Last year, for the very first time ever, I thought about making a Prank Dinner BEFORE April 2nd.
Go me!
I posted pictures on Facebook, and the response was great, though it was tinged with a little “Ummmm, thanks for the idea NOW THAT IT’S TOO LATE!”
So here I am, remembering to post it at the very end of March.
Again, go me.
Credit must go to FamilyFun Magazine
I started the meal by declaring that we were going to eat dessert first. The family was thrilled at this idea.
For dessert, we had cupcakes.
Meatloaf cupcakes.
You can use your favorite meatloaf or mini-meatloaf recipe. My husband claims he despises meatloaf (and I’d say the same), so I just made up a meatloaf-ish recipe. I added bread crumbs, seasoning, an egg, and grated cheese to ground beef and shaped it into meatballs. Then, I made instant mashed potatoes, colored them with green food coloring, and snipped the corner off of a ziploc bag so I could “frost” the tops of the cupcakes after they came out of the oven.
Things I’ll do differently this year (now that this is a tradition instead of a prank): I will bake the meatloaf cupcakes without the cupcake liners and then transfer them into the liners. There was quite a bit of grease, so this will allow me to lift them out of the grease and into a clean liner.
Then, we had our veggies:
They looked pretty realistic. My family was totally fooled. The main problem was that there were SO FEW! This was the “dish” that took the longest. A VERY long time. Longer than I expected.
I used orange Starburst candy and green Laffy Taffy. The Starbursts I cut with a sharp knife into four pieces each. I put the Laffy Taffy in the microwave for five to ten seconds and then cut off pieces to roll into peas. That was harder than it sounds.
My family was totally enthralled with this meal at this point. They had LOVED the meatloaf/mashed potato cupcakes. When they found out that the vegetables were actually candy, they cheered. I was a hero.
Best. Mom. Ever.
And then, for dessert, we had chicken nuggets.
I’d looked up ideas that were fairly complicated, but then realized I could simply put graham crackers in the food processor and then dip banana slices in the crumbs.
Don’t those look amazingly like chicken nuggets? They really do.
They look TOO much like chicken nuggets.
Even though I was a hero for all my tricky food up to this point, my children were HORRIFIED that these were not “real” chicken nuggets. My daughter (7 at the time), was especially upset. In fact, she cried. Bawled. Hysterically.
Her disappointment was heartbreaking.
Evidently, I NEVER ever serve chicken nuggets. Ever. She was giddy with happiness through the first part of the meal, partly because of her creative mother, but mostly because she was thrilled at the thought of having chicken nuggets. At home. For dinner!
When they weren’t actually chicken nuggets (duh!), she was devastated.
Kind of ruined the mood, honestly.
FYI, I did buy some popcorn chicken and served it the next week.
What stunts have you pulled for April Fool’s Day at your house?
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--Nony
Awesome ideas! Thanks for sharing! I am so totally doing a version of this for the kids to take to school for April Fools! TWO cupcakes – for lunch! They will be thrilled. Though I confess I am also going to take the easy way out and use turkey meatballs in lieu of actually having to make meatloaf (barf.)
So this year, instead of bananas and graham crackers, serve real chicken nuggets. That will really fool all of them, and your daughter in particular. And you get points for both creativity and flexibility.
Oh, and what about your meatballs isn’t the same as meatloaf except the shape? That’s pretty close to my meatloaf.
I honestly don’t think there’s a difference, but I can’t call it meatloaf or Hubby would refuse to try it!
If you don’t like meatloaf, you MUST try this recipe. It is the best meatloaf ever. It’s what meatloaf was meant to be without all the weirdness.
http://gwens-nest.com/the-best-meatloaf-recipe-ever/
And bonus, my favorite blogger would be reading my other-favorite blogger’s blog.
I’ve had meatloaf I actually liked, but Hubby is SO anti-meatloaf I’m fairly confident he wouldn’t even try it!
My husband and daughter had the same reaction a few years ago. I haven’t attempted anything since, lol.
Totally going to do this next year whenthe youngest is a toddler instead of a baby…cause it’ll be easier then, right?
