Gonna try and post this update and two more to get caught up on NFA. So, here goes:


My friend Karen is cool. She has three daughters. Two are in high school and one is in middle school. You could pray for Karen. ;) The reason I mention her is that every year, she makes an April Fools Meal. This year she made a pizza cake in a Bundt pan and topped it with sliced mozzarella cheese to look like frosting on the cake. She makes something fun like this every year. 


When I was doing my menu for NFA, I thought of a pin I saw on Pinterest that would be perfect to do for my own April Fools Meal. It was Meatloaf Cupcakes with Mashed Potato Frosting! How fun, right?!? Well, I ended up not having any thawed ground beef on Sunday so I switched things up and made it Monday. April Fools! 


Here's a little backstory:


The first and last time I made meatloaf before this was an epic fail. You can ask Josh and Nakita. It was not great. It was WAAAAAAAAAYYYYY too salty, and you know it MUST have been salty for me to say that. It was just not good. So when I told Josh I was making meatloaf, he was like, "Meeeeehhhhhhhhh".


But these were really good! I broke the cardinal rule of NFA and changed up the recipe a little. All I did was use bbq sauce instead of ketchup. It's just my personal belief that BBQ trumps ketchup every time. Anyway, these were fun and cute and the boys liked them a lot. Jax is still offended that they weren't actually cupcakes, but he'll get over it one day, with therapy and prayer, I suppose.


I think it was the bacon that put these over the top. I would absolutely make these again!
Oh! Also, I loved that they cooked a lot faster than a traditional meatloaf. And that veggies were hidden in them. I suppose you could toss in any veggie you want. Heh heh heh!

Aren't these the cutest things you ever saw?

Next up: Champagne Chicken

New Food April 2012

I do realize that it is a full week into April. I have an excuse for not blogging though, it's been a busy week. We started off NFA '12 with a bang. And by bang, I mean I waited too long to start cooking what I had scheduled and had to switch up the whole calendar to make something different. And by switch up the whole calendar, I mean trade Sunday and Monday's meals. I'm sleepy and feeling pretty dramatic.

So we started off with Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken.

I liked it. The boys were ambivalent. They ate it, but it wasn't a hit. I didn't know that you could make a batter with cornstarch and eggs, so that was a bonus. My feelings about this recipe are mixed. I feel like a recipe that's supposed to be "easy baked chicken" shouldn't require a quick pan fry too. I mean, I picked it because I thought it was a one step kinda thing... But, besides that, I thought it was really good. I REALLY liked the sweet and sour sauce. It was easy to throw together and I assume that if you threw it in a pan and reduced it down, it'd make a great dipping sauce. I didn't make the fried rice from the blog, because I already make a mean fried rice. We had jasmine rice and some sautéed veggies to go along with the chicken.

All in all, I'd say this is a tentative keeper. Maybe not a "go-to", but not a toss out either. Anyhoo, next up is meat loaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting! Yummy!