Scary and Fun Halloween Dinner Recipes

Why not consider counterbalancing all that Halloween trick-or-treat candy with a few festive Halloween dinner recipes? Even though these treats are much more nutritious than candy, they are still sure to delight the kiddos and imagination loving adults with their scarily creative approach to fun, holiday-themed dining. Not only are these meals freakishly fun, but they taste good, too!

Sure, these ideas may be a bit zany, but we're talking about Halloween, for cripes sake. Halloween is supposed to be a strange and creepy holiday, so if you're up for letting that mood infiltrate your dinner plans too, then do read on-if you dare!

Halloween Dinner #1-The Worms Crawl In:

Whip up your own oozingly monstrous variation on an easy pasta recipe by transforming those noodles into a mass of writhing worms! For this recipe, simply follow the basic box instructions for cooking up your favorite long pasta noodles. Spaghetti, linguine, or angel hair pasta would all work out fine, although it won't be angel hair for long! It'll be green worms!

For this Halloween pasta dish, you'll forgo the tomato sauce and add the secret ingredient-green food coloring. This will contribute to the creative vibe that the noodles are worms and the rest depends upon your presentation. Now I realize that worms are not usually green, but this is a Halloween dinner and we're using our imagination. So maybe they're the pet carnivorous worms of a sinister witch or evil goblin who were accidentally set free and have now found their dastardly way to your dinner table. Maybe they feed on human flesh, so you'd better eat them before they devour you. Oh no, maybe they're parasites! Use your imagination in devising a spooky story about these mealworms, but keep in mind the age of your audience, too. If you have very young children, for example, you probably don't want to traumatize them with a horrid tale about parasitic worms. On the other hand, if you have older kids or are trying to give your spouse the heebie jeebies, then the grosser the better!

When preparing this Halloween dinner, don't go overboard with the food coloring, as you probably don't want to be ingesting mass quantities of artificial coloring. A little should do the trick of getting those creative juices flowing. I would recommend cooking the pasta the same way you usually do, (complete with your own favored special blend of delicious spices, because there's no reason these hideous worms can't be tasty, too) and then adding a few drops of food coloring to the cooked noodles in between straining and serving.

Consider preparing a side dish of misshapen meatballs and tomato sauce to play the part of partially digested, bloody body parts that the worms have started feasting upon. Or for vegetarian Halloween diners, you could serve a spherical vegetable side dish to play the part of giant monster eyes (Brussel Sprouts) or icky witch warts (peas). If your dining partners are not so good at eating their veggies, then consider a serving of fruit. One fruity old Halloween standby is the peeled grapes that supposedly feel like eyeballs. Another idea is apples with little holes poked in them that the worms crawled out of...

Halloween Dinner #2-Brains for Zombies:

Another easy fix sure to energize any zombie children, this dish can be prepared simply by cooking up your favorite sloppy joe mix, the messier the better, and then serving it without the usual buns. Again, much of the fun here will be generated by presentation and great storytelling about just how this shapeless blob of red meat found its way to the kids' plates. For this Halloween dinner recipe, some melted stringy cheese on top might work to good effect, too-like strands of flesh still clinging to the brains! The side dishes suggested above can also be used to accompany this grossly delish Halloween feast.

Halloween Dessert-Blood Pudding:

Even though there is indeed such an entity as real blood pudding made with real blood, that recipe is too complex for my limited expertise as a cook and would most likely also be too much of an acquired taste for most taste buds. However, that doesn't mean you can't serve up a fun Halloween party version of "blood pudding" that looks creepy, but tastes yummy. This special blood pudding just might be the perfect spooky little dessert after partaking of a Halloween dinner.

Again, the trick is food coloring-red food coloring this time. If you want to be more natural about it, beet juice can be used as a substitute. Simply whip up a box mix batch of vanilla pudding and at the end up the preparation process, stir in the desired amount of red coloring. Tapioca pudding could also be used for an even more visceral, lumpy effect. When ladling this blood pudding into serving containers, consider hiding a peeled grape (eyeball) on the bottom. Slurp!

Of course, these are just a few of many Halloween dinner and dessert ideas. A little imaginative power will surely lead to myriad variations and scary fun new notions and potions of your own. Think about fondue cauldrons. Think about red velvet cake or extra-special Halloween decorated cupcakes or JELLO with some strange innards.

Think about Pit Viper or Squid Gut or Raw Horseflesh ice cream. Okay, maybe don't think too much about those last three, but if you live in Japan, those are just a few of many rather awful sounding ice cream flavors that are truly available to you. Indeed, for a far scarier and grosser article than my Halloween dinner and dessert suggestions, check out these 101 frightening ice cream flavors, which just might be an example of a little too much imaginative power:

http://www.who-sucks.com/food/101-frightening-ice-cream-flavors-from-around-the-world

Don't even get me started on wormy cheese. Happy Halloween!