MTM - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

This week's Muffin Tin Monday theme is "Muffin Cups and Liners Only!"... I'm assuming 'only' includes food too! :) I'd been sitting on an idea for a "Let It Snow" meal, along with my "12 Days of Kimmens," so I made them fit the tools themes, rather than ignoring the themes or dropping my ideas altogether. I had to change some of my plans last-minute, due to the theme, lack of specific foods, and lack of certain restaurants being open on Sundays.

Eggman, Icicles and Pebbles (Apples and Blueberries,) Snowflake Nuggets,
Cake Snowball, Snowdrift (Ranch,)
Umm... Snowy Branches (fries,) More Snow (yogurt,) Pine Needles (green beans.)

Since Sunday was pretty much my last chance to get this done in time for Monday's linkup, and I forgot to do it for lunch, I decided I'd do it for dinner. Plus Unka Seesee was gone for the day, so I wouldn't be ruining his dinner plans for us. My husband was headed to Taco Del Mar to get dinner for us growned-ups, and I got started on her 'beautiful dinner.' After deciding which liners and cups I'd be using, scooping out the yogurt and peeling the hard-boiled egg, my husband called to say the Taco Del Mar near us isn't open on Sundays. D'oh! So he went to McD's which was across the street from TDM.

My original plans had included rice balls, a Fluffer Nutter sandwich (PB and marshmallow creme,) and celery with PB (ants on a log, but with marshmallows over the raisins to make them 'snowy logs.') 

I aborted the Fluffer Nutter sandwich (in a snowflake shape) and got out my mini snowflake cutter to use on the Happy Meal nuggets instead. 

I was all out of celery, so I used green bean 'pine needles' again. Ah well. They're on their last legs anyway, so it's probably good to use them up now.

I had planned on making apple snowflakes too, but due to time constraints, I just used the McD apple slices. I tossed on some blueberries just 'cuz we had them. 

The yogurt is Greek honey-flavored yogurt, and I forgot to put the honey on top before snapping my pics and placing it in front of my child. Which is probably for the best, since even though I had planned on attempting a snowflake design in honey, it still looked like 'yellow snow' if you know what I mean.

I've been saving that last white chocolate cake ball for this MTM theme too.

Let it Snow...Nuggets!: I used my mini Wilton snowflake cutter from a 40-pc set I got super cheap at Joann's the weekend after Thanksgiving ($6 for 20 mini and 20 regular holiday-theme metal cutters!!!) I only made one snowflake shape because McNugget breading is super tough.... I mean, the other nuggets were too small for my cutter.

Frosty the Egg-Man: You've seen it before, I'm sure, but I've been planning for this ever since I first bought the hat cupcake picks from Bake It Pretty! I used my Neon Food Writers from Wilton to make the black 'coal' eyes and mouth and the orange 'carrot' nose. I had wanted to use the green and blue hat with a snowflake on it, like Melissa did, since it fit the 'Snow' theme better, but Z said she wanted the green one.

The muffin tin is just my regular scuzzy metal tin. I had originally planned on using my Wilton snowflake pan, but abandoned it to follow the theme.
I used white silicone cups from some dude in China I bought on eBay (colors were random, but I got green and orange with them too.)
The light blue ones (came with light pink too) I got from Marshall's or TJ Maxx (same parent company, so I don't bother trying to keep them straight!)
The mini dark blue ones came from Kitchen Collection (along with red.)
The nuggets and fries are in ultra cute paper liners turned inside-out (so you can see the graphics better!) that were made by Wilton for Target. I got them super cheap on clearance after Christmas. These ones also came with matching picks, but I forgot wanted to follow the 'cups/liners only' theme.

Step 1: Nibble on cake 'snowball.'
Step 2: Nomnom all the honey off the yogurt.
Step 3: Eat face off of snowman egg. Demand Ask mommy politely to draw on another face. Eat that face too.
Step 4: Swiper Mommy's fries, ignoring ones in muffin tin. Refuse to share ketchup with Mommy.
Step 5: Espy box of peppermint candy Daddy put on table earlier while clearing kitchen counters. Grudgingly nibble molecule off a green bean and apple slice and pretend to misunderstand what 'eat ALL your beans and apples' means in attempt to get peppermint immediately.
Step 6: Peel breading off nuggets. Eat all 3 denuded chicken nuggets. Attempt to cadge peppermint again.
Step 7: Try to trick Mommy into eating all the green beans and apples so 'she' can have a peppermint.
Step 8: Agree to eat beans later if peppermint can be had now. Surprisingly, follow through on promise to Mommy. Allow Mommy to eat cake ball in exchange for said peppermint.

   

The Food Writers were crazy cheap at Walmart. The neon ones were $6 and the basic colors were $5! Joann's has them for $10 or $11, and I had used my 50% off coupon to get the Neon ones before Christmas. Auntie Sha got me the Betty Crocker basic colors ones for Christmas.

Super Secret Bonus Muffin Tin Meal:

Apple slices, more apples, cheese scraps, sweet potato fries,
cake ball, Ranch, ketchup, more sweet potato fries,
nugget, nugget, veggie medley, more veggies, bento fork (she insisted.)

We stayed home Thursday, and The Princess decided she'd like a "byoo-fuh shnak" for breakfast. She said she wanted 'nukkets an fiess an kechshup an Wanch.' So I nuked up some frozen sweet potato fries, Foster Farms nuggets, and a little bit of some kind of veggie medley that Unka Seesee had in a freezer bag (he used the rest for stir fry that night. Asparagus, green beans, carrots, mushrooms, maybe other stuff.) Cheddar and Colby Jack cheese scraps from the 3 Little Pigs lunch, and leftover apple slices from McD's. (Yes. The holidays broke my resolve. I'll post all about My Shame later, when I have time in between horking down fries and sweet tea and weighing my lardy thighs.)
She went into my cabinet and found my little $1.50 tackle box currently housing my baran, sauce containers and bento forks and spoons (the forks and spoons will need to find a new home soon... or the containers will. It's stuffed to the gills.) She chose the blue bunny fork. I also let her peruse all my muffin tins, and she chose... my crusty red silicone one. Whuuuuck?
Not the metal snowman/mitten one? Not the trees? Snowflakes? Pumpkins? Ghosts? Flowers? Hearts? Stars? Not the Nordic Ware butterfly or (made by Wilton for Target) metal snowman one I just got on clearance at Target? Not any of the weird flimsy flower or butterfly ones imported from China (via eBay)? Not even the weird large Ghost, Pumpkins or Gingerbread Man 'mini cake' pans that I got tricked into ordering on eBay, not knowing that they were twice the size of muffin tins?
No. My baking-spray-stained plain red one. *Sigh.*

After snarfing down the cake ball and complaining that she doesn't like 'potato fries' (what we call the sweet potato fries,) she ended up eating all the fries, some nuggets, some cheese and some apples. Maybe some veggies, but I wasn't holding my breath. (Well, I was, but for a different reason: I don't like asparagus, and microwaving it makes the whole house smell!)