31 Days Challenge- Day 16: Serve a Muffin Tin Meal

I discovered Muffin Tin Meals a little over a year ago. I thought it was a great idea, but I saw so many amazing meals on the Muffin Tin Mom site, that I was too intimated to try. I thought I needed fancy muffin tins, I thought I needed special tools, I thought I needed a theme and a plan.

Then, one day, I decided to leave all of that behind and just go for it. I pulled out my old yucky looking muffin tins, and using the same foods that I had already intended to serve, I began to fill the little compartments.

My First Muffin Tin Monday

I put the tins on the table and called my boys to lunch. The result was amazing. Suddenly these same mundane foods became the "Best lunch ever!"

Since that time, I've used Muffin Tins as a tool to encourage better eating and to solve "problems."

These tin were used to solve the problem of serving a variety less adventurous eaters while experiencing a lack of "kid friendly," food in the house during a playdate...

Solving Problems with Playdate Muffin Tins

Several days ago, my younger son was recovering from being sick and hadn't had much of an appetite. He'd been eating very little and refusing just about everything I offered. I decided to serve a variety of small portions of foods in a a muffin tin so that he could easily pick what appealed to him. 

"Sick Day Muffin Tin"

This lunch included strawberries, oranges, pieces of pancake made with almond flour, a grape tomato, a small salad, a carrot, slice of cucumber, air popped popcorn, chicken corn soup, and cottage cheese. (I didn't really expect him to eat salad when he wasn't feeling well, but my older son really wanted salad and  if I didn't give him the same foods as his brother, I would have been risking more miserable little boy tears!)

For today's challenge... dig out your muffin tin (or tins) no matter how scrubby they look and search your fridge and pantry for bits and pieces that you can put together into a lunch, breakfast, dinner or snack. You don't need to have anything fancy to serve a muffin tin meal. In fact, I've found that muffin tins are a great tool when I have very little food in the house and am wondering how I'm going to pull together a meal at all...

From Slacker Mom to Cool Mom... (A.K.A. Oh No! WHAT am I going to serve for breakfast!!??)

Your kids may even enjoy helping to make the meal or pick the items to put in the tins!  While you're at it, you may even want to make one for yourself (the food always looks so much more appealing!!)

Have fun, and if you post about it, don't forget to link up to Muffin Tin Monday over at Muffin Tin Mom!