Fun Finds Friday: Car Muffin Tin

Sometimes I find things that are cool at the stores I sometimes shop at. Cause I'm cool like that sometimes.
You know, once I found these! I had to have them. And we still have them but they don't look that nice and new....thanks to sticky kid fingers.

 This is a pretty cool muffin tin to own if you have boys, and since I have 4 of them, this was a good investment.

 So I thought that is was a pretty cool find...until I googled. There is a certain online big retailer- I shall not say cause I did not fully join their associate program- but you can figure it out- or email me and I'll tell you- and they have this thing for the same price, plus shipping.
Apparently, I am not such a cool mom for not discovering this little gem sooner. Oh well...sometimes I'm cool like that too and find cool things much later than everyone else.

 So we made crayons. And it took forever to peel the papers off crayons for three of these guys. And a few razor blade cuts, because I used a razor blade to get the paper off.  Note: If you make car crayons, and you have a 2 1/2 year old obsessed with driving cars all over everything, you might not want to give him a car crayon. Just sayin.

This was a really fun muffin tin to find. I love finding different shaped muffin tins. And my boys love it! So maybe we'll make car shaped banana bread loaves next.
Thanks for reading!

Mini Caramel Apple Pies

OK this is so YUMMY and so SIMPLE. It is a perfect recipe to have kids help you with! And if you read my blog regularly- and my Sweets on Sunday posts- you know I love using a cake mix :) It sure simplifies things-when you need things to be simple, because your darn sweet tooth can't wait- ha ha.

MINI CARAMEL APPLE PIES:

(ingredients are in bold)

1. Spray muffin tins with Pam butter spray. (want to make it richer- add a little bit of butter to each tin...)

2. Add about 2-4 tablespoons applesauce. Cover the bottom of each tin -about 1/4 inch.

3. Add a few pieces of chopped and peeled apple. I put about 2-3 pieces- about the size of a quarter.

4. Add about 1/4-1/3 cup yellow cake mix. I just put it on and left some space at the top of each one. I didn't measure. Just poured some on top. You can really add as much as you like. NOTE: This is a dry cake mix- as in straight from the box- nothing added.

5. Top with a little pat of butter or margarine and some cinnamon & sugar.

6. To make these into caramel apple pies, not just apple pies, top each with about a tablespoon of Heath Bar Toffee Chips. (can be found by the chocolate chips)

BAKE for 20-25 minutes at 350. SERVE with whipping cream or cool whip.

Watch out....you might not be able to stop at just one. ☻

ENJOY!

Let's Hear it for Homemade Muffins

We eat a lot of muffins around here. And with school starting, muffins are the perfect food.

Why?

Well...IF you make them there are so many reasons why muffins are the best:

*You can eat them on the go

*You can add "healthy" ingredients- whole wheat flour, flax seed, fruit

*They freeze well

*They are portable

*They taste delicious!

*They can be good for you

*Kids love them

*Kids can help make them

*The possibilities are endless!

So this next week, I am going to share some of my Favorite muffin recipes with you!

And...If I can figure out how to use Mr. Linky- or someone can please help this non-computer savvy mom-

I will put a linky thingy where you can link your favorite muffin recipe from your blog!

Hopefully we'll have a bunch of great muffin recipes in the end!

And to kick it off- go grab this great book off your shelf and read it to your little ones:

Happy Baking!

Muffin Tin Meals for St. Patrick's Day

Menu: leftover breadstick (recipe is here), green peppers, cucumbers, rainbow jello (recipe coming soon), green apples, and green yogurt w/ sprinkles.

It's been a while since I've done a Muffin Tin Meal. But we are back! GREEN is a favorite color over here, so this was perfect! If you have yet to try Muffin Tin Meals with your kids, check out the great ideas over at Her Cup Overfloweth. For past muffin tin meals that we have done, click here. Have a very GREEN St. Patrick's Day! ♣ ☻

Christmas Muffin Tins

Score! I found these in the dollar section at Target. They were 2.50 each. Really a great deal. My son loved them so much he had to eat breakfast out of them today. If you are new to Muffin Tin Meals, you can see some great examples under my "food" posts, or here or here or here.

Now go quick to your local Target and pick up some of these cute muffin tins for the holidays!

