Muffin Tin Monday!

There was no theme for Muffin Tin Monday this week, so we made our own.

First of all, I must say how thrilled I was to find these silicone muffin cups in the Target dollar bins! I had actually already checked out and had our bags in hand when Maddie started doing the potty dance. As we rushed off toward the restroom, I passed these muffin cups and of course we just had to wait in line again to buy them!

So anyway, we used our new cups for this lunch. This was a "Taking Turns" lunch, meaning that Maddie got to pick something for her to eat and then I got to pick something for her to eat.

Here's how it turned out...

Top: PB&J (my pick) cut in heart shapes (her pick)

Middle: Strawberry yogurt (my pick)

Bottom: Sprinkles for her yogurt (her pick), raisins (my pick), Goldfish (her pick)

Everything was devoured except for the yogurt. While I can't get the girl to eat it, she certainly enjoyed the sprinkles all by themself!

Hop over to Muffin Tin Monday's official linky to see other meals!

Muffin Tin Monday!

It's Muffin Tin Monday and the theme this week was, "Back to School and Learning." This was a quick tray I put together for Maddie's snack time.

Top Row: One box of raisins, Two pretzels, Three crackers

Bottom Row: Four Goldfish, Five chocolate chips, Number cards

Before she ate her snack, she used the number cards to label each circle. Her thoughts on this? Well, the whole one box of raisins threw her off because, like she said, "There are lots of raisins," and only getting five chocolate chips?? Total bummer. Ha!

But, it was fun to help her count each of the items, find that number card and then, of course, eat (we did add a handful more of pretzels because she said she was "starving.").

Go check out other learning tins over at Muffin Tin Mom!

Muffin Tin Monday!

It's time for some Muffin Tin fun! We've taken a little break from our tins, only because the holidays kept us so busy (and I was lacking inspiration for a bit).

Anyway, today there was no theme so I decided to do a patterning breakfast tin.

By the way, I realized (last time I used it) that this mini tin was definitely not meant for the dishwasher. It left some funky spots on it, and even though it's totally clean, I still use the tiny muffin liners. Maddie thinks they're too funny and it makes clean-up a little easier, too.

Here are our patterns (I asked her what she wanted for breakfast and then added some, too):

Top Row: Pancakes, Eggs, Pancakes, Eggs

Middle Row: Eggs, Cheerios, Eggs, Cheerios

Bottom Row: Puppy Chow, Raisins, Puppy Chow, Raisins

When she first saw it, she looked at me, looked at the tin, and looked back at me, saying, "You such a silly momma." Ha! She immediately dug in, eating her top row in a perfect pattern!

Go check out other muffin tin meals right HERE!

Muffin Tin Monday!

This week's theme for MTM is all about Christmas books. Maddie and I read a new one (well, new to us) called, A Gingerbread Christmas. It's about two little gingerbread friends, Ginger and Spice, who have to bring Christmas back to a village.

The book was a little wordy (ie, I improvised and summarized) but she loved the idea behind it. And after we read it, we just had to make Ginger and Spice, our holiday heroes!

First, we made gingerbread cookies together (no small feat, by the way). After the cookies had cooled, I made a tin of decorating goodies!

Top: Mini M&Ms, Sprinkles, Mint Chocolate chips

Bottom: Frosting (tinted from yesterday's Advent project), Ginger (I was in charge of decorating Spice, according to Maddie), mini chocolate chips

To say that Maddie loved this would be quite the understatement. She loved it all, from the decorating to the baking to the eating!

Go check out other takes on Muffin Tin Monday by hopping over HERE!

Muffin Tin Monday!

There was no set theme for this week, so I chose to make Maddie her first "winter" meal of the season. Everything had a snowflake theme (I trust that you would've gotten that, but I still wanted to toss it out there since I was so proud of it; Ha!).

I used my new snowflake muffin tin (Target dollar spot! Although, it was NOT a dollar; it was from the slightly deceiving $2.50 "dollar" spot section). Here's what she had:

Top Row: Holiday rice krispy (see the snowflakes on the wrapper?!), PB&J cut with a snowflake cookie cutter, juice box

Bottom Row: snow (aka: yogurt covered raisins), snowflakes (aka: holiday marshmallows), snowflake cheese

And now, here's what she ate:

PB&J and juice box

You win some, you lose some (right?!).

