Fun and Crazy Theme Dinners

You can create fun theme dinners for variation. Below is a compilation of possibilities, though, of course, the real possibilities are limited only to your (and your family's) imagination!

Food is just the start when it comes to creating a theme for the night. Try finding appropriate music to play, decorations to display and clothes/costumes to wear, and movies to watch. The children will find this especially fun, but adults will as well! The idea behind these theme nights is that they can be recreated at any time, not just during the particular holiday.

Valentine's Day/Aphrodisiacs Theme Night: Most aphrodisiac foods are, as it turns out, really good for you, too! The idea here is that it's hard to "get romantic" after a big heavy meal, so light meals take the cake for this theme. Seafood is a good place to start, as this is an aphrodisiac (thanks to Aphrodite being birthed from the sea). Oysters are a popular favorite but shrimp will do as well, or any other seafood that floats your boat (pun intended). Many spices make the aphrodisiac list and this is probably because many of them help the blood flow. Some examples are: basil, aniseed, ginger and nutmeg. Garlic is in the onion family and is regarded as a powerful aphrodisiac. To accompany the seafood, why not make some baked garlic, or garlic bread? Or perhaps a lemon and garlic pasta side dish would go nicely. For dessert, chocolate fondue (the Aztecs referred to chocolate as "nourishment of the gods") accompanied with strawberries (a known aphrodisiac due to its heart-shape, texture and bite size serving) along with cubed pound cake (perhaps cut into the shape of tiny hearts?) round out the evening nicely. Afterwards, maybe watching Cameron Diaz in "The Sweetest Thing."

Halloween/Scary Theme Night: There are two ways you could go with this theme. You could use actual foods or you could create fun foods that mimic the spirit of Halloween. I'll give some examples of each. If you wish to use traditional recipes, why not serve meatloaf for dinner? What's scarier than meatloaf (think corpses/zombies) but to drive the point home, shape the meatloaf (because they are very malleable) into a creature, zombie, bat, or something equally as terrifying. You might serve deviled ham dip/spread as an appetizer or some deviled eggs. You could hollow out a pie pumpkin and serve mashed potatoes inside of it (very Martha!). To make sure orange gets represented, make carrot coins (perhaps accompanied by small sticks of black licorice?)

Alternatively, you can create a Halloween meal that incorporates Halloween icons like eyeballs, spiders, vampires, etc - (purely by name only, I assure you!) which might be more fun but also require more energy and are more time-consuming. There are plenty of places on the web to find Halloween foods that fit this description, but some good ones include: Mummy Dogs (hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls); Crunchy Spiders (nutella or chocolate crème filled Ritz crackers, decorated with pretzels to resemble spiders); Baked Monster Eyes (similar to tacos). Whatever you choose, have fun and get the kids involved - perhaps you could even make up a few of your very own!

If there are kids around, why not pop in Ghostbusters or Casper for entertainment? And for adults only, of course, because it's too terrifying for children, pop in the original Halloween (John Carpenter) to complete the evening.

April Fools Day Theme Night: The idea here is similar to Halloween, but slightly different. Fool people with the food you serve. Since traditional recipes would not work for this theme, you would definitely have to look some up on the web and get creative. Here, food looks like something it's not, and more than likely, named something completely unappetizing. But that's all just part of the fun! A good site I discovered particularly for this theme is: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/553/0.shtml. Here you can find recipes for: Diaper Dump Porridge; Dog Food Dip; Bloody Eyeballs on the Rocks; Bird Poop; Aquarium Jello (which looked interesting and fun and could be incorporated into another theme, probably, like an "ocean theme"); Litterbox Cookies, etc. And wouldn't it be fairly appropriate (if possible) to have dinner on this day, at lunch time?

Campout Theme Night: Nearly everyone has fond memories of camping out under the stars, sitting around a bonfire and telling ghost stories. Wouldn't it be fun to have a "camp-out" themed dinner in the middle of winter, to relive those memories? Dinner here is easy, with grilled cheeseburgers or hot dogs, even Spam if you're feeling adventurous! For sides of course, macaroni salad or macaroni and cheese. Potato chips, beans (on the stove but with lots of brown sugar!), and for dessert, smores! It's easy to make s'mores in the microwave, just melt a piece of chocolate with a marshmallow on top for a few seconds, then squeeze between two graham crackers.

School Cafeteria Theme Night: Sure, maybe no one will actually want to relive this, but what the heck? If you're feeling nostalgic for days gone by, host a school cafeteria theme complete with fish sticks, Salisbury steak, Twinkies, lumpy mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and really thin pizza. Don't forget the chocolate milk and strawberry scooter ice cream for dessert!

Backwards Theme Night: First off, to get everyone started, people should come to this party with their clothes inside out, and dressed as the opposite sex. Set the table with the plates upside down, use forks when you should use spoons, try cutting meat with the dull side of the knife. Of course, dessert will be served first (what better than upside-down cake?) then the salad, entrée - anything stuffed inside out would work - scallops stuffed with bacon; inside-out sandwiches (put bread between meat and/or cheese); inside out stuffed bell peppers. Then serve the appetizers last, with wine in coffee cups!

Iron Chef Theme Night: Do you particularly like apples? Garlic? Cheese? Why not steal Food Network's Iron Chef idea and build a menu based on just one ingredient? Fruits would be an easy (and probably ideal) choice, as they can have their hand in appetizers, entrees and desserts quite easily, including your choice of wine!

Disney Theme Night: OK, so the kids might not want to know the Duck in front of them is supposed to represent Donald Duck, but you get the idea. For Mickey Mouse, you could serve the French entrée, Ratatouille, a Honey dish (like honey-baked ham and honey biscuits) could represent Pooh bear, and don't forget to serve bright red apples for Snow White!

Color Theme Night: Along with these ideas, why not create an entire menu based on a color? For example, serve predominantly blue foods (blueberries, blue Jell-O) serve salad with blue cheese dressing. The color blue is not a frequently naturally occurring color in the food world, but with some creativity (Chicken Cordon Bleu) - you could find your way around it!

I hope this list inspires you to get more creative at meal time. Get your kids involved, as they will enjoy compiling the list with you.

Reference Links:

http://www.cdkitchen.com