I am still just loving the muffin tins. I make them at least 5 days a week for the kids for lunch and they are still asking me every morning, “what’s in our tins today?” Just to give others a bunch of ideas and to be able to reference this myself in the future when I run out of ideas, today, I’m going to highlight one tin, but also post pictures and lists from many of the tins I’ve made in the last few weeks.
-carrots
-grapes
-Kraft Dinner crackers
-Mexi fries (tator tots)
-salsa
-mini taco pies (*recipe below)
I came across a recipe at Unworking Mom for something called BBQ cups. I adapted the recipe (since I don’t eat beef) and doubled it and we had it for supper one night (huge hit!) and I served the leftovers in this tin for lunch a few days later. Since it is in the shape of a muffin already, it’s perfect! Here is my adapted version of the BBQ cups, which I called Mini Taco Pies. Keep in mind that this is the doubled version, which will make 24 of the little “pies”.
Spray the muffin tin(s) with olive oil.
Fry up 2 packages of Yves Mexican meatless ground round (or ground beef). Add 1/2 an onion, finely minced. Add taco seasoning (I didn’t measure how much, but to taste).
When meat or “meat” is browned, add 1/2 – 1 cup of barbeque sauce or tomato sauce.
In bottom of each muffin tin, add 1/2 a Pillsbury Country Biscuit. Spoon some of the meat mixture on top. Finish with some grated tex mex or cheddar cheese.
Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.
We served ours with hot sauce or salsa, but you could serve with sour cream, lettuce, green onions, or tomatoes.
-cooked, cut up smokies
-broccoli
-Chocolate Cheerios (free with coupon)
-mangos
-Ranch dressing for dipping
-baby tomatoes
-celery
-bananas
-orange slices
-goldfish crackers
-peanut butter
-pretzels
I had seen this idea on several other blogs. The kids can take the pretzel stick, dip it in peanut butter, and “fish” the goldfish crackers up. My kids thought it was awesome and had competitions to see how many fish they could catch at a time (4 was the record). Peanut butter also goes well with celery and bananas. I had planned for raisins to go in instead of oranges, so that the kids could make ants-on-a-log, but I forgot to buy the raisins.
Chocolate Cheerios, marble cheese slices, soda crackers, a hard boiled egg, pickles, baba ganouj for the girls and tuna for the boys. Baba ganouj is a roasted eggplant dip which my girls love. Einstein is allergic to eggplant oddly enough and Snuggle Puppy hates it, but they both love tuna, which the girls won’t eat, so this worked out really well. As usual, the kids had fun “playing” with their food and made some interesting cracker sandwiches. Even the Cheerios made their way into a tuna, cheese sandwich (ugh)!
-whole wheat bun
-ham
-lettuce
-cheese slices
-mustard
-applesauce
My intention was that the kids would make bunwiches out of everything but the applesauce, but most of them chose to add some dressing to their lettuce and eat it as a salad instead of putting it in the bun. It’s fine with me as long as they are eating it! This lunch was a great way to use up ham leftovers.
This week, I also made an “A” themed muffin tin, which you can see here. I have also provided a list of foods that begin with “A” for those who want to give it a try.
Sharla, this is such a great idea!
Thanks Lorraine! The kids love it!
Thanks for the post and the ideas!
I hope your boys are still liking the muffin tins Sarah!
Those look great! I bet if you didn’t want to spend $ on the meatless ground beef, you could substitute lentils. I often use lentils to make a version of veggie sloppy joes and they’re great (and so cheap!)
I’ve never tried substituting lentils for the veggie beef, but it would be cheaper for sure. Thanks for the suggestion Lisa!
Such great ideas. Wow-I feel inspired to do muffin tins more often.
I like the fishing idea! I’ll have to give that a try! I have been using peanut butter a lot in my tins so using it as “bait” is a great idea!
Wow! I love all of these! The fishing tin is super cute!
Those Muffin Tin lunches are really neat! My kids are older though so I don’t know how they would respond to them…and they’re GOOD eaters already! LOL
Thanks for stopping in Our Side of the Mountain! I’m enjoying “Power of a Positive Mom”! I am taking a break though to “absorb” and use some of the suggestions from the book…like smiling at everyone, making 3 positive comments to each of the kids, taking time for me.
This is so much fun!
Our crew would absolutely LOVE this…
You kiddos are so cute…heading over to read under your “adoption” label.
One of my favorite topics…
Thanks so much for sharing with NOBH.
~Kara @ The Chuppies/NOBH
I love your muffin tin ideas! My boys are a little too old for themes, but they would love these. I especially like the way you did the sandwich fixin’s- one of my boys would make a sandwich, but I know the other two would just dip each item.
That comment was kind of repetitive- sorry! I am enjoying your posts.
This is genius! Seriously! I’m going to start doing whit for my kids this week! I’m totally impressed by this. I love these kinds of ideas. You have a new follower here. This is fantastic!
Mandi from http://boredombustingmommy.blogspot.com/
Thanks Mandi and thanks for stopping by!
LOVE the muffin tin idea! I think my boys would really think this was fun. Now I just need to be as creative as you with figuring out what to put in the tins!
Following from NOBH.
Welcome Lisa!!!
I love this!!! What a fun and colorful way to have lunch! I think my littlest would like this!
very nice post, i certainly love this website, keep on it