MTM: Food groups

I haven't posted about a Muffin Tin meal in a while, so here is what we had this past Monday for lunch: Annie's Organic Snack Mix Bunnies (carbohydrate), pistachios (vegetable protein), left-over smoothie from the morning (fruit and dairy), left-over organic grilled chicken from yesterday (protein), cucumber and yellow bell pepper slices (vegetable), and dried cranberries (fruit). I always try to include something from each of the major food groups in either C's lunch or dinner. Nothing fancy, but the muffin cups make it so much more appealing! As you can see, C is eager to dig in!

Muffin Tin Monday with Patterns

Well, today's Muffin Tin Monday wasn't exactly in a muffin tin, but it did include a muffin. Does that count? I've been working with C on patterns and recognizing her numbers lately, so I wanted to do something related to this theme.

Our pattern-themed, "wanna be" muffin meal from today included: an ABCB pattern with pomegranate seeds, cheese stick slices, and blueberries; a carrot and black olive AB pattern, a one and a two shaped almond butter and honey sandwich on organic multi-grain bread; and a homemade gluten-free blueberry and honey muffin.
C was very interested in the patterns and even told me what would come next in each one! Daddy has recently been working from home (yay!), so she had to run into the office and show off her lunch to him as well.

Happy Muffin Tin Monday!

Happy Muffin Tin Monday to you!

I instituted Muffin Tin Monday in our home after coming across this really fun blog several months ago. The idea is to create a lunch to eat from a muffin tin or muffin cups. Every week there is a different theme. What a fun and special treat for C to look forward to every Monday. She is starting to catch on to it and every Monday morning when we change the day of the week, she announces, "It's Muffin Tin Monday!" I decided to make C's dinner the muffin tin meal since I am introducing all kinds of new foods to her during our dinner time. It's a great way to sneak in different foods that she may not otherwise try; but because of the presentation she gets excited and is more willing to try something she has never tasted before or has previously refused. How's that for sneaky? I haven't been real faithful in following the themes for each week, but I do try to make the meals correlate with the the various seasons. It's such a simple idea and a great way to add something special to an otherwise ordinary Monday. I look forward to creating other educational themes and holiday ideas for C to enjoy. And my hope is that as she gets older she will want to create her own Muffin Tin meal ideas.

Our Halloween themed muffin cup meal from today included: organic multi-grain pumpkin shaped bread with a pomegranate seed mouth and organic raisin eyes, organic pork with a festive pumpkin skewer, fresh steamed organic green beans with a ghost skewer (that says, "BOO," as C always announces when she sees a picture of a ghost), and scary eyes (organic prunes with mozzarella cheese and bits of raisins).

And I'm happy to report that the entire meal was eaten up, except for the green beans which she finished before bed (along with some blackberries and a bit of an organic "granilla" bar, as C calls it).

Can you tell I'm on an organic kick? I don't mean to be annoying, honestly I don't. I'm just in the process of switching our family to a mostly organic, gluten-free diet for several different reasons. We'll save that for another post though. . .

Hope your Muffin Tin Monday was as happy as ours!