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.

Muffin Tin Monday

So, I did exactly what I swore I wouldn't - I bought an unnecessary item for my muffin tin meals. But, look! How could I have left the store without purchasing this cheerful orange muffin pan? It had to come home with me. Ah, gotta love impulse buying. This muffin tin meal was for one child, my youngest.
Contents: Snap peas (from the garden), pb&j, rice cakes, fruity Cheerios, Babybel cheese, nectarine

Ready for a challenge? Ready to step your muffin tin game up a notch? Yeah, I thought so. Create your *next* Muffin Tin Meals according to this theme:
RAINBOW
**Monday, July 21st send me your Rainbow Muffin Tin posts. It'll be fun. Different. And colorful. Can't wait to see your results!**

Are you new to Muffin Tin Monday? Yay! I'm glad you're joining in the fun. You can find details here and here. Send me those posts!

Muffin Tin Mamas
A Bit of This and a Bit of That
Potty Mouth Mama
The Gosneys
Frills, Fluff & Trucks
Morning has Broken
Academia Nut
Junior, Mints and Reeses
The McAuleys
Gilhooly
The Clarks
This Girl Loves to Talk
No Faces
World of Whimm
Make and Takes
From Shelly's Belly
Muses of Megret

Coming up this week: Strawberry surprise (literally), link love, news from The Drive-In, and a visit to the tomato jungle

Muffin Tin Monday 101

It is exciting to see so many parents participating in Muffin Tin Monday. There were a handful of new peeps for our Shape Challenge - Welcome! Since I get a few emails each week from bloggers who want to participate, I thought I'd just write up a quick post on how to do just that. Here goes:

1) You need a blog or a flickr account to participate.

2) Take a picture of your muffin tin meal and post it on your blog/flickr account.

3) Leave me a comment or send me an email on Sunday or Monday with a link to your post.

4) I'll add you to the list of Muffin Tin Mamas on Monday.

5) It is *totally* fine to send me your post later than Monday. I will still add you to the list.

6) If there is a challenge it will be announced on my blog, usually on a Monday. I'm good about leaving theme reminders.

7) There is a flickr group devoted to Muffin Tin Meals - Join in!

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Our next challenge is:

HALLOWEEN

It is due on Monday, October 13th.

If Halloween is not celebrated in your country or just not your thing - feel free to do a HARVEST or FALL theme for your challenge.

Looking for inspiration?
Check here, here and here

photo by Martha Stewart Living
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See you all on Monday for MTM!

Muffin Tin Monday

Good morning! Hope you all had a lovely 4th. My girls had this Muffin Tin Meal for dinner. Yep, looks just like what they eat for lunch.

Contents: Stonyfield yogurt tube cut in half, orange pepper, mini cheese ravioli, kiwi, Calbee Snapea Crisps, strawberries, peanut butter toast, string cheese, buttered toast sticks, turkey, Babybel cheese, rice cakes


I bought these mini forks at Uwajimaya over a year ago. I'm sure they are meant for bento boxes. They were a fun addition to the Muffin Tin.

My girls are still really enjoying these Muffin Tin Meals. I continue to have fun putting them together too. So far they haven't really expanded their diets as a result of these meals. I still have hope. How is is going for the rest of you?

My neighbor suggested taking picture of the Muffin Tin *after* it's been rummaged through by the kids. Thought that was a great idea. Didn't get a snap shot for this one however. Someone else suggested leaving a few of the muffin cups empty as the younger kids like to move the food items around (I forgot who's blog I read this on - sorry!!) If you have an idea for adding a twist to Muffin Tin Monday, please leave it in your comment. I'd love to hear from you.

