Muffin Tin Mom

Free Muffin Tin Meal Planning Page by Second Story Window

2012-02-07T00:25:00.000-08:00

I invited Emily to guest post today and share with you about her FREE Muffin Tin Meal planning page. I know you will love it, as well as Second Story Window as much as I do! It's great for tracking your little eater's likes and dislikes as well as brainstorming themed muffin tin meal ideas. I'll let Emily tell you more.

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Hi Muffin Tin Mom readers! My name is Emily. My sister Heidi and I run Second Story Window, a printable educational game shop. We also blog ideas and printables on our (new and improved) blog.

Michelle asked me to share with you a muffin tin meal planner that Heidi came up with. For Christmas she gave me the most adorable muffin tin meal kit. My daughter is only 22 months, so we are new to the muffin tin meal world. The kit was just what I needed to get started!

With the kit, Heidi included the muffin tin meal planner she created, which she had printed up into a planning book for me. Here's what it looks like.

Free Muffin Tin Meal Planning page

I can plan out what I want to go in each compartment of the tin and also keep track of which food groups I'm hitting.
I can make any notes on the side for presentation ideas or reports of how the meal went over.
There is also a handy way to note what your child thought of the food.
I can mark a smiley face for foods my daughter loved, a check mark for foods she tried, and an x for foods she didn't even touch. I find it so useful to be able to look back and see what foods I haven't offered my daughter in awhile and which ones she did and didn't like recently.

Here's an example of a recent meal for my daughter.

And here's the planning page in action. I forgot to photograph the page before I added her opinions but I think you can get the idea!

Now, I can remember that while she loved the applesauce, she probably wasn't quite ready for it since she enjoyed spooning it over all the rest of the food much more than actually eating it!

Come over to our blog and download the meal planner page and try it out yourself. We'd love to hear how it works for you and see how you use it!

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Michelle here. I love this so much and I hope you do too! Now go and download a free copy for yourself and check out their adorable printables.

Muffin Tin Monday: Princess

2012-02-05T22:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! This is the weekly blog link up where you join me in sharing a muffin tin meal made for your kids. Muffin tin meals take on many different forms in our house. We serve muffin tin meals for after school snack, dessert, lunch, dinner, and even breakfast. Of course, we don't do it every day for every meal, but we get creative when we want to change up meal time.

Here is our princess Muffin Tin Lunch.

In this tin: Cucumber slices, watermelon, bananas, strawberries, carrot sticks, and organic strawberry yogurt with a almond butter and homemade plum jam sandwich.

The kids tried almond butter this week and loved it! Also, they love the plum jam we made over the summer and we popped open our final jar. :) The sandwich was cut using the crown punch from the Lunch Punch Sandwishes line They are so easy to use and my kids love getting a surprise sandwich whether it's in a muffin tin meal or their school lunch box.

Did you see the Children's Literature themed muffin tin meal we did this week? Next week I am thinking I might do another heart themed muffin tin meal. How about you?

Join in this week by clicking the blue "add your link" button.

Muffin Tin Meal - Little Mouse, Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear

2012-02-02T00:30:00.000-08:00

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear
Themed Muffin Tin Meal

In this muffin tin: Red ripe strawberries, "the big hungry bear" sandwich, carrots and ranch dressing in a bear cup, blackberries and wafflecone "honeycomb" drizzled in honey (to distract the bear from eating our red ripe strawberry, of course).

Served in a muffin tin with muffin liners with strawberries on them.

The Little Mouse has heard that the big hungry bear wants to eat his red ripe strawberry. What will he do? I just adore this book and so do my kids. Don't have the book? You can watch a video of this delightful children's book.

Other Ideas:
To make a strawberry mouse visit Little Nummies
Make a hand print strawberry craft with Meet The Dubiens
Big Hungry Bear Book Activities from Making Learning Fun

*To find more muffin tin meal theme ideas, visit the themes page and click over to the FAQ page for more info on muffin tin meals. Join in Muffin Tin Monday blog link up every Monday right here at Muffintinmom.com

Muffin Tin Monday - Puppy Love!

2012-01-30T06:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! This is the blog link up that showcased reader submitted Muffin Tin Meals.

I made a "puppy love" Muffin Tin Meal This week. And my daughter told me after the umpteenth time of giving her cucumbers, she likes them!! That's a Muffin Tin Win!

