Here's a riddle:

What's:

• Gleaming and shiny, with a mirror finish, and made from food-quality stainless steel;
  
• Comprised of three different containers, one of which can fit into the others;
  
• Good for the environment, as it contains no plastic, no BPA, no lead; and no throw-aways; and
  
• Easy to keep clean: dishwasher safe, and it retains no odors or residues, and will not stain.
  

Give up?

It's ECOLunchbox's "Three-in-One." It contains three components, all made of food-grade stainless steel. The "downstairs" one is 1" deep, and the "upstairs" one, which sits atop it, is 1 1/2 inches deep. There is also a nesting cup that can hold 1/2 cup of whatever you put in it, such as organic raisins or nuts or a side dish. 

Here are some ideas for ways to use this nifty set:

Pack food in it for children to bring to school or on camping or road trips. Note that the covers are not leak-proof, because no plastic or synthetic gaskets have been used, and it's not insulated. The Three-in-One should not be used in a microwave (but we here at RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com do not advocate use of a microwave, anyway!)

Put small gifts into the sections, and incorporate this set into a themed gift basket. We'd love to see a raw vegan food theme, containing small packages of raw bars (like Stephen James Organics' Brownie and Power Berry "mini bars"), crackers (maybe ones you make yourself from flax seeds, chopped onion, sunflower seeds and caraway seeds), and chocolate candies (we especially love the ones made by Ulimana). And as a gift for those who love to make recipes from scratch, you could put hard-to-find ingredients into the compartments, like Kala Namak ("black") salt from Frontier Natural Products Co-Op; Volcanic Pili Nuts from Stephen James Organics; and pomegranate powder from Navitas Naturals.

We could also imagine the Three-in-One as gift boxes, in a surprise way of presenting jewelry on special occasions, such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, your wedding anniversary, or even for a marriage proposal! Just think, besides the jewelry you might put into them, the boxes are gifts in themselves!

There are many packaged raw vegan snacks out there, among them those called "bars." Stephen James Organics puts out a range of such bars, in addition to the buttery, delicious pill nuts that they sell. 

Stephen James Organics's many flavors of "living energy" bars have in common with each other a crunchy texture and fruit-cake-like flavor in which the nuts and dried fruits are visible, not homogenized into something smooth and characterless. They are dehydrated and made with really-raw ingredients (pre-sprouted, in the case of the seeds) and bursting with nutrients. The bars are certified organic, and come in cute packages, whether 30-40 gram boxes with cartoonish women or men on them, or in two-bite-size mini-bar packages. The boxes say the bars take three days to make, and they are listed on www.sjorganics.com as selling for $4.98 each. (A package of 12 full-size bars sells for $58.88, and a pack of 12 of the mini-bars sells for $18.98.) They are very handy for carrying around wherever you're going, locally, or long-distance; for packing in children's lunch boxes (or in your own); and they make nice stocking stuffers as gifts.

The varieties include:

Organic Brownie Bar - This is made with hazelnuts, pecans, golden flax seeds, unhealed sesame seeds, raw cacao, medjool dates, lime juice, carazuc (coconut flower sugar) and himalayan salt, and doesn't taste like what we think of as a brownie, but is still nice to eat.

Organic Beauty Bar - In this one, you can taste the dried raspberries, which are joined by brazil nuts, carazuc, golden flax seeds, unhealed sesame seeds, dried cherires, medjool dates, calimyrna figs, thompson raisins, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, lucuma, fresh lime juice, vanilla bean and himalayan salt. (Although the front of the package says it contains almonds, almonds are not listed in the ingredients on the back.)

Organic Smart Bar - Thompson raisins and medjool dates combine with walnuts, flax seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in this one, in addition to carazuc, himalayan salt and lime juice.

Organic Apple Pie Bar - This one contains dried apples as its second ingredient (after the carazuc) but despite having the apples, cinnamon and nutmeg, does not taste to us like an apple pie, although it's pleasant to eat. Although the carazuc is the first ingredient, this bar has only 6 grams of dietary sugars, according to its label, and an impressive 6.5 grams of fiber.

Organic Power Berry - In addition to the usual compliment of nuts, seeds, and carazuc, this bar is chock full of berries, including cranberries, blueberries, incan berries, strawberries, ace berries, and amla berries, plus cherries, lemon juice and lemon zest. Having a berry flavor, it sports 11 grams of dietary sugars, according to its nutrition label, and 5.7 grams of fiber.

Organic Veggie Sushi Bar - This bar is the only savory one, with only 1 gram of dietary sugars (carazuc) rounded out by various seeds, plus some ingredients that might be found in sushi, such as ginger, nori flakes, wasabi powder and green tea. But while this bar doesn't taste to us like sushi, it makes a nice cracker, which you could top with an avocado and miso spread, or a nut cheese, and some raw pickle slices.