Halloween Dinner- Muffin Tin Monday!

Last night for dinner we had our Muffin Tin Meal-Halloween style! We served it in a Jack-o-Lantern lolly-pop mold-that I found at Goodwill. Here is the menu and "How-to":

Lolly-pop ghost ,

apple-jack-o-lantern,

scarecrow hair (noodles w/feta cheese),

black beans (monster eyes),

spider rolls (Rhodes dough rolls- defrost, shape into spider, raisin eyes, sprinkle cinnamon and sugar for brown spider or grated cheese for hairy spider),

mummy (hot dog wrapped in dough), and

mixed vegetables (monster guts).....

My son wasn't super hungry, but we sure had fun making these things. He loved the apple, the hot dog, and the roll!

More ideas can be found here.

What fun and easy Halloween Foods are you making at your house?

Muffin Tin Monday- SHAPES

We actually did this last week. (too much going on today)

ROUND AND ROUND LUNCH:

bananas, grapes, Trader Joe's crackers, Trader Joe's cinnamon swirl cereal, cheese, apples

The cool thing about this lunch was all day my son was looking for circles and round things. So fun!

Muffin Tin Monday- (by request of a 3 year old)

We had Muffin Tin meals several times last week- by request of my 3 year old who even chose the tin he wanted to eat it from, and requested several of the foods. Here is one of the ones we did.

Menu: graham crackers, cheese crackers, carrots, orange slices, go-yogurt, and chocolate peanut butter bars-(just a little bit).

muffin tin monday again

Did not do much today w/ this because we are all under the weather. menu: string cheese(he already ate it), pears, raisins, grapes, pretzels, lucky charms. He cleared his plate today and wanted more pears!

Breakfast Time...Muffin Tin Monday!

He really wanted Lucky Charms for breakfast- but this way I got him to eat yogurt and blueberries too. yeah! We had fun w/ cold cereal on this one. The menu: Lucky Charms, blueberries, yogurt, Fruit Loops, Kix, and Trader Joe's Cinnamon Swirls-as we call them.

Muffin Tin Monday-PARTY Time!

The menu: cantolope, grapes, cool whip w/ sprinkles, chocolate and peanut butter dip, bananas, graham crackers
I wasn't going to do "Muffin Tin Monday" today because kids have been sick, etc. But it is so easy-and a fun thing to do for lunch when spending a day at home. Today the theme was "party time" and so we had some fun foods. The chocolate peanut butter dip is so delicious! Here is how you make it-pretty easy: take about 2 TBSP chocolate chips and add a little tiny bit of milk to it. Put in microwave for 30 seconds-1 min. When done stir it up and add a few TBSP. peanut butter. It is so yummy-so watch out! You don't have to add the peanut butter-you can just have chocolate if you wish. For more fun "party muffin tin meals" click here. There is also a flickr group too.

RAINBOW Muffin Tin Monday Meal

Menu: frozen corn, blueberries, baby carrots, canned french-cut green beans, mango, hot dog
And for dessert: I had to buy "Rainbow" cookies- besides they were on sale!
Mama's Muffin Tin Lunch: (thought I'd join in the fun) salsa, tamale straight from Mexico, corn, fat-free sour cream, blueberries, and mango

I absolutely LOVE this way of feeding my toddler! He eats so much better. Today I let him pick what he wanted, and each time he would say, "That's my FAVORITE!" And he ate almost everything! For more muffin tin meals click here.

Summer Gems #8 Muffin Tin Meals

Menu: carrots, turkey, mango, cucumber, whole wheat crackers, cheese(in the empty one because I have to save it for last-he loves it too much), red grapes, bananas, cheerios (filling the entire tin is too much food for my little guy). So I am in search of a 6 hole muffin tin- and I think ice cube trays with cute shapes might be fun for the little ones too!
AFTER HE EATS...
A while ago I posted Muffin Tin Meals on my family blog which is private. So today I found this great post on Muffin Tin Monday that even has a flickr group with photos of all kinds of muffin tin meals! So cute! It looks really yummy, and I just might have to eat this way too! There was also THIS which is absolutely adorable for a party or just for a play date. We had lunch in a muffin tin again yesterday, and it always proves to be a big hit with him. This is something we will continue to do for a very long time!