Thursday, April 8, 2010

Not Just for April Fools' Day

I'm not really a natural born blogger.  The best bloggers out there put up great ideas for every holiday a week or two (or more) BEFORE the holiday to inspire all of us.  I'm lucky if I have my holiday themed projects ready in time for the holiday itself, much less have it finished and written up several weeks ahead of time. 

I thought I'd share our April Fools' Day anyway because these turned out to be pretty tastey ideas for any day.  We told the kids we'd be having cupcakes for dinner and pizza for dessert.  They were thrilled.
I saw these meatloaf cupcakes on Isha Foss Events via Be Different Act Normal.  I thought they looked like fun, so here's our version.  Instead of Isha's recipe, I used a meatloaf recipe from "Quick and Healthy Recipes and Ideas" by Brenda J. Ponchtera. (It's my favorite cookbook for recipes that are nutricious AND easy and practical to make.)  You can get the recipe from my post for The Skinny here.  We did color the mashed potato "frosting" with beet juice as Isha recommends, to great effect.  The kids thought the cupcakes were funny but a little disappointing.  Once they got over their disappointment, though, they ate them right up.  Cooking the meatloaf in cupcakes has the added advantage that it's in easy serving sizes and it cooks a lot faster, so you don't have to worry about the middle being raw.  We don't make meatloaf all that often, but if we do...it's going to be cupcake style. 


Edited note:  You can check out a fun idea for an April Fools' Birthday cake here.
I had originally seen an idea for rice crispy pizza that looked more like real pizza, but sounded less tasty, so we opted for classic sugar cookie fruit pizza.  For the sugar cookie crust, we used Christianne's recipe from Little Page Turners.  I put the dough on as "cookies" close enough that they would run into each other...although you can see in the picture a few weren't quite close enough.  Next is Cool Whip with food coloring and raspberry yogurt mixed in.  (The only reason I did food coloring was for another experiment I'll share with you later.)  Then we topped it with sliced fruit, choosing ones that would be especially pretty.  It was delicious that evening...and the next morning for breakfast.  This would make a great summer treat, and I think we'll be making it again.

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