutters and vegetable cutters too!)

ANY cookie cutters work but I have this animal 50-Piece Cookie Cutter Set and it is amazing! They are plastic and very easy to use.  I've made Eliana lots of fun lunches with them as well. Honestly I'm not as creative without the use of my handy dandy cookie cutters.  I'd rather not cut out fun food with scissors or with a knife because it takes longer.  I enjoy the simplicity and ease of using cookie cutters. Plus I can use them for cookies too! :)

I also have various other cookie cutters, the ones I use the most are pictured below:

 nesting circle cookie cutter set, circle cookie cutter, 
star cookie cutter and nesting heart cutter set

I use the circle cookie cutters the most. And I love my nesting cookie cutters because not only do they take up less storage space, I can make fun layered sandwiches with each layer being a different size.  There are so many cookie cutters out there, so really any large cookie cutters will do for cutting out sandwiches and making lunches fun very quickly! Eliana will sometimes choose which cookie cutters we will use. I love how involved she is with all the cooking and prepping of food. I've found that having her involved has helped her eating habits tremendously.

I also LOVE my mini cookie cutters:

I have a variety of mini cookie cutters.  I love to use them on organic fruit leather and cheeses mostly.  They cut out the tiniest pieces and add such cute accents to lunches without me doing any work at all!

Vegetable Cutters are great too:

These vegetable cutters (come in small and large) are not just for vegetables! You can use them on vegetables AND other foods as well.  They cut great through cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, apples, pears, cheese, deli meats and breads.  They are very easy to use with even the hardest of vegetables because of their stainless steel edges.  I love that these sets come with cases so that storage is simple and easy.

5. Sandwich Stampers:

mini transportation sandwich cutter stamps and Angry Birds cookie cutter stamps

Sandwich stampers are a lot of fun! They are super easy to use.  You simple take your piece of bread, use the other rim to cut out the shape, and then push the design part down very hard.  You'll get a cute outlined sandwich! You can either make mini sandwiches, or use the stamps to add decoration.  They work best on bread and if you push down firmly and hard so the design is stamped well.

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So those were my favorite fun food cutters! I know I probably have too many of these... but we do use them all the time so I justify my addiction that way ;) What are your favorite fun food cutters?

Make sure to check out my Back to School Essentials: my personal favorite lunchboxes, and lunch bags.

p.s. Stay tuned for my Back to School Essentials: Allergy Friendly Snacks list next week! :)

**Disclosure: I was not compensated by any of these companies for this post. 

I created this list to share my favorite fun food cutters with you**

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FunBites Giveaway!

A FunBites Giveaway!!

FunBitesare food cutters that cut your food into perfectly bite sized pieces. With the Cube it you can cut food into 12 small square pieces. With the Luv it you can cut your food into 8 geometric shapes and two mini hearts. With the Triangles you can cut food into 8 small triangles and 2 larger triangles.

You can use the cutters on fruit, veggies, sandwiches, pancakes, pizza etc. The options are endless and the cutters are sturdy and long lasting! I'm doing a giveaway today so that one lucky winner can try all three FunBites cutters! With back to school right around the corner these would be a fun tool to use to make school lunches!

Here are some of the fun food creations I've made with FunBites: 

Using FunBites Cube it:

Here I used the Cube it (my personal favorite FunBites cutter) to make a Fun Lion out of cantaloupe, pineapple, watermelon and bread. For more details see HERE.

Using the FunBites Luv it:

Using the FunBites Luv it I made Eliana a simple lunch surrounded by some heart strawberries and cucumbers. For more details see HERE.

Using FunBites Triangles:

Here I used the FunBites Trianglesand made a giraffe.. although Eliana said it clearly was a dinosaur.. You be the judge! Either way there is a lot of potential to make some fun shapes with this cutter too! :) For more details see HERE.

So if you want to try out the latest FunBites cutter -- and make some giraffe looking dinosaurs -- look no further! ;)

Enter Below for a chance to win!  One reader will win one FunBites Cube it, one FunBites Luv it and one FunBites Triangle cutter! (**Winner will choose which color FunBites Luv it cutter he or she wants**)

Creative Food Supplies:

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway comprises of 3 (three) total FunBites cutters (one of each) for one winner. Winner can choose which color FunBites Luv it he or she desires: red or pink. This giveaway begins on 7/25/2013 and ends 8/1/3013 at 12 am. Winner will be contacted through email and will have 48 hours to respond.  If winner fails to respond within 48 hours I will draw another winner. This giveaway is for U.S. residents only.

**Disclosure: FunBites sent me their new FunBites Triangles for the purpose of a review. They also send me some extra FunBites cutters to do with what I please, so I have decided to have a giveaway!  As always all opinions expressed in this post are my own**

FunBites Giraffe.. or Dinosaur :)

FunBites Giraffe... or Dinosaur... :)

FunBites was gracious enough to send us their new product: FunBites Triangles to try out! Playing around with it I made Eliana this FunBites Giraffe!...or at least that is what I intended it to be! ;)

The FunBites Triangles cuts your food into 10 small triangles. Two of the triangles are slightly larger than the rest and you can rearrange them into lots of fun shapes for fun food.

Using our new FunBites Triangles I cut up Eliana's soynutbuttersandwich into lots of small triangles. I formed them into a Giraffe. I added a yellow bell pepper sun, celery stick "tree", matchstick carrot "flower" and sliced cucumber for the ground. It was super simple to make and Eliana loved it! ...well besides the fact that she didn't see it as a giraffe...she clearly thought it was a dinosaur but that's okay :)

Overall the FunBites Triangles work great, as do all the FunBites cutters. They cut fruit, veggies, sandwiches, etc into small pieces. Personally I still prefer the Cube it. For me I like simple, and the triangle shapes didn't seem to come very simple for me! And clearly my giraffe looked like a dinosaur ;) However there is the potential to make lots of fun shapes with the cutter!

Creative Food Supplies:

Linking up here :)

**Disclosure: FunBites sent me their new FunBites Triangles for the purpose of this review.  As always all opinions expressed in this post are my own**