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Wednesday

EPayne & ConAgra Do The Backyard Bash

This past Memorial Day weekend I hosted a Backyard Bash using ConAgra products, specifically Egg Beaters, Hunts Tomatoes and Chef Boyardee pasta. My wife and I invited a good number of our friends as she loves to season and cook and I love to barbecue. She donned an apron and so did my daughter until our guests came and the chef's hat came in handy as the hot sun bared down on my bald head and the heat from the grill roasted me from the waist up.

Just in case anyone thinks I'm tooting my own horn about my grillin' skills, a buddy, who really isn't into social media, was so impressed he cranked out the Tweet below:




Free publicity is absolutely the best kind. But I must also clarify. @BrothaTech, a social media bud, was a guest, and not assisting on the grill.

What I think I enjoyed most about my Backyard Bash was watching people, some of whom were strangers, depart my house as friends, after connecting almost immediately and having a great time together all in the name of family, comaraderie and food, food, food.

In addition to the ingredients we hosted a few suggested activities such as asking everyone to jot down their hopes and/or dreams on a slip of paper. These slips were then deposited in a time capsule courtesy of  ConAgra. After use the diced tomatoes in our dirty rice recipe and in our chickpea salad, I rinsed out the can, added some dirt (organic, of course) and planted a couple of burpee seeds with the men who had all been relegated to the deck while the wives and single ladies laughed and chatted inside the house.



As I mentioned earlier we used the diced tomatoes in the dirty rice (not pictured) we served and the egg beaters as the key ingredient in the cod fish fritters (featured in the video) and the black bean burgers for our vegetarians and vegans in attendance. I must say. For a first-timer, and after numerous test runs in the kitchen, the wife created a black bean burger masterpiece worthy of the cookbooks. The tomatoes also came in handy as a garnish (tomato-relish) for the hotdogs and hamburgers for all us grown folks who try to get our vegetables anyway we can. There are also plenty more recipes you can try here.

Although it isn't easy, I do my best to have a pretty strong knowledge base of where my food is coming from and what it's made of. Depending on where I am and what I'm eating this knowledge can bring great calm or dismay. As much as possible, I try to end up on the side of calm for myself and my family. Check out the infographic below to get the skinny on tomatoes, eggs and pasta (click to enlarge the image):



What are your favorite backyard/bbq meals and what do you do with friends or family to celebrate the good times over food? Please let me know in the comments below. And if you have any questions about the dishes I prepared at my barbecue or you're willing to learn how to grill from a master, again just let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Disclosure: “I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of ConAgra and received products to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for my participation.”


Thanks for reading! To learn more about me, you can read my story.

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