When the kids were younger, I found that the most effective way to get them to eat more variety was to serve lunch in muffin tin trays. I used to make them at least 5 days a week for the kids for lunch and they would ask me every morning, “what’s in our tins today?”
I’ve often been asked for ideas for what to put in the trays, so I’ve compiled a bit of a list here of some of our past muffin tin lunches. As you can see from the photos below, the muffin tin trays can be extremely simple, comprised of what I found in the fridge and pantry or the leftovers we had or they can be something that is quite planned out and follows a theme. Either way, your kids will really enjoy them and they are more likely to try new foods when presented in a fun way. This also eliminates those cries of “ewww, my corn touched my potatoes”!
- carrots
- grapes
- Kraft Dinner crackers
- Mexi fries (tater tots)
- salsa
- mini taco pies
- cooked, cut up smokies
- broccoli
- Chocolate Cheerios
- mangos
- Ranch dressing for dipping
- baby tomatoes
FISHING TRAY:
- celery
- bananas
- orange slices
- goldfish crackers
- peanut butter
- pretzels
The idea behind the fishing muffin tin tray is that 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.
- 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.
fish crackers- pepperoni sticks
- ravioli
- hard boiled egg
- applesauce
- peas
Letter themed muffin tin trays:
I sometimes make muffin tins where all the foods in it start with the same letter. This is great for littles who are learning letter sounds. Here is a list of foods that could potentially go in a muffin tin tray for the letter “A”:
arrowroot cookies, apples, avocados, asparagus (my kids prefer pickled asparagus), animal crackers, animal crackers, applesauce, almonds, artichokes or artichoke dip, alfredo sauce on angel hair pasta, apricots, alphabits, alphaghetti, antipasto, alfalfa sprouts, ants on a log (raisins on peanut butter on celery), asiago cheese, albacore tuna, All Bran cereal, After Eights, angel food cake, anchovies (good luck on getting your kids to eat those though!), apple juice
- fettucini alfredo
- foot shaped cheese
- fish crackers
- f shaped bread
- fruit gummies
- fruit cocktail
Themed muffin tin trays:
I’ve also made some really fun themed muffin tin trays such as this Dr. Seuss one. Choosing a theme makes it easy and fun to fill.
