Lions & Tigers & Pandas. . . Omai! (Giveaway)

Well, no lions or tigers, but there is a panda in this post. . . and there is a giveaway too!


I was very excited recently to discover another Australian Bento supplier! Omai Australia is a small family business based in NSW and they have recently joined the social media whirlwind. If you are about on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, pop over & share some Loving Lunches love with them :-)

The wonderful people at Omai Australia are giving you the opportunity to win a fabulous lunchbox. How do I know it's fabulous? Well they sent me one to try. . .

Both Miss M & I were both super excited to receive our parcel in the mail. I gave Miss M the pleasure of opening it & she was thrilled to find a lunchbox inside - and even happier to find it was a 'polar bear'. That was soon corrected & she discovered the ice pack which I had to pry from her fingers to take this photo.

The 2 lids are on the left, the 2 bases are on the right. In the centre you can see the elastic band that holds everything together & the ice pack.

Alas the ice pack has been hi-jacked (Miss M had an 'ouchie' that only panda could fix) and is now somewhere very safe. Somewhere even mummy can't find, even after hours of searching *sigh*

I can't read the information on the box, but if anyone can translate I'm happy to post it :-)

I ended up taking this to work a few days this week & was amazed at how much it holds. I was also surprised that I had no spillage and nothing got damp that shouldn't have been. This got me thinking so I decided to do an experiment. I filled the lunchbox up with water, assembled (with strap done between the ears, not Pat Rafter style) & turned it on it's side (over the kitchen sink) Unfortunately it did leak the water. I found that it leaked less when it was held with ears pointing to the ceiling than the other directions (this way was a slow drip whereas ears down was almost a flow). Intrigued, I repeated the experiment with yoghurt - no leaks at all! I even gave it a good shake to ensure there was yoghurt in the 'leakiest' spot & no leak! So if                  

used the top box as a cutter for the pancake = perfect fit

 you are planning on sending something of a water like consistency (eg. salad dressing) I would recommend using a separate container inside the lunchbox, just to be on the safe side.

Loving:
*Comes in 5 cute characters (Kitty, Bear, Frog, Panda & Pig) so everyone can have the same, but different
* Comes with a shaped icepack (which I sadly didn't get to play with - thanks Miss M)
* Microwave safe
* Fits in the door of the fridge (at my work at least)
* Actually fits in quite a bit of food - more than you would think

same food on a plate

* Easy to open (even for 2.5yr old Miss M)
*You can easily pack a single layer if 2 is too much
* Fairly liquid safe, but I'm not going to say leak proof. (see note above)

Loving a little less, but liveable:
* Parts can go missing (thanks Miss M)
* Difficult for Miss M to put strap back on when done
*doesn't quite fit in my usual 'day out' handbag - a good excuse for a new bag, don't you think?

same food in Tupperware square round, 400mL

Overall I quite like this lunchbox and know it's going to come in very handy. I think it might even get moved to the Mummy cupboard :-) We've already taken it to the park & Miss M's little friends (and their mummies) were quite intrigued by it & keen to see what was inside. Even some of the fussy eaters showed an interest in some things they normally wouldn't look twice at. I actually struggled to fill it the first time I packed it as it holds *so* much!

I had every intention of packing a lunch & then serving it on a plate to show exactly how much this container holds. . . but then I forgot. You can get a fair idea from these pics of breakfast (pancakes with bacon & maple syrup) that I packed in it this morning. Please forgive the 'bitzer' pancake, we ate all bar one of the pancakes so I had to use the pikelets I made for Miss M's snack.

Roly Poly sandwiches

Roly Poly sandwiches and cereal

dried fruit with Sush-ezi ANZACs

mint balls, carrot, dip, yoghurt
salad with cute picks & dressing in a bottle
(picks & sauce bottles available from Omai.com.au)

mint balls, cheese shapes, carrots, cake, yoghurt
salami, cheese, tomato sauce (x2), party pies (x2)

My cake was a little tall for the box

dip, carrot, yoghurt

mashed potato, carrot, chicken, bean

 These Instagram photos were taken at work so you can see how the food travels. All in all no spills and nothing got damp that shouldn't have been :-)

 Lunchbox in the fridge at work

I've been waiting for an excuse to bring out my panda picks & sauce bottle. I had these in my collection already, but by happy coincidence they are part of the Omai range. I have included the links above

**EDIT**
I couldn't resist so I weakened & ordered the 'kitty' box as well. This time I put the ice pack straight in the freezer before Miss M could steal it. Gave it a trial run today & the results are in! I froze the ice pack & packed yoghurt, carrot sticks & dip in the top; party pies & sauce in the base. Ice pack in the lunchbox on our way out the door & 4 hours later my yoghurt was not quite room temperature. I'm satisfied with that, seeing as I did nothing special to keep the lunchbox cool other than put the ice pack in. There are of course options of freezing all or part of the yoghurt & dip/s as well as storing in a cooler bag for those with schools :-)
Kicking myself I forgot to take pics :-S

Now for the fun part!

Simply follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter form below & you will be in it to win it!

* As per Terms & Conditions entrants must be subscribed to at least one of each of Loving Lunches AND Omai Australia's social media (or email updates where applicable). You may subscribe to more than one of these. It is highly recommended that the email address you enter the give-away with matches the email address/ID you follow with, otherwise your entry can be difficult to verify
* If the winner does not reply to claim their prize within two (2) working days, they will forfeit and a new winner chosen
* Full Terms & Conditions can be found here

Note - Open to Australian residents only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches & Omai Australia who generously provided the prize/s for this competition. Full Terms and Conditions available here.