Honest Summer Refreshers

We love ice cold lemonade to help us cool down at the height of summer heat.  A blend of a flavorful fruit drink or tea, makes the experience even better.  Honest® has the perfect blend of our kind of beverage. Honest^® twist with organic lemons and sweetened it with Fair Trade sugar to help our farmers invest in their communities.

Summer of 2014, I was sent by Honest, their new line of lemonades, (2) of their 32-fl.oz. glass bottles of Lemonades to try as we enjoy summer with kids in our household, under no obligations to purchase or to review.  We had the pleasure to taste Mango Lemonade and Half & Half Lemonade Tea, which we think are 2 of their great tasting lemonades.

Reasons why we love them:

• They are 25% less calories than traditional lemonades on store shelves. 70 calories per 8 fl oz of serving.
• Perfect-sized glass bottles that you can store in your work place fridge that can last you a day or more, depending on your consumption.
• Caffeine-free
• Sweetened by fair trade certified sugar.
• Naturally-flavored
• Comes in 5 naturally flavored lemonades: Original, Berry Hibiscus Lemonade, Mango Lemonade, Half & Half Leamonade & Tea, and Mint Limeade.

After enjoying 2 bottles of Honest Lemonades, our family has switched to Honest Summer Refreshers.  We have served them for parties, or even as beverage at home.  We have received great feedback on them, and has been our kids' favorite choice of lemonade drink so far.  It's honestly refreshing and healthier than any other lemonade we have tasted so far.  Believe it or not, but we drink them all season round, which is why we highly recommend them at any season of the year.  We love them with shaved ice on hot days, and just cold anytime of the year.

Thank you Honest Tea Company for always sending us your new products to try.  We love them!!

If you love Healthy Eating Starts at Home, you may subscribe via email to get all my posts straight to your inbox. No spam mails, just healthy food ideas for your lunchboxes.

All bento accessories are available through Bento USA,

the cheapest and most complete online bento products in the USA.

Other bento gears are also available thru My Amazon Affiliate Link.
Thank you for your support!

If you need weekly meals straight to your inbox, try MOMables.

It's our one-stop shop when we're on a lunch rut.

Salami & Cheese Sub Kebabs

Kiddos are so fond of the sub sandwiches lately and I have to keep the lunches interesting so as they not look similar every single day.  It looks like they have an addiction to Subway Lunches lately.  Subway is quite expensive if you get them on a daily basis, keeping in mind the nitrate content of each cold cuts.  So I try to keep things at the minimum if I could.   At the most, driving all they way to whole foods market to get them the nitrate-free ones.

The other day, I posted Turkey and Cheese Subwich.  Today they asked again for another sub, but I have to be creative for my little girl, who's a little picky eater.  This time I presented it the kebab way.  This is not the first time you might have seen this across the web. As a matter of fact, this is a copycat <wink>...not my original creation, but worth the research and the hardwork to skewer them sub per sub into my flexible plastic coffee stirrer.

How did I do it?  It's pretty simple.  All you need is the patience to do them. No creative touch required, but awesome if you could spare some. Cut open the sub lengthwise, stuff it with your choice of coldcuts and cheese, lettuce if you have a stash in your pantry, olives are optional. You can add tomatoes and onions.  Cut them into 4's, and skewer 2 of the cut pieces into one skewer.  At the very end, place a pickle, a marshmallow or a grape to hold the buns tightly in place.

They both got same lunches, but Missy A has a smaller portion of this version.  Pudd'n Pouches for Recess.  Honest Kids' Juice for Missy A's lunch drink, and Organic Valley Milk for Mr. G's lunch companion.

If you love Healthy Eating Starts at Home, you may subscribe via email to get all my posts straight to your inbox. No spam mails, just healthy food ideas for your lunchboxes.

All bento accessories are available through Bento USA,

the cheapest and most complete online bento products in the USA.

Other bento gears are also available thru My Amazon Affiliate Link.
Thank you for your support!

If you need weekly meals straight to your inbox, try MOMables.

It's our one-stop shop when we're on a lunch rut.

Let's Rock the Lunchbox!

Summer break is over and hope everyone had a wonderful one.

Thank you to all those who entered my Back to School giveaway. 

It was a blast! 

Congratulations to Shannon F. and Andrea A. I hope your children are enjoying the bento goodies.

Continue to be inspired and welcome to the Bento World!

To all others, Welcome to the School Year 2013-14 of lunch packing madness.

My posts will be different this year.  It will be a round up of a week of lunches instead of daily posts.  You might also encounter individual lunch posts on special occasions, or 2 parts of a week long lunches weekly, depending on how my schedule goes.  As most of you now know, I went back working already effective May of this year.  So I won't be able to commit myself blogging on a F/T basis, while the kids are in school. As always, lunches are prepared and packed daily in the morning, and some others that can be pre-cut the night before, are done as usual.  I will be indicating, though, which were pre-cooked, pre-cut, or pre-packed.  That way, you will have an idea how to budget your time wisely when packing foods for your loved ones.  Any ideas or suggestions are always welcome on the comment section.  But they are moderated to get rid of spam, so it takes time for them to show up.

We have gone back to school officially on August 19th.  And our schedule was on a minimum day for the entire week.  The kids still get a recess in the morning, and a lunch before dismissal.  So technically, the schedule didn't help at all with my lunch-packing madness.

Honestly, I wasn't even much prepared when the kids went back to school. I have the week's menu, the gadget, but the pantry supply.  My newly married sister and her hubby were in town.  We were busy showing them around and restaurant hopping.  We forgot about the stuffs that should go inside the lunchbox. Oh no!!!



But thanks to Honest Tea, Stonyfield, Annie's Homegrown, and Organic Valley, who have teamed up with bloggers to come up with creative and healthy lunchbox ideas for their back to school project called,
"Rock the Lunchbox".

My supplies came in late in the mail, since my first shipment got lost.  But it wasn't a problem to them at all. They replaced and sent me another, as soon as their stocks came in.

The kids were pretty much amazed to see new product lines in their boxes this school year. And it wasn't just any other product, they're by Honest Kids, Annie's Homegrown, and YoKids Yogurts by Stonyfield.  Healthy lunchboxes items that my kiddos are familiar with. So the introduction was much more of a pleasure.

If I were to pack this again, I would probably pre-cut all fruits as this adds up to the time spent in packing in the morning.  You'd be lucky if you get kids up early and eat breakfast quick without being told to.  Then packing everything up in the morning wouldn't be a problem at all, and still make it out in time for a drive to school.

If you're unsure of what to pack on a daily basis, please push the Rock the Lunchbox button on topmost of my post, or here for instant inspiration.

Do you want another giveaway?
I will be hosting another one by Rock The Lunchbox sponsors.
Here's a teaser to see what's in store for you.



If you love Healthy Eating Starts at Home, you may subscribe via email to get all my posts straight to your inbox. No spam mails, just healthy food ideas for your lunchboxes.

All bento accessories are available through Bento USA,

the cheapest and most complete online bento products in the USA.

Other bento gears are also available thru My Amazon Affiliate Link.
Thank you for your support!