I'll leave you with another plug to join our flickr group.
www.flickr.com/groups/muffintinmeals

Muffin Tin Mamas
Morning has Broken
Mom to 2 Busy Boys
The Van Klan
Mama Said
Chasing Cherrios
The Family McG
Gilhooly
World of Whimm
This Girl Loves to Talk
Franny Kate
Sugar and Spice Mommy
Tee's Closet
What's She Up To?
My Little Gems

Send me your posts when they're up and ready. I'll add you to the Muffin Tin Mama List.
Coming up this week - Strawberry love, finished projects, and rag dolls.

Muffin Tin Monday

Good morning to you all! Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday. My contribution this week is a wee one, I'm afraid. Really, I just wanted to show off my other new muffin tin liners. Aren't they cute? Also from Uwajimaya. This was a little afternoon snack, which was refilled numerous times.contents: craisins, Life cereal, Cheddar bunnies

Muffin Tin Monday was written up on Blissfully Domestic. Click on over and give it a read. Thanks Sylvia for the great post!

You'll find me on List Mama today where I'm a guest blogger. Such a fun idea for a blog, each post is a list. I love it! Easy and quick to read. Take a peek.

MUFFIN TIN MAMAS
Life in Gator Land
Mind Games
Life of a Daycare Gal
On a Whimm
The Sound you Hear is . . . Living!
My Little Gems
Littlebit and Lovey
The Cox's Corner
Kleas' Kandids
Tapsalteerie Farm
Morning has Broken
Life with the Lyngs
It's a Wonderful Life

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Next week's challenge is
HALLOWEEN
Challenge tins will be posted on
Monday, October 13th
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Muffin Tin Monday - Breakfast Challenge

Good morning! Hope you all had fun with this challenge. I used the muffin tin to hold oat meal toppings for the girls. Unfortunately it was one of those mornings - my oldest managed to just eat the brown sugar off the top and my youngest sprinkled and then dropped handfuls of oatmeal on the floor. Grrr. Other days they eat up the entire batch and beg for more. Hope your meals were actually consumed -

Contents: bananas, craisins, brown sugar

Next week, Amanda from Kiddio will be hosting Muffin Tin Monday! Click on over, check her out and say hello!

Are you new to Muffin Tin Monday? Thanks for joining us in our weekly madness . Click here for the details. Feel free to leave me a link to your MT post in a comment (or email) I accept them ALL WEEK not just on Mondays.

Breakfast Tin Mamas

Musings of Megret

Life is a Journey not a Destination

Junior Mints and Reeses

Tees Closet

Momma Mania

Seven Super Summers

The Coach's Wife

My Little Gems

World of Whimm

Franny Kate's Creative State

The Sound You Hear is . . . Living

The Clarks

Well, I'll be a Monkey's Mama

This Girl Loves to Talk

The Foods we Love

Morning Has Broken

Mama Said There Would be Days Like This


Muffin Tin Mamas
Morning Has Broken
A Bit of This and a Bit of That

Party Time Tin!

A party on a Monday? Only if it involves a muffin tin. Ha! Honestly, I used the Party Time theme as an excuse to make those delicious soft pretzels again. Our tin contained some yummy dips that go oh so well with soft pretzels. I shaped them into pretzel sticks this time. My girls were very excited about this. Wait, let me clarify. My oldest was excited about the frosting. It was all about the frosting. With sprinkles. See if you can find her in the picture. Can you tell she's excited? There are more pictures from our party posted on the flickr group.

Contents: Marinara sauce, mustard, coarse salt, cinnamon sugar, FROSTING with sprinkles, and cheese sauce.

Party Tin Mamas

Julie K. in Taiwan

A Bit of This and a Bit of That

This Girl Loves to Talk

Seven Super Summers

What's He Up to Now?

Franny Kate's Creative State

Junior Mints and Reeses

The McDaniel Five

The Clarks

My Little Gems

Panjo Kids

Creative Mama

Michele and Jack

Capturing Today


Muffin Tin Mamas
May the Cloth Be With You
Finding Normal
Gilhooly
I fell in love at 22
Well I'll be a Monkey's Mama
World of Whimm
LAS Designs
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I'll be at the ocean next Monday so LISA from FRANNY KATE'S CREATIVE STATE will be hosting Muffin Tin Monday. Leave Lisa a comment on Monday, August 11th (or sometime around then) when your post is up. She'll add you to her list of Muffin Tin Mamas. Take a minute to look through Lisa's blog. She comes up with the most WONDERFUL activities to do with her daughters.

