Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April Fools' Food

Usually my family plays an array of pranks and tricks throughout April Fool's day. This was my first year to get food involved! I used this idea from Family Fun for our supper.

As you can see, I got a little carried away with the "icing!" The kids couldn't believe we were having cupcakes with plenty of pink icing for supper!! Really, it's shepherd's pie. Just make your favorite meatloaf recipe and top it with colored mashed potatoes. Easy as pie. Yes, pun intended.

We had special guests today for our meal... see the table full of adorable children enjoying their dessert supper! Yes, Dash is attempting to eat his drink with a straw. I told them I was serving green Kool-aid with supper. Unheard of. I don't even make Kool-aid. Really, it was sugar-free jello, which turned out to be Little Lad's favorite part of the meal. A friend told me about this idea, and then I saw it on Family Fun, too, when looking up the cupcakes.
I should point out that I served lots of veggies, too, and then made big real brownies for dessert, so as not to disappoint the sweet tooth! ;-)

I made enough for 10+ people...

INGREDIENTS:

Meat Loaf
5 pound lean ground chuck (ground turkey is often too heavy for meatloaf)
1 cup Tabouli wheat (or you can use bread crumbs or oats as a healthy filler)
3 T Worcestershire sauce
3 T ketchup
3 eggs
1/2 t salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
optional things that I used: 1/2 chopped onion, 1/2 chopped bell pepper, 3 finely chopped garlic cloves, 1/2 t Italian seasoning


Potato Frosting
lots of mashed potatoes, sorry I just peeled and peeled and didn't pay much attention
Mash with 1 c fat free sour cream, some milk, margarine, cheese, salt and pepper.
Food coloring
1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 muffin tin cups with foil bake cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all of the meat loaf ingredients until well combined. Divide the mixture evenly among the lined cups (the liners should be about three quarters full). We had enough to make two "cakes" as well.
3. Place the filled muffin tins on cookie sheets and bake the cupcakes for about 15 minutes or until cooked through. Cakes take longer, of course.
4. Mash potatoes with extra ingredients (don't forget the food coloring,) and spread a generous dollop on each cupcake. Makes plenty! Enjoy!

For more about the possible origins of April Fool's, go here.

6 comments:

Just what are those Woods up to? said...

Ha ha! What great ideas! I'm totally going to do these things (when Owen's a bit older; at this age and with his personality, I think he'd completely flip out when he realized he wasn't getting a huge cupcake!)

Just what are those Woods up to? said...

(I can't blame him, I would too!) :-D

Wendy said...

I thought of that. Which is why I made REAL brownies for dessert! :-) Heh heh. I was mainly worried about Fred.... ;-)

Julie said...

How fun I did the hamburgers for breakfast yesterday to my kidos they thought that was good. It was from family fun too. cookies and mint candy patty for the meat. It was fast and easy. I had other stuff to do but did not have a chance to do it so we may have to extend April fools.

Shan said...

Oh my goodness. I simply must try that!! I don't get Family Fun any more and I confess I need more of it in the kitchen!

The only trick I managed to play on the 11 year old was to remind him that after school he was going to get measured for his braces(which he doesn't need). It wasn't very funny but I knew he'd fall for it for a second. I'll admit I trick him a lot like this to keep him on his toes. I think of it as gullibility training.

He wore a wrap and sling to school claiming to have been knocked down and stepped on by his dog. His punch line was that we have a Chihuahua. I have no idea from where the theatrical attempts at humor come. ;) Neither one of us is quite ready for the stage act yet.

Arato Girl said...

Those are my kind of cupcakes. I've always had more of a "meat tooth" than a "sweet tooth"! Although the brownies sound fabulous.