the lunch box blog

new flowers personalised lunchbox available.

2010-03-05T13:20:00.000-08:00

Our latest personalised lunchbox design is now available to order on lunchboxesetc. Bowing to customer opinion that the under the sea lunchbox was not girly enough (neither is the monster lunchbox, or the robot lunchbox apparently) we have created a flowery graphic lunchbox that can be personalised with your name:

Or any other phrase if you want! Only £12 plus p&P an exclusively from www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk

New Personalised lunchbox design now available - Robots

2010-02-18T06:01:00.000-08:00

We now have a third personalised lunchbox design available for purchase. Our new robots lunchbox design is a very cool retro sci-fi style - think metal mickey, lost in space, buck rogers; that kind of thing!

You can choose from a range of lunchbox colours (click through for examples) and you can personalise the lunchbox with any message you want, not necessarily a name! As with our other personalised space lunchbox and personalised under the sea lunchbox the price is £11.99 plus P&P.

We now also have the facility to simply print a message or name onto a blank lunchbox so, if you want to keep it super simple you can! For example we recently produced this box for a customer

who was having some problems with hungry colleagues at work!

We can add your own photos to the front of our lunchboxes, all you need to do is email us the photo file using your order number as a reference in the email title and we will do the rest. For best results it is important that the photograph is at least 2370x1772 pixels in size to allow us to crop it to fit the lunchbox. Message lunch boxes and photo lunchboxes are priced at £12.99 plus P&P. All these items and many more lunchboxes can be found at http://www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk/.

new products - ella's kitchen snack o packs

2010-02-02T00:29:00.001-08:00

New in stock this week on our sister site www.kiddieskitchen.co.uk (the baby food site) are some new organic snack packs from Ella's Kitchen. I'll be posting full details of the ingredients shortly but for those who already know all about the chompy one, the chewy one and the crumbly one, they are now available to order. Each pack contains 5 separate pyramid packs of tasty and healthy dried fruit and nuts. Perfect for popping into a lunch box for a treatat lunchtime!

We'll be adding them to the lum#nchboxesetc.co.uk site shortly as well, so watch this space for more details.

I was right - personlized lucnhboxes are a big hit!

2010-01-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

I'm delighted by the response to our two new personalised lunch box designs. It has put me in mind to invite designers out there to submit their ideas for new designs. The way it would work would be that any finished designs accepted by us to sell on the website would earn a per-sale commission to be paid to the designer in perpetuity. As we already sell several thousand lucnhboxes each year you can see how the amounts payable for a really popular, big selling, design could really mount up.

I'm still in the process of writing the specifications and the rules but essentially any designs submitted would need to be approximately 20cm wide by 18cm high and of sufficient resolution to be printed. All designs need to have an area where we can insert a name for personalisation.

If there are any designers or illustrators out there that want to submit designs just contact us through the lunchboxesetc.co.uk website.

New Products - Thermos stainless king vacuum flask

2009-11-17T12:56:00.000-08:00

Our latest delivery from Thermos included a couple of great new products, the first of which is already live on the lunchboxesetc website. The thermos stainless king flask is a superbly engineered flask. At just under 500ml capacity it is big enough for a round of coffees or teas at the top of a mountain and will keep said drinks hot for up to 12 hours.

Full stainless steel construction means there is no traditional glass liner to shatter under rough treatment and means the flask is lightweight aswell as being extremely tough.

Take a look at this great new thermos flask on lunchboxesetc.co.uk

Hot packed lunch ideas for autumn...

2009-10-17T03:37:00.000-07:00

With the indian summer we enjoyed through September now a distant memory our thoughts at lunchboxesetc are turning to some exciting ideas for hot food packed lunches that are perfect for autumnal lunchtimes.

The first thing is to make sure that you have the right equipment to keep your food hot safely - Thermos make several vacuum food flasks that are designed specially to keep food hot for up to 7 hours making them perfect for taking hot food out with you.

