My name is Christine, and I grew up on Del Monte fruit cups and cheese and crackers. 

I'm totally not kidding. A product of the '80s, my lunch box was packed with either a fruit cup or a pudding cup, a fruit drink (not 100% real fruit juice), and a peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and banana sandwich. Maybe there would be a fruit or two celery sticks and two carrot sticks in there as well. This was pretty much the norm for most kids my age back then.

For those who know me in real life, you will know one thing about me:  I love to cook and I make sure my child eats lots and lots of healthy, homemade, minimally processed foods that are grown mostly on our farm.

Okay, in the past, I've ranted about some of the things kids eat these days and how everything is laden with sodium, sugar, artificial ingredients, and how I would never give my child certain foods.  Yes, I'm embarrassed to say that I've been guilty of chastising friends and family for giving their kids food that wasn't grown in their gardens or made from scratch.

Not everything that is not homemade is bad for you...and sometimes having convenience food isn't always a bad thing. These are things I've only started to realize now that I have a kid who is in Junior Kindergarten! I'll be honest with you. Cooking Little One's lunches super early in the morning can be a little stressful. She likes hot meals and unlike her father, she isn't a sandwich person.

Many of my friends are surprised to know that Little One doesn't like fried food (she doesn't like oily, greasy food) and she doesn't like to eat overly sweet things. I'm always secretly happy when people offer her sweets and she turns them down and says "I don't like sweet stuff". She has been known to lick icing off cupcakes on the odd occasion though, so I'm not sure that the "I don't like sweet stuff" bit is 100% convincing!

People are often surprised to find out that she enjoys eating seaweed, tofu, hummus, edamame, Pad Thai, chicken curry, sushi, etc... She only just turned four years old a few weekends ago, and has very wide range of likes when it comes to food.

Though I am 'picky' when it comes to what I feed my child, I certainly don't want to give her any issues when it comes to food. She sees all her friends eating certain foods, she's curious about them, and sometimes asks to have whatever the other kids are having. Though I have strong ideas of what I want Little One to eat and what I don't want her to eat, I don't want her to have a weird relationship with food. I don't want her to be that kid hiding in the closet eating a piece of cake at a party because she isn't allowed to have it at home.

I used to think I would never give her anything from a box, can, package, or grocery store freezer. You know what? That has changed. She has had some of those items and we do use some of those products on the odd occasion. This said, we are selective when it comes to what kind of products we give her and how often she is given them.

We were recently given the opportunity to sample Schneiders® Lunchmate® + Fruit‏. I was curious to see what Little One's reaction would be. Since she has started Junior Kindergarten, she's been coming home and telling me things like "I don't like veggies anymore. My friends say veggies are disgusting". The new Schneiders® Lunchmate® + Fruit‏ has little cheese cubes, "no preservatives added" Schneiders Country Naturals lunch meat, whole wheat crackers, and a Del Monte fruit cup.

Hubby does like sandwiches and subs with Country Naturals meats in them, and I think he was more excited to see the contents of the Lunchmate than Little One was!
I had a feeling Little One might not be too keen on cheese, meat, and crackers for lunch and may not know what to do with the fruit cup, because this was a totally foreign thing to her. The kid likes Pad Thai or Filipino sausages, veggies,  rice and some cantaloupe or honey dew for lunch! To have a fair assessment of the product, I got a Schneiders® Lunchmate® + Fruit‏ for my friend's child who was over for a play date. My friend's child devoured all the contents of the Lunchmate!
Little One pretty much just played with the food. She stacked the meat and crackers into towers. I don't know why she didn't eat the cheese. She used to love cheese! Now she says she doesn't like cheese. She did eat a tiny bit of the fruit cup, but didn't finish it. Her friend ended up eating all of Little One's Lunchmate items as well.

My friend's child is used to eating cheese and crackers and sliced deli meats for lunch, so perhaps this is why this was a success. We were all really surprised that Little One didn't even finish the fruit cup! Isn't dessert everyone's favourite part of a meal? I would have eaten the fruit cup!

My husband thinks the Lunchmates are really cool and would like to try ALL of them. He's a cheese and crackers with deli meats kinda guy and is always in a rush come lunch time. No time for a sit down lunch and is always on the go. He thinks these would be great for Little One when we're on the road. 

The Lunchmates also come with a code (in a plastic wrapper under the fruit cup). Visit www.lunchmateclub.com and enter your code to win cool prizes like an xBox Kinect. To learn more about Schneiders Lunchmates, you can visit their website and/or connect with them on Facebook.

Would I purchase Schneiders® Lunchmate® + Fruit‏?
Well, from my child's complete disinterest in her food experience, and the fact that I send her to school with litterless lunches (reusable food containers, drinking bottle, cutlery, myfunkins cloth napkins), maybe not.  However, if she had shown that she liked them, I would probably get them occasionally. My friend was completely sold on these and has since purchased a few for her child's lunches. My friend's child gave the Lunchables "TEN THUMBS UP!" (So cute that we neglected to add that people only have two thumbs).

{WIN IT}
Would you like to try Schneiders® Lunchmate® + Fruit‏ for your child/children? One lucky Life on Manitoulin winner will win five $5 vouchers good for any Schneiders products. Giveaway open to residents of Canada and ends on December 16th. To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure - I am a member of the MLF Connects program. As part of my participation for this program, I have received compensation for this post. As always, my words and opinions are my own.