October 31st - catch up post

We started Halloween off with a quick spirited breakfast, ghostie pancakes...

This was the pepsi that Ebi-kun tried in his Halloween Ebi-kun eats, it was foul! 

Of course we had to have a revolting Muffin Tin Dinner, not strictly a muffin tin meal really. The standard severed fingers and eyeballs, lots of brains, rotting flesh and bugs! Nom, Nom.

We had the bilingual playgroup party the previous week so Ebi-kun decided to organise his own party with his neighbourhood friends. He went and talked to all the moms and told them what they needed to do, set the time and date and got the kids to dress up. It was a big success, he was very chuffed with himself!

Muffin Tin Dinners Still Rock…

We started doing theses muffin tin dinners when Ebi-kun was 2 and he still loves them! Now he is big enough to make his own though! Sadly, we don't tend to have them now except for the holidays since he has school dinners.

From the top, clockwise…
Boiled egg, cucumber slices, strawberries, parma ham, tomatoes, pineapple, cheese in the middle and macapone on homemade bread.

Monday MTD

It is a while since we have had a muffin tin dinner and this was actually fro last week!

From the top...
Cheese and pineapple (why save it for a birthday party?)
Avocado
Mini tomatoes
Boiled egg
Mini tomatoes (one can nver have enough!)
Ototo crisps
In the middle persimmon

and yes, I had the same :)

Let The Holidays Begin....

It is no secret that I love muffin tin meals but during school term I don't really get a chance to make them. Ebi-kun was on half days yesterday and today so I thought we should kick of the holidays in style!

At the back we have cream cheese rolls, the clockwise a boiled egg, ham, string cheese, pineapple and crisps in the middle.

MTD are perfect for the holidays, you can stock up with lots of bits and bobs then just slap it in a muffin tin and call it dinner! If you have kids that like different things or are picky eaters,  perfect - just give them what they will eat, no faffing around making different lunches. Plus the kids love them.

I have collected the ones I have made in the past and made a pinterest board for them, just in case you are looking for some inspiration. We might even do some themed ones again this summer!

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Autumn MTD

No theme for this weeks MTD, but it all got demolished!

From the top, cheese triangle, red pepper, okra, steamed broccoli, shortbread, tomatoes and cucumber in the middle. Yum.

MTD's are back on the menu

When Ebi-kun is at school it is difficult to get muffin tin meals into the menu but now he is off for the summer we welcome them back with open arms.

from the top avocado tortilla chips, cucumber yoghurt dip, steamed broccoli, melon and blueberries, baked courgette, boiled egg, baked courgette and rhubarb crumble in the middle.

For more muffin tin inspiration pop over to the muffin tin mom.

Gold Medal Muffin Tin Dinner

I made Ebi-kun a booklet of Olympic things to do, one of the pages was to design his own Olympic Muffin Tin Dinner. He had to pick foods to go with the colour choice for each ring and he had to go and check that we had that food in (kept him busy as I was working).  So here is his gold medal Olympic muffin tin dinner....

It was a great springboard to start the conversation about the types of foods athletes eat and a discussion about healthy foods. The only thing we missed was the yellow pepper and that was because I said we had some but then realised I had used it all the night before. If you want to make your own Olympic plate I save the page as a PDF for you. You could also use the page for a colour matching activity for little ones or get the kids to draw the food instead of writing it. And as always, there is more muffin tin fun over at the muffin tin mom. If you think this fun and have friends who would enjoy it, then click the share buttons!

Olympic MTD Jojoebi-Designs

A Fancy Muffin Tin Dinner

 

I would like to claim I made this but we had bought a bento. Ebi-kun also wanted a muffin tin dinner so I just put the bits in a the muffin tin liners.

Starting from 12 o'clock... salmon rice ball, salad, hijiki rice ball, fried chicken, pickled daikon, shumai, rolled omlette, sausage & potato and in the middle cherries and salad.

More muffin tin fun over at the Muffin Tin Mom.

Muffin Tin Dinner and green pizza recipe

This was dinner from sometime last week, I just re-discovered the photo!

Starting top left...

Broccoli & cauliflower pizza, strawberries, tomato & sausage pizza, sweet potato

Ototo crisps, pineapple, ototo crisps, avocado

Broccoli & cauliflower pizza, Italian cheese, chocolate crispy nest, mini tomatoes

The broccoli & cauliflower pizza had become a favourite in this house. It is dead easy to make, I always make my own dough, well I say make, I throw the ingredients in my bread machine and it does the work. For the green topping, I steam some broccoli & cauliflower so that it is just cooked. Stick it in the blender with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a 1/2 a cup or so of Parmesan (I have used grated cheese too instead of Parmesan). Season with salt & pepper and whizz in the processor until it is like a thick paste. Spread it on the pizza base, pop in the oven and you are done.

I never actually measure anything for this and the recipe was adapted from one I saw on pinterest but that included garlic too. I found that the garlic version wasn't so popular in this house. I have also thrown in other veg if I have been short on the main ingredients, onion and spinach both turned out well.

Starry MTD

My silicon muffin liners are starting to look a bit shabby so I picked up some new ones the other day, star shape, could have done with these when we were studying Van Gogh.

Top L-R
Sekihan (sticky rice), miso peanuts, grapes, potato
potato, avocado, sekihan, pumpkin
grapes, pumpkin, potato, girls day rice candy

I was late getting dinner on the table so the photo is a bit dark, apologies!

For more MTD's head over to the Muffin Tin Mom.

Muffin Tin Dinner and waffle...

The waffle being the non edible kind!

I have been rudely awaken twice in the last couple of nights by earthquakes, I think mother nature needs to give it a rest, at least so those in the north can get past the next few days, we certainly don't need any physical reminders of what happened, thank you very much!

