Muffin Tin Monday

I have to admit, these muffin tin lunches are addicting. Especially since the kids are always excited when I put them in front of them. They also eat a larger variety of food in one sitting. This idea came from the blog - Sycamore Stirrings. You should give it a try! Even if you don't have kids!

So, again, the kids each have a muffin tin that is a little bit different due to Alyssa's food intolerances.

Here's Alyssa's (sorry about the poor picture... the kids don't give me long to snap a photo before they dig in):

Banana slices
Left over Chow Fun noodles
Sliced Grapes
String Cheese
Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets
Edamame (removed from pods)

Lyssie ate everything but the Chow Fun and the Edamame (apparently she likes to see you remove them from the pod - she ate a few of Robbie's - lesson learned).

Here's Robbie's:

Edamame
Watermelon cubes
String Cheese
Grape slices
Dinosaurs
Calamari leftovers



I've also included a photo of Robbie and his muffin tin. Needless to say, he loved everything in it. He did have me fill one with BBQ sauce for his dinosaurs once he ate the string cheese.

I also like these muffin tins because they aren't harassing me for more of one thing.

They seem content that they have small servings of each food.



Hopefully this week I can find new muffin tins. Lyssie's overflowing bananas distracted her a bit.

One rolled out... and suddenly they all became wheels. This is a fun departure from our ordinary lunches. Had we not used the muffin tin, we would have had dino nuggets, grapes and watermelon.

We all can't wait for next week!

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Muffin Tins

I read this blog - Sycamore Stirrings - it's a fantastic read. She's very creative. Anyhow, she is starting this new things that she has named Muffin Tin Monday. It sounded like fun, so I decided to take part. Of course, I can't seem to do anything on time... so my Muffin Tin Monday has turned into Muffin Tin Thursday. Not quite the same ring.

Here it is! My first attempt. This was a ton of fun and I hope to do it again. I also hope to find better muffin tins. The only ones I had, luckily I had two, were the ones that the kids use to sort the buttons. They are shallow which actually works out in portion size.

Muffin Tin includes the following;

Mini Burger/Slider

Quesadilla pieces

Lightly Sauteed Carrots and Green Beans

Leafy Salad with vinagrette dressing

(Robbie's had pears - Lyssie can't have them)

Turkey Meat

Raisins

I had made the sliders a few nights ago with the left over meat from dinner. I made the buns from two regular pieces of whole grain bread and added cheese on the top and bottom. The turkey meat is a big boneless one from Costco that we slice up all at once. It's perfect for lunches through the week and it often renders enough to put one bag in the freezer for the following week.

I am happy to report that presenting this lunch in the muffin tin... I think encouraged them to eat more. And, they tried a little bit of everything! Robbie only had the burger (no bread or cheese) left with one bite taken out of it and the green beans. Lyssie had the burger with the top bread and top cheese missing, some green beans and carrots and most of the salad left. I think I even hit all the food groups!

This lunch also went together fairly quickly... I sauteed the vegetables in the same pan that I used to make the quesadilla and the salad was just a bit from my own lunch. The rest was open a box, reheat left overs, or open a can.

The kids are looking forward to another lunch like this tomorrow. I told them this was just a once a week thing. So now I'm looking forward to figuring out what I'm going to do for next week!

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