Breakfast Cereal Parfait in A Mason Jar

Yogurt and strawberries layered in a mason jar and topped with breakfast cereal. It's an easy quick portable breakfast solution.

Muffin Tin Monday - Silly Snack!

It's Monday! And that means it's Muffin Tin Monday. What's Muffin Tin Monday you ask? Simple dimple: It's a weekly blog link up where I share the muffin tin meal I made for my kids and you join me! What's a muffin tin meal? Easy peasy: It's a snack, dessert, or meal served in a muffin tin. It's like an Americanized  bento box meal. For more on MTM's visit the  FAQ page.

We had our muffin tin snack in these fun wilton brand silly feet silicone muffin cups!

Our Muffin Tin Snack: pears, organic peaches, cheese squares.

Now, it's your turn!

No Need For The Sunday Paper

Here's a little Sunday link love:

The Babba Box: Would your kids love to receive a box in the mail filled with themed crafts, activities, and books? The folks at Babba Co. have done all the work for you and put together just such a box. The Babbabox is perfect for ages 3-6 years. Perfect Holiday or Birthday gift

BHG:Apple Cider in an Apple Mug This is an adorable idea from Better Homes and Gardens. Hallow out a large apple and fill it with your favorite apple cider recipe. Fun fall presentation!

Design Sponge: Create simple festive food picks (above) this holiday season by altering this vintage garden marker idea from design sponge. I have some fun fall fabrics that would be so sweet!

Cake Central: Holiday baking gets an inexpensive makeover with this simple trick. Turn dollar store doilies into chic cupcake wrappers.

Photo via Design Sponge

Parents' Magazine Best Blog Awards 2011

Did you know that Muffin Tin Mom was nominated for a Parents' Magazine Best Food Blog of 2011 award?

By Best Food Blog

If you like what you read here at Muffin Tin Mom, then I encourage you to click over and vote for me and this blog.

Cakey Pops in San Diego

Our local farmer's markets (we have so many in the greater San Diego area) are full of not only organic produce but they also serve local sweet treat like these Cake Pops from Cakey Pops. They have a booth at the La Jolla Open Air Market 

Cake Pops were made famous by the incredible Bakerella and Starbucks makes them widely available to the public en mass. Cakey Pops is a local business that is bringing Cake Pops to the residents of San Diego County. She was recently even featured here on the Sunday morning news!

But, if you want a personalized burst of Cakey flavor without the fuss and muss of making them yourself and you live in and around the San Diego area-then Cakey Pops are for you. 

I couldn't even wait to get home to eat one.

The Green Tea was surprisingly delish!

 I don't normally post about hyper local stuffs, but these were delicious! Vanilla and Red Velvet were the stand out super stars. They were gone really fast. ;) I ended up eating 3 in a row. Shhhhhh.....

To find out more, you can visit CakeyPops.com or like Cakey Pops on Facebook

What sweet treats have you enjoyed lately?

*Disclosure: I received 5 Cake Pops to review on this blog. I was not paid to write this post. My opinion is my own.

My son won't eat his school lunch!

Today I packed my son's lunch with items I knew were his favorites in hopes of getting him to eat his lunch after 5 days of coming home with a lunch box full of food. This is not like him to not eat his food entirely. And I even implented my MTM  stylings to his lunches with no luck. So I am at a loss. I decided to video my concerns, discoveries and frustrations. Can you relate?



Email subscribers can click here to see the video.

UPDATE: 
Thank you so much for your comments and encouragement! As of 9/22, he has eaten his lunch all the way through 1 time. That's progress.

My Action Plan:

• Continue to build positive reinforcement about school lunch. 
• Talk about how we need healthy food for energy and fuel to play and learn. 
• Involve him in the process both in shopping and in preparing
• Start an initiative to have recess come before eating lunch for the lower grades in our school.
• Visit the school to see the lunchtime routine for myself.
• Create a sticker chart which rewards him for completing 1 week of eating his lunch.

Thank you again for your comments, it has been such a huge help! I can't wait until he is back to his normal eating habits.

Muffin Tin Monday

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! 

Every Monday here at Muffin Tin Mom it's Muffin Tin Monday. It's been a multi-year super fun journey serving food in a muffin tin for kids and hearing your feedback and reading your emails about how muffin tin lunches have made a difference in your child's (or toddler & preschooler) eating habits or how much fun they have has been such a blessing! 

Here's what we had:

tangerines, raspberries, monterey jack cheese cubes (natamycin* free-woohoo!), zucchini (offered but not touched), honey nut cheerios, and sliced ham)

Now it's your turn. You know what do. Add your link/photo by clicking on he blue "add your link" button below.

How to Make a Ninja Rice Ball

I have known Jo in the blogging world for as long as there has been Muffin Tin Meals and she is incredibly talented. In wanting to bring more tutorials your way, Jo was gracious enough to share her Ninja Rice Ball Tutorial. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

This adorable ninja rice ball would make a great addition to any ninja-themed party or muffin tin meal. It would also be a wonderfully creative way to introduce your child to Japanese food staples like nori. So without further ado...

