Thursday, February 3, 2011

Muffin Tin Meals - Eatin' With The Queen of Hearts!

We slept in on Thursday, so I decided we'd have another a lazy day. She sat on the potty 3 times, earning 3 potty candies, and had no appetite for breakfast. [She had about a month where she refused to even sit on the potty, so we went back to giving candy for every attempt. She's wicked smart, so she figured this out, and asks to sit on the potty every time she wants candy now. But at least she's asking to use it! And we're having quite a lot of success! We've gone to Little Gym twice now in underpants!] When I asked her what she wanted to do for lunch, she replied, "I want a beautiful lunch!" *sigh*

I figured I'd just slap some food together in a muffin tin, since I wasn't having any brainstorms, and I hadn't prepared anything in advance. But then I was thinking a hearts theme would be easy, for Valentines. Once I had settled on that, I remembered that there's a Valentines theme week coming up. Hmm... But thinking of hearts had got Juice Newton's "Playing With the Queen of Hearts" song stuck in my head. Aha!

Queen of Hearts
PBH sandwich, Box with peanuts and chocolate chips, Yogurt, Grapes
Cookie, Ranch dip, Green Beans, Strawberries
So instead of all hearts, I used some playing card symbol picks I'd found at an Asian grocery, and my small crown cutter.

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Crown of Hearts: My original plan had been to do a large crown, using 2 slices of bread for the sandwich. But she rarely eats a whole sandwich anymore, so I decided to just fold a slice in half and make a smaller crown. I used a jewel heart pick in the top.
Box of Hearts: In the light pink heart box (from Dollar Tree,) I have some mini chocolate chips and roasted salted peanuts from a Planter's Mix [I took one for the team and ate any non-peanuts that got fished out. A real hardship.] I chose to use only peanuts since she hadn't really eaten them when I had done a mix the other day, and she told me she didn't want any nuts in her lunch. When I added the mini chocolate chips, I told her she'd have to eat the nuts if she wanted the chips.
Yogurt of Hearts: We don't currently have Greek honey yogurt, since my husband needed plain Greek yogurt for some recipe, and Unka Seesee couldn't find the honey Greek yogurt, so got plain all-natural honey yogurt, which doesn't taste sweet or honey-like at all to me. But she's still happy as long as I drizzle honey on top, so it's all good. I used a small heart-shaped cutter as a guide, and made a heart out of pink sugar sprinkles.
Grapes of Hearts: I used the Diamonds and Clubs picks and made grape kebabs, plus some more grapes to fill out the cup.
Heart Cookie: My friend Jessica had given me her leftover Valentines cookies after her True Romance party a few Sundays ago, along with a bunch of other leftover snacks (they're on diets, so I was happy to be of help!) I found them in their baggie in the fridge while I was digging around looking for inspiration.
Ranch of Hearts: I used a plastic heart-shaped bento cup (from Daiso, I believe) to house the Ranch for her beans.
Green Beans of Hearts: We got these fresh green beans at an Asian Market last Sunday. They were so long, I had to snap them in half to get them to fit! I put a Spades pick in there, so I'd have all 4 represented.
Heartberries: We had 2 strawberries on their last legs, so I sliced off all the unsavory-looking bits and quartered them. I skewered some on the Hearts pick. Then I added two smaller, fresher, whole ones, since they looked kind of heart-like.
She was so excited about her yummy yogurt, with pink ("My favorite color is pink. Tually likes red, but I like pink") sprinkles, she dipped into the Ranch by accident.
"Oops! That's not my honey yogurt! That's Ranch pudding!"
After eating all the sugar sprinkles off the top, she added her chocolate chips and peanuts.
"Mommm! I need more peanuts and chocolate chips to put in my honey yogurt!"
"More Ranch pudding please!"
She ate all the skewered grapes. None of the strawberries. Most of the yogurt and peanuts. All of the chocolate chips. Most of the beans. The cookie. And didn't so much as jostle the sandwich. I'm glad I hadn't made the bigger crown! She got seconds of the Ranch dressing, and peanuts and chocolate chips.




    

9 comments:

  1. What a cute lunch!! I loved the theme.

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  2. Greetings from Southern California :-)

    I added myself to follow your blog. You are more than welcome to visit mine and become a follower if you want to.

    God Bless You, ~Ron

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  3. Yum! Plus pretty - and I love Alice In Wonderland, so am in favour of all things Queen Of Hearts! :o)

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  4. I love your "hearty" meal. I did hearts today too.

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  5. This meal is sooo cool! I love it!

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  6. So cute! Very Creative! I just love going to all the muffin tin monday posts and getting inspired.

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  7. I am so glad you linked this lunch! I really love it.

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  8. Nice! When do you do the 'Muffin Tin Nieces" special?

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