Muffin Tin Monday!

This week, the theme for Muffin Tin Monday was all about foods that our children are thankful for. And so, I sat with Maddie (alright, I sat and tried to get her to sit but really, she ran circles around me, singing, "I thankful! I thankful!") and talked about foods she is thankful for. I guess this was funny to her, since she kept saying, "Thankful for food?!" as though I was insane. After discussing that yes, you can (and should) be thankful for food, she gave me three foods she is thankful for: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, raisins and pretzels. Then, she kept saying that she was thankful for Mommy and Daddy, so I incorporated that, too.

Here's what we came up with:

Bottom Row (her picks): Honey mustard pretzels, PB&J, raisins

Top Row (my take/adaptation): Juice box (the girl loves her daily juice), O's cereal and Goldfish mix (Daddy's favorite and she IS thankful for Daddy), strawberries (Mommy's favorite and I think she's thankful for me!)

And yeah, I think she liked it!

Go check out other thankful-themed tins at Muffin Tin Mom!

Muffin Tin Monday!

It's time for another Muffin Tin Monday and this week, there was no set theme. Since Maddie and I have been busy collecting leaves, making leaf crafts and leaf books (more on that later), I thought we'd follow through with our muffin tin, too.

I used some silk leaves (from the Target dollar spot) to spice up our tin. Then, I filled it with our fall/leaf colors:

Top Row: Juice box, tortilla chips, grapes, Pop chips (love these!)

Middle Row: Pop chips, PB&J cut like a butterfly, raisins

Bottom Row: Shredded cheese (the only way she'll eat cheese), chocolate donut (big treat!), cheese and there WAS a granola bar in the last cup but she grabbed that fast

After lunch, I gave her a template of a tree and we talked about what color dot stampers we could use to make fall leaves.

Putting the caps back on is a good color review!

To spice it up, I gave her a pencil and stamp pads in reds, greens and oranges. She had to dip the eraser tip in the stamp pad and create "tiny leaves" on the tree. She loved this!

She also loved to drag the lead through the stamp pad and write in "funny colors."

And then, well, the stamp pad ink managed to end up on a certain someone's nose... :)

Go see what others did for Muffin Tin Monday by clicking over HERE!

Muffin Tin Craft

Well, this was our tin for Muffin Tin Monday, but since I'm late to posting it, I won't link up. But, I still wanted to share our fun creation.

This week's theme was Halloween/Fall/Harvest. We deviated a tad from a meal to a craft. I used festive cupcake liners and filled them with paint. Then, I added in some glitter, glue, a marker, googly eyes and a handful of Q-tips.

Then, she painted and decorated pumpkins!

My very serious and focused artist. :)

And, there they are! According to Maddie, there's a "Michael, Jill and Maddie pumpkin."

Muffin Tin Monday!

Since there was no theme for Muffin Tin Monday this week, I decided to let Maddie decide what to fill her muffin tin with. In retrospect, I should've provided a little structure, instead of just saying, "What would you like to put in here for breakfast today?" Because really, a quesadilla and Pez Candy do belong in every two year olds meal, right?

So, after a quick meltdown we both agreed on a compromise breakfast. :)

Top Row: Crescent rolls (she requested biscuits, but this is closest to what we had and we had fun rolling them up together), scrambled eggs, raisins

Bottom Row: Marshmellows (hello compromise!), roll, scrambled eggs

As I'm typing this, she is happily eating and telling me, "I love this morning!"

Check out other Muffin Tin Monday meals over here!

Muffin Tin Monday!

It's Muffin Tin Monday time and this week's theme was apples. Maddie used to love apples and applesauce and those dehydrated apple slices. Couldn't get enough. But now? Well, now she says they're "disgusting." So, for our tin this week, I tried several options...

First, I cut apple slices into hearts...

Made some apple picks with stickers and offered up caramel sauce for dipping. She wouldn't go near it. Well, after I begged her to at least try a little, she took a nibble of an apple bite. Quickly said it was yucky and went back to Max and Ruby (and I ate the whole tin).

