Dinner for April 1st...

Tonight since we got some money for food, we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some groceries to make a very special dinner. It was much appreciated since the food pantry food is *not* all that tasty, no matter how hard you try. (This is not a complaint, just a fact.)

Anyway, I took pics! Loverly pics of the loverly food & loverly table!

Meatloaf...

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and cupcakes for dessert...

The happy family!

The recipes for these very yummeh foods can be found here (and trust me, these are recipes you have *got* to try! CLICKY-CLICKY!) :
Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes & Gravy - Yummeh!
Chicken Pot Pie - no, we didn't serve this, but got the mixed veggies from this recipe...
Colorful Cupcakes - not vegetarian I'm afraid...

The kids were all so excited! Esme said everything looked so real except the *mashed potatoes* and was worried that we had gotten them on her meatloaf! LOL! Ant thought the mashed potatoes looked the most like the real thing, and Lia was fooled by it all, telling us all she was so excited to have all those sweets and then have 2 cupcakes for dessert too! (Jo was skeptical from the get-go...)

The real fun happened when we let them have dessert though... Jacqueline & I took ours first and started peeling the liners from our cupcakes, while Ant & Esme got theirs. As Jacqueline & I were biting into ours, Esme & Ant were all like *wtf?* as they started unwrapping theirs... Then Esme got it, and she started laughing, but Ant, who was still convinced that they were topped with frosting, turned his head to the side, and said, "Ew!" (He's a very fussy eater.) Then finally noticing his mom & I eating them, and the girls laughing so hard, he realized what they were and chowed down!

In the future I think I'd make just a few changes: Definitely more than just the *cupcakes* for dessert; I was left feeling like I hadn't eaten anything healthy at all, and had to have a few slices of deli chicken to assuage the need for more *real* food. Also, I'd make more; we definitely got our fill of the sweet dinner, but not enough dessert. Perhaps the meatloaf cake on this page would be more satisfying. And if we make the cupcakes again, perhaps a different recipe, with no cheese; I think that would make it less greasy... Maybe the main course should be a little smaller additionally; perhaps just that pot pie. If we do make the meatloaf again, definitely we should add the *ketchup* like Jacqueline & I discussed to make it look even more like our own. And somehow we have to figure out how to get more real veggies into the meal! LOL!

*Note: We used Hershey's Hot Fudge instead of Caramel or Butterscotch since we prefer dark brown gravy to the lighter varieties... ~_^

Also, I apologize for the side bar over the pics... It's late and I am too tired to deal with fixing it...

Click the pics to see full size...