Next Thursday is Halloween! Are you ready? I’m definitely not, but I figured it would be fun to build my kids’ anticipation all week long with fun (but not too hard) Halloween-inspired meals for dinner. I’m talking easy tricks that you can do in a flash on meals that are already your favorites. So you can raise a glass to being fun parents!
So grab a pen and make your grocery list now, so you can have a smooth but spooky week’s worth of dinners ready with just a little planning.
At top: Mini Mummy Pizzas at Easy Peasy Creative; Black Bean Soup at Bit and Bauble
Related: 9 spooky fun Halloween breakfast ideas, from savory to very, very sweet
To be honest, I’m not really a “cheese on my hotdog” kind of person, but these Mummy Hot Dogs at Create Eat Happy are really fun for Halloween. I’m guessing my kids would probably pull it all apart and eat the ingredients separately (because: kids), so it won’t be a big deal. Minimal effort for big payoff here.
While my husband and I will probably just have spaghetti this night, I’ll stuff my kids’ in peppers for these zombie stuffed peppers we spotted at @myrens_ernaering in Instagram. She doesn’t share a recipe, but it looks like it’s just spaghetti noodles with meat sauce to me.
This is another fun dinner with the lowest possible level of effort: Sloppy Joe “Monster” Sliders at Meg’s Everyday Indulgence. You could really make this work with pretty much any slider sandwich, but my kids do love a good sloppy joe every once in a while. And if you save some of the extra spaghetti sauce from the night before, you could add extra ground turkey, beef, or lentils and use it here without having to cook anything.
Related: 9 of our favorite easy Halloween treat ideas from Instagram
I love the simplicity of this Black Bean “Spider” Soup at Bit and Bauble. It’s a great meatless meal in the middle of the week, and I’d serve it with some quesadillas on the side. Then again, you could use the same technique on tomato soup and grilled cheese…or pretty much any favorite soup & sandwich or salad combo.
I’d love to plan a date night for my husband and I mid-week (gah, if possible), then set the sitter up with all the ingredients to let the kids make these Mini Mummy Pizzas at Easy Peasy Creative for their dinner. Plan B: I’ll help the kids make these, then cook a special date-night-at-home dinner for the two of us after the kids are in bed (or playing their screens for a while, haha).
I love the way any festive chocolate bark looks, and this Boo Bark at Sally’s Baking Addiction doesn’t disappoint. It’s way easier to make than you’d think, and it’s great to make pre-Halloween and serve if you have friends or neighbors over to eat before you go trick or treating.
