Muffin Tin Monday - Weather Again

Yesterday was Muffin Tin Monday, and this week's set theme is Summer.  The Muffin wasn't convinced by the idea of an "I miss Summer" tin, and requested a Weather-themed tin instead.  We've done this theme before - a couple of times, actually - but it must be a favourite, as she wanted it again.  So here we are:

Top Row:  Sunny fairy bread;  Cheese lightning;  Carrot clouds (at sunset, obviously)

Bottom Row:  Yoghurt snow;  Macaroni cheese (for Hot);  Pear umbrella (for Rainy)

The Muffin enjoyed this tin (actually she helped choose everything that went into this one, so it wasn't really a challenge for her) - she ate everything.

Check out the other Muffin Tin Meals this week over at Another Lunch (the new home of Muffin Tin Monday!)

Panda Bento

Last week, Husband brought home a packet of those Hello Panda chocolatey-filled cookies.  The Muffin was so thrilled with them that I promised her a bento to match:

In addition to two Hello Panda cookie thingies, The Muffin had a panda face sandwich (with Vegemite for the black fur, and cheese eyes);  A pear with a panda face (this time the black fur was bits of prune);  string cheese & spinach leaf sticks of bamboo for the pandas to eat;  plus extra pear and prunes.

I am linking this up to What's For Lunch Wednesday.  Go check out all the other great lunches!

Muffin Tin Monday - The Ocean

Under The Sea is one of our favourite Muffin Tin Monday themes - we've done several variations in the past, but we never get tired of them!  So we were very pleased to find that this week's set theme is The Ocean!

Top Row:  Custard apple with a dolphin pick;  Pear fish;  Pikelet starfish with butter and jam.

Bottom Row:  Tortellini coral with rocket (ie arugula) "seaweed" and carrot crab;  Tortilla octopus;  Torellini coral with rocket "seaweed" and carrot crab.

The Muffin was very pleased with this dinner, and ate everything except the custard apple.  She ate three very small spoonfuls of that, and then said she'd decided she didn't like it.  Can't argue with that, I guess - she did give it a good try!  She also asked for (and got) more tortellini.

To see what other lucky kids ate this week, head over to Another Lunch (the new home of Muffin Tin Monday)!

My 200th Post!

Well, it's finally here - my 200th blog post!  Due to my incredibly erratic posting habits, it has only taken me four years to get here (!), but it has definitely been fun.

To celebrate, I decided to celebrate with a lovely little Raspberry Red Velvet cupcake, topped with Grand Marnier-laced Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  Yum!  The cupcake recipe is from a book called Sparkle Cupcakes (which, if you so choose, you can purchase by following the link).  I've now baked just two of the cupcake recipes from this book, and honestly I find them not quite so light and fluffy as my usual go-to recipe (which is Billy Reece's Vanilla Vanilla recipe).  However, there are some wonderfully interesting flavour combinations in this book, and I will make more of them.  This RRV cupcake, for example, is delicious - I love red velvet for its beautiful texture and dramatic good looks, but the only criticism I sometimes have is that it doesn't really know what it is, flavour-wise.  Is it vanilla?  Is it chocolate?  What's going on?  Well these cupcakes don't dither at all - the beautiful raspberry twang comes through loud and clear, with a subtle chocolatey thing going on in the background... mm-mm!

Unfortunately I can't share the recipe with you, as it's from a cookbook and I don't like violating people's copyright, but to be honest it would probably be completely possible to replicate this just by adding some raspberry puree (or leftover raspberry coulis) to your regular red velvet recipe...  If you try it, let me know how it turns out!  Highly recommended as a flavour combination!

Shiny Bento Giveaway at Bento, Monsters!

Check out all the amazing bento goodies that Bento, Monsters is giving away!