For grown-ups or kids with adult sized appetites you can try one of the 500ml sized flasks. For kids choose either the Thermos Funtainer or the Thermos Foogo Food Flask and if your all going out together then why not take the bigger 800ml food flask which would hold enough for a couple of adults and kids.

All of these flasks feature a wide mouth so that you can eat directly from the flask, so you don't have to take bowls.

The flasks all work most successfully with stews, casseroles and similar types of meals. So next time you are going out for the day or taking the kids to school why not try taking a chilli, or bolognese or a warming stew in a food flask and treat yourself to lovely hot homemade food at lunchtime.

Don't forget that the smaller food flasks are great for taking baby food out with you as well! Alternatively take a pouch of organic baby food out with you and get the cafe to heat it up for you. Check out the huge range of organic baby food available at the Kiddies Kitchen Baby Food Delivery Service!

Personalised lunch boxes new and now available to order

2009-09-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Its taken some time but at last our first two personalised lunch box designs are online and available to order. You can have your name inserted into one of our funky and fresh designs (choose from either an under-sea theme with mermaids, submarines and stuff or an outer-space one with aliens and rockets).

Because each one is printed to order we need up to 14 days to process your order but, believeme, the finished article is a great looking yet practical unique lunch box and will delight any youngster!

Our personalised lunchboxes are available at £11.99 each from http://www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk/.

our new sister site - nappyrush.co.uk

2009-08-04T06:36:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I think I have a good idea and set up another website. this year its www.nappyrush.co.uk. We have been using real nappies at home ever since our first son was born and, of course, we also sell them in our shop (Kiddies Kitchen - the baby food shop), so the next logical step was to set up a separate website specialising only in cloth nappies and reusuable nappies and all the gear that goes with them.

Using real nappies can save you hundreds of pounds compared to the cost of disposables and is a huge reduction in landfill and refuse.

Check out our new website for motherease, wonderoos, totbots and other bestselling ranges of cloth nappies.

2009-07-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

The thought of packed lunches seems to throw even the most organised of us into a state of dispair. The pressure to come up with a varied,interesting and nutritious lunch early in the morning whilst trying to get the kids out to school on time and with all their PE kit and homework can be too much and the temptation to slip into a rut and provide the same dull food 5 times a week can be too easy to avoid. However with a little forethought a bit of planning and some suggestions from our series of lunchboxesetc.co.uk guides to packed lunches you should be inspired.

Scientific evidence suggests that there is a link between diet and academic performance with poor diet seen to lead to concentration problems, and a increased likelhood of illnesses such as colds. Children who eat regular healthy meals tend to have more energy, better learning skills and a lower obesity rate. It seems obvious therefore that a healthy nutritious packed lunch is going to benefit your child in all sorts of ways.

We hope that our series of articles will inspire you in the ways of a healthy packed lunch. This first article looks at the basic tips for choosing your lunchbox. Future articles will suggest some quick and healthy recipes perfect for popping in the lunchbox.

Step one: Choose your lunchbox

Step one, but not necessarily an easy one. Lunchboxes have to be roomy enough to hold the right amount of food for your child, robust enough to prevent damage or leaks and cool enough to withstand scrutiny from the peer group.

There are thousands of different designs but my top tips are as follows:

Beware heavily branded lunchboxes - they might look great but when the next fad comes along that once cherished film-tie in lunchbox will be in the bin quicker than a dirty nappy! We bought a plain plastic lunchbox and let the kids go to town with stickers, modelling paints and whatever else they wanted to personalise their lunchbox.

Go PVC free - Current health standards in the US have raised concenrs about some soft lunchboxes that are made from plastics containing lead and PVC, both of which should be avoided in food containers. There are several manufacturers that advertise lead free and pvc free insulated lunchboxes. Check out our Crocodile Creek lunchboxes range by way of example

Insulate if possible - An insulated lunchbox is a great way to ensure that cooked meats, dairy, seafood and salads can be kept cool until lunchtime. Alternatively a mini ice pack or a frozen carton of juice will do the job. Thermos is a big name in insulation and we have a great range!