Our tradition is to have cake for dinner on April fools day…..they were only fooled the first year but expect it each year….cook the meatloaf in a round pan and ice with instant mashed potatoes and decorate with ketchup….my family loves it.
I enjoy taping the kitchen sink sprayer handle down. Works. Every. Time.
I’m one of the oddballs who loves meatloaf. In fact, after being glutened with a stupid digestive enzyme. I got really mad because things like that have happened numerous times over the past couple of years – all for stuff I didn’t even get to enjoy. So… I bought a bottle of GlutenEase and went on a five-day gluten binge (it does help a little – not much for five consecutive days though). And one of the things I made sure to have was a meatloaf dinner from Country Kitchen. My taste buds were in heaven. The GF version I make now is decent, but it’s not the same. 😀
Anyway, being a meatloaf love aside… What a cool idea! The nuggets part reminded me of the Christmas my oldest daughter was three. I’d wrapped the most adorable little stuffed animal in a Little Debbie Swiss Roll box. BIG mistake. She was so disappointed over not getting cakes that she never really did like the stuffed animal. 😀
And now I need to start thinking of something I can pull for supper on Wednesday. I’ve never done food pranks before so it should be fun!
The best one we pulled was the April when my husband came home after dark. My son and I spent the 2-3 hours before the hubby got home layering a transparent hand cream on the front door knob. He was unable to get the door open to get in the house.
I’ve contemplated doing this to the bathroom door, too. Someone may get trapped in the the bathroom this year!
It has become tradition to expect the unexpected for dinner on April fools day. My favorite has to be when I made mini tostadas in the scoop tortilla chips w/ rice and beans. I served it on my daughters toy tea set with the small appetizer silverware. For dessert I made ice cream sandwiches w the mini Amos chocolate chip cookies. We all sat at my daughters little table and chairs that I moved into the dining room. My son (10) and daughter (7) loved it, my husband thinks I’m crazy but that’s okay, it was fun!
If you bake the meatloaf cupcakes without the liners make sure the pan is smaller than the liners or you’ll never fit them in
I made the meatloaf cake with instant potatoes icing for years now. I would bake the meatloaf in a round cake pan. May try the cupcake idea this year.
We do a meal fit for a fool. No traditional dishes or eating utensils. We eat off pan lids or cake pans whatever you can think of. For utensils we use utensils like spatulas, large cooking spoons and so on. We drink colored milk from baggies, make all the food different colors and the best part is we eat desert first. The kids love that part.
I love the meatloaf idea! If I can keep everyone out of the kitchen I will give that a try this year.
Last year I added green food coloring to our morning oatmeal. I let our daughter take it out of the instant pot that morning. The whole family was totally disgusted and has been asking all year when we will do it again 🙂
I love jokes on April Fool’s Day. One was stapling the bottoms of my daughter’s pajamas together and putting M&Ms in them. She loved it. The next year my dog put every one of his toys under my covers. Another time I put Caution tape across her door and a sign telling about how hazardous it was to go in there including the germs Cadburinous chocolinius and a few others. Maybe my favorite was the chocolate ball. I had on of those break apart chocolate balls. My dog’s rubber ball was the same size. She kept banging it on the counter and wondering why it wouldn’t break. I said let me try and I bounced it on the floor and the dog got it.
Make jello in glasses and serve as juice.
I’m so so sorry, but I laughed hysterically at the Great Chicken Nugget Debacle. My children would have totally reacted that way, too.
These are such fun ideas! Kudos to you for those awesome peas-n-carrots…
I added string to the pancake batter for the first round of pancakes. The string pieces were about 2” long. It only worked for one year, but it was funny to watch as they started to cut up their pancakes.
I replaced the filling in oreos with toothpaste one year. Another year I dipped Brussel sprouts in chocolate and told them they were cake pops. Another year, I cut E’s out of brown paper, put them in a pan and after dinner told them there were Brown Es for dessert. They were so disappointed when they got the pan out and saw that they weren’t real brownies. I’ve always made sure to have the “real thing” each year so the disappoint is short lived and we can all enjoy the joke.