having problem printing out "created_at" date

It seems when using Entity, the dates are returned as Time instances. So you're actually echoing an object. Do this instead:

PHP Code:

echo $item->created_at->format('d-M-Y H:i:s');
echo $item->updated_at->format('d-M-Y H:i:s'); 


You can change the date format by supplying in the argument of format().