In This Tin: Grilled Chicken, Cucumbers, Bananas, Carrot Sticks, Strawberry Yogurt with a wee bit of sprinkles and diced strawberries. A Puppy PB and J Sandwich, and Cheese Hearts

A fun puppy inspired craft: Recycled Yogurt Cup Felt Animals

Also from our friends at No Time For Flashcards: Pretend Pet Clinic

Now it's your turn! Did you make a Muffin Tin Meal? I would love to see it!

Strawberries As Big As A Hand!

2012-01-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

Strawberries as big as a hand! While not organic they are so tasty!

Muffin Tin Monday - Valentines Lunch

2012-01-22T22:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday the Muffin Tin Meal Blog Link Up. Share your muffin tin meal blog post below! For more info on Muffin Tin Meals, see the FAQ page.

I am in a post-kid-birthday-party coma,

but we still managed a little muffin tin lunch with a Valentine's twist.

In this heart valentines themed muffin tin lunch (from the top left): Heart mini sandwiches, red grapes, heart shaped melon, red strawberries, heart stamped Babybel cheese wheel, chocolate dipped cupcake with heart sprinkles.

The larger Stainless Steel Rice Mold cutter I used for the mini sandwiches, the smaller one is a Wilton fondant cutter and the silicone heart shaped muffin tin is also made by Wilton, bought at Michael's (with a coupon ;) )

A healthier spin: omit the cupcake and add snap peas:

For a fun preschool toddler friendly craft to go along with today's muffin tin meal, try my conversation heart tracing craft from Blissfully Domestic

Now it's your turn.

Slow Cooker Recipe Pot Roast in Beer

2012-01-20T07:42:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

(1) 2-3 lb. Sirloin Tip Pot Roast
(1) 12 oz bottle of Hefeweizen beer (I chose an imported Bavarian ale from Trader Joe's)
(1) package onion soup mix (or can substitute with minced fresh garlic, salt and pepper, and minced fresh onion)
Salt and Pepper "to taste"
1/4-1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

Heat a shallow pan with oil on high. Get it piping hot.

Mix together the package of soup mix and 1 bottle of beer (Set aside)

Sprinkle a dash of pepper on the cut of meat and cover in flour

Sear each side of the roast in the pre-heated pan for 2 minutes or less.

Remove fro heat after 2 minutes and place in crockpot.

Pour Beer mixture over the meat in the crockpot.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

"Au Jus" can be saved for pouring over the meat or thickened with flour to make gravy

Serve the slow-cooked Pot Roast With Onion Roasted Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli

Happy Birthday MTG

2012-01-19T11:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Muffin Tin Girl.

I am so blessed to have you as a daughter.

You are creative and fun.

You are kind and caring.

You are such a good sister.

You are beautiful...

and I love to see you smile.

I love you, Mom

Raspberry Chipotle and Brie Cheese Baked in Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

2012-01-18T00:15:00.000-08:00

I have vivid memories of crescent rolls growing up. If we didn't have them with every meal, we wanted to have them with every meal. So, when dreaming up a new recipe, I was inspired by my moms crescent chicken bundle recipe, a friend who brought raspberry chipotle sauce to a girl's night out, and my love affair with brie cheese. It's a match made in baked heaven.

Ingredients

2 cans Pillsbury Original Crescent Rolls
8oz raspberry chipotle sauce (found in the condiment aisle of your local grocer or you can make your own)
1/2 pound brie cheese

Directions

Unwrap 1 package of the dough and roll out the dough on an ungreased cookie sheet (For less mess, line baking sheet with parchment paper).
Separate the dough into 4 rectangles, pinching the middle where the perforated traingles meet.
Place as little or as much brie and chipotle sauce as you want on two of the rectangles
4. Wrap and tuck the dough around the cheese.
Repeat steps 1-4 with the second package of dough.
Makes 8 "pockets"
Bake as directed on the dough package, for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
Serve warm right out of the oven with apple and pear slices.

Tip: For bite sized servings, wrap small amounts of brie and raspberry chipotle sauce in the individual triangles.
Tip: For an added flavor boost, add chopped bacon.
The flavor is rich with a little chipotle kick and you just might want to eat it with a fork!