Go for an easy to clean model - One great advantage of hard plastic lunchboxes over the soft insulated lunchbag is that invariably the former is much easier to clean with fewer nooks and crannies than the latter. Some plastic lunchboxes are even dishwasher safe.

Size matters - make sure that your lunchbox is big enough to hold a drink bottle or flask in addition to fruit and the main meal.

Think seasonal - OK so its not a lunch box but a small thermos flask or food flask is a real boon in winter. Food flasks are generally wide necked so that you can eat hot food such as stews directly from them. A flask of around 350ml capacity is enough for a portion of hot and filling soup that will be a great treat in the middle of winter.

So there you go our six top tips for choosing a lunchbox - my personal indispensible packed lunch equipment consists of a hard plastic lunchbox, a small food flask a reusable drinks bottle.

In future posts I'll start looking at how to plan a nutritionally balanced packed lunch, how to plan ahead so that not everything needs to be done when you're half asleep in the morning! Finally we'll actually start suggesting some recipes.

camping and coming back....

2009-07-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Great weather, a massive new tent (outwell vermont XL), and a lovely campsite; we had a great time camping in Dorset recently just a couple of miles from Corfe Castle. Great spots for a picnic at Studland Bay on the beach or on the cliffs near Lapworth Cove. Of course we we're fully lunchboxed up with our new Thermos Lunchboxes. We even took a couple of new cooler bags, which proved useful for carrying cold cans and stuff for a BBQ.

I'd thoroughly recommend a trip to that part of the country - Corfe Castle was great and there was even a steam train runnning from a station just below the castle - our boys loved it!

Celebrating 40 years since the moon landing - with a lunchbox!

2009-06-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying the BBC4 programmes on the moonlanding this week and even took the oportunity to watch "the right stuff" again (wife was out, kids in bed, glass of red wine, perfect!) and it put me in mind of how we at lunchboxesetc could mark the anniversary in our own way. Whilst we can't promise a packed lunch made out of space food (although the Ella's Kitchen pouches on our sister website, the Kiddies Kitchen Baby Food Delivery Service, come close) we have found a very cool space lunchbox from crocodile creek which any space-mad child would love.

All crocodile creek lunchboxes are insulated and comply with all current US and EU food safety legislation in that they are lead-free, PVC-free and also Pthalate-free. You can buy a selection of their designs from lunchboxesetc.co.uk

new thermos soft insulated lunchboxes in stock

2009-06-12T07:38:00.000-07:00

Our friends at Thermos have been busy lately developing a whole new range of soft lunchboxes. There are 3 different types and each comes in pink, blue or black and each is a great way of taking a packed lunch to work or school. Each stye and colour way is now available on http://www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk/ in our thermos lunchboxes department

Thermos are rightly proud of their new insulated lunch bags, which will keep cold for up to three hours, and have a PVC free lining. We love them all, but have a particular soft spot for the bowling bag style.

its official - soup makes you thin....hot soup packed lunches make you lose weight

2009-05-30T04:13:00.000-07:00

So, I was watching BBC the other night, "ten things you need to know about losing weight" I think it was called, when I heard this little nugget:

Soup, especially thick, homemade soup, can help you lose weight compared to eating the same amount of solid food plus a separate drink of water. Apparently combining the food and waer into a thick soup slows the transit of the food through the digestive system, making you feel fuller for longer and hence less likely to snack later.