So then, we baked mini apple pies together (also for Simply Made Sunday!) in our muffin tin. It was great fun, as I posted about here. But alas, she still didn't like it.

Still, it was fun to try different types of apples and of course, try new things. I think we're going to make some apple prints tomorrow because we have a lot of apples... :)

Go see everyone else's great Muffin Tin Monday meals over at Her Cup Overfloweth!

Muffin Tin Monday!

Well, I have to say that it was an uninspired Muffin Tin Monday today. I didn't get around to following through on any of my very creative ideas (well, they sounded creative in my mind! Ha!), leaving me with breakfast this morning to pull something together. I'm disappointed in myself but at least Maddie happily ate!

Top Row: Apple slices, cheese, grapes

Bottom Row: Bagel, cream cheese ("white cheese"), bagel

Go check out Her Cup Overfloweth for some cute muffin tin meals!!

Muffin Tin Monday!

Alright. Here's what I've learned about myself: I can never manage to get Muffin Tin Monday done on, you know... Monday. Knowing, and finally accepting, this fact about myself, I've decided to put a little more effort into it and get 'er done the day before, on Sunday. I guess I don't have to officially disclose this, but as soon as I made the decision to do it on Sundays, I immediately felt happy again (apparently, it doesn't take much, huh?). It really is one of Maddie's favorite things and I love it, too.

So, the theme this time was circus, and we had SO much fun with it!

Here's her dinner, in all it's nutritional glory. Ha!

Top Row: Watermelon chunks, hot dog, circus animal cookies

Bottom Row: Hot dog, french fries, ketchup/mustard

Fabulous picture, right? This was a copy of the circus ticket that she and Daddy had to present, in order to receive admission to our circus dinner. :)

We all sat on the floor and enjoyed our meals. We also drank lemonade, which Maddie helped me make (she'll tell you, "I stir it. I stir it very good.").

*I should say that I have never actually been to the circus, but I'm guessing that these are typical circus-y foods!

She gobbled her meal up, which is rare for her. Oddly enough, she handed out her circus cookies to Mike and me. I thought she'd be all over those (well, she did have one!).

After she finished, she looked at us and said, "This best circus party ever! I ever had!" Ahhh, I love her. And, I love muffin tins. :)

Check out what others did by heading over to Muffin Tin Monday!

Muffin Tin Monday!

There was no theme this week over at Muffin Tin Monday, so we made a tray of her favorite lunch foods. She hasn't been feeling very well and is hardly eating so I thought a lunch with her faves would excite her. It didn't (but Mike enjoyed the PB&J!).

Top: Mini chocolate chips, peanut butter and jelly sandwich (Maddie immediately bit into the head before I could snap a picture), Goldfish

Bottom: Pretzel sticks, chocolate pudding with sprinkles, cheese

Check out other MTM meals over at Her Cup Overfloweth!!

Muffin Tin Snack Time!

We didn't link up to Muffin Tin Moday this week, but we did use our muffin tin for one of the most exciting snacks ever: fishing! I'd seen this floating around on blogs and was excited to finally try it out. We took pretzel sticks (aka: fishing poles) and put them in a cup next to the peanut butter (aka: bait). Maddie dipped her pretzel in the peanut butter and then went "fishing" for snacks.
Her favorites were the mini chocolate chips, since they stuck so well to the fishing pole. Although, she also liked the fishy crackers. She told me that the "raisins with peanut butter taste horrible." I guess I'd agree. :)
She LOVED this snack and I'm excited to do it again, maybe with different "fish" for her to catch.

Muffin Tin Morning!

We're officially linking up this week to Muffin Tin Monday, over at Her Cup Overfloweth. I used to do muffin tin breakfasts with Maddie and then stopped. Each week, when I see what others have been up to, I get so inspired and decided to start up again.

So, this week's theme was celebrations and this is our interpretation! I decided that celebrations are about love, so we focused on hearts. She still picked at it like a sparrow, but I have high hopes. :)

Top Row: Grapes, Cheese, Grapes (all with picks, of course!)

Bottom Row: Yogurt with heart sprinkles, heart shaped waffles, syrup for dipping.