Kid-Friendly Meals: Morning Muffin Cups

You’ve heard it time and again: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It kick-starts your metabolism and gives you energy to stay alert and focused. If you’re a parent, though, sometimes it’s challenging to get your young ones to eat something before school.

Here’s a solution: Feed kids quickly and healthfully with a muffin-cup meal. Simply set up six baking cups (compostable paper ones work fine, or try some colorful silicone reusable cups), and fill each cup with a different healthy kid-friendly meal, such as:

Menu Ideas

• Plain roasted almonds
• Blueberries
• Mandarin orange segments
• Banana chips
• Pistachios
• Whole-grainwaffle segments (Option to add maple syrup to one of the cups for dipping)
• Avocado (may want a fork handy for this one – we love the Real Kids’ silverware from IKEA)
• Halved cherry tomatoes
• Snap pea segments
• Pepperonis
• Marcona almonds
• Cubed cheese
• Hard-boiled egg slices
• Granola bites
• Turkey sausage
• Blackberries
• Avocado
• Smoked salmon
• Mix in nontypical breakfast foods, too, like shaved carrots, cucumber slices and sunflower seeds.

Not just for breakfast

There’s really no wrong time of day for a muffin-cup meal. These kid-friendly meals are ideal for using odds and ends before soccer practice or making a quick fix on blue-sky evenings when not even the grown-ups want to come inside. At dinner, try heavier fare that can still be picked up, like shredded chicken, raw veggies, shelled edamame and fingerling potatoes.