Ask me to name my favorite witch or wizard and I’ll bypass Oz, Hermione, Glenda, and Merlin and show you one of the greatest, most underrated (and underpaid, I might add) wizards of all time: the Mom.
A Mom can utter incantations that fix broken lego creations, find lost shoes, and heal skinned knees with a single kiss. But my most favorite mom wizarding trick of all is her incredible ability to turn an ordinary day into a magical one. One of the simplest ways to make magic for your children is to make their meal times special for the season. All it takes is a bit of imagination, and maybe a good stock of sprinkles and a moment as simple as breakfast can transform the whole day.
Halloween food and treats are bound to conjure up some eeks and shrieks! Are you ready for some Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo type of magic in your kitchen?
(Don’t forget to check out Guide to Halloween for all kinds of Twin Cities silly and spooky fun!)
Halloween Food & Treats
Breakfast
Monster Pancakes — These pancakes get their monster-like qualities from a boost of vitamins as well as my number one favorite item to have this time of year—googly eye sprinkles. Seriously, throw those eyeballs into your next grocery order. They can make even spinach look fun and festive this time of year. Halloween food
Monster Smoothies — Make your kids’ favorite green smoothie recipe and throw it in a clear cup decorated with sharpie monster faces. You could even make an orange smoothie and draw a jack o’ lantern face. This is where you get to let your creativity shine! Maybe even hand them a marker and draw their own monster face!
Ghost Bananas — These are just so clever it hurts. How fun and easy too! These use mini choco chips for eyes and a mouth, and peeled clementines with little chives for stems. The jury remains out on the candy corn though… Halloween food
Lunch
Mummy Hot Dogs — This one takes a bit more time to prep peeling tiny strips of croissant roll dough and wrapping it around the dogs, but looks so cute when it’s done. Who doesn’t love a play on pigs in the blanket? Another time when those edible googly eyes come in handy!
Peanut Butter and Jelly Spiders — Here is a great reminder of how easy it is to take something your kids already love and simply add a couple of elements like pretzels and raisins (or those eyeballs again!) to make mealtime a delight. Halloween food
Dinner
Halloween Pot Pie — Take your favorite pot pie recipe and add a spooky face. Halloween dinner is served!
Spaghetti and Meat-Eyeballs — I’m not sure why eyeballs in a meal is so much fun but it works every time. This recipe makes homemade meatballs but I’ve been known to use my favorite frozen meatballs and everyone is just as happy, or spooked out but satisfied. Want to take it up a notch? Look for black noodles in your store this time of year. Call it worms and watch them squirm with delight!
Soup with Spider Webs — This is sure to conjure up giggles from your crew. Add in spider rings on the edge of the soup bowl and that will make everyone laugh. If making spider webs out of individual bowls feels like a lot of work (it does to me) bring the soup to the table in one big pot and just add the web to the top of the soup pot. Or let them try to make their own webs. Bonus points for writing words like Charlotte!
Snack
Apple Mouths—These make my kids giggle every year. Also a great way to take the snack they have every single day this time of year (anyone else still trying to use up all those apples from the orchard visit?) but make it festive and silly.
Witches Fingers — These are just plain easy. Pretzel rods, green frosting, and almonds. Done!
Name it Something Fun—This is my final and most important tip of all. The best way to take an ordinary day and make it magical is not in the fancy kitchen tricks, it’s in the always accessible world of the imagination. No need to change up your menu plan, buy different snacks, make all those fancy and complicated cuts just to make the day special. All you have to do is give it a different name. With imagination your kid’s morning waffle is now a dragon’s heart, their grilled cheese is a bat’s wing, and their pepperoni pizza is a goblin’s webbed feet. Open up a world of creativity with words and watch as your kids jump into the fun, too! After all, every good mother wizard is simply a teacher preparing the next generation of witches and wizards.
