Rainbow Muffin Tin Meals for St Patricks Day

A very happy St Patricks Day to you!  I had a few vague 'rainbowy' ideas in my head for a fun St Patricks Day meal for Small Child, but when I saw these gorgeous muffin tin meals by Lucy at Capture by Lucy, I felt inspired to create my own. 

It's been a while since I made a muffin tin meal, and in that time Small Child's appetite has grown somewhat, so I dug out a larger sized muffin pan than usual for him, and raided my silicone cup collection to see if I had enough different colours to fill it.  If you could see my bento collection, you'd probably laugh at the idea that I might not have enough different colours, and sure enough it didn't take me long to find a rainbow of silicone cups to fill the tin.

It was lunch time for Small Baby too, so I decided to make him his own version, and see how he did with it.  This month he's achieved some great milestones - he's started crawling backwards, bottom shuffling forwards, saying "Dada" in context (but not "Mama", harrumph!) , and now he's had his first muffin tin meal!

In Small Child's muffin tin meal he had strawberries, topped with leaf picks, raspberries, topped with a pink bear pick, a mini Babybel cheese, topped with an eye pick, dark chocolate chips and dried cranberries in a cherry shaped silicone cup,  red grapes, sliced chicken, rolled and skewered on blue polka dot picks, some Organix raspberry & blueberry mini rice cakes, cucumber slices, decorated with a shamrock using a mini heart shaped bento cutter, sugar snap peas, decorated with a shamrock pick, pieces of melba toast crackers, Organix sweetcorn rings topped with a yellow elephant pick, and last but not least a couple of gold coins at the end of the rainbow!

Small Child was absolutely over the moon with his muffin tin meal, he saw me making Small Baby's one but hadn't seen what I was making with him, and his eyes got very round when I presented it to him! He took it into the garden and had a happy picnic in the sunshine, stopping eating only to leap around when "a buzzing thing" came over to disturb him! Once he calmed down and the 'buzzing thing' had buzzed off, he happily polished off everything I had given him.

As I mentioned above, I also made a little muffin tin meal for Small Baby - his first ever! In his rainbow muffin tin meal Small Baby had 3 raspberries, one large strawberry, sliced, some Organix raspberry & blueberry mini rice cakes, half a slice of chicken, cut into strips and rolled up, some small chunks of cheddar cheese and two slices of cucumber, sliced with a crinkle cutter to make them easier to handle, then cut into flowers with a mini bento cutter to remove the skin.

I pushed the silicone cups down well into the silicone muffin pan I used for him, so that they wouldn't come out easily, and presented it to him in his highchair.  I wasn't sure how he would take it, half expecting it to be thrown across the room, but sensible Small Baby knew which bits were the edible bits, and tucked straight in!

I do love the little frown he makes when he's concentrating!  Half way through eating the meal, he started to get a bit distracted by the bright silicone cups, so I tipped the rest of the food onto his high chair table and let him finish it off without the distraction.  He did very well indeed, eating most of the food I'd given him.  We introduced solids using the 'Baby Led Weaning' method with Small Baby, so this style of meal was absolutely perfect for him.

Many thanks to Lucy for inspiring this meal, the boys both loved it!

Grace

Items used to make these meals:

               

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