FunBites Review, Back-To-School Event AND Giveaway!





Image from Funbites.com/

"Back to school" means a different thing for everyone, for the kids (and those new to college) it can be about meeting new people, getting older and having wonderful experiences. For parents it is about another time to pay bills and make sure that their children are getting the most out of their education, entire school experience and most definitely nutrition. Sadly, not all school lunches are made equal and a lot of times they aren't very healthy but with a little spare time you can easily pack a healthy lunch. What if your kid is still a little picky and that broccoli croquette you've presented isn't very...appetizing to them? You may not have the time to make huge bentos where everything is delicately placed and fits well 100% of the time, but you can make something that is both cute and interesting to the senses of looking and feeling. Introducing Funbites!

As with all of my product reviews, I will point out the good and the bad - as well as reasons for my point of view. Since this is also a back-to-school event I am also posting helpful tips, pictures and websites from those who have either emailed me or messaged me on Facebook, to aid those that want to jazz up their lunches.

Website Price (For Both Shapes): $12:99

Price That I Paid: $0 as I requested to review it.

The Pros: I have a love for their color and the two shapes that they come in, hearts and squares, however I only requested to review the heart shape and so I cannot verify on how the square shaped Funbites cutter will work. This food cutter is better than a few others that I have bought in bulk in which it does not break easily and you never have to worry about it rusting as it is a plastic. Plus, it makes a sandwich, rice, pancakes or other foodstuffs very neat and easy to eat with little fingers and there is no danger of them cutting themselves. I really love the hearts on the sides, and you will see me using those two the most often at home. It comes with a food pusher which is a smaller block that you fit inside of the actual cutter so that you don't have to always take a butter knife or something else and empty it onto a plate in a big mess. To help sturdy it further, it has great big handles that you can grip and use to cut and shape your food. The weight is quite heavy so that does make it harder to lose it, plus it is easy to sturdy due to the handles on both sides. The size (a bit bigger than the palm of my hand) makes it much easier to put in a place where it won't be misplaced either, plus, the reason for Funbites being made is pretty fun too. Check out their website near the bottom of their page to see just how awesome that is.

The Cons: It is quite bulky and heavy, even for me. It also makes it kind of hard for children to use unless they can push all of their weight on it. It is a bit harder to push the food through because of the way the plastic is. Some of the food that you have cut may still be in bits of the food cutter or may not be fully pushed out, which means that sometimes you do have to push it out.


Overall Overview: I would buy this food cutter although it does have its issues. I would be more likely to buy it if I had a small child in the house, but I do have a few relatives and friends with children and they are very content with it.

The makers of Funbites have not commissioned me to do this review and I am not a member of their company.




Tips, Tricks and Fantastic Blogs:

Sarah Felder of Bentoriffic and Lisa Latorre of Veggie-Bento suggest using silicone cups, trays and molds to create great little stashes of frozen yogurts, hummus and guacamole. After placing them in the molds and freezing them, you can pop them out or keep them in their molds as a sort of edible ice-pack that will keep the rest of your food at room temperature.

For grains such as brown rice, spaghetti and other pastas you can place into a cup or twirl into "birds nests" for super cute kyaraben. Any leftover fruit can be sliced and placed on tortillas with peanut butter or in a quick smoothie.

                 Bentoriffic Blog     Veggie-Bento Blog      Cute Food for Kids Blog         FunBites Blog


There are two mandatory entries for this giveaway.

1. Like Shin's Vegan Lovin' and FunBites on Facebook and share this post.
2. Follow me on Google Friend Connect on the right sidebar.

Extra Entries:
1. Share this giveaway on your blog.
2. Comment with your favorite lunch utensil.
3. Share one of my posts on Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook then link it into your comment.
4. Follow me on Twitter and tweet "I've just entered Shin's Vegan Lovin's and FunBites giveaway!" and link to this post.

Do not unfollow once this is done. Separate each post or they won't count. You may do the extra giveaways every day as much as possible until the giveaway is over for extra chances.

Make sure to leave me a way to contact you through email, and other details will be posted once you have won. Good luck!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED; WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN LATER!

Thank you all who have entered and thank you FunBites!

Marzipan Mushrooms Make Mario Move

As well as Yoshi too. These are my favorite non-humanoid characters and objects in the game, and the best part is that they're edible! Mario can't say that can he? He took one look and said "Oh no, itsa' shame, I cannot eat Yoshi once I've tired of him. Whenever I eat the mushrooms I get too big and whenever I touch the stars I move too fast and then'a die. I wish I could eat something as delicious as that." Then I said - " Your accent is absolutely horrendous and - you're real!?" True story. Oh, you want the recipe don't you?

Marzipan Recipe:
One cup of Whole Almonds
1/6 cup +1 tbl of Cold Water
1/2 cup of (Vegan) Granulated White Sugar
1 tbl of Corn Starch
1/8 tsp of Iodized Salt or Sea Salt
1/4 tsp of Vanilla or Other Extract (optional)
Vegan Milk Chocolate (optional)

Important Tools:
Candy Thermometor

First off, make sure that your almonds have nice firm skins on them so that they aren't too old and nasty. Next, boil them in hot water until they start to wrinkle like prunes (about 50 seconds). Once that has happened, throw them into some ice water and let them cool for a few minutes, they should melt a few ice cubes. Once they have cooled down and become even more water-logged, use your fingers to remove the skins completely. Pat them dry and run them into a food processor until they look like small pancake crumbs. Put them into a small bowl and rub them between your fingers so that they don't stick together too much.

Meanwhile, combine the cornstarch and tablespoon of water together in a mixing cup with the salt. Leave that to the side and combine the rest of the ingredients (except for the chocolate). Place it in a small saucepan over medium heat for two minutes, place a lid on top for two more minutes, and finally, take the top off and let it cook for about 5 more minutes. Once the lid is off, feel free to place your candy thermometor on the side of the saucepan (but in the liquid). When it has reached the softball stage (it may take a few minutes), place it in a cool area around some ice and allow them to cool. After about 10 minutes, stir it slowly and slowly pour in the cornstarch mixture first, allowing that to mix completely before dividing up your almond crumbs and spreading them throughout the mixture. Don't add any more liquid.

 Allow that to cool for about 2 minutes and then cover a plastic-covered board with powdered sugar and place the almond paste on top. Cover that in powdered sugar and roll it around in powdered sugar, then use your hands to fold it until it becomes a nice little elastic ball (similar to bread dough). It took me 10 minutes to do this, but that was because I kept running out of powdered sugar on my hands and the board. Once it has turned into an elastic ball, wrap it in plastic and store it in the fridge for two hours. Do what you like with it afterwards to make Mario proud. You can stuff the marzipan with the chocolate and then make the candies or you can do what I did, which was use turmeric for the yellow, chlorophyll for the green, and beet juice for the pink. Cocoa powder mixed with water was used for the eyes.

Enjoy!

Signed,

<3 Bou Shin <3