Food Pouches are a Cinch with Sinchies - Review & Giveaway

Have you gotten on the food pouch wagon yet? It's great here! Packing those squishy things is just such a. . . Sinch!

Yoghurt with Mango Jelly & Passionfruit

I first bought food pouches quite a few years ago thinking I'd be able to use them for purees, but then Miss M decided she wanted finger food & I moved them to the back of the cupboard & back of my mind.

When I heard about the relaunch of the Sunshine Coast Sinchies food pouch (and pending bubba number 2) I knew I had to give them another try.

At first all I could think to pack is yoghurt, being as that's what I'd give to Miss M now in a food pouch from the supermarket, but seriously how expensive are those things? I must admit when Miss M was younger & not into milk much I always had a long life yoghurt pouch in my handbag while we were out & about.

Smoothie

Then after sending my trial pouches to daycare for a few days & loosing one (boo hoo!) I started using them for myself. I can't say I'm big on plain yoghurt. I like some texture & flavour going on. So I layered my pouch with passionfruit & some left over mango jelly. Oh my! I'm not sure what I looked like, but I sure felt like a kid again sucking & squishing the yoghurt mix. Perhaps it was the sensation of soft jelly being slurped up, or perhaps it was the whole 'straw' thing, but I thoroughly enjoyed that lunchbreak!

Now I'm thinking. . . what else can I pack in this? Smoothies!

I do have a favourite smoothie mix (check back tomorrow for deatils). Years ago a work colleague named it my 'Gogo Juice', so that's what we call it now. Each season I make sure we stock the freezer with mango and passionfruit. I use pineapple juice and we can generally get bananas all year round. Although no two mixes are ever exactly the same, they always taste good! I've been trying to increase my fruit intake and I've found this is one way I can easily get my 2 serves of fruit in each day.

One afternoon I made a giant sized smoothie & packed some leftovers into a 200mL size Sinchies. Popped this into the freezer over night & left in the fridge at work the next day. Come lunch time it was the perfect consistency. Not too frozen & not too thawed. It was so good I did it again the next day! This time I packed into a 80mL sized Sinchies and packed that into my Tupperware sandwich keeper plus. You can see how it will squish into the space generally reserved for a popper quite easily. Oh the possibilities!

Pumpkin soup with fresh cracked pepper

And just when I thought I was settling into a smoothie groove, we got a cold snap. So what is one of my favourite cold weather lunches? Why soup of course! I made a big batch of pumpkin soup & packed it into Sinchies for my lunch. You do have to be careful to make sure the lid is screwed on correctly before filling, otherwise you could end up with pumpkin covered benches - oops! Also, ensure you don't overfill. When you go to seal the pouch you run the risk of pushing the contents out the top.

Buttercream Icing

I thought I'd fairly well exhausted the uses for food pouches when I saw this brilliant idea on the Sinchies Facebook Page - using the pouch as a piping bag! So simple! I think next time I'll use the 200mL size though. I find it a bit easier to fill & clean.

Speaking of filling & cleaning. . .

There is such a great community of Sinchies lovers out there and everyone willingly shares their ideas & experiences. Some have found ingenious ways to fill, clean & dry these little wonders.

Filling suggestions include using a funnel from your local motor accessory store, a cut down soft drink bottle, a Tupperware piping ball, a piping bag, a spoon. And then of course there is the official Sinchies funnel. To date I've had reasonable luck with pouring straight from my cooking container or using a spoon :-)

Cleaning, well there is the dishwasher option, but for those of us still handwashing, I've found using a baby bottle brush the most effective.

Drying creations I've admired include over the tops of cutlery, in a baby bottle drying rack, and on top of skewers.

Loving:

• Clear pouch so you see what's left &whether or not it's clean
• Standard size spout that is compatible with commercially available food pouch spoons
• BPA free
• Recyclable!
• Freezer safe
• Dishwasher safe
• Available in a range of sizes (80mL, 140mL, 200mL, 1L)
• Not just for yoghurt! Use for smoothies, soups, jelly , custard. . . sauce & gravy. . . even toiletries!
• The incredible community of Sinchies lovers :-)

Loving a little less, but liveable:

• It takes a little getting used to the spout being on the side of the bag rather than the top
• These are not recommended for use in the microwave.
• A little awkward to fill the smaller sizes without the proper equipment
• Can be difficult to clean fatty residue (like buttercream icing). You need really hot water & a generous amount of dishwashing liquid if doing this by hand. 
• Like toothpaste there always seems to be just a scrape of something left in the bag

Overall:

I'm quite impressed with these food pouches and can see us using them well into the future. I can see extra use when baby starts on solids too with the screw top fitting neatly with commercially available screw top spoons. With the larger sizes now available I can see use for them with a wider audience, not necessarily just for children, but for the whole family.

Now for the fun bit! You can win a Sinchies starter pack including one each of the 80mL, 140mL, 200mL & 1L Sinchies, a Sinchies funnel and some spare lids by following the instructions on the Rafflecopter form below.

• As per Terms & Conditions entrants must be subscribed to at least one of Loving Lucnhes' social media or email updates. 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 drawn.
• Full Terms & Conditions can be found HERE

Note - Open to Australian residents only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post and no monetary compensation was provided nor offered. This post was written for Loving Lunches & Sinchies who generously provided the prize/s for this competition as well as a complimentary set of 'Sinchies' for review. All opinions expressed are my own based on my personal experience with the review item/s.