Jumping on the bandwagon

The Muffin Tin Monday bandwagon.... but like all things I'm excited to try, I had no patience and we did a "test run" at dinner tonight. I let the girls each pick out one food to include. With 3 girls, they obviously each have their own personality and with that comes different tastes. I have always stood true to not being a short order cook. I make a meal, and that is that. I do however take their preferences into what foods I prepare, and always try to include something everyone will eat. However that isn't always the case, and there are plenty of times when one or two, or even all 3 go to bed hungry. Oh well. If they were hungry, they would have eaten their meal... at least that is my own opinion, and so far no one has woken up hungry in the middle of the night.
Anyways, I've wanted to expand the current food selections and eventually their preferences... especially for one child in particular... Miss Julia. My stubborn 4 year old. She is incredibly strong willed and stubborn, and even more so when it comes to food. I don't push it with her, just make sure we have healthy selections. Its not like I'm giving her french fries in place of her meals... but with that being said, I do turn to the familiar food choices at times. I think serving a small selection of foods in these containers will help open up the girls to more food choices, and make meal time a bit fun.
I kept it pretty basic this first time. We had carrots (Julia's choice), raisins, eggs (Lily's choice), baked chicken, applesauce (Kate's choice), and cheese. I had some ranch dressing and ketchup in the middle for dipping. Kate is a dipper and will try most things if I provide a dip. Each of the girls ate pretty well. They were all happy and excited to eat out of pink and yellow flowers and red and pink hearts. Julia didn't try anything new, she stuck with her applesauce, cheese and carrots. Lily ate everything but the raisins and Kate tried just about everything but the cheese. She didn't finish anything, but she stayed at the table the longest, for almost 45 minutes! She's my runner, refusing the high chair after 18 months, so this within itself was huge for her!!
I think overall dinner went well and I can't wait to do this weekly (on Mondays even!!).