It's not too late to enter, if you're quick!  Click on over there Right Now (or by Thursday 6th of June) for your chance to win!  While you're there, you should totally check out some of the super gorgeous bento lunches that Ming makes for her boys.  She is SO creative!  My lunches want to be her lunches when they grow up.  :o)

Muffin Tin Monday - Space x 2

It's Muffin Tin Monday!  This week's theme is Perfect Picnic, and honestly?  I wasn't feeling it.  Winter has just kicked in here, so it's not really picnic weather, or even picnic food weather.  Plus, for a variety of reasons, we ended up getting takeaways for dinner tonight.  So I'll spare you the sight of my daughter's muffin tin filled with chicken nuggets, french fries, and bits of chopped up nashi, and instead I'll share those space-themed ones I promised you!

This first one is actually Star Wars themed.  We did it on May 6th (ie as close to May 4th as possible), as our household was at the time somewhat Star Wars obsessed, what with the party and everything.

Top Row:  Spinach leaf Yoda with string cheese eyes;  Grape asteroids;  Star cookie.

Bottom Row:  Spanish omelette with Darth Nori;  Ugliest Princess Leia Ever (made of spanish omelette);  Light sabres (carrot and string cheese).

The Muffin was thrilled with this tin - and it brought our own Star Wars week to a nice close.

The following week, The Muffin requested a space-themed tin, as her class is studying Space this term.  She particularly requested that Saturn and the Moon be included.

Top Row:  Saturn (one dried apricot stuffed inside another dried apricot, with dried apple rings);  Cheese phases of the Moon (The Muffin is very fond of the word "gibbous".  I cannot tell you how proud that makes me);  Rice pudding Moon (formed with a small icecream scoop).

Bottom Row:  Pear stars;  Potato and leek soup with bread and butter rocket;  The Milky Way (yoghurt with star sprinkles - this was also The Muffin's idea).

The Muffin was very pleased with this tin, and ate the lot, apart from the soup, which she didn't like.  I didn't really expect her to like it - she doesn't like cream - but this is one reason we like Muffin Tin Monday:  it means Husband and I can sometimes have dinners The Muffin doesn't like, without her having to have them, And without it seeming like I'm making her a completely separate dinner (because I refuse to be a short order cook - I don't think it does anyone any favours in the long run).  So she gets a little of what we're having, plus whatever else we decide on for her Tin.

Now go check out what other lucky kids are having this week, over at Another Lunch!

Muffin Tin Monday - Down On The Farm

Happy Muffin Tin Monday!  I haven't posted a muffin tin for a while, but we have been doing them most weeks.  In fact I had two to share with you today - one space themed, one Star Wars themed - but then I found out that the home of Muffin Tin Monday has changed.  The reins have now been handed over to Melissa over at Another Lunch, and the really cool news is, she has reintroduced scheduled themes!  Hurrah!  This is great news for me as sometimes I am lazy and can't be bothered have trouble thinking of a theme, whereas if one is handed to me, I am often more inspired to be creative.  It sounds weird, I know - being more creative when I'm not creating the theme myself - but I guess it's like finding it easier to choose something if you have less choices to choose from!

Anyway, The Point Is, this week's theme is Down On The Farm.  And since my daughter just loves animals, I decided to go ahead and join in!  I'll show you the space ones some other time, if I'm not really inspired by the official theme that week...

Top Row:  Hammer cookie (representing all the hard work the farmer has to do around the farm);  Chopped apple and pear with hen and dog picks (although the picks are not terribly visible in this photo);  Boiled egg Sheep with bocconcini head and legs.

Bottom Row:  Cheese hens with carrot details;  Bread-and-butter cow with Vegemite spots;  Carrot sticks for the ponies to eat (three of the muffin cups are paper ones with ponies on them).

I didn't take an After Shot this time, but she ate almost everything:  two carrot sticks and a few small bits of apple were left.  I was Very Proud of my sheep.  The Muffin pronounced it "too cute to eat".  Then she ate it anyway.  :o)

To see what other lucky kids got for dinner/lunch/snack this Monday, check out the new home of Muffin Tin Monday, at Another Lunch.  While you're there, have a look at some of her bento lunches;  they are super cute!

I'd also just like to acknowledge & thank Michelle (the Muffin Tin Mom) for hosting Muffin Tin Monday over the last few years - I have had a lot of fun joining in!  Hopefully Muffin Tin Monday has many happy years still ahead of it with its new host - and hopefully my girl won't decide she's too big for it for a long while yet!