Dear beloved MuffinTinMommy followers,
I will be taking a little blogging sabbatical. Sometimes everybody just needs a little break 
During this time I hope to find lots of new and exciting muffin tin ideas to share with you all.
Until we meet again, keep on sharin the muffin tin love and trying new things.
If you find anything you’d like to share be sure to get in touch, I LOVE hearing your ideas!
<3 Pamela
We’ve been having breakfast for dinner quite a bit lately. The kids LOVE it and it’s fast and easy for me to whip up! I’ve discovered lots of different ways to make breakfast in a muffin tin, but we’ve done them all, so I went on a search for something new and came across this one! Pop Up Pancakes AKA German Pancakes by Marie Lebaron at Make and Takes.com
Don’t they look WONDERFUL?!! Here’s the recipe…
Pop Up Pancake Recipe – makes 24 muffins or fills a 9×13 baking pan
Ingredients:
Directions: (from Marie)
1. I like to mix all the ingredients in my blender. I have tried to whisk it or even use my small electric mixer, but a blender seems to do the best job getting it smooth.
2. Pour the mix into your greased muffin tins. Or your baking pan, as my mom likes to bake these in a jelly roll pan.
3. Bake them for 15 minutes in a 400* oven, or until puffy and golden on top. Use a knife to pop or pry them out, hopefully they were greased well enough and should pop right out. They puffiness will die down as they cool, and they become more like a cup.
Now they are ready for toppings. I love syrup, powdered sugar, and fruit. You could even use fresh Strawberry Jam. We usually load it all on and dive in. What do you use to top your pancakes with? Maybe peanut butter or honey?
How can you pass those up? Grab your muffin tins and pancake up! Be sure to tell me what you think, I can’t wait to try them myself! They’re sure to be a HUGE hit with the kids 
Good luck!!
I will leave you with one last Literacy game before we move on from this series and it’s called Toss and Answer, again from Jodie over at Growing Book By Book. If you haven’t checked her out yet please do so. She is an educator of 17 years with a very impressive resume but above all that she has a passion for Early Literacy!
Here is her post on the Toss and Answer game… enjoy!
This activity allows a little gross motor exercise while practicing some vocabulary words. Developing a child’s vocabulary increases their reading and writing ability. I’m a big fan of Isabel Beck’s work with vocabulary. She talks about three tiers of words. Tier 1 words are those concrete words we pick up pretty naturally such as table, chair, and dog. Tier 3 words are specific to a subject area such as polygon and photosynthesis. Tier 2 words are words that we see across multiple contexts and need to be specifically taught to children. See the 12 examples above in the picture.
Materials Needed: 1 muffin tin, 12 small post-its or small paper slips, 1 marker, Tier 2 word list, a soft object to toss into the tin
Select 12 vocabulary words (words should have already been introduced to the child) and write each on a post-it or small paper slip. Place one word in each tin. The child takes the soft ball and tosses it into the tin. Whatever word it lands on is the word to utilize for that turn. For round one have the child define the word in their kid language. Memorizing dictionary definitions is useless. In round two, the child can use the word in a creative sentence. For round three, have the child name something that does not fit with the word. For example, if the word was shy, the child could say a politician who walks up to strangers and talks to them is not shy. It’s important for children to manipulate the word in many different formats so that the vocabulary word becomes more natural for them.
So, one muffin tin can provide numerous learning opportunities for your child. Can you think of literacy uses for muffin tins? I’d love for you to share your ideas.
Happy Monday everyone! As promised today I will share with you another fun & educational reading game from Jodie at Growing Book By Book!
This one is called Match-a-Roo and it requires that the child match an object with a word.
As you can see Jodie used colors and color words but you can use whatever you like depending on your child’s level. She even suggests matching Spanish words with their English equivalents! I wouldn’t have thought of that one!
Materials Needed:
1 muffin tin
12 small post-its or small paper slips
1 marker
a variety of small colored objects (In the picture above, Jodie used removable colored dots, colored paper clips and marker caps.)
Here’s What You Do:
Place a colored object in each muffin tin. Next, write each corresponding word on a post-it or other small paper slips. The child then takes the words and places each in the correct tin.
That’s pretty simple right?! You can challenge your child in SO many ways with this activity. You’ll be glad you did when they’re SUPER KIDS and bringing home the A’s. Early literacy very important, especially now a days! Help your child get ahead by playing with them, play after all is the BEST way to learn
School is starting soon so why not give your little ones a head start?! Help your child recognize sight words with this fun muffin tin game! Photo and credit for this genius idea go to Jodie at Growing Book By Book.com 
I will be sharing more of her reading games in my next few posts to help you give your little readers a head start. There’s no better time than now to start cultivating a passion for reading!!