I am kind of excited to share this recipe with you in an oh-my-gosh-you-have-to-try-this kind of way and I hope you like it!

You can vote for my Creative Crescent Recipe and you'll be entered to win a $1,000 grocery gift card!
Find more quick and easy Pillsbury recipes at www.CreativeCrescents.com.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pillsbury. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Contest Rules.

Muffin Tin Meal

2012-01-17T00:30:00.000-08:00

In this tin:

Raspberries, carrots, blueberries, broccoli, hummus,

organic whole milk strawberry yogurt with sprinkles

Muffin Tin Monday Rainbow Fruits and Vegetables

2012-01-15T23:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! This is the official blog link up for Muffin Tin Meals and the link up that started the "muffin tin meal" craze that you see all over Pinterest, other blogs and such. There are over 150 Creative Food and Muffin Tin Meal ideas on the Muffin Tin Mom site!

I used a plate full of reversed muffin liners to make up this week's muffin tin lunch snack and included broccoli, blueberries, raspberries, celery, carrots and hummus in the center.

After sampling the delightful sweetness of last weeks homemade donuts, I knew it was time for a fresh fruit and vegetable platter. The kids added a new taste to their pallette this week. Hummus! I was so excited. It's a healthy alternative to ranch dressing and other dips and sauces.

We made a fingerprint rainbow craft to go along with our rainbow collection of fruits and veggies in a muffin tin this week. Simple and straightforward stamping fingerprints with paint in rainbow colors. And it seemed perfect to cheer up this rainy weather we are having.

No Need For The Sunday Paper

2012-01-15T00:31:00.000-08:00

(a little sneak peek of tomorrow's muffin tin meal)

The new year is ripe with hope, change, and opportunity to make healthier choices with what we and our kids eat. And after the donuts I made this week, I figure a little re-focus onto healthier choices is good. Not that I don't love the occasional sweet treat. :)

Here are this week's links:

Six Sisters' Stuff: 100 healthy snack ideas, perfect for those looking to make healthier choices and still keep the taste buds happy.

Copy Cat Cook: Make homemade Strawberry Fruit Roll Ups With Nothing but strawberries and cinnamon

Simple Organic: Real Food Changes that make a big impact (I was surprised by the "add fat to vegetables" one)

Homemade Donuts

2012-01-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

Delectable and delicious. I got Muffin Tin Girl a Babycakes Mini Doughnut Maker for Christmas. This week we have made over 4 dozen mini donuts in varying flavors, frostings and sizes. Seriously, someone need to stop us. I really hope there are donuts in heaven because they are so good!

This little baby makes 6 "donette" style mini donuts at a time and comes with the maker, mini cooling rack, sugar shaker, and a fork tool to remove the donuts. The included recipes make enough for 18-24 donuts.

The included manual has a few recipes to get you started and they taste great! The recipes are essentially "from scratch" and you can make substitutions for gluten free and more. One of the best things about the maker is that the donuts are baked and not fried. So, if I am going to splurge on a treat like this for the kids, that's a bonus.

Muffin Tin Girl and I mixed everything together, but when it came time to pipe the dough in the maker, it was just too hot. So, I did that part. I guess you could say that's one of the only draw backs.

We made the sour cream donuts from the recipe in the accompanying booklet, covered them in a citrus glaze and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar.

Citrus Glaze:

Mix powdered sugar and just a bit of Orange Juice together until you get the desired consistency of a glaze (Like the glaze on a cinnamon roll)

Roll the sour cream donuts in the glaze while still war and allow to set for 2 minutes.

These are the chocolate donuts witht he top half dipped in melted bakers chocolate and covered in sprinkles.

Tip: Babycakes recommends using a plastic bag to "pipe" the mix into the maker. In my humble opinion this is an eassential step.
Tip: They aren't going to taste like traditional donuts because they aren't fried, but MAN are they good

Disclosure: This post is not compensated. I did not recieve a free product. I just reeeeally love it and had to share the mass amounts of amzing donut's I am making!

Muffin Tin Monday

2012-01-09T00:41:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! The weekly link up going strong since 2008 that is all about the Muffin Tin Meal. Whether you have a toddler, preschooler, or young child, serving food in a muffin tin is a great way to get them to try new foods, have fun during meal time and break up the lunchtime blahs. If your kids are in school, try muffin tins for snack time, dinner or dessert!