I am still working on tidying up the blog a bit, the labels had got well out of hand so I have reduced the 109 I had to 15! That was a job and a half, I still have to re-label a lot of the old posts, there are over 1800 to go at but there is a page at the top 'tutorials' which I try to keep updated and the search box works really well. As I re-label the posts I will tag them with as much detail as possible to make searching for past posts easier. I know a number of you like to go back and look at the Montessori posts so I will try and get those done first. Please be patient, it is a mammoth of a job!

This bit is for those living in Saitama, if you are raising your children to be bilingual English/Japanese, I have moved the playgroup over to Facebook, we meet up for picnics, go camping, parties and big cultural events. Our only rules are that the family are raising their children to be bilingual (and speak native or almost native level English) and when we meet up we ONLY use English. If you are interested in joining click over to the Saitama English Playgroup.

This weeks MTD had no theme or the theme was 'what's in the fridge'?

Top L-R

grapes, pineapple, chocolate cake, broccoli pizza

mini tomatoes, broccoli pizza, black beans, pineapple

broccoli pizza, chocolate cake, grapes, string cheese- garlic flavor!

First MTD of the year...

What is a MTD (muffin tin dinner/meal)? well, it is a meal served up in a muffin tin or in muffin silicon liners, we have been doing these for years now and Ebi-kun never gets bored of them. Recently though he has started eating dinner a bit later, we have been eating together so I haven't been making them as often.

This is the first one I made this year....

Top left to right...

• red and yellow pepper hearts
• parma ham sandwich roll
• strawberries
• parma ham sandwich roll
• coleslaw
• ototo crisps
• string cheese
• ototo crisps
• more ototo crisps
• strawberries
• parma ham sandwich roll
• coleslaw

Why I like MTD's....

• it is a great way to use up leftovers or little bits and bobs in the fridge and it doesn't matter if it is foods that you wouldn't normally put together.
• it is a good excuse to play with all the bento making things I own
• even better excuse to use the gazillion cute picks I own
• a great way to slip in some new foods (although I don't have that problem with ebi-kun)
• it is a super easy way to produce a balanced meal.
• it gives the child the freedom to eat their meal in any order they wish
• it is quick and easy (usually) and perfect if you have guests or children that all like different things.

I just asked Ebi-kun why he likes them and he said...

• because you put funny things
• because it is a mix of foods
• because it is a surprise, I never know what you will put in it
• I can do food experiments like trying different foods together to see if they taste good or bad.
• I like guessing what the theme is when you make a cool MTD.

I don't make a themed tine every time but I do like the challenge of themed tins and they do take a bit longer to put together but they have been worth the effort, ebi-kun has loved every single one I have made. Looking through these has made me quite sad that we haven't been having them so often recently. Ebi-kun had a half day on a Wednesday and eats lunch at home, I think this would be a perfect time to reintroduce the MTD on a regular basis. To finish up, I thought I would share some of our favourite themed tins from the past...

this years Halloween MTD

the ninja MTD

the completely over the top Willy Wonker MTD

The Antarctica MTD

the Mr Men MTD

Christmas version

Inspired yet or have I put you off? If you want to see what others do with their MTD's then pop over to the Muffin Tin Mom, she has a linky every Monday.

Halloween MTD

My favourite muffin tin dinner of the year! Some of the regular revolting fayre and a few 'new' morsels this year....

The Menu

Ghostly spirit to drink

300 year old eyeballs

zombie brains

freshly dug up graveyard dirt and bones

tender severed fingers

mean mini jack o' lanterns

rotting zombie mouth

pickled giants toe nails

deep fried tarantula

witches broomstick

ghostly ghost

the deep fried tarantula - riceball wrapped in nori with cheese eyes

Tender severed fingers - tutorial here

Ghostly ghost - rice and nori

rotting zombie mouth - apple and almonds

300 year old eyeballs - tutorial here

Witches broom - steam asparagus, string cheese, nori
and painted with brown food colour

Pickled giants toe nails - yellow pepper in light vinegar

Mean mini jack o'lanterns - mini tomatoes with nori

Zombie brain - annindofu and strawberry jam*

Ghostly Spirit - milk with stickers on the glass!

I got the brain molds from Amazon jp but they  are also sold on amazon here. Want to see more Halloween Muffin Tin dinners then check them out HERE

I have put together my favourite Fun & Fast Ghoulish Halloween Treats into an ebook so you can whip them up at anytime (why just serve ghoulish food at Halloween?)

17 absolutely disgustingly delicious treat ideas... 

All fast and fun to make

All pretty healthy, made from kitchen basics

Most of them suitable to make with the kids too

PLUS a bonus labels pack too!

MTD counting

anti-clockwise

1 pecan nut

2 mini cheese

3 mini tomatoes

4 yellow pepper pieces

5 carrot flowers

6 orange sweeties

7 pineapple chunks

8 little fishes

9 raisins

and a whole load of spaghetti!

for more muffin tin love, pop over to the muffin tin mom....

Muffin Tin Dinner...

Oops! I forgot to take the before shot. This is what the after shot usually looks like though!

Looking for more MTD inspiration, pop over to the Muffin Tin Mom...

 

MTD and new picks

I splashed out (at the ¥100 store) and got some new bento picks the other day and couldn't wait to use them. These are super-cute since they look like animals from the top but ....

From the side it is a cupcake! 

It was a bit tricky trying to get all the picks in one shot plus Ebi-kun kept sighing and asking of he could actually eat his dinner yet, hahaha - spot the blogging mom!

and the full meal..

From 12 O'clock.. steamed asparagus, yellow pepper, taco wiener sausages, avocado, chocolate biscuit, pumpkin and spaghetti in the middle.

Looking for more MTD fun, pop over to the Muffin Tin Mom.