Which set me to thinking about the best way to take soup to work for lunch. The answer, especially for those who work outdoors or in an office without a microwave, would be a wide mouth thermos food flask. At Lunchboxesetc.co.uk we have a variety of hot food flasks available from 290ml size (about two thirds of a tin of soup) to a whopping 800ml family sized flask. All our flasks will keep soup hot for at least 5 hours and have a wide-mouth neck which allows you to eat directly from the flask so you don't have to bother lugging a soup bowl with you to work.

new products - thermos cooltech lunch boxes

2009-04-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

Thermos already make a great range of insulated lunchboxes, but now there is even more choice on offer with the introduction of the new cooltec lunch sacks and cooltec lunch coolers. Stylish, insulated and compact they are a great way to make sure that your lunch stays cool and fresh right through until lunchtime. You can buy them, and a whole range of other lunchboxes, online at www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk.

personalised lunchboxes - our first design

2009-03-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I blogged about our new designs for personalised lunchboxes, well we have the first (almost) finished design which I can now reveal in all its glory! Your child's name can be inserted in the central panel. We will then print the label on hardwearing vinyl, apply it to a plastic lunchbox in the colour of your choice and deliver it to you within 14 days. A more feminine version is being developed as we speak and both will be available to order from our lunchbox website very shortly. I'll keep you posted on new designs as and when they become available.

new products coming soon - personalised lunchboxes

2009-03-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about launching our new personalised lunchboxes this summer that I can't resist whetting you appetite now with a teasing blog post even though we are still some weeks away from the big day. The problem is that I've just seen the design for the first label and am so excited about it that I had to tell someone!

Mass-personalisation is what the web was built for and we want to take advantage of this by launching our unique personalised lunchboxes in time for summer 2009. Currently we plan to offer 4 designs to which we can add your name thus creating a personalised and easily identifiable lunchbox plus a completely bespoke service where we will convert your artwork or photo into a hard-wearing vinyl sticker, stick it on and send you the complete lunchbox. Prices are yet to be confirmed so watch this space for more information and sneak previews of the designs.

Lunchboxesetc's personalised lunchboxes will all be based on our best-selling plain plastic lunchboxes which are a hugely popular product on the site.

New Crocodile Creek Lunchboxes in store now!

2009-02-28T06:08:00.001-08:00

We dipped a toe into the world of Crocodile Creek lunchboxes shortly after Christmas by stocking 3 of their lovely PVC and lead-free soft lunchboxes. These sold out so quickly that we have taken the entire range and these are now ready for orders.

You can choose from a barnyard lunchbox, solar system lunchboxes, a construction-themed lunch box, a garden lunchbox, plus horses, vehicles and more all on the lunchboxesetc.co.uk online lunch box shop.

Each lunchbox is only £12.99 plus P&P. You can order them here.

Our baby food shop on TV!

2009-02-17T13:14:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas ITV visited our original baby food shop in Tavistock and interviewed me and my sons about the business. The results were quite entertaining, especially as they caught Luke giving Nathan a headlock and flinging biscuit dough all over the shop.

Anyway you can see the interview below:

Exclusive lunch boxes from Lunchboxesetc

2009-02-17T12:56:00.000-08:00

Lunchboxes, insulated lunchbags, brown paper lunch bags, thermoses you name it we sell it at Lunchboxesetc.co.uk. But of all the lunchboxes we sell my personal favourite is still our plain plastic lunchbox. We don't decorate it so that you can! (or you can leave it plain, if you prefer). At only £4.75 they are a bargain if you can't face a licensed lunchbox. There are currently a number of colours to choose from: pink, light blue, navy blue, green, red, yellow and a great translucent one which you could even use as a storage box.

Why not go wild and decorate it yourself! If you're really keen, send us a photo and we'll post our favourite on the blog.

welcome to the new lunchboxesetc blog

2009-01-29T13:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome- lunchboxesetc has been trading for almost two years now so we thought it was time to share our views and new products with you via this new blog. Lunchboxesetc is owned and operated by Kiddies Kitchen Ltd. Originally we started by supplying organic baby food - we still do via www.kiddieskitchen.co.uk and from our baby food shop in tavistock, devon. Now we have our lunchboxes website, the original baby food website and our specialist nappy website www.nappyrush.co.uk which is launching this month.