Monday, June 9

Muffin Tin Monday

I have been absolutely blown away by the bento box craze. I can look for hours through the bento flickr groups - little food presented so artfully, all stored in an adorable little box. They are unbelievable. Muffin Tin Monday (I'll explain) is my ode to the bento box. Only simple and not really as cute *but* easy enough for some of us (me!) to play along.

Muffin Tin Monday = Lunch served in a Muffin Tin

The concept is not new, I'm sure many of you have seen this out in the mommy world of play dates and preschool. It's a great way to break the monotony of daily lunch preparation. I also hope it will encourage me to keep offering new foods to my kids - maybe they'll even like one of them! So, I officially declare Monday as Muffin Tin Monday. Join me!

Each Monday I'll post a picture of the previous week's muffin tin. Send me a link to yours and I'll add it to my post. Fun! Here is last week's:


Contents: Goldfish, blueberry bagel chunks, cucumber sticks, strawberry yogurt, Gorilla Munch cereal, blueberries, pretzels, string cheese, dried apricots, red pepper, cheddar cheese cubes, peaches.

This was too much food for 2 kids so I saved it and put it out again for afternoon snack.

More Marvelous Muffin Tins:
Mama Said

My oldest daughter discovered the joys of Rice Krispies in milk this weekend - Snap Crackle Pop! Also managed to take a few photos during our walk to the park. Click here to check 'em out.

34 comments:

Lisa said...

Always looking for fun lunch ideas! I will join in and make a post about mine later this week. I have to admit, I am excited about attempting the "bento craze" next year but I am guessing after a few weeks of it we will move to the pb&j route!!!!

Molly said...

love this idea! i've been searching for the right bento box for years, only to be told by my children that they are not interested. i'm definitely serving a meal or two in muffin tins. i've been looking for ways to consolidate in the kitchen, getting rid of most of our plastic and finding multiple uses for things we have - big coffee cups become cereal/yogurt/ice cream bowls, small coffee cups for drinking water, canning jars for leftovers. now we'll have muffin tins for snacks - thank you!

amy said...

I love this idea! I am totally going to try it with my kids! I think I found your blog from the Crafty Crow and have been enjoying reading it! I posted your muffin tin picture and a link to your blog on my blog, hope you don't mind!

Anandi said...

oh, yum. Maybe I should make myself a muffin tin :)

Michelle said...

Definately going to try this on my fussy eaters. I really enjoy your blog, I have tagged you today - details are on my Blog page. Please don't feel obligated to participate - but it would be lovely to learn some more about you!

X
Michelle

-Tee- said...

This idea is awesome!! I love it! My hubby is a chef and is responsible for snacks and lunches for child care at work. He is going to try this... and maybe even get them to try something "new"... what a concept!!
Thanks for sharing!

Mama Said said...

Wow! I love, love, love this idea! Check out my blog for my junk-filled version. Yours was much better. But now I'm gonna start shopping for items to use for this. My 3 yr. old was amazed! She helped prepare it and ate it up!

Wonderfully Sew Knit said...

Even though my kids are older they would love this!

Wonderful blog, btw

daysease said...

Linked you from Crafty Crow. ooh, i will have to try this!!! anything to make my kids eat more and healthy, works for me... thanks for the fun idea. will be back to let you know if it worked or not.

Anonymous said...

I've also popped over from Crafy Crow. My little girl just turned three and went from 'I eat and love everything' to 'it's icky' over night. This is such a great idea- I can't wait to try it!

Lisa Clarke said...

That sounds like a fun idea! I have to admit, though, that one of my children is so picky I could have serious trouble filling a whole muffin tin with things he would like! I think I'm up for the challenge...

Becky, yep said...

absolutely brilliant! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Your muffin tin is beautiful...so colorful! I've done this with my children when they've been in their toddler years. We called them 'nibble trays'. Sometimes we used ice cube trays, too. Great way to get alot of variety into their meals. It never occurred to me to offer lunch like this to an older child...but what fun! Great photo!

Kim said...

