23 Feb, 2009
A Happy Tiffin Anytime – Lunchboxes and Picnic Gear
Posted by: Meg In: Lunchbox Products
Medium 2 Tiered Tiffin
My 6 year old daughter loves her new Happy Tiffin. It is very cute, well-sized, and is fully dishwasher safe stainless steel, so I love it, too! My daughter has felt proud showing it off at school, and now asks in the morning “Did you pack my Happy Tiffin?”
Large Pyramid Tiffin
Based on tiffin carriers commonly used in India, Happy Tiffin manufactures their tiffin lunchboxes of food grade 202 stainless-steel and are 100% BPA-Free. The lunchbox choices are many at the Happy Tiffin site, with various sizes and numbers of tiers to choose from. They also make a cool line of pyramid tiffins that would be fabulous for picnics or camping. There is now a pyramid tiffin on my birthday wish list!
For use as a kids lunchbox, we chose the 2 tiered medium tiffin carrier. It is a perfect size for my daughter, but could easily hold enough food for an adult’s lunch box. At 1700 ml capacity, the 2 tiered medium tiffin could hold roughly 1700 calories of food, so obviously we aren’t packing it full! However, I like having extra room for using silicone cup dividers, a big sandwich, or whole fruit. I chose the medium tiffin over a small one, since there is only a half inch difference in the diameters–5 versus 5.5 inches–but it makes a big difference in capacity. To subdivide the containers, I have relied on heart shaped silicone muffin cups (see pics below).
And what have we happily packed so far?? These are the ones I had an extra minute in the morning to take a picture…which doesn’t happen very often!
Tiffin Lunch #1
Tiffin Lunch #1: Top layer has peanut pretzels, carrots, and tofu with soy sauce. Bottom layer has Phony Bologna (vegetarian bologna) dinosaur sandwiches.
Tiffin Lunch #2
Tiffin Lunch #2: Top layer has half a banana, peanut butter pretzels, and a cookie. Bottom layer has turkey rolled in a tortilla and some cheese cubes.
Tiffin Lunch #3
Tiffin Lunch #3: Top layer has half a banana, carrots, and a cookie. Bottom layer has a slice of cheese pizza–good cold, too!
In summary:
THE GOOD:
- reasonably priced ($16 for medium 2 tier)
- many size choices
- dishwasher safe
- cute
- waste-free
- easy for a 6 year old to open
- made of safe materials
- mostly (fully ??) water tight
- company is owned by a woman promoting eco-friendly eating
THE (maybe) NOT SO GOOD: (may or may not be an issue, depending on your needs…)
- shape is awkward to fit in a school backpack (we carry the tiffin separately)
- may be hard for a kid age 5 or under to open independently
- no drink holder
- lunchbox is non-insulated (but you could put in an ice pack)
- May not be entirely water tight ?? (I don’t think I would trust it laying sideways on the floor of our van with soup inside… but I would consider the tiffins mostly water tight!)
Happy Tiffin stands behind their products and insists on happy customers. For more information or to order online, visit the Happy Tiffin website.
To see how the parts fit together (and to show the tiffin holding water quite impressively), watch this Happy Tiffin video:
Bringing “pupus” or dinner fixings to friends or family in a tiffin would work out great. I always end up putting food in plastic containers with lids to bring to my sisters house, they end up in bags and they leak or the tops pop off…. I love that the pyramid tiffins stack neatly and securely. I bet they’d work great at the beach, too!
