Theme Food Week: April Fools {April}

{cooking}

April Fools Week:

So, I have to say this was one of the most fun Theme Food Weeks so far.  You may have noticed that we didn't end up doing Theme Food Week in March, that was partly accidental and partly planned.  With the hubster and I being out of town at the end of February, I got a little delayed with March and planned to do Theme Food Week later in the month...... then I forgot about it/the month got away from me until the last week of the month, and by that point we decided that it would be best to just skip it for March since by then Easter preparations were in full {last minute} swing.  But, in my opinion, April's theme made up for missing March.  The theme was April Fools, so I scoured Pinterest for ideas for food that looked like a different food than what it actually was.  The vast majority of the ideas were desserts that looked like dinner foods, but I was really wanting dinner foods not desserts and I did eventually find enough dinner ideas..... let me tell you though putting together whole meals was a bit of a challenge.  Even though I wasn't concerned about the veggies or one of the sides being "disguised" necessarily, I still wanted them to be something that didn't give away what the disguised food really was (or on the flip side of that taste too strange with what the food actually was).  The first night's meal was especially difficult in that regard..... but I'll talk more about that later.

Each night no one was allowed into the kitchen until I had finished making and plated the the meals and then before anyone was allowed to touch or eat anything on their plate everyone had to take a guess at what they thought it was.  My mom especially got pretty into the guessing (as did several of my friends on Facebook when I posted the pictures of the meals on there).  It really was a fun theme. Now, I will say though that I didn't really follow actual recipes for most of the food this week mostly I just got the idea from the pins I found and then made the stuff on my own (to be honest some of them I don't even know if there was a recipe beyond the description of the pin because I never looked that far..... I will link to the pins that were my inspiration though if you want to check them out yourself.

{The Menu}

Tuesday: April Fools "Ravioli" with "Marinara Sauce" and Roasted Butternut Squash

We started the week on Tuesday because we didn't get a chance to go grocery shopping for the week over the weekend so we had to go Monday evening.  This was also the night with probably the "easiest" disguised dish.  It's actually not something I would normally serve for dinner (at least not for adults), but like I said finding enough non-dessert ideas and putting them together to make at least somewhat rounded meals was a little bit of a challenge.  This would be a great April Fools lunch, or April Fools to serve kids........ Have you guessed what it is yet?......... While you take another minute to think it over I'll tell you some of the things my mom guessed, which actually on this one wasn't much, first she guessed that the "marinara" was a plum sauce {it was not} and then after that she didn't really have a whole lot of other ideas about it.  I think she did eventually decide (or maybe it was my husband...) that the "pasta" part of the "ravioli" was bread {it was}.  So are you ready to find out what it was? have you already guessed? The "ravioli" was actually peanut butter sandwiches, and the "marinara" was strawberry jelly.  The butternut squash was just butternut squash.  This was probably the day that was the hardest to come up with a veggie/side for because I wanted it to be something that you might serve with real ravioli but that would still taste good with the pb&j. Here's the pin that I got the idea from: PB&J "ravioli"

Wednesday: April Fools "Milkshakes" and "Cupcakes"

Mmmmmm..... dessert for dinner?! This is a reverse of what a lot of the ideas for April Fools foods were... instead of a dessert that looks like a dinner this was dinner the looked like dessert (and it's not the only night this week that that was the case, but we'll get to that later) so have you guessed what it really is yet? Here's what some of the other guesses were: Melon soup {which is kind of close}, Meatloaf "cupcakes", Guacamole "frosting" {also pretty close}, and mashed potato "whipped cream" {which is completely correct}.  Did you have time to think it through?.... The "milkshakes" are cream of shrimp soup, with mashed potato "whipped cream", and the cupcakes are caramelized onion, bacon, and cheddar biscuits with an avocado frosting.  Now, I must admit that when I was originally planning out the meals for this week I had intended to make homemade shrimp bisque soup for the "milkshakes", but by the time I was actually making out the grocery list and shopping I knew that the likelihood of that actually happening was slim, so I bought canned cream of shrimp soup instead (I did add old bay to it......).  I made the mashed potatoes basically the same way I always would except that I actually peeled the potatoes first and made them a bit thinner than I would if we were just eating them by themselves.  For the "cupcakes" I had intended to actually follow the recipe from the pin, but for whatever reason when I went to make dinner that night I couldn't get anything to load on the internet so I just ended up making regular biscuits with a baking mix and mixed in some caramelized onions, crumbled bacon, and cheddar, and fortunately I remembered the avocado frosting from the recipe so I was able to make that.  So, here's the pin for the soup "milkshake" you will notice that the recipe for this is for a mushroom soup to make "chocolate" "milkshakes", but since I can't eat mushrooms or chocolate I opted for the shrimp soup for "strawberry".  They also used actual whipped cream but I didn't really want more cream in the soup so I opted for the mashed potatoes, didn't necessarily sit on the top as well, but it worked okay. And then here's the pin for the cupcakes (oh yeah and it was supposed to have chives but I didn't end up adding those since I didn't have the recipe to work from)

