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Holiday Cooking | October 24, 2018

Halloween Dinner

Halloween Dinner was a fun tradition while our kids were growing up! Soup was always on the menu before heading out the door to trick or treat. This spooky Halloween dinner is easy to put together, with no need to purchase extra decorations-  just gather items already in your closet and home!  

I’ve included instructions for several ready-to-eat items at the grocery store and a few easy homemade recipes to make this dinner extra special for your favorite ghosts and goblins.

Halloween Dinner

After many Halloween nights of trying to get the kids to eat dinner, and hearing “I’m not hungry”  I decided to change my game plan.  

I knew if  I prepared something they loved, they would eat! It worked. Soup and scones became a tradition.  They loved  slow cooker chicken noodle soup, so that’s what I made. Every year!

Dressing up the table is an easy way to make the dinner a little more special, and what’s more fun than eating food right off the table? 

Spooky Halloween Dinner

Credit for this idea goes to my friend  Melinda, who loves to throw a good Halloween party. She’s done everything from the Dead Man’s dinner to punch in a toilet bowl.
Yes, an actual toilet bowl.
On the table.
Instead of a punch bowl.
Disguisting, I know. I’m not as fun as Melinda, haha, so here’s a tamed down version of  her annual Halloween dinner…

For the super simple version of this Halloween dinner, I start with basic clothing on top of a tablecloth. I found a spider web tablecloth one year on clearance after Halloween at a grocery store for about $3. Any tablecloth or sheet will work.  

For the head, a pumpkin, or a painted gourd I have had for years. I also use a skeleton head, another- after the holiday find for a few dollars. If you have a bandana, wrap it around the neck, or use on the head.

Next, a bowl filled with soup. I love to serve chicken noodle for Halloween. This Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup takes just a few minutes to make  and is amazingly easy and delicious! Store bought or home made rolls are placed around the soup bowl in the center of the display.

Halloween Dinner

For this Halloween dinner, I used small orange cups for the soup, which are placed on the arms of the plaid shirt. Peanut butter filled pretzels and cheese crackers, (already in my pantry) in small orange bowls in place of hands. Veggies,  5 Minute Cottage Cheese and Dill Dip and cut up apples (already pre-cut at Costco) with purchased caramel dip on the legs.

Spooky Halloween Dinner

Whole bananas for the feet.  Fresh fruit fill in the spaces around the head and mid section.  Red grapes and cheese sticks complete the bottom part of the legs.

If you want to recreate the Halloween Dinner below, which is a little more elaborate and costly here are the instructions:
Start with a piece of fabric or a tablecloth under the clothing. Lay out a flannel shirt and a pair of pants. Make sure the clothing items are clean. You may line the top of the clothing with saran wrap if you’d like.

I used a skeleton head (with a wig on top), but a carved pumpkin would work too. I spooned guacamole coming out of the mouth of the skeleton.  The lungs were made from Fougasse bread, from Harmons bakery. Also black tortilla chips around the outer lungs.

The soup served as the stomach, and toppings were placed all around in small black bowls. I used prepared items such as pineapple salsa, regular salsa, sour cream, grated cheese, Goldfish crackers in two sizes to go around the soup.
For the arms, I stacked pumpkin cookies, and used gloves with skeleton hands coming out of the sleeves. A package or two of fresh kale filled in around the body.

Cups of chocolate pudding with crushed up oreos and gummy worms were placed around the body, close to the greenery. Whole and cut up apples for the legs, with tubs of caramel dip served as the knee caps! Ranch dip in small tubs served as the feet, and carrots as the toes around the ranch dips.

I also lined the body with some Oreo truffles I made by crushing up a package of oreos with 4 oz of soft cream cheese. I scooped out the mixture onto a cookie sheet, refrigerated and dipped in chocolate and decorated with sprinkles.

Halloween Dinner
“Dead Man’s Dinner” I set up a few years back at a local TV station in SLC.
White Chicken Chili & Dead Man's Dinner for Halloween!

The soup in this photo is quick and easy. It’s a White Chicken Chili I’ve made for years and is a great soup for a crowd. It  can be made in about 20 minutes. I’d love to hear about your Halloween dinner traditions! Happy Halloween!

 
 

8 thoughts on “Halloween Dinner

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  1. This looks SOOOOO yummy! Definitely going to try it. A question – Have you ever cut up the chicken before you cooked it. Or is it better to cook the chicken breast whole and then cut it up? Just curious.

  2. A fun idea for another year–
    Growing up, my friend served potato soup at Halloween parties. She would cut the potatoes in batonnetes so they looked like finger bones! It was always a hit.

    1. We loved this for Halloween! And it is true what you said about wanting to fill the kids up with good food before they filled their buckets with candy. We will definitely do the spooky dinner again.