We are kicking off 2012 with some Muffin Tin Lunch fun.

In this tin: organic puffed corn (from Fresh and Easy), organic tangelos, broccoli, a wee bit of ranch dressing, raspberries, and apple slices

Next week I will be starting to share crafts to go with your MTM's. For now, I will share this
***Muffin Cup Alert!*** Michaels has these cuties on sale for $1.50 per pack.

Now it's your turn!

Sort Legos in a Muffin Tin

2012-01-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Putting together those new Lego sets can sometimes be a challenge. Muffin Tin Boy received some pretty amazing Lego Ninjago sets for Christmas and the Legos seemed to be continually sprawled across the middle of the family room as he was searching for each piece. Plus, I would inevitably step on a piece or three.

Enter my solution to keep the pieces easier to see and assemble and easy to put up and out of the way mid assembly. Sort them in a muffin tin (or cupcake pan if that's what you call it).

For the larger sets, we used two muffin tins.

Click here to see More uses for a muffin tin

Muffin Tin Monday

2012-01-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Muffin Tin Monday and Happy New Year! We rang in the new year amongst friends and the last 2 days have been nothing short of a complete blessing. I hope your beginning of 2012 is a full of hope as mine is.

Muffin Tin Monday is the weekly blog carnival that celebrates the Muffin Tin Meal held here at Muffin Tin Mom. A Muffin Tin Meal is a meal served in a muffin tin, usually for kids as a way to get them to eat healthier, break up the lunch time blahs and have fun with food.

2011 was a year of awakening for our family's food choices. We now eat organically when possible and seek to eat as many fresh seasonal local foods as possible. We are on the hunt for stores and markets that carry fresh local produce and I hope 2012 brings the advent of more farm to table adventures.

Here's how we rung in the new year, Muffin Tin style:

Nitrate-free deli meat, tangelos from a friends yard, vanilla yogurt with sprinkles, cheese squares, raw broccoli, pears, hard boiled eggs and apple slices.

It's amazing how 19 sprinkles can jazz up yogurt!

Thank you for being part on an amazing year for this site. I am excited about some of the wonderful things on the horizon for MTM. Stay tuned for more interactive site features in 2012. I want to make MTM more of a resource for you and will be sharing crafts to go along with MTMs in the coming year.

Muffin Tin Girl's First Cake

2011-12-30T03:45:00.000-08:00

Muffin Tin Girl made received some fun cake decorating supplies for Christmas. She made us a cake today and decorated it herself. I helped her with technique a little, but she did most of it! It turned out great! She loves cake decorating shows and wants to be a baker when she grows up. Only one problem, she wants to bake a cake every day, and there's only so much cake we can eat! And it's not exactly healthy either, but it was a fun treat.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays!

Scrabble Tiles + Muffin Tin = Alphabet Sorting Fun!

2011-12-28T17:10:00.000-08:00

If you own the board game Scrabble (or Bananagrams, which is a "speed scrabble" knock off pictured above), then this is a fun sorting activity for your preschooler.

Grab all your tiles and an empty muffin tin.
ave your little one sort the letters into each cup.
This activity works best with two 12 cup tins (but can always be altered of course).
We ended up putting the x's, y's and z's in a little pile next to the tin.

The Muffin Tin Kids loved it!

My son, who is not as alphabetically advanced as my daughter, liked the scaled down version I made below. I chose A,B and C and had him put them in order- he loved that.

It just goes to show that there are a myriad of uses for those muffin tins!

*Originally published on this blog on 11-22-2008, reprinted with permission

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-12-25T22:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! No Muffin Tin Meal for us this week, but I thought I would host the link up anyway for those of you that want to connect and showcase this week. In between Christmas preparations and me throwing my back out, we still managed to get a little crafty earlier this week, and made some sweet little Muffin Tin Liner Paper Doll Angels.

I loved them so much, I made a little "Muffin Cup Cutie". Muffin Tin Girl loved them and so do I.

Paper Muffin Liner Angel Craft

2011-12-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

Today's holiday Christmas craft idea is inspired by Martha Stewart. I found these adorable snow lace cupcake muffin liners from Martha Stewart Crafts and I knew just what to do! Make little paper angel dolls.

