Kid-Friendly Halloween Themed Food

Halloween is a great time for creative food for the family. Have you ever spent hours creating a Halloween meal only to have tons of left-overs because it's looks too weird to eat? These crowd pleasing ideas are spooky fun AND delicious!
​Remember to start off your Halloween family night with a good book! Try my book Scary Halloween Costumes for some spooky, kid-friendly fun for children 3-7 years old.

Snake
This cute little snake is made with store-bought puff pastry, ham (or your favorite lunch meat), cheese, and dijon mustard. 
First roll out your puff pastry sheet, then add a nice layer of dijon mustard. Layer on your meat and cheese  down the center. Next fold over the ends of the puff pastry over your meat and cheese. Roll the entire thing into a snake shape and place it in a curve on your parchment lined sheet pan. Mix food colors of your choice with beaten eggs and paint a design onto your snake. Add olives on toothpicks for eyes and a green pepper (or carrot) for a tongue. Bake according to package directions! 

Mummy Dogs
These hot dogs  are wrapped in store-bought puffed pastry strips and placed on a parchment lined sheet pan. Next brush each dog with egg wash and bake according to package directions. When the puffed pastry is golden brown, remove the mummy dogs from the oven and dot on mustard eyes. For the pupils, you can use a toothpick dipped in a bit of mustard to pick up a few poppyseeds and place them onto the mustard dots. Whether you dip the warm mummy dogs into ketchup, mustard, or eat them plain, everyone is going to devour a few of these tasty treats. So make a lot!

Pumpkin Shaped Veggies with Ranch
At every one of our parties, I noticed one thing-- carrots were the only veggie that was a big hit! So I decided that I would make a veggie tray with only carrots and ranch and shape the whole thing into a pumpkin shape. Use bowls or parchment to make space for your ranch dip. I sliced some olives and placed them as pupils onto my ranch and a small sprig of iceberg as the stem. A celery stalk would work well as the pumpkin stem too.  This veggie tray is festive and is a guaranteed hit with all of your ghouls and goblins.

Spider Web 7 Layer Taco Dip
Make your favorite your favorite 7 Layer dip recipe into this fun spider-web shape and watch it disappear! I brown ground beef with taco seasoning and add a can of drained and rinsed pinto beans. Then I start layering the ingredients on a round deep sided plate. Start with the beef mixture then add shredded cheese and lettuce, diced tomatoes, and chopped green onions. I put guacamole in the center, then drew on the web with sour cream in a piping bag. I cut a black olive to make a spider for the center of the dish. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

Bat Wing Pasta Salad
This fun pasta salad is made with my standard, Italian dressing recipe, but I substitute bowtie pasta and add a few fun, spooky mozzarella eyeballs to the top. Just poke a hole into each mozzarella ball with a small paring knife and place a small strip of red pepper, pimento, or sun dried tomato in the hole. I add fresh, whole basil leaves and shaved parmesan to the top to make the colors of this dish pop! You can add cherry tomatoes, chopped green onions, and fresh parsley too. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe yeilds a cake-like cookie that bakes up in perfect rounded domes. I just piped in some pumpkin cream cheese frosting (colored with orange food coloring) and served them up as a sandwich style pumpkin shaped dessert! 
This is the recipe (from A Family Feast) for the cookies:
Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
This is the recipe (from Frosting and Fettucini) for the pumpkin cream cheese frosting:
3 Minute Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting
​I added just a bit of orange food coloring paste. Be careful here. Liquid food colors can change the texture of this frosting.

Scary Halloween Costumes by Veronica Stanley-Hooper
Are you planning some Halloween fun for your family? I have the perfect book to share with your little ghouls and goblins. Jack is looking for the perfect Halloween Costume, but he just can't seem to pick the right one. Millie his big sister knows all about Halloween; so she picks a witch costume right away. Poor Jack! First he dresses as a banana (we all know how scary those black bananas can be.) Then he tries a washing machine costume, because Mom says the laundry room is a scary place! Will Jack ever find the perfect SCARY Halloween Costume? This book is family-friendly and super fun for children 3-7 years old.
​Pick up yours today at AMAZON, this website, or with IngramSpark Stores.