Monkey Themed Toddler Meal & #FunFoodFriday

It's been a while since I've made a muffin tin meal, but Small Baby had this one recently and he really enjoyed it, so I'm going to start making them for him more regularly. I consider muffin tin meals to be a great introduction to bento style lunches for babies and toddlers - they make it easy to provide a good variety of healthy foods whilst keeping control over portion sizes, and they are perfect for fun meals at home.  I've noticed that Small Baby seems more willing to try new things and also eats a bigger selection of food when it is presented in this way, and muffin tin meals are fun for me to make too!

Today is also the first #FunFoodFriday of this year, after a little break over the festive period, and as is usual in my Friday blog posts, this post contains a lovely linky.  If you’ve written any foodie posts, whether it be toddler meals, creative cakes, lovely lunches or a yummy recipe you’ve blogged, do feel free to join in and add your link at the bottom of the post. I try to comment on and tweet every post that’s linked up and I pin them all to my special Fun Food Friday Pinterest board too (apologies if you linked up last month though - I got a bit behind with it all in the rush up to Christmas!).

Back to the muffin tin meal - this one had a monkey theme for my little cheeky monkey! I had actually made the monkey shaped hard boiled egg (using the CuteZCute Animal Palz Kit) for Small Child's packed lunch but he was ill and didn't need it, so Small Baby got it instead.  As well as the egg, I served up small cubes of cheddar cheese, slices of cucumber cut into flowers using a mini bento cutter, a few plain crackers, which I decorated with a silicone leaf and monkey decorative 'baran', and some fresh banana, which I sliced with my crinkle cutter to make it easier for little hands to pick up.  I added some bright silicone cups for extra colour, and a couple of monkey shaped food picks to finish it off.  Although Small Baby is only 18 months old, he already loves using the cute little food picks and can often be persuaded to eat a little more if they are popped into his food! I do keep a very sharp eye on him while he eats to make sure they don't end up fully in his mouth.

Small Baby thoroughly enjoyed his monkey muffin tin meal, of which he ate everything but a part of the egg.  This was the first time he had had a hard boiled egg, so I was pleased that he was willing to try it and that he had more than one bite.

Now it’s your turn to share! Have you been making any fun food recently? Please link up your foodie posts below and share the inspiration around. You can also link up Instagram, Facebook or Twitter pictures if you don’t have a blog of your own.

A few quick reminders before you link up; please visit some of the other blogs that have linked up and leave them a comment – we all love comments! If you are linking up from your blog, please grab the button below too, and put it either in your blog post or somewhere on your blog. Both old and new posts are very welcome, and do feel free to link up several posts if you’d like.

<div align="center"><a href="/tag/fun-food-friday" title="Eats Amazing Fun Food Friday"><img src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Eats-Amazing-Fun-Food-Friday-Button.jpg" alt="Eats Amazing Fun Food Friday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Thank you in advance for linking up, I hope you find some fun inspiration!