Best Kids Lunch Box Award from SheKnows.com!

The results of the 2010 SheKnows.com Parenting Awards have been revealed, and we’re thrilled to announce that Laptop Lunches has been named the 1st place winner in the Best Kids Lunch Box category! This award is a huge honor, and we are so excited to share the big news with all of our fans, followers, and supporters!

The SheKnows Parenting Awards were created to recognize parenting products and services that are most valued by today’s consumer. The awards were broken down into 100 different categories, covering everything from gifts to gadgets and kids lunch boxes to home & living. Each SheKnows Parenting Award nominee was carefully reviewed by the SheKnows.com team of editors and handpicked for quality, functionality, and convenience, so it was an honor just to be considered for this coveted award!

The winners of the SheKnows Parenting Awards were determined via an organic online voting process that was open to the public. Once we learned that our Laptop Lunches kids lunch box had been nominated, we reached out to you, our community, and asked for your help to spread the word and cast your votes. Now it’s time for us to say a big Thank You SO MUCH to everyone who responded! We sincerely appreciate your support!

More information about the SheKnows Parenting Awards is available at SheKnows.com. Check out the results of the Food category, and scroll down to see Laptop Lunches in 1st place for the Kids Lunch Box subcategory!

What’s Your Bento Lifestyle? We Want to Know!

We’re still buzzing with excitement about our recently redesigned website, especially the addition of our new Bento Lifestyle pages! We created these pages with all of the members of our community in mind -- students who bring lunches to school, adults who pack Laptop Lunches for work, families who take bento box meals when they’re out and about, diners who pack take out food in our reusable bento containers, and everyone else who has made the choice to live the bento lifestyle!

New Bento Box Lifestyle Web Pages

Whether you use your bento box to pack healthy, waste-free meals for School, Work, Play, Travel, Take Out, or anywhere else your life takes you, we have a Lifestyle page for you. Each Lifestyle page offers relevant information and tips about how you can use your Laptop Lunches bento box. Plus, our Top Picks gallery makes picking the right bento box a breeze! For each lifestyle, we’ve got pictures of Laptop Lunches bento options, pricing information, and direct links to our online store.

Check Out These Bento Box Lifestyle Pages:

• School Bento
• Work Bento
• Play Bento
• Travel Bento
• Take Out Bento
• Everywhere Bento

To access our new Lifestyle pages when you visit the site, simply go to LaptopLunches.com and click on any of the Lifestyle headings beneath the Good. Simple. Fun. animation box.

Share Your Bento Box Stories

We want to know… What bento lifestyle are you? How are you using YOUR Laptop Lunches? Post your comments here!

Our Lunch Box Website Received a Bento Makeover!

We’re very excited to announce the official launch of our new website, the redesigned LaptopLunches.com! With an updated, fresh new look, it’s full of helpful, easy-to-find information for visitors who are looking for ideas and inspiration for their bento lunch boxes.

Updated Bento Lunch Menus, Articles, and More
Colorful bento box photos, creative menus, bento recipe ideas, and informative articles are featured throughout the new site.

Looking for healthy, tasty ideas for packing on-the-go meals in your bento lunch boxes? Check out the 365 lunch ideas in our new Bento Menu Library, and ban boredom from your lunch-making routine!

New Bento Living Section
The enhanced search functionality and improved navigation elements of the site make it easy to find information quickly and easily. One feature that we’re especially excited about is the addition of new lifestyle pages.

Select the lifestyle option that best fits your bento box needs (School, Work, Play, Travel, Take Out, or Everywhere) to find helpful information about our bento lunch boxes, as well as a gallery of our Top Picks!

Share Your Thoughts
Have you visited our new website yet? Please take a look around and leave a comment with your feedback. We’d love to hear what you think!

Share the News
Are you on Facebook or Twitter? Please take a moment to share our big news! Thank You!