A little background on the subject … Dolch words, or sight words, provide an excellent base for reading at an early age. They are often called sight words because some of them can’t be sounded out, and need to be learned by sight. Here is a fun way to work with your young reader and start them down the path of literacy. This activity is great for Pre-K, K and even 1st graders.
Three in a Row (This game is played like tic tac toe.)
Materials Needed:
1 muffin tin
12 paper cupcake liners
1 marker
A handful of place markers such as hard candy or cereal
On the bottom of each cupcake liner write a sight word. Place each liner in a muffin tin cup. You are ready to play! One person calls out a word. The other person takes a place marker and puts it in the correct cup. When three in a row is achieved, you have a winner.
Simple, learning, fun! What are you going to do with your muffin tin today?
Looking for something fun and different to make for dinner? Try these! Lasagna Pasta Pies from Pillsbury.
*Note, for this recipe you will need a Jumbo muffin tin.
Ingredients:
Don’t forget recipes are just guidelines, make it your own with whatever and however it works for you!! We haven’t had a craft on mtm for a while so here ya go art lovers!!
How about some muffin tin printmaking? Super easy, super fun and you’ll treasure it forever <3
*Photo courtesy of Jen at paint cut paste*
All you need is a muffin tin or two ( I have special ones just for arts & crafts… not used for cooking)
Your favorite paint colors (Acrylics work well)
Paper (size doesn’t matter, lol)
And your favorite little artist!
I found this fun project on paint cut paste. She also does more printmaking with other things you can find in your kitchen like pie pans and plates. Check it out!
To begin you may want to paint proof your area and smock the artists Throw down a paint cloth or some news papers or just take it outside!
After that, grab your muffin tin and paints. Put a dollop of paint on the back side of each cup. You can arrange the colors to make a pattern or just add random colors, it’s art so get creative!
Next just use your fingers (or Q-tips) to draw designs in the paint. It can be simple things like hearts, suns, moons, flowers, leaves, waves, spirals, etc. let your artist decide
And finally press onto a sheet of paper.
And that is all there is to it! Let them dry and display them for your company They are quite charming and your little artist will be so proud!!
Just another way to enjoy those muffin tins in a cool and unusual way Have fun!!
Howdy Folks! Did you miss me? I’ve been a little under the weather lately and just couldn’t make it to my lap top to post. It was ridiculous and I was beyond miserable. In fact I am still buried up to my nose in tissues but I figured enough was enough… it’s time to get back to the blog!!
So how do you all feel about bacon? I have recently discovered that there are some serious bacon lovers out there. I can’t believe some of the things people do with bacon. Did you know that someone even invented bacon flavored chewing gum?!! I wouldn’t go that far but I do love a good BLT and always enjoy trying something new
So today I have for you a way to go breadless with your BLT in a muffin tin! You can also make bacon nest salads with this cool bacon trick! I first came across THIS picture on Pinterest… of a Bacon Nest Salad from lil sugar.com.
It looked delish but I couldn’t find a recipe to go with it so I had to do a little digging and came up with THIS from Megan at not martha. Love her stuff you should check it out
Here’s how she does it!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover the back of a jumbo muffin tin with foil and weave bacon strips around the backs. Be generous with the bacon — it will shrink and leave gaps in your cups. Set the pan in a cookie sheet with a rim to catch the dripping fat. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until crispy, checking occasionally for oven fires. Wait for it to cool before removing the foil and shaped bacon, then carefully transfer bacon cups to a paper towel-lined plate. Fill with your favorite type of lettuce, tomatoes and a mayo-based salad dressing to really fill out the BLT. You can really get creative with the dressing and even your greens so go ahead and explore!
NOTE: Megan says this about using cooking spray… “I did not coat with cooking spray, it would have been easier to remove but I suspect that the bacon would not have held the form as well if the foil was oiled and would have popped apart half way through cooking. On the other hand some bacon did break when I was peeling away the foil.”
You may notice that there are 2 different types of cups or baskets pictured. You REALLY must click over to her blog not martha to see all of the pics and what she uses to make them. You can pretty much use any type of muffin tin depending on what shape you are going for.
For the bacon lovers of the world there’s no shortage of bacon cooking ideas on the internet, but I found that I personally LOVE the idea of weaving it into baskets or nests. You can put a salad in one of those little bacony nests, fill them with Swedish pancakes and douse it all in syrup, you could even dip them in chocolate and serve ice cream inside!! The possibilities are endless! As for me I will stick to the BLT or salad nests But I hope you are inspired to try something new. Be it with your muffin tins or bacon or both!