Stumbled upon this link -- What a fun lunch idea -- especially for summer. We'll definetly be having some muffin tin mondays :)K

Lisa Clarke said...

Just wanted to thank you for this idea. I've been using it for suppers, to get the kids to try little bits of what we're eating. It seems they don't mind trying things they don't think they'll like, if those things are in a cool muffin tin and are surrounded by a bunch of little things they *do* like. They've been asking for the muffin tins every night since I introduced them! (And, as a result, have been eating better, healthier). Thank you!

amy turn sharp said...

love this- will you email me I have a quick question! :) Amy
amytsharp at gmail dot com

Thriftin and Craftin said...

so cool-I'll put this on the calendar, and if I get this done next Monday, I'll submit my photo. How fun for the kids (and mommy!)

Carla

Anonymous said...

What an awesome idea!

kidshaus.typepad.com said...

ah, i love it! I'm definitely going to participate this monday. it'll be a fun way to reinvent the boring old lunch on a plate. this will also could go hand-in-hand with our established Taco Tuesday :) thanks for the idea!

Anitra Cameron said...

This is such a great idea! (And Firefox has crashed twice already while I tried to comment, so I'm quitting now before it does it again!)

Anonymous said...

Hi Katy, thanks for the idea. I allowed myself to show it to people in Poland and used one of your photo. Please tell me if you feel it is wrong? All the best for you.

K E Fleck said...

I love this idea! My mom used to do something similar for us growing up and I've started doing it for my own kids, too.

I found you through a search for "muffin tin meals" and I totally LOVE the idea of Muffin Tin Monday :-) So cool!

I hope you don't mind, but I"m adding you to my favorites and linking to this very yummy post.

Best Wishes, Kara

Good + Happy Day said...

I love this idea! I can already imagine doing different themes, sweet, salty, foods from different countries. Thank you for the inspiration!

Annie said...

Love it! Thanks for sharing such a great idea. I can't wait to try it!

Anonymous said...

Hey! I just saw laptoplunches.com in Parents' magazine. It made me think of the muffin tin idea :) They have some great photos and ideas to inspire.

Dee Light said...

I just love this. I hope I can join in next time!!!

Blogger said...

I just posted a blog about cornbread I made in ramekins in hopes that my 4 year old would eat it...he did try it, but did not eat it...but still, it was a START!

Anyhow, one of my commenters sent me your way because of that post, so here I am and hooray! Looks like I will get lots of cool ideas here :)

Nice to meet you!
Bella

Topsy said...

I found your site a few weeks ago, oddly enough right after I got addicted to the glorious flicker photos of bento style lunches - there was a link about it in the September issue of Parents Magazine this fall. I loved the look and the feel of such creative lunchtimes! Then I found your site. Even more adorable. But I always wondered where the idea sprang from. Now I know. Can't wait to join.

Clara said...

This is awesome, and hopefully will work for my picky eater. One quick question. I see that people put sandwich's or what not into cute shapes. What do you do with the extra, just eat it. I could just see my own lunch consisting of scraps and the kids get the fun shapes, but I guess that's what it's all about!!!!

Ms Muffin said...

Hello,

I tried this with my daughter and she absolutely loves it! In our house there are not only muffin tin mondays but there are times when every day is a muffin tin day! :-)
I put a link in my blog to your site
http://muffinsnmore.blogspot.com/
2009/01/food-for-kids.html

Miss Muffin

Jeremy said...

I remember my mom used to pack lunch for school for us. I think bento is a evolution of packed lunch of before. I am going to put some awfully mouth-watering muffins into them.

RLR said...

Oh, don't sell yourself short! These are JUST as cute as bentos! I just love our bentos - we have 4! - and so do our kids. However, I will be trying my own Muffin Tin Monday next week, to mix things up a bit. Now to start thinking about 12 different things to serve... What a great challenge that will be!

Sherri said...

I am so excited to do muffin tin Monday! Today will be my first time! I like how you did yours!

Crystal Escobar said...

I love this idea! I'm totally going to do it, and post it on my blog too. I'll definitely refer people back here to you :)
I just came across your blog somehow, and LOVE it, now I'm following :)

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