How do I get my toddler to stop playing with his food? Should I feed him?

My cousin had the same issue with my niece when she was slightly past 14 months. My cousin suspects that my niece was simply bored with her food and was no longer hungry. What she did then was to simply remove my niece's plate once my niece seemed like she is done with her meal. Then, she would offer her snacks in between meals (such as smoothies or mini muffins or string cheese etc) that she has prepared (in moderate amounts so as not to affect the main meal times). She still keep to having the three main meals and as much as possible, dinner time would be family time where everyone sits at the table to eat. In all, she feels that it helped to "discourage" the playing with food behaviour (since my niece had no food to play with) and at the same time ensure that she is getting enough nutrients required. Here are some of the muffin recipes that she referred to: http://www.babyfoode.com/blog/2014/6/9/5-great-muffin-recipes