To make these Sweet Christmas Paper Muffin Cup Angel Dolls, you'll need a few things:

Paper Muffin Liners (I used these ones from Martha found online or in Michael's)
1 Paper Doilie, cut into small sections for wings (see below) for angel head
1 Circle Punch (or a way to cut out a circle from cardstock for the head)
Gold Glitter Dust and Glue ( Martha has that too ;) )
Craft Glue or adhesive (I used K & Co. Quick Dry Craft Bond because I had it on hand, but whatever works for you)

First step: Fold your muffin liner in half and in half again.

Add a dab of glue to the inside fold for a little extra stability if desired.

Next: Cut out your circle for the head, add eyes and mouth with a pen.

Add a line of glue at the top of the head and sprinkle with glitter. Allow a few minutes to try.

Cut out small sections of your paper doilie for wings

You should have all the pieces as seen below.

Now add them together: Glue the head to the body and the wings to the back.
Poof out the sections on the bottom so it stands upright.

Look how cute she turned out! I just love them to pieces.

Easy Christmas Kids Apples Snack

2011-12-21T03:04:00.000-08:00

A Christmas twist on the beloved apples snack with caramel dipping sauce. Changing how you plate up your toddler, preschooler and child's food can be a creative way to inject a little fun into mealtime.

Christmas tree cup from Michaels (I think) and Christmas tree food picks are from www.pickonus.com

Painted Pine Cones

2011-12-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

Just a little fun crafting. Our house isn't about muffin tins every day. We love to craft too! Pine cones (rescued from the roadside), acrylic craft paints, and glitter. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle with glitter (we used ultra fine white). So easy. And it takes a bit of time to paint all the little pieces of the cone, so it is a great Christmas break craft or snow day craft (but you'll have to find the cones before you get snowed in! hee hee!)

Be sure to shake off the excess glitter, or you will have glitter.every.where.

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-12-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! The weekly Muffin Tin Meals blog link up. We did a "dipping" theme. Everthing in our tin could be dipped in chocolate sauce! IT was a major hit.

Strawberries, Bananas, Pineapple, Bread Cubes, with sprinkles for toppings.

They each had their own tin with the choco sauce in the middle on the plate in the middle

The banana slices were an instant favorite!

*Muffin Tin Monday is partnering with Linky Here, a new linky/blog hop directory where you can find information about all of the fun weekly blog link ups around. Check it out!

Now it's your turn!

No Need For The Sunday Paper

2011-12-18T10:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a little Christmas Cute Food Link love:

Little Food Junction: Love this Kiwi Christmas Tree

Little Nummies: Make Cinnamon Sugar Snowflake Tortilla crsips. So cute (and doable!)

Jenni Price Illustration: Whip up a precious Pancake Angel with this step-by-step tutorial. *FOr personal use only please. :)

Are You Ready To Pack Lunch Fast?

2011-12-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

Bento-style Easy Lunch Boxes are what I use to pack my kids school lunches. On occasion, I will make a muffin tin meal and put it in a low snapware container, but I don't want to deal will the possible spillage every day. So, I scoured the internets and found that the most cost effective and still super cute lunch box system were Easy Lunchboxes.

I've been using them for over a year and they are easy to use, highly durable, dishwasher safe, BPA Free, and the lids and accompanying cooler bags come in a variety of colors.

Unlike the cheap store bought disposable variety, these have withstood hundreds of trips in the dishwasher. And continue to hold up. Easy Lunchboxes are also the Top Selling Lunch Box on Amazon. Which speaks volumes to their product. And no more spending money on little plastic baggies!

With Easy Lunchboxes, I can be creative in presentation if I want to. Or, if on busy school mornings, I need that extra 5 minutes to brush-my-teeth-get-dressed-comb-my-hair, then having these super simple lunchboxes is a life-saver. 3 items in the box plus a snack and drink and done! I highly recommend the insulated cooler bags that complete the Easy Lunchbox system. They fit the lunch boxes perfectly and come in a variety of cute colors.

For more fun kids lunchtime ideas visit the Easy LunchBoxes gallery.

Are you ready to pack lunch fast?

*Disclaimer: As an ELB affiliate, I recieve portion of the sales if you choose to purchase through the links in this post. I truly believe in this product which is why I became an affiliate. If you choose to buy, you would be buying a great product and helping a me support my family in the process