Do You Know the Muffin Pan?

Parents of picky eaters (or those who eat like hummingbirds), rejoice! We've found an awesome remedy for the "one bite and I'm done" routine Keira starts up at every mealtime.

The latest issue of Parents magazine features a blurb that suggests putting salad ingredients in the cups of a muffin pan, and letting your child build his/her own salad. Yesterday, I decided to try it out with a little tweaking, and told Keira to go wait in the playroom while I made her a surprise lunch. I busted out a mini muffin pan that I filled with a bunch of different, mostly-healthy foods from various food groups (mandarin oranges, apple chunks, string cheese sliced into "coins," shredded lunch meat, little triangles of pita bread with hummus spread, sliced strawberries, mini pretzels...), plus a couple of foods she's usually unwilling to try (almonds and black beans). I cheated and filled two cups each with a couple of them, because I couldn't think of 12 different ideas while she was yelling, "MOM, IS IT READY YET?!" every four seconds.

Voila! It was a hit. She was so excited about her "special snack tray" and started counting how many full cups were left as she finished each one: "Mom, now I only have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 cups left!" "Mom, now I only have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 cups left!" I about fell over when she polished off the entire thing, minus a couple of almonds (she tried one, at least, but said she didn't like them).

I did the same thing today, and she finished 10 of the 12 cups, with zero negotiation, whining, or pouting involved. Woohoo!