Thursday: April Fools "Fried Egg" on English Muffin, April Fools "Cinnamon Rolls", and Sweet Potato Hash browns

I love breakfast for dinner, so of course I was all about these April Fools ideas that made an April Fools version of breakfast for dinner.  I loved how the "eggs" turned out looks wise too (they would have tasted better if I hadn't forgotten to salt them... haha.... they were good though), and the "cinnamon rolls" were to die for! Did you guess what they really are yet? My mom's best guess was two types of cheese for the "eggs" and that made her kind of half correct.  The "egg" was the bottom of a roma tomato covered with a piece of roasted yellow bell pepper and mozzarella melted under and over it for the "eggwhites" (and now you understand why a little salt would have made all the difference haha). The "cinnamon rolls" did actually have cinnamon..... they were pizza crust brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with cinnamon and topped with pulled chicken in Honey BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's of course) and rolled, sliced and baked to look like regular cinnamon rolls.  OH. MY.GOSH were these good, the cinnamon and the honey barbeque sauce were so good together!  The sweet potato hash browns were just shredded sweet potatoes tossed with some olive oil and the rest of the melted butter and some salt and cinnamon and spread out on a baking sheet and baked. There was nothing April Fools about them lol. So here's the pin for the "fried eggs" which I pretty much actually followed the actual recipe/instructions from.  And the pin for the "cinnamon rolls" but this one was definitely just inspiration, I pretty much didn't follow their recipe/instructions at all.

Friday Saturday: April Fools "Cake" and peas

This was the piece de resistance of the week, it was so hard to wait until the last day to make this one, but I also wanted to save it for last since it was probably the most impressive one. And then of course it ended up having to wait even a day longer than I had planned because Friday night ended up not working out for being one of the Theme Food Week days, but it was worth the wait.  Wanna take a guess what it is.... The only guess we really got the night of was that the "frosting" was mashed potatoes {and it was}. It was really..... Drumroll please............... a meatloaf cake with mashed potato frosting.  I made the meatloaf with my normal recipe, but instead of baking it on a rimmed baking sheet like I normally do I baked it in a spring form pan so that the grease could still drain out of it and away from the bottom of the meatloaf (once the meatloaf was cooked enough to be really set I opened the spring on the sides of the pan so the grease could really escape), and cut it into 2 layers when it was done.  The mashed potatoes I made the same as I did earlier in the week, but left them a little thicker, the consistency of a good frosting (I did put the mashed potatoes between the layers on first and had it a little thicker for that since the meatloaf was a little heavy and then thinned the rest of it out to the frosting consistency after that).  I decorated the cake using exactly the same methods I would have if it had been real frosting. The peas were just canned peas. I actually found several different pins that inspired this meal here's a couple of them: meatloaf cake, and another.


You know I was telling a co-worker about Theme Food Weeks the other day and I was talking about how it is a chance to break out of the food rut that we tend to find ourselves in, and get a little creative with our meals and try some new recipes, which I have talked about on here as well.  But after I got thinking about it some more for a few days after that I realized that it's also about more than that.  For at least 4 days during Theme Food Week, dinner becomes a priority.  And not just the food part of dinner.  For those four days at least we aren't sitting in front of the TV eating, were not eating at different times, in different places, we are all sitting together around the table and sharing a meal, and that is so important.  And something that in our society doesn't happen nearly enough.  Even when it's not Theme Food Week I try to have us eat at the table as often as I can, but honestly if there's stuff all over the table, I don't necessarily put out the effort to clear it or if there's already something on TV.  But during this week at least we are sitting down and having a meal together, with no TV.