Hi, I am Jo and I blog over at A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That and talk about Montessori, crafting, sewing, muffin tin dinners (of course), life in Japan and everything in between!  I currently have a new skills festival going on, so pop over and have a look around.

I am a mum to a six yearr old boy and making cool things for boys is always a bit more tricky than girls. So having something cool and easy to make for boys is always a plus.

How to make ninja rice balls......because I bet you have always wanted to know!

This is from Ebi-kun's ninja birthday party, they are fairly straight forward to make and who doesn't love a ninja in their dinner?

What you need:

• pre-cooked rice
• nori sheets
• scissors
• hole punch
• bowl of water

I can't give you exact measurements for this, you will have to play it by ear a bit, it all depends on how big you make your rice ball. Mine were about ping-pong ball size. Japanese rice is naturally a bit sticky, if you are not using Japanese rice, a shorter grain is preferable and I have been told that adding a little extra water when you start to cook the rice will help making it sticky (I have never tried this myself).

• You will need a squarish piece of nori to cover most of the rice ball, 
• A long strip about an inch/2cm wide for the face mask and a rice ball. 
• To make the ball wet your hands then cup it in your palm, move it round until it is ball shaped. It is easier if you make all the rice balls first.

• Take your long strip and gentle fold it in half, cut a triangle into the folded edge, open it out, you should have a diamond cut into the strip.

• Gently dip your nori strip into the bowl of water until it starts to soften, then wrap it around the rice ball. 
• Then, wet the square of nori and wrap that around the back of the ball, I have found that some nori works better than others for this, I'm not sure why. 
• The ball should be completely covered with nori except for the diamond hole. 
• Use a hole punch to punch out the eyes, I use a wet chopstick to pick up and place the eyes, you could also cut the eyes out if you don't have a spare hole punch.

That is it, and in next to no time you will have a clan of ninja. What is the collective noun for ninja? a stealth of ninja? A sneak of ninja? Anyone know the answer?

If you are looking for more ninja inspiration you can also make a needle felted ninja or a ninja cushion. Thank you for having me Michelle, it's been fun!

Crockpot Organic Applesauce

My friend Kate of San Diego Deals and Steals posted the most amazing and simple recipe recipe for homemade slow cooker crock pot applesauce with organic apples and cinnamon.

"So about a month ago my mom brought over a HUGE bag of organic apples from her neighbor John’s apple tree.

On one hand – SCORE – free organic apples.

On the other hand – organic apples don’t keep as long as their pesticide ridden counterparts and I immediately began stressing about how we would consume them all before they went bad." 

Read more... for the full directions and crockpot applesauce recipe

Muffin Tin Monday

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday! We remembered the events of September 11th, 2001 quietly and without fanfare. I haven't told my 6 and 7 year old about it yet. In fact, I am not even sure when the "right time" will be or if they will ever understand the magnitude and significance of that day.

I also had a sick-ish child at home today. So we opted for a laid back muffin tin meal. My son's new favorite fruit is the pluot (center). He loves them and was even more excited when I told him this particular variety's nick name is "dinosaur egg".

In this muffin tin: Peanut butter and honey mini sandwiches, organic pluots, sprite (for the tummy), fish crackers, bananas,organic gala apples


We also enjoyed bananas and apple fruit in a waffle cone.

My mom had given me some waffle bowls and I knew just what to do with them! I was inspired by Katie from La Jolla Mom and Celebrate Creativity.

Muffin Tin Monday: Eating The Late Summer Harvest

Welcome to Muffin Tin Monday!

A trip to our local farmer's market this weekend yielded some delicious late summer fruits and vegetables. We we able to get some late harvest strawberries (I love living in California!), some pluots (they're delicious!), crisp gala apples, and zucchini.


Rounding off this Muffin Tin Meal is are some whole wheat mini turkey apple-shaped sandwiches and leaf shaped cheddar cheese.

I was worried that the farmer's market strawberries would go bad before we could eat them all, so I froze some to use in smoothies for later this winter.

For tips on how to freeze strawberries, here is a great post by Simple Bites with 4 different methods for freezing strawberries.

To join in with Muffin Tin Monday, you can the photo or blog post URL by clicking the blue "add your link" button below. Remember it needs to be a photo of a meal served in a muffin tin, muffin pan, or with silicone cups or paper liners. No bento box meals or divided plates, please. :)

No Need For The Sunday Paper

photo by partie traumatic

Muffin Tin Mania: Amazingly simple way to get more nutrients and vitamins in your (or your kid's) smoothies: make and freeze "green" smoothie shots with protein rich almonds, cancer preventing celery, and antioxidant rich spinach. Brilliant!

Chickabug: A compilation of 6 super delicious looking sweet flavored popcorn recipes. They had me at Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn....In fact I found this via Gourmet Mom's Pinterest board, check out all of her other fun pins.

Filth Wizardry:  Create a full window tissue paper collage. Perfect for inspiring creativity, curing boredom and promoting family togetherness. Great for rainy days or any day!

Have a blessed Sunday!