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Don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win 2 headbands. I'll close the comments on Tuesday night. The headbands are adult size - they are for you! This is a thank you for you. In response to a few comments - I used to sell onesies, shirts and headbands on etsy. I closed my shop a few months ago to take a breather. Still not sure if I'll open it up again. As for the headband pattern, I figured it out myself after looking at a similar one a friend had. This style of headband is all over. I certainly didn't invent it. I have seen a pattern for (nearly) this exact headband on a blog. Naturally, I don't remember which one.

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We unearthed our yellow jacket nest on Sunday. See pictures of it here and here. Yuck, larva!
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Muffin Tin Madness!

Welcome to our first group Muffin Tin Monday! I'm excited that you are joining in! Please follow the links to check out more creative and delicious Muffin Tin Meals. Here is mine for the week:

Left to Right: Leftover mac-n-cheese, bacon bits, dried pears, tooth picks, grapes, sesame sticks, trail mix, veggie booty, strawberries, cantaloupe, cheese bread sticks, marinara sauce (for dipping the cheese bread)

My intention is to use food I already have at home and leftovers to fill the muffin tin. The mac-n-cheese was from a previous dinner and the bacon bits were from Father's Day breakfast. I also try to include items my kids haven't tried or "don't like" in hopes of expanding their diet (I'm not holding my breath.) I also try to have a few items from each food group - didn't have veggies or enough dairy in this week's. Bad mommy. Look forward to seeing yours and stealing your ideas- ha!

Muffin Tin Mamas:
Baby McG
Frannie Kate's Creative State
Mama Said
Little White School House
The Library Collective
Mommy's Crafting
The McAuleys
Finding Normal
A Little Bit of Life

Are you having muffin tin envy? No worries, join in next week (or this week)! Leave me a comment and I'll add your link when you post your picture. Please include a list of food contents with your post. No stress about the MONDAY part - I'll post mine on Mondays but I'll add your link whenever you have a post to contribute. Boo to deadlines, yes to fun!

My girls loved doting on their father this Sunday. My oldest must have recited, "It's Daddy's day, he can do what he wants" a million times. Funny how Daddy started reciting that too. Hope you all had a peaceful day as well. More pictures here.

Muffin Tin Monday

Greetings! Hope you all had a great weekend. Glad you're up for a little Muffin Tin Madness this morning. This week I divided up the tins - 6 for each girl. Marie from Make and Takes did it this

way for her kids and I thought it was a great idea. My girls don't really fight over the food, other than the furious stuffing of all fruit into their mouths, but I thought they'd like having their own. This tin was all about the salami. My kids love the stuff.

Contents: Red peppers, Trader Joe's multi-grain crackers, cheddar cheese, salami, grapes, chocolate chip cookie.

I took an after shot this week. You can see it on our flickr page. I bet you can guess what was left. Yep, the peppers and (surprisingly) some crackers and cheese. Just illustrates their salami lust. They handled the cookie in the tin really well. My youngest reached for the grapes first. My oldest, the cookie. They actually took bites of their cookies through out the meal instead of gobbling it up right away like I would have. ha!

Here's the next challenge~

PARTY TIME TIN

Do something fun, something that you wouldn't serve for lunch. Think party. Think festive. Think not all food groups represented. Go crazy, use sugar. Here is the brilliant Build-a-Bear tin created by Mama Said There Would be Days Like This for inspiration.


Fine Print: I'll start posting pictures and links on Monday, August 4th. I'll keep adding them as they come in that week as well. Only pictures of muffin tins fitting with the challenge will be posted. Thanks! Please email me if you have questions. I'm pretty friendly.