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New ThinkSport Water Bottles Added to Web Store

Thinking of buying a new stainless steel drink bottle? We've just added ThinkSport water bottles to our Web Store! So we encourage you to think, ThinkSport!

The ThinkSport water bottle is a lightweight drink bottle perfect for packing hot or cold drinks. Whether you're packing cold milk or hot tea, the double wall and vacuum seal will maintain drink temperatures for hours. This bottle holds 12 fluid ounces and is available in a natural stainless color.

Insulated ThinkSport Bottle Features:

• Eco-friendly
• BPA-free
• Made of 18/8, food-grade stainless steel
• Doesn't retain or impart flavors
• Opens in two places for easy cleaning
• Removable internal tea strainer
• Fits in the mesh drink holder on our Lunch Tote
• Double walled
• Vacuum sealed
• Made of safe, non-toxic materials

ThinkSport Water Bottle Specifications:

• capacity: 12 fluid ounces (350 ml)
• height = 8.5 inches
• outside diameter = 3 inches
• opening diameter = 1.75 inches
• weight = 8.5 ounces

ThinkSport Stainless Steel Drink Bottle Materials:

• 18/8 food-grade stainless steel, 100% recyclable
• polypropylene (#5) cap

ThinkSport insulated drink bottles pair well with any of our bento lunch box designs, especially given its natural stainless color. When you have a few free moments we hope that you will check out this great new addition to our Web Store and let us know what YouThink!

Best Kids’ Lunch Box Voting is Over – Thank You!

The voting period for the 2010 SheKnows Parenting Awards has officially closed, and we just wanted to send out a big thank you to everyone who voted for Laptop Lunches in the Best Kids’ Lunch Box category! We truly appreciate your support, and we are keeping our fingers crossed as we await the contest results, which will be announced in October.

We know how busy and hectic everyone’s lives are, especially around back to school time, so it really means a lot to us that so many of you took the time to vote Laptop Lunches for Best Kids’ Lunch Box. The community of people that believes in our goal of helping families pack nutritious, low waste lunches is so important to us. We want all of you to know that we are working as hard as we can to continue creating high quality bento lunch box products and accessories.

Lastly, we were truly excited to see so many of you, our Fans and Followers, helping to spread the word about our nomination and letting us know you voted via Facebook and Twitter! We loved reading every Tweet that used the #Vote4LaptopLunches hashtag on Twitter and all the comments you left us on the Laptop Lunches Facebook Page!

Thanks again everyone!

End-of-Summer Spread

This Week's Photo



Menu

* Whole Wheat Pita Bread
* Green Beans
* Baby Carrots
* Blueberries
* Hummus


Preparation Notes

It's clear that summer has started easing into fall. Here in California, there are still plenty of summer finds at the farmers' market, but winter vegetables are starting to appear as well. Market shoppers made sure they got their fill of summer's remaining bounty: blueberries, green beans, strawberries, and more. Lucky for us, the blueberries and green beans made it into our lunchboxes this week!

Cut the pita bread.

Cut the green beans.

Add some baby carrots.

Fill a medium container with blueberries.

Prepare some hummus (or purchase your favorite store-bought brand).

Bento Lunchbox: Baby Spinach Salad

This Week's Photo



Menu

* Baby Spinach Salad with Pecan Halves
* Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing
* Lowfat Cottage Cheese
* Berry Medley


Preparation Notes

Baby spinach is not only delicious, but it's packed with nutrients too. Prepare a simple salad with just a few ingredients, or go all out and make it fancy. Some of our favorite toppings include: avocado, red onion, cherry tomatoes, pears, pecans, radishes, crumbled goat cheese, and cucumbers. The raspberry vinaigrette tastes great on spinach and complements the berries packed on the side.

Create a spinach salad.

Prepare the salad dressing or include one of your store-bought favorites.

Add a few scoops of lowfat cottage cheese.

Drop a mix of berries into one of the medium containers.