Muffin Tin Mamas
Julie K. in Taiwan
Well I'll be a Monkey's Mama
The Clarks
Little White School House
She's a Crafty Pumpkin
World of Whimm
The Busbee Buzz
This Girl Loves to Talk
Michele & Jack
Creative Mama
The Van Klan
Junior Mint and Reeses
Seven Super Summers
Bee Handmade Stuff
Panjo Kids
Mia's Mama
Outside the Blue
The Richardson's

Coming up this week (unless something else comes up): Quilt repair, up cycled art work display thingy, my staking wishes may be granted, carrot soup.

Muffin Tin Monday

Happy Monday! We invited our neighbor over for this week's Muffin Tin Meal. There was plenty of food for everyone. Here's what they dined on:

Contents: Yellow pepper, hot dog, peas, cheddar cheese cubes, cherries, carrots, Snyder's Cheddar Cheese Pretzel Sandwiches, Vanilla Letter-of-the-day cookies, chocolate chip Bunny Grahams, Veggie Booty, turkey, strawberries

And now for the *EXCITING* news - We have a flickr group devoted to our Muffin Tin Meals. I thought it would be an easier way for us to see all the meals. My finger gets tired of all that clicking. The flickr group also allows those of you without blogs to participate! Go have a look see. Details are there.

www.flickr.com/groups/muffintinmeals


I'm still going to list the weekly participants on my blog. Leave a comment when you have a picture and I'll add ya to the list -you know the drill. Thanks for making this so fun!

Muffin Tin Mamas
Morning has Broken
Morning has Broken (current week)
The Family McG
What's She up To?
Franny Kate's Creative State
Mama Said
The Van Klan
World of Whimm
This Girl Loves to Talk
Fell in Love at 22
The McAuleys
My Three Doodles
What's she up to?
Tee's Closet
Polka Dot Creations
Frills Fluff and Trucks

I've been tampering with my layout this weekend. I would never in 100 years guessed that I'd be editing html code in my spare time - that's what a great tutorial will do for ya. Not sure I'm liking it though. I've also been playing around with my banner. Think the whole layout needs more color or a more coordinated look. I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Muffin Tin Monday

It's that day again! Time for another round of Muffin Tin Monday. Here we go ~

Contents: Tooth picks, Laughing Cow cheese, wheat thins, grapes, cup for cherry pits, carrot sticks, blueberries, left-over Arthur Mac-n-Cheese, cherries, banana bread cubes, vanilla cookies, veggie booty

Muffin Tin Mamas
Tee's Closet
My Crafty Mess
Mama Said
Franny Kate's Creative State
The Family McG
World of Whimm
World of Whimm (last week)
Little White School House
Finding Normal
The McAuleys
Sugar and Spice Mommy
Chasing Cheerios
My Three Doodles
The Bangerter's

Morning has Broken

Send me a link to your post or photo and I'll add you to the list of Muffin Tin Mamas. Yippee!

You can find me here today! Thanks to the chocolate peanut butter gallery for posting my Peanut Butter Monkey. This site is dangerously delicious. Click if you dare . . .

Muffin Tin Monday

Good Morning! We used our tin this week to make English muffin pizzas. I was pleasantly surprised by how much my kids liked them - making & eating!

Contents: Tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni

Muffin Tin Mamas
Muses of Megret
The Family McG
The Lyng Family
The Brown Family
Blue Eyed Blessings
It's a Wonderful Life
Her Cup Overfloweth
Let's Explore
The Brandes Family
The Cox's Corner
On a Whimm
The Clarks
Tripletly Blessed
Mama Said There Would be Days Like This
{decorate your soul}
The Lopsided House
Cul-ture-queen
icreate
My Little Gems

Our next muffin tin challenge is **SHAPES** Send me your challenge tin